(Cannes) Roy Dupuis stars in Rumors, of the Winnipeg trio Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, a Canadian prime minister named Maxime. He is a very sensitive person with undeniable sex appeal – that’s Roy Dupuis… –, who constantly apologizes to women and ancestral peoples.
When he is accused by the French president (Denis Ménochet) of relying on a facade of feminism when he does not really like leading women, Maxime gets offended and sets off running, with tears in his eyes and his hair in the wind, shouting: “I love strong women!” »
If this description makes you think of a particular Canadian Prime Minister… that is, of course (double wink), just a coincidence.
Delirious apocalyptic zombie film presented out of competition last weekend in Cannes, Rumors imagine an annual G7 summit that would have gone very badly. The seven leaders of the world’s richest liberal democracies are lost in the forest at night in the German countryside as they struggle to draft an interim declaration.
PHOTO YARA NARDI, REUTERS
Roy Dupuis alongside actress Cate Blanchett, Sunday, in Cannes
With Roy Dupuis as Canadian Prime Minister and Denis Ménochet as French President Ti-Jo Connaissant who recalls François Hollande, the film features a high-flying cast. Cate Blanchett notably plays a German chancellor who looks like Angela Merkel who has a crush on the handsome Maxime, and Alicia Vikander plays the president of the European Union, an old flame of the Quebec serial seducer, who simultaneously blows on several embers…
Roy Dupuis described his character at a press conference on Sunday as “a ladies’ man, passionate, a kind of adolescent, deep down”. It was Prime Minister Trudeau who inspired his game, he says, but perhaps not the one we think of.
“Guy, Evan and Galen sent us all archive films on different G7 meetings,” replied the actor to the question asked by my colleague Catherine Beauchamp. “I have viewed archives of several prime ministers. It’s certain that personally, I have a weakness for Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who is really like a rock star, deep down, and who has a lot of charisma. He is probably the reason Canada found itself in the G7. It seems ! Maybe I’m starting rumors…”
“We went crazy”
Rumors is the first film in official selection at Cannes by Guy Maddin (The Saddest Music in the World, My Winnipeg) as well as its co-directors Galen and Evan Johnson. The trio, who made the documentary The Green Fogin 2017, insisted that this comedy is not “ideological”, although through the absurd humor and metaphors there are inevitably messages that are conveyed, particularly about inaction and the hypocrisy of political leaders in the face of social inequalities and the climate crisis.
PHOTO SARAH MEYSSONNIER, REUTERS
Director Guy Maddin at the press conference of RumorsSunday, in Cannes
“It’s not a message film. We went crazy, without giving ourselves any limits! », explains Guy Maddin. “All heads of government, particularly in Australia and Canada certainly, have apologized to Aboriginal peoples and First Nations. But often, it’s ostentatious virtue or a way of clearing oneself out,” he adds.
“Canadian politicians make insincere excuses about huge things like genocide or major colonial crimes and then say: that’s it, that’s it! », Adds Evan Johnson, who wrote the screenplay and dialogue for this sometimes hilarious film.
Briton Charles Dance plays an old American president who falls asleep at any moment. When the Italian president, a simpleton with a big heart, asks him why he has an accent british, they are interrupted and we never get the answer. “It was one of the first ideas we had and we never deviated from it,” explains Guy Maddin, whose entire work can be described as surrealist.
Between political satire and comic horror film, Rumorswhich blithely mocks bureaucratic gibberish, certainly does not offer a flattering image of Western political leaders.
“It’s strange to see the archive images of the G7,” remarks Cate Blanchett. It doesn’t look like anything natural. It’s performance for the cameras. We don’t know what they are saying to each other in the distance. They look lost. As strange as this film is, it has a documentary quality to me. »
As well as the power to make us laugh yellow.
The hosting costs for this report were paid by the Cannes Film Festival, which had no say over it.