Cate Blanchett has had a vibrant and extensive career. After catapulting to international stardom in Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth (1998), she went on to score a bevy of high-profile roles and a trove of accolades, including two Academy Awards for her work in The Aviator and Blue Jasmine.

Across the span of her near-thirty year run on screen and stage, she’s tackled a wide array of characters. She played a regal elf woman in Lord of the Rings and Hobbit, the wicked step-mother in Cinderella, and a version of Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, amongst a wealth of many other divergent parts.

Now, she’ll display her chameleonic talents in full glory for Julian Rosefeldt’s Manifesto. In the newly released trailer, Blanchett portrays a staggering 13 roles, including a school teacher, a news anchor, a scientist, a homeless person, a factory worker, and a woman into punk. The film combines artist manifestos from the early 20th to the start of the 21st century, including texts from Futurists and Dadaists to Pop Art and Fluxus, and from filmmakers like Lars von Trier and Jim Jarmusch. Blanchett re-interprets them as “performative monologues” in a contemporary setting. According to a statement provided to Variety:

“The film reveals both the performative component and the political significance of these declarations, often written in youthful rage as a living call to action...[It asks whether] those passionate statements can actually be universally applicable in our contemporary society, and questions the role of the artist today.”

The project was initially devised as a multi-screen art installation written, produced, and directed by Rosefeldt. It debuted at the Australian Center for the Moving Image in 2015, and then visited Berlin — where the film was shot — and New York. The 90-minute feature adaption will receive its world premiere at Sundance on Jan. 23.

The movie is somewhat of a gamble. It’s decidedly arthouse, and comes from a relatively unknown filmmaker. With Blanchett at the helm, it will likely be a must-watch amongst critics’ circles, but may have difficulty hitting with a larger audience. Still, it’s a refreshing sidestep from the tentpoles elsewhere on Blanchett’s docket. She’s next set to star in superhero blockbuster Thor: Ragnarok and heist comedy Ocean’s Eight — both of which require quite disparate performances — so Manifesto should prove yet another reminder of Blanchett’s impressive range.

A theatrical release date for Manifesto has not yet been announced, but Screen Rant will keep you updated as details become available.

Source: Yahoo! Movies