Rumours

Rumours

Unclassified 18+
Program Strand/s: Headliners

A gigantic brain in a forest, masturbating bog zombies, Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander and Charles Dance all collide in Guy Maddin’s audacious latest film.

The G7, led by German chancellor Hilda Ortmann (Blanchett), have descended on a remote retreat to draft a do-nothing communiqué that passes the buck on a looming ecological catastrophe. Only it’s too late for their inaction: it appears the apocalypse is already here. As strange creatures awaken all around them, Hilda must corral her fellow exasperatingly hopeless world leaders – including the Swedish secretary-general of the European Commission (Vikander) and the presidents of the USA (Dance) and France (Denis Ménochet, Beau Is Afraid) – on a wild goose chase into the woods.

Maddin (The Forbidden Room, MIFF 2015) once again joins forces with co-director siblings Evan and Galen Johnson (The Green Fog, MIFF 2018), delivering a fever dream of resigned dismay at a global political class that seems as unable as it is unwilling to offer solutions. Blanchett, Vikander and the rest of the cast keep the audience rapt as they bring their A-game – unlike the ineffectual characters they play – to this explosively topical satire. A bittersweet hit at this year’s Cannes, Rumours delivers witty and wildly existential laughs.

“Effortlessly hilarious and deceptively thought-provoking … Maddin pulls an exceptional trick, crafting characters we care about even while we gleefully root for their demise.” – RogerEbert.com


PRESENTED BY

MINI logo

Tickets

15 Aug 9:15pm The Astor Theatre
Access: Wheelchair Accessible
Past Session
Rumours (109 m)
Past Session
18 Aug 4:30pm Hoyts Melbourne Central Cinema 11
Access: Assistive listening Wheelchair Accessible
Past Session
Rumours (109 m)
Past Session
24 Aug 6:45pm The Astor Theatre
Access: Wheelchair Accessible
Past Session
Rumours (109 m)
Past Session

For information about the accessible services being offered at MIFF, please visit miff.com.au/access. If you require any access service, such as wheelchair/step-free access, for any MIFF session, please call 03 8660 4888 or email boxoffice@miff.com.au to book your ticket.

You might also like ...

Feature

The first Indian film to screen in Cannes competition in 30 years is a sensuous tale of two nurses, their romances and a mystical trip to the coast.

Dir. Payal Kapadia / 2024 / 115 mins / Netherlands, France, India, Luxembourg / Malayalam, Hindi
Feature

Responding to his wife’s death, David Cronenberg fashions a meditation on loss, longing and grief, filtered through a necro-techno body-horror lens.

Dir. David Cronenberg / 2024 / 119 mins / France, Canada / English
Feature

Francis Ford Coppola’s star-studded, largely self-funded, 40-years-in-the-making passion project arrives at MIFF in all its loopy, maximalist glory.

Dir. Francis Ford Coppola / 2024 / 138 mins / USA / English