Cate Blanchett says Cannes title Rumours, a political satire surrounding a G7 summit, “isn’t trying to be an important film with a message”.
While speaking at the Cannes Film Festival press conference for the film, which is playing out of competition, the Australian actor said: “I think one feels the most mad in the present day and you try and make sense of what is happening because it is completely bewildering and absurd the situations we as a species have found ourselves in and have willingly put ourselves in.
“And so I think if you try and make too much sense of this movie, you will you will feel like you’re losing your mind,” she continued. “Of course there’s textures that are there but it’s not trying to be an important film with a message”.
Later on, Blanchett further addressed how comedies like Rumours help audiences deal with the “absurd” state of the world.
”The absurdity of the situation that we’re in at the minute, it’s very hard not to laugh because if you try and deal with these things too directly, you can’t switch off because of the catastrophic nature of the situation,” she said.
“With the confluence of AI, the the challenges with what we’ve done with anthropogenic climate change and the systemic inequality, fiscally and socially, it’s a big tangle, globby mess and so you feel disconnected and you feel disempowered, and in a way you can laugh together [with this film].”
Rumours is directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson. The film follows a G7 summit at a cabin in Germany as world leaders ponder how to deal with an undefined but urgent crisis.
Maddin says he was fascinated by G7 leaders because “regardless of ideology, they’re just as friendly to each other even though one might eventually declare war and commit atrocities.”
“It struck us as such a strange disconnect with what is really going on in the world, it seemed like a blank canvas. Their minds are blank canvases.”
The film also stars Roy Dupuis, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Charles Dance.
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