Well, that was strange. First of all, I would like to begin this review with a fair warning, a.k.a. a bit of advice. Do not, I repeat, do not go into this movie unprepared and uninformed about what it is. You will be taken aback and not in a good way. Because Julian Rosefeldt's creation may be disguised as a movie and it may star one of the biggest actresses of our generation, the two-times Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, but it is not a movie.
In Manifesto, the incomparably talented Australian lead portrays thirteen different characters, from a homeless man to a news presenter, from a prudish mother to a veteran ballerina-turned director, from a factory worker to an elementary school teacher. But while she acts as anyone would naturally act in each situation and she speaks in the way that each person would speak to whichever audience they have, she does not say what is expected of her. Instead she soliloquizes 12 different manifestos written by great personalities of the past, such as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels or even artists such as directors Jim Jarmusch and Werner Herzog, sculptor Claes Oldenburg and surrealist founder André Brenton.
Blanchett is amazing as always, but this is not an easy film to watch and the numb reaction of the audience as the credits were rolling was indicative of that. Manifesto does not have a plot or at least a particular theme to keep your attention; what is more, despite the existence of some scenes of comic relief such as a mother who prays as she endlessly recites Oldenburg's "I am for an art", this is quite a hard spectacle. In addition, each manifesto with its specific and detailed vocabulary is difficult to follow, especially when it is delivered quickly and without pauses to leave you time to contemplate.
Don't get me wrong. Manifesto is a nice idea. It is extremely unique and quite the experience, but it is so "up to your face" with its long shots and awkward close-ups -as Blanchett stares through the camera directly at the audience- that it starts to miss its point and fail its purpose; if there is a particular purpose to this experiment. And naturally, as it originally was a video installation of 13 sections playing simultaneously at an exhibition, it seems more like an experimental exhibit in a museum of modern art - incomprehensible and abstract - than an actual film.
Blanchett is amazing as always, but this is not an easy film to watch and the numb reaction of the audience as the credits were rolling was indicative of that. Manifesto does not have a plot or at least a particular theme to keep your attention; what is more, despite the existence of some scenes of comic relief such as a mother who prays as she endlessly recites Oldenburg's "I am for an art", this is quite a hard spectacle. In addition, each manifesto with its specific and detailed vocabulary is difficult to follow, especially when it is delivered quickly and without pauses to leave you time to contemplate.
Don't get me wrong. Manifesto is a nice idea. It is extremely unique and quite the experience, but it is so "up to your face" with its long shots and awkward close-ups -as Blanchett stares through the camera directly at the audience- that it starts to miss its point and fail its purpose; if there is a particular purpose to this experiment. And naturally, as it originally was a video installation of 13 sections playing simultaneously at an exhibition, it seems more like an experimental exhibit in a museum of modern art - incomprehensible and abstract - than an actual film.
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