We are in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century, where technology followed a slightly different path of development than in our universe. Master of experimental surgery, Dr. Godwin Baxter, brings a woman’s body back to life. He calls her Bella Baxter, and although we know how her body ended up in the hands of the brilliant surgeon, the question of who she was before hangs over the film like a sword of Damocles. Even though the woman is a complete adult in body, she “wakes up” in mind as an innocent infant and has to learn everything from scratch. He quickly absorbs subsequent elements: he begins to speak, learns to move, control (over time) his physiological needs, observes his new “father god” at work, absorbs new portions of knowledge. Godwin does not deny her anything until a foreign element appears in their micro-universe: a male human being, whose unexpected and sudden presence awakens in Bella previously unknown needs – to go outside the safe home cave and to be present with another human being to experience physical pleasure. Godwin is forced to make the most difficult decision of his life – whether to let Bella live without the restrictions he imposes or lock her in a cage where she will rot and hate him.
and step by step building yourself from scratch. She is a perfected and evolving Frankenstein – an ideal woman who moves from being objectified (which is the ideal for Duncan’s wonderfully corrupt lawyer) to being subject (which becomes a curse for Duncan). The journey takes place through fantastic imaginations of Lisbon, Alexandria and Paris, each of which represents a new stage in Bella’s development.
She is accompanied by the already mentioned lawyer-Satan Duncan Wedderburn, the archetypal crone Martha, the spirit guide Harry and finally the equally archetypal brothel-mama Swiney. There was also the embodiment of Saint Joseph in the form of Max McCandles and God himself – GODwin Baxter. If you like ambiguous cinema, reaching back to the basic classic representations of characters related to the most important beliefs, guide characters for the hero, you will find them all in “Poor Creatures”. he squeezed absolutely everything possible from the book original, set the events of the novel in a magical universe pretending to be ours, and added a powerful dose of Burtonian abstraction. It is impossible to remain indifferent to his “Poor Creatures”, because it is a unique film that has not been seen in the last dozen or so years. Even Wes Anderson’s productions pale in comparison to “The Poor Creatures”, but if you are their fan, you will also like “The Creatures”.
Poor Things / Yorgos Lanthimos Atsushi Nishijima / Atsushi Nishijima
“Poor creatures.” Bella refuses to put on the corset of civilization
Oh, to be able to admire life so much for once and enjoy it to the fullest without any restrictions, like Bella! Perhaps this is the lesson from “Poor Creatures” – to stop being afraid of “what people will say”, inherent in our culture, integrated in us. Bella doesn’t care about it. “What people will say” is not in the least in the horizon of interest of a being brought back to life who follows only the demands of his ID.
Lanthimos discovers step by step how tight our corsets are – shame, limiting ourselves, impossibilism. Bella refuses to wear such corsets. She won’t be a prude because she doesn’t know the word. She won’t be moderate, because what’s the real reason for her to be if she’s not hurting herself (or others). She will not enjoy wealth when someone next to her is dying in poverty. He does not have to have a pious attitude towards the body, because it is only a body that is supposed to perform specific physiological activities that provide specific impressions to the senses. She’s hungry, so she eats. She’s bored so she leaves. She’s furious, so she screams. She is hungry for pleasure, so she has sex.
Step by step, we accompany Bella as she grows up. From the phase of a child subordinated to the physiology, he passes into the phase of a teenager who will not respect the word “no”. Adolescence ends when Bella discovers the world of physical pleasure, classical literature and people who guide her towards analyzing her own desires and imposing restrictions on them that come not from outside her, but those that she herself deems appropriate.
This is the final evolution of Yorgos Lanthimos
Yorgos Lanthimos basically has carte blanche from Hollywood and thanks to “The Favourite”, “The Lobster” and “The Murder of a Sacred Deer” he can do whatever he wants. Thanks to this, he could start reading “Poor Creatures” – a book by Alasdair Gray. The novel itself is a completely wild ride, and its film adaptation is Tim Burton and Wes Anderson on steroids, a festival of sex, bodies in every form, including the degenerate one, vivisection straight from Cronenberg’s most disgusting paintings and the most beautiful shots of magical realism. Into this abomination of civilization, the Greek wove individual, but extremely numerous, masterful scenes like pearls into a living tissue. Just like the novel, they are dripping with absurdity and a slide into madness. If Oscars were awarded for “the one best scene”, the winner would be the one in which the completely uninhibited Bella leads to the annihilation of Duncan (the wonderful Mark Ruffalo), who is in love with her and her, solely by looking at him (especially since Emma Stone HAS SOMETHING TO LOOK AT Yorgos Lanthimos undoubtedly loves her eyes).
Poor Things / Yorgos Lanthimos Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures. 2023 20th Century Studios
and Yorgos Lanthimos must have an absolutely unique bond. The actress devotes herself completely to the director’s instructions, fulfilling even his most extravagant whims. In the case of “Poor Things” there are countless scenes of sex, which for Bella is as important as the air she breathes. If you thought that “The Favourite” was full of sexual tension that found an outlet in a few known-what scenes, in “Poor Creatures” it is completely the opposite – sex is in the foreground, and Bella grows not with desire, but with the hunger to experience and discover, because each close-up is a “new” experience.
“Poor Creatures” will undoubtedly also receive a whole series of nominations for the upcoming Oscars. Emma Stone can actually be sure not only of a nomination, but also of a statuette, because her Bella is flawless and required extraordinary sacrifices, which Stone made without blinking an eye. Mark Ruffalo shines as Duncan Wedderburn, Willem Dafoe is wonderful as Dr. Godwin Baxter, Ramy Youssef is exceptionally charming as Max McCandles. What is also unique compared to other competing films this year is the set design and make-up, refined to the smallest detail, and the costumes, which play their own role, coordinated with the characters. In the photos you can again notice Lanthimos’ favorite method of “fish eye”, or a camera observing the surroundings by monitoring the interior. The division of the film into black and white and fabulously colorful shots was done in an interesting way.
Poor Things / Yorgos Lanthimos Photo Searchlight Pictures. 2023 Searchlight Pictures
All these tidbits prove that we are probably dealing with the final version of Lanthimos – he is such an established director that he can do whatever he wants with his films. He no longer has an inner critic who would impose on him a corset of “what is appropriate”. He himself is already like Bella and his entire film is her – an uninhibited, beautiful, good and innocent being who exposes the corruption of some and highlights the goodness of others. “Poor Creatures” is certainly not a typical “film for the masses” and will certainly disgust many people (at the Venice Film Festival screening, several people left the hall). This is also his Oscar problem – this is not a film for everyone, which means that Lanthimos will probably miss out on winning the best film and best director awards again.
However, if you manage to separate the very visually suggestive scenes, not even on the border, but within pornography, you will find a fascinating story about setting your own goals and limitations, creating and discovering your SELF freshly, without the prejudices that society and a childhood spent on in specific conditions. If each of us had the opportunity to start from scratch like Bella, the world would be completely different.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
