Rumours
When the 7 democratic leaders of the G7 gather in Dankerode Germany to write a provisional statement addressing the current global crisis, their host, German Chancellor Hilda Orlmann (Cate Blanchett), will take them to visit the latest anthropological find of a 2,000 year old preserved bog person. They should take note of the anthropologist's (Ralph Berkin) explanation of the male bog man's penis having been severed and hung around his neck, something done to chieftains by their discontented tribe. But as they enjoy a working dinner at an outdoor gazebo, they will soon discover the dining tent where their meal was prepared and the castle where they are to stay have been abandoned, and as they begin to wander through a fog enshrouded forest, they cannot help but be consumed by "Rumours."
Laura's Review: B
"The Green Fog" directing team of Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson and Guy Maddin takes hilarious aim at political inefficacy as the world literally burns. Writer Evan Johnson ("The Forbidden Room") provides plenty of meaningless phrases arranged to suggest action and goosed by some members with peculiar detail in order to arrive at a climactic speech which initially sounds promising only to unravel in spectacular fashion. While this one's modern subject matter doesn't lend itself to Maddin's usual silent movie aesthetic, it does feature plenty of his favored fog, something cinematographer Stefan Ciupek nevertheless manages to find the cast within. Kristian Eidnes Andersen's ("The Blue Caftan") orchestral score expertly reacts to tonal changes that range from comedy to soap opera to horror.
The group begins by reminiscing about past G7/G6 summits, recalling prior statements, all of which avoid saying anything of substance, with pride. If at first we notice that the man bun sporting Canadian Prime Minister Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis, "The Forbidden Room") appears smitten with British Prime Minister Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka-Bird, "Knock at the Cabin"), uncomfortable with the attention, that will only be the beginning of a character arc that reveals an emotional drinker with a string of women in his past. Hilda appears awfully susceptible to his charms, eventually scoring a quick shag in the woods. U.S. President Edison Wolcott (Charles Dance, "Gosford Park," "The King's Man"), who speaks with the plummy accent of an early 20th century British aristocrat, takes naive Italian Prime Minister Antonio Lamorle (Rolando Ravello, "Almost Blue") under his wing while French President Sylvain Broulez (Denis Ménochet, "Inglourious Basterds," "The French Dispatch") works with Japanese Prime Minister Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira, FX's 'Shogun') to come up with something assuringly vague. When these two's papers are swept up in a gust of wind, Sylvain goes after them and is first to notice there is no one in the dining tent. He then falls into the bog dig, returning to the group muddied and then is horrified to realize his leg bones have dissolved (bog people's skin and hair is preserved right down to their fingerprints, but their bones have turned to dust) and he cannot walk. When Hilda recalls a raft that will ferry to them to a highway only a 2-3 kilometer walk, surprisingly, Maxime is strong enough to carry him, Sylvain relaxing into his arms, happy to give up the responsibility of propelling himself.
The group will encounter what appears to be a circle of bog men masturbating into a bonfire, then Maxime will exult when he discovers the lover who treated his rubber bullet wounds back in 2006, now President of the European Commission, Celestine Sproul3 (Alicia Vikander, "The Danish Girl," HBO's 'Irma Vep'), huddled beside a giant brain. No one can understand her as she states she speaks a new tongue, one which Hilda eventually recognizes as Swedish. After expressing a romantic desire to have been assassinated, Edison states he can no longer go on and when the group makes it to the ferry raft dock, they discover it's on the other side. Cue up Enya's 'Exile' as Antonio and Tatsuro bravely volunteer to swim across, Hilda advising to hold on to the guide rope so as not to slip on the 'mucky' riverbed. Then, just as Maxime, Hilda and Cardosa are about to make their way across, Maxime receives a text claiming to be from a 7 year-old Astrid, abandoned back at the castle. The truth behind this is just too delicious to spoil.
Blanchett leads a cast who appear to be having a ball putting a serious face on ridiculous behavior. "Triangle of Sadness's" Zlatko Burić is also on hand as President of the European Council Jonas Glob. "Rumours" delivers a lot of laughs but its message is sobering.
Robin's Review: C+
The leaders of the G7 get together to draft a provisional statement about the latest, undefined global crisis. But, during their dinner in a remote gazebo in the German countryside, they find themselves alone, without outside contact, and must fend for themselves in "Rumours."
Guy Madden, with co-directors Evan and Gallen Johnson, enters a very different landscape with a political satire that spends its time saying that our world leaders are as clueless as their constituents. If you expect the usual funky filmmaking we have come to know and love by Madden, this is not that film.
As said, the leaders gather to make a joint statement about an unnamed world crisis. The ambiguity of the nature of that crisis is met with the group breaking up into "study groups" to craft the G7 response. The empty concerns and platitudes each group comes up with are essentially meaningless, pointing out that their roles as leaders are equally meaningless.
The cast is an embarrassment of riches with Cite Blanchet heading the cast as an Angela Merkel stand-in, Hilda. Others are the French president Sylvan (Denis Menochet), American Edison Wolcott (Charles Dance, channeling Joe Biden), womanizing Canadian PM Maxime (Roy Dupuis), Tatsuro Iwasaki (Takehiro Hira) from Japan, Brit PM Cardosa (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and Italy's Antonio Lamorle (Roland Ravello).
The trouble with a cast this large and a fairly miniscule runtime of 103 minutes, there is not a lot of dialog to go around. As such, the "statement" being hammered together contain empty promises and absolutely no substance. It was a thankful distraction when the group tries to get back to civilization – in the dark and lost. Maybe that is the statement the team of directors is trying to make. It is all just empty words.
Bleecker Street releases "Rumours" in theaters on 10/18/24.
