Although the settings of Yorgos Lanthimos’ films have varied greatly, from a hotel for single people to a seemingly dystopian society in Lobsterto an upper class home The Killing of a Sacred Deeror the British royal court of the eighteenth century Favorite, they all contain the same absurdist streak. What is often the darkest material becomes fodder for the darkest comedy.
His last film Poor things retains these elements but tells a story that is ultimately life-affirming. In Victorian London, Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) reanimates the corpse of a young woman (Emma Stone). He calls her Bella and she calls him “God”. Godwin enlists medical student Max McCandles (Rami Youssef) to oversee Bella’s development. Although Bella looks like a grown woman, she has the brain of a baby and initially has trouble with speech and motor skills, but quickly learns and adapts to her environment, expressing an unbridled curiosity about all that this new life promises.
This first part is shot in black and white gothic tones, where Godwin’s house is a womb-like space with curved walls and auricle-like ceilings, decorated with bubbling beakers and pipes. Godwin is a textbook mad scientist, but he himself was subjected to cruel experiments by his own father, resulting in a monstrous appearance (and the need to blow large stomach bubbles from his mouth). Although he views Bella as an experiment, he nevertheless forms a paternal bond with her, wanting to protect her from the dangers outside their door.
In this mad scientist’s lab, Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan also go a little crazy, wildly jumping between camera angles, lenses, and other optical effects. This may be intimidating to some, but it perfectly encapsulates the chaos caused by this new form that violates the very boundary that separates life from death.
In this respect there are similarities with Lanthimos’ previous film. Fangwhich also featured parents locking their children at home, leading not to conformity but to perversion (Godwin’s other creations, hybrid animals such as a dog with a chicken body, also evoke the threat of becoming an animal in Lobster). IN Fang the consequences of isolation are brutal and alarming, while in Poor things Bella can free herself from her parents’ restrictions.
Bella’s infantile state, expressed through a sidelong glance, unnatural speech and the baby’s gait, nevertheless becomes, in Max’s words, “enchanting.” One day at the dinner table, fiddling with an apple led to Bella’s first orgasm. However, this is where the biblical parallels end, because although Max tells Bella that such activities are not for “polite society,” she rejects shame and is determined to pursue pleasure and everything else that awaits her in the outside world.
Enter Duncan Wedderburn (an unexpectedly hilarious Mark Ruffalo), a gruff lawyer who falls deeply in love with Bella and gives her the opportunity to escape. Thus the film mutates from Frankenstein To Candide, following Bella and Duncan as they travel through Europe. At first they fuck endlessly (Bella calls it “furious bouncing”), interspersed with short breaks where Bella tries other delicacies such as oysters and Portuguese quiches.
But after meeting fellow travelers Martha and Harry (the unlikely duo of Fassbinder regular Hannah Schygulla and comedian Jerrod Carmichael), Bella becomes intrigued by the ideas and philosophy, wanting to expand her mind as well as exercise her body. This development transforms Bella from a “sex child” into a woman with free will – something Duncan never signed up for.
Traveling from Lisbon to Alexandria and then to Paris, Bella wanders enchanted through a colorful fantasy world that is both artificial and material. Of note here are the production design by Shauna Heath and James Price and the costume design by Holly Waddington: the changes in setting and clothing reflect Bella’s own transformations.
In Paris, Bella finds herself penniless and pragmatically realizes that sex work provides the quickest solution to her financial situation. While working in a brothel, she meets Madame Sweeney (Katherine Hunter) and fellow sex worker Toinette (Susie Bemba), who introduce her to the ways of capitalism and socialism respectively (which leads Bella to explain to Duncan that “we are the means of production”).
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Unlike Lanthimos’s other films, where the absurdity is based on pessimism, Poor things, like its protagonist, expresses an insatiable thirst for life. Stone gives a stunning physical performance, and Ruffalo, in turn, surprises as the buffoonish scoundrel. Screenplay by Tony McNamara (who also co-wrote the screenplay) Favorite) is consistently funny, and the score by Jerskin Fendricks is as delightfully bonkers as the visuals. Together, it all creates one of the most joyful cinematic experiences of the year.
In her search for personal freedom, Bella experiences trials and tribulations, but is never punished for her desires. Each man she meets may love her in their own way, sometimes in a twisted way, but they also seek to imprison her. As Bella learns, grows, and fucks, she nourishes and enjoys her body and mind in ways these poor things will never understand.
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Throw: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo
Screenwriters: Tony McNamara (based on the novel by Alasdair Gray)