Poor Things (Poor Creatures!) is the Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festivaledition 80. The film of Yorgos Lanthimos – third time for the Greek director in Venice afterwards Alps And The Favourite – immediately had a great consensus. Everyone liked it, the press and the public, who together with the fans immediately put it on Emma Stone – absent due to the SAG-Aftra strike – among the five candidates for the 2024 Oscar (we’ll see, and we’ll see if it will be like it was with Olivia Colman, winner for The Favourite).
Poor things: the plot of the film Golden Lion
And why Poor Things did you like it so much? Because it’s really hard to resist Bella Baxter, to this young woman brought back to life by the scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe), creator of a farm of fantastic animals. Even more so when the film amplifies the fantastic by introducing romantic comedy, sabotaging the bizarre in female emancipation which is also a sex party, winning – which is not common among Festival films – the challenge of entertainment.
Yorgos, together with Tony McNamara with whom he wrote the screenplay, exploits every ironic ploy, man/woman impasse, literal expressions and double meanings, in an irresistible cascade of sympathy. Which turns Bella into one of cinema’s memorable characters, a weirdo who passes by Frankeinstein to Pretty Woman, from a prisoner of a house and men to a free thinker. One who, not remembering anything, from the river where they fish her out, educating herself and also experimenting with socialist activism, happiness is invented.
All to the detriment of Mark Ruffolo (Duncan Wedderburn), a seduced lawyer who, by offering her a grand tour, gives her a key to the world.
Ramy Youssef and Emma Stone in “Poor Things”. (Searchlight Pictures)
As the book of the same name by Alasdair Gray (released in 1992) from which the film is based, a book that mixes writing, illustrations and other documents in Gothic/Victorian style, Yorgos constructs a lunar and explosive mythological age. Which he portrays in black and white, in color, and distorts it with fish eye lenses. Fun for those who love 3D books, addition, doors within doors; less for those who are intolerant of style exercises.
Yet, even in its decorative overabundance, the film has an exemplary quality that is difficult to ignore. A layered narrative arc. And an evolution of admirable character. In the end you almost can’t believe the starting point, that Bella/Emma who looked like Helen Keller from Anna of miracles.
Yorgos Lanthimos with the Golden Lion for “Poor Things”. (Getty Images)
The cast
Emma Stone (Bella Baxter). Mark Ruffalo (Duncan Wedderburn). Willem Dafoe (Godwin Baxter). Ramy Youssef (Max McCandless). Christopher Abbot (Alfie Blessington). Suzy Bemba (Toinette). Jerrod Carmichael (Harry Astley). Kathryn Hunter (Swiney). Vicki Pepperdine (Mrs. Prim). Margaret Qualley (Felicity). Hanna Schygulla (Martha Von Kurtzroc).
Poor Things. When does it come out at the cinema?
The Italian release of Poor Things (Poor Creatures!) is scheduled for January 25, 2024. Could the victory of the Golden Lion at Venezia 80 spark some anticipation? Maybe yes. However, there is only one thing left to do: wait for a possible announcement.
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