Watch Cate Blanchett play 13 characters in Manifesto

Video by The Skinny | 19 Jan 2017

The Oscar-winning Australian actor plays everything from a dishevelled homeless man to a glossy TV anchor in intriguing new art film Manifesto

We knew Cate Blanchett was good. She’s played an elf queen and Queen Elizabeth I (twice!). She was magnetic as Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator and made for a brilliant Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There. She’s so good that she can even lift a late-period Woody Allen film (Blue Jasmine) above mediocrity. The two time Oscar-winner seems to have outdone herself in new film Manifesto, however, where she plays a baker’s dozen of kooks and oddballs.

The roles Blanchett play in the new film from German artist Julian Rosefeldt include a homeless man, a newscaster, a school teacher and ten others, all of whom recite excerpts from different artistic manifestos.

The film makes its premiere at Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off today in Park City. The synopsis for the film reads that “with a gorgeous production and luscious cinematography that would make Baz Luhrmann proud, Rosefeldt puts Blanchett in the everyday world – as a housewife, a factory worker, or a TV anchor – declaring the words that have inspired whole art movements. Manifesto is entertaining while also asking us to question if these passionate statements still hold true and inspire us today.”

Get an idea of this tour-de-force performance by watching Manifesto’s trailer in the player above.