Poor Things
Venice Film Festival #8 – PalaBiennale
What a world Lanthimos has envisioned in his latest feature film. Poor Things is nothing if not a technical showcase of the skill Lanthimos possesses in all aspects of filmmaking. His world is so meticulously made it feels real. It’s shown to audience how dissimilar this world is to ours, yet in a way it is so tangible and believable you feel as if you’re a part of his world.
It’s a wonderful world that is so beautifully realised due to the exquisite craftsmanship on offer in very single department. The absolutely gorgeous cinematography from Robbie Ryan is a standout. He makes black and white so beautiful; it puts other films to shame at the festival. The wide variety of cameras he uses adds to this strange world we’ve been invited to. How the colours pop on screen is just stunning. Really not a single scene isn’t just unbelievable.
Wonderous scenes in the film are not only beautiful because of the cinematography but the expert work in other departments. The costuming in particular is just unbelievable. Practically every piece of clothing on screen was just as meticulous as the world they were in. Heaps of strange whimsy of this world isn’t just featured on the screen but also in the delectable score from Jerskin Fendrix. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard in a film before. It really is quite indescribable but the use of completely strange notes which ordinarily wouldn’t be found in a movie score and the use of strings played in weird ways was so good in helping establish this world.
You are not able to talk about this film without speaking about the acting. Stone is coming for the Oscar. Wow, what a performance. Playing a woman who has had her brain replaced with that of a child’s, Stone had to tap into childlike playfulness and curiosity and she seems to do it so effortlessly. What’s really impressive with her performance is how she evolves over the film. Given her character has an accelerated development, it’s unbelievable how realised she is able to make Bella. Honestly, all of the acting is great, but Mark Ruffalo also blew me away. He is the main supporting character and it’s so good we get as much of him as we do as he’s just so entertaining to watch. He plays into this sexually obsessed, smarmy man so well, and his delivery of swear words is just so good.
Not only is the film a visual feast, but it also has a lot going on behind the beautiful images. The ideas of how society has nurtured women to repress their sexuality and that desire and pleasure are demonised was wonderful, having a clear pro-feminine angle and being kind to the idea of self discovery, especially for women, is utterly ingenious. Placing someone with pure freedom into the world of repression and seeing how they behave, and at times more interestingly, how others react, was just a wonder to watch. Surely it wouldn’t have had such an impact if it weren’t for such a talent in Lanthimos. However, what this film feels like is a collabration between Lanthimos and Stone, the underlying themes being a collaboration between the pair, and to such impeccable results