An immersive film project starring Cate Blanchett as a tiger in a supermarket will form a centrepiece of Melbourne's RISING Festival.
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Euphoria, by artist and filmmaker Julian Rosefeldt, has just had its world premiere in New York.
The film explores capitalism, greed and the effects of unlimited economic growth - with high-end production values worthy of opulent art-house cinema.
"It's huge! Almost 200 years since the Communist Manifesto, Euphoria takes stock of capitalism - the biggest and most seductive Ponzi scheme that keeps on giving," festival co-artistic director Gideon Obarzanek said.
The project will transform the Melbourne Town Hall with 29 giant screens on two levels, featuring duelling jazz drummers, a choir, and actors delivering the thoughts of Snoop Dogg, Warren Buffett, Angela Davis and Mark Fisher.
Blanchett has been a long-time collaborator with Rosefeldt, starring in more than a dozen different roles for his 2015 project, Manifesto.
In this latest project, she stalks the aisles of a supermarket as an anthropomorphic tiger: other scenes see homeless people discussing economics, and executives performing acrobatic feats in a bank lobby.
There will be two sets of screens installed in the hall with those at ground level featuring the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, while the upper level loops theatrical vignettes from the likes of Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) and Virginia Newcomb.
Jazz drummers including Terri Lyne Carrington, Antonio Sanchez and Peter Erskine from Weather Report will also be projected above the audience.
Euphoria runs June 2-18 at the Melbourne Town Hall, with tickets pay-what-you-can and free on Fridays.
The full festival program will be launched in March.
Australian Associated Press