thefilmstage:

Manifesto starts with a dictionary definition of its title, and pulls off the considerable feat of not being terrible after doing so. Still, I feel confident that it works better in its original form as an art installation. The film is more of a clip show, awkwardly cutting together elements once presented in a drastically different manner. In doing so, it obfuscates the power of a manifesto, allegedly what it means to pay tribute to.

As an installation, Manifesto consists of 13 screens in a space, each one projecting a different 10-minute film of Cate Blanchett reciting speeches cobbled from different manifestos on a similar theme. On each screen, she portrays a different character. As a (male) hobo, she quotes Marx. As a mourner giving a speech at a funeral, she talks about Dada. As a schoolteacher, she instructs her young students with Dogme 95 and Jim Jarmusch’s Golden Rules of Filmmaking. As a housewife, her prayer with her family over dinner is Claes Oldenburg’s “I Am for an Art.” All told, 60 manifestos have been collated into 12 scenarios.

Continue reading our True/False review of Manifesto.