Superhero films clogged cinemas for a long time. But since Barbenheimer, screen art seems to be back for the general public. Or is this just an exceptional phenomenon, a hype because there were no real magnets in the cinemas for so long?
The fact is that it has become harder to look forward to a film, to really want to get involved with it, for some time now. The terrible advertising measures in advance, gaudy for mainstream cinema, dull, didactic or intentionally cryptic for the arthouse sector, ruin a lot of things. The scandals are mostly bad taste. Stories with a cultural impact fight against the baggage of identity politics. Crazy sequels, and not just Marvel hits, lack originality – even in the animated film sector, where anything was once possible.
But there might be some rain. “Poor Things,” which won the Golden Lion in Venice, is a sign. A film that spins the wheel so much, sets the characters on fire so much, that you have to simultaneously think of a long-extinct surreal, tricky, intellectual cinema that once existed in the 60s and 70s, and have a film in front of you , which denies all connection capabilities. Yorgos Lanthimos’ new film starring a literally stunning Emma Stone is a cinematic one perpetual motion machine of pleasure exercised visually and verbally, a sexually and philosophically healing shock experience.
Bella Baxter dances, rages and jumps across the screen
He tells that education sentimental Bella Baxter, a young woman who wants to take her own life and is saved by a mad scientist (scary and touching as a Dr. Frankenstein blend: Willem Dafoe) by planting her unborn baby in her brain. Little Bella grows up as a bad-tempered, antisocial hybrid who can hardly speak and moves awkwardly through the world. A strange homunculus that instantly attracts every male creature. With a fish-eye camera, crazy ideas (animal offcuts, bubbles released while eating), highly artificial decorations and a humor that is not above anything, “Poor Things” goes down an entertainment waterfall – from the moment on , as Bella begins to discover her sexuality.
The amount of nudity and sex scenes, unusual for the slack Hollywood cinema of recent years, is surpassed by the constant articulation of sexual desires and misfortunes. If Emma Stone really wins the Oscar, she would probably be the first to masturbate multiple times in a film. Although Bella is courted by one of her father’s shy students, she prefers to be with a lecherous gentleman (a hilarious career highlight for Mark Ruffalo, especially when he is literally brought to his knees by Mrs. Baxter’s lust and ultimately dies of jealousy, when she copulates with other men) a picaresque trip around the world that takes her via Lisbon to Paris, where she brings her skill in “furiously jumping” to profitable perfection in a brothel.
Certainly, “Poor Things” takes cover because it tells the thundering, lust-increasing biography of a woman who always appears self-confident. It’s fascinating to see how Stone lets her character take on more and more attitude; You’ve never seen this physically presented in the cinema, how a brat who’s been cheated by life transforms into a dangerous, independent woman.
Of course, behind all the intrigues there is also an unfounded morality; Ambivalence cannot come into its own; its air is almost cut off. But that’s what makes this film so lively: it feasts on itself, on its infectiousness. A furious human comedy, “Poor Things” makes fun of all the absurdities of the behavior of men and women. The Victorian era in which the film is set seems to be the perfect keyword. There is something hysterical about the eruptive expression of carefully concealed desires.
Yorgos Lanthimos has found his style
Director Yorgos Lanthimos, who became noticeable almost two decades ago as part of a Greek Nouvelle Vague and made his first exclamation mark with the subversive stroke of genius “Dogtooth” (revered by numerous filmmakers such as Michael Haneke as one of the most innovative European films of recent times) , after wavering experiments (“The Killing Of A Sacred Deer”) with “The Favorite” and now “Poor Things” has found his style that is also convertible to America. The fact that Emma Stone is at his side, so to speak as an emotional and physical stimulus, is a stroke of luck and should be rewarded at the latest with the next film together, which is already in production.
This cinema of audiovisual surprises, which digs deep into the reference trenches of film history, quotes the Eastern European surrealists just as much as it bows to eyeball menaces like Terry Gilliam or Alejandro Jodorowsky, is more sexually mature after the bold and cool “The Lobster,” with which the filmmaker shows mating behavior city dwellers with a Kafka club, a firework display of humor and unabashedness.
Maybe “Poor Things” fits in quite well with “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie”. In their own way, all three tell of variants of madness, of liberation from internal and external pressure, of exciting adventures with an uncertain outcome, of emancipation (also with an uncertain outcome) and puppet people who don’t want to go their own way, but have to.
While it was clear to Nolan that he would have the atom bomb, it remained exciting to see whether he would also be able to create a sophisticated portrait of its inventor. With “Barbie,” the balancing act between a playful feminist attitude and a mass product that implanted misogynistic ideas, especially in the minds of girls, for decades seemed downright audacious. But the majority have long since decided that he succeeded.
And “Poor Things”? Here comes to life a sticky, smug hybrid of “Frankenhooker” and modern literature brushed against the grain, which must be understood as pointed adult entertainment. In times when all arts only focus on the politically advanced or infantile, this is, firstly, good news and, secondly, the reason why there is anticipation for a film that uninhibitedly serves all keyhole stimuli and does it so skillfully that it is due to its artistic Ambitions that appear unassailable are finally being rewarded again. You leave the cinema happy and, it has to be said, satisfied.