Vertical Entertainment has released new trailer for Warwick Thornton’s THE NEW BOY which will be released in select cinemas in North America on 23 May. The film starring Cate Blanchett and Aswan Reid premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023.

Guy Maddin’s RUMOURS is now showing in cinemas in France and will be released in German-speaking cinemas on 15 May. Steven Soderbergh’s BLACK BAG is available to stream on Peacock in the US, it is now showing in cinemas in Italy and select cinemas in Philippines, then on 15 May in Germany.

The New Boy

Synopsis: In a remote monastery in 1940s Australia, a mission for Aboriginal children is run by a renegade nun, Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett). A new charge (Aswan Reid) is delivered in the dead of night – a boy who appears to have special powers. When the monastery takes possession of a precious relic, a large carving of Christ on the cross, the new boy encounters Jesus for the first time and is transfixed. However, the boy’s Indigenous spiritual life does not gel with the mission’s Christianity and his mysterious power becomes a threat. Sister Eileen is faced with a choice between the traditions of her faith and the truth embodied in the boy, in this story of spiritual struggle and the cost of survival.

Rumours

Excerpts from French reviews, and interviews.

Cate Blanchett et Denis Ménochet en Angela Merkel et Emmanuel Macron dans une farce macabre hors norme ? En imaginant un G7 qui vrille en apocalypse zombi, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson et Galen Johnson raillent les rituels étranges de la diplomatie internationale, dont l’horreur grotesque se révèle plus convaincante que tous les communiqués officiels.

La richesse composite de l’univers est l’occasion pour les acteurs de densifier leur interprétation au-delà de la satire, d’humaniser leurs personnages délivrés des oripeaux liés à leur fonction, dans le burlesque comme dans le lyrisme le plus absolu. C’est ce qui permet aux cinéastes de saisir tout le comique, la tristesse, l’absurdité ou le caractère mortifère du pouvoir. Comme dans cette scène folle où tout le G7 tombe soudain sur un rituel zombi, perdu dans des lumières gothiques et vaporeuses. Un sabbat au cours duquel des cadavres se masturbent dans des danses désarticulées – comme le miroir grimaçant de leur table des négociations où c’est surtout la vanité qui gouverne.

Full review on Trois Couleurs

Cate Blanchett campe une chancelière allemande fantasque, bien que consciente de la solennité du rendez-vous, puisqu’elle préside le G7 : la dame, dans son tailleur rose, accueille ses « pairs » dans un château, au beau milieu d’une forêt que l’on imagine bavaroise. Les invités ont pour mission de rédiger un communiqué sur « la crise actuelle ». Mais les esprits semblent ailleurs : Denis Ménochet incarne un président franchouillard pas vraiment au fait de la situation ; Roy Dupuis se glisse dans la peau du premier ministre du Canada, bellâtre perturbé par ses déboires personnels, etc. Bref, autour de la table et devant la feuille blanche, l’assemblée ressemble davantage à un groupe de lycéens bâillant d’ennui devant une dissertation – de surcroît sous l’emprise d’une certaine libido.

Un événement inattendu vient perturber la rigolade. Très vite, le petit personnel disparaît. Les dirigeants se retrouvent livrés à eux-mêmes, partagés entre l’envie d’explorer les alentours, et la crainte d’y faire de mauvaises rencontres. Serait-ce « la fin tragique et méritée » de l’espèce humaine, s’interroge l’un d’eux ? Entre film de zombies, revenge movie et théâtre de boulevard, cette nuit blanche dans la forêt a au moins le mérite d’assumer son humour féroce.

Full review on Le Monde

Dans la famille des ovnis du cinéma, je voudrais Rumours, nuit blanche au sommet. Le long métrage de Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson et Galen Johnson est l’un des plus étranges de l’année, mais sans doute aussi l’un des plus drôles. Le film avec Cate Blanchett et Denis Ménochet parodie un week-end de G7 qui vire au cauchemar. On a beaucoup, beaucoup ri.

Prenez sept dirigeants politiques caricaturaux, isolez-les dans la forêt d’un château en Allemagne, ajoutez une bonne dose de kitsch, saupoudrez généreusement de surnaturel horrifique, arrosez le tout de situations cocasses, de comique de répétition et de dialogues à la serpe. Et vous obtenez ce film presque impossible à décrire, mais qu’on n’a pas oublié depuis sa présentation au Festival de Cannes en 2024.

Full review on Huffpost

Parts of the interview Google translated from French to English.

The first part of Rumours is visually stunning for anyone familiar with your films, Guy Maddin, these very CNN-like frontal images of codified political scenes. Can you both talk about that—Guy, about how you filmed to achieve that effect, and Cate, about how you prepared for the role? Did you spend hours watching videos of Angela Merkel?
Guy Maddin: Long before writing this script with my co-directors, Evan and Galen Johnson, we had gotten into the habit of watching news reports from the G7 summits as a way to distract ourselves or escape from the work we had to do. And it’s truly a strange and enchanting experience. The cameras are far away. You can’t hear what they’re saying; they’re playing a new breed of silent film. And it’s totally mesmerizing and funny. The first thing I did when I told Cate about the project was send her links to some of those videos. And I think the actors unwittingly fell into step with the rhythms of these YouTube clips.

Cate, is that how you prepared?
Cate Blanchett: I have a lot of actor friends from my drama school days who have gone into corporate coaching.
They teach people how to speak in public, at town halls, how to give a Ted Talk-style speech. It’s extremely artificial. The way politicians speak today is a form of sign language; they seem so disconnected from their bodies and, often, from what they’re saying. This never seemed more striking to me than in these strange videos that Guy, Evan, and Galen showed us. What was great, Guy, was that these videos really allowed us to think that, well, we don’t need to be satirical at all! Not at all! All we had to do was mimic the profound physical disconnection these people express. They’re so watched, observed, and analyzed that they’ve somehow lost trust in their own instincts, even in the way their legs and hands move. The funny thing is, these are world leaders, but also people who can’t even find their phone. In the film, their assistants have disappeared. Their status, their role, has disappeared. They no longer know who they are. They become teenagers who want to make love, who regret never having fallen in love. They become human. But in a deeply childish and, I think, endearing way.

There are a lot of scenes where you lean forward and pat characters on the back in a very maternal way…
C.B.: You pat someone on the back and then you think, “Oh dear, take your hand away right now! It’s been half a second! Quick!”
G.M.: I laugh at what Cate says. It’s true that they quickly revert to childhood. When we started this project, we expected to have nothing but contempt for these leaders. But they became babies, and we started to like them a little. Of course, the fact that their ideologies are never revealed in the story helps. They’re just people. There’s no ideology to attach their disgust or anger to.

Was that the idea from the start? To not give them a strong political hue?
G.M.: Yes, we didn’t want to be too specific. You never know how quickly a film will be released in theaters. If it’s going to take thirty years, you have to make sure you’re always in step with current ideologies (laughs).

Cate, were the YouTube videos the first thing you received? Or did you read the script first?
C.B.: Guy wanted to talk to me, and that was enough to make me want to participate: “Okay, what do you want me to do?”
What initially attracted me was the opportunity to work with Guy and, by extension, with Evan and Galen, who are so wonderful and crazy, a bit like the Marx Brothers. And then I read the script, laughed out loud, and thought, “What the hell is this?” When you read a script and you know exactly what it’s about, that’s a sign that you shouldn’t jump into the project. Because otherwise, you’re too certain, and you risk squeezing it into a tiny box. I had no idea how to approach this film. It was actually a real relief that the three directors wanted us to rehearse. We needed to find the tone collectively.
G.M.: I remember the moment all the actors met for the first time. Roy Dupuis, who plays the Canadian Prime Minister, and who always speaks his mind (Cate Blanchett laughs), with his ingénue manner even though he’s a veteran, simply asked, “What the hell is this thing? What are we supposed to do?” Our instructions were simple. We just had to watch the YouTube videos and treat them as seriously as possible. Let whatever is dreamy, strange, or irrepressible surface and nourish the performance. It was the first time I’d worked with an international cast on a project where performance was truly important. These rehearsals were as much for me as for everyone else. What a radical concept, rehearsals! I have to do them from now on.

How much pleasure did it give you, Cate, to deliver your lines?
C.B.: A lot! There are so many areas today, and not just in politics, where language has become impotent because of this kind of bland soup that has become the only tolerated official language, which manages to say nothing at all about the dramatic crises we face as states. I have sometimes found myself in various arenas, political and otherwise, wearing a different hat, and have been fascinated to observe all sorts of personalities struggling fiercely to say something, or rather, to say nothing at all. It’s so absurd! And incredibly painful. What I loved about this film is that, in a perverse way, the tone keeps shifting. It’s not entirely a satire, nor is it entirely a soap opera, nor is it a monster movie. At times, it felt like we were making a documentary. (Guy Maddin laughs) I think it was that constant shift in tone that was marvelous, and watching the characters struggle with their desire to communicate, their desire for very simple things—a little warmth, a place to go, love. The situation was just unfathomable for them. It was delicious.
G.M.: I like that the first half of their sentences generally serves to construct a meaning that the second half immediately undoes… But given the global political climate, and the widespread use of hate speech at the highest levels, one almost feels nostalgic, watching the film, for this kind of incompetence full of good feelings…
C.B.: I see what you mean about nostalgia. It’s something I didn’t immediately grasp, even though when you watch the film, it seems obvious. It’s a film about the end of something, perhaps the end of everything. They’re all coming to the end of their leadership; it’s the Last Supper. The whole world is asking them to think about the future, but they’re in a contemplative, backward-looking state of mind. This is accentuated by the music, by the syrupy quality of certain shots. One of my favorite moments is when I announce that the theme of this year’s summit is “regret.” When we expect him to say something profound, the Japanese Prime Minister says he wishes he could have learned to ride a horse… (laughs) It’s grotesque, this deliberate nostalgia. A bit like the concept of “Make America Great Again.” Making America great again, making any place great again. But when are we talking about, exactly? And for whom?
G.M.: I think this nostalgia is linked to the fact that I’m the man with the most regrets on the planet! They’re not big regrets, they’re minor ones. My list is just as insignificant as all those politicians’. Yes, it would have been nice to study to become a neurosurgeon or an oncologist and save lives. But instead, I’m sitting here regretting not having been able to seduce someone in the late 70s…
C.B.: Come on, Guy, you’re a filmmaker! It’s very useful as Armageddon approaches to be able to make movies! (Laughs)

Full interview on Liberation