Try to imagine a world where your mind is not conditioned by the way you were raised and how you were taught to behave, think of an existence free from the canons imposed by society: as a result you will have a unique and inspiring story. From the director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite, The Lobster) and by the manufacturer Emma Stone comes the incredible tale and fantastic evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life from the brink of death by the brilliant scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe).
Emma Stone in POOR THINGS. Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.© 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Poor Creatures! in fact, it tells the story of a pregnant woman found in the cold waters of the Clyde in late-Victorian Glasgow. Operated by a brilliant surgeonthe girl comes returned to life through the transfer of her baby's brain into her head, Bella is born. The routine of the scientist and his creature is suddenly interrupted by the arrival at their home of the student Max McCandels (Ramy Youssef), who has great admiration for the professor. Godwin, after careful study of the boy, decides that he and Bella will marry. The woman, a mature body with an infant's headhowever, she is very eager to learn new things and does everything she can to try to escape from Godwin's protected world. Hungry for the worldliness that she lacksthen runs away with the clever and dissolute lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), arrived at the Baxter house to draw up Bella's seclusion rules. The couple sets off on an overwhelming adventure, crossing continents and magical places. It feels like living a long dream. Free from the prejudices of her time, Bella will be increasingly determined in her aim to defend equality and emancipation.
Poor Creatures! has already obtained numerous awards, starting from Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, not to mention the two Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy Film and how Best actress in a musical or comedy film for Emma Stone. We are not slow to believe this given the extraordinary mastery with which the film is made: the director has the ability to move from scandalously violent moments to extremely comical moments in the same scenes in just a few seconds, making the film very captivating.
Emma Stone in POOR THINGS. Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.
A crazy script
The story is inspired by the novel by Alasdair Graywinning book of Whitbread Novel Award he was born in Guardian Fiction Prize. It's a sharp, intelligent, dark, surprising and funny novel, and it's full of ideas about gender and identity. It speaks to us of the rarefied imponderability of being, of our always being, willy-nilly, on the threshold of the abyssas well as the rationality of what surrounds us.
Tony McNamara he turns the text into a wonderful screenplay, collaborating for the second time afterwards The Favourite, with Lanthimos. The film transforms the book by mainly following Bella's point of view and inserting elements from different mythologies and various narrative topos, creating an incredibly original and intoxicating cocktail. The influence of the myth of is evident Frankensteinwhich however is overturned by transforming the “monster” into a beautiful and very perceptive woman, while her love interests will instead become potential monsters.
POOR THINGS. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Like in a dream: from photography to scenography
The film stands out for its wonderful photographydirected by the Oscar nominee Robbie Ryan (The Favourite, C'mon C'mon). The use of wide angle he was born in fish eyeThe black and white how slowly it transforms into paintings with warm, fairy-tale colors and the use of lights in rosy skies they identify the story as if it were a great dream, into which the spectator enters accompanied also by splendid scenography. Thanks to James Price (Judy)And Shona Heath, this represents a completely new world from scratch, in an unrealistic way. In fact, we tried to make the film similar to a fairy tale, to a metaphor, by inserting science fiction and imaginary elements of various historical eras. The period in which the story is set is therefore ambiguous, imagining that the story belonged to the past but also proposed a vision of the future. Heath was inspired by the satirical caricatures of Albert Guillaume in Paris during the Belle Époquein addition to the films of Fellini you hate Roy Andersson, which shoots all its products in the studio. Many sound stages were therefore used and the worlds that Bella explores are largely reconstructed, with painted scenery and LED lights.
Jerrod Carmichael on the set of POOR THINGS. Photo by Yorgos Lanthimos. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
The universe of costumes and makeup
There would be too many aspects to underline Poor Creatures! and certainly one cannot fail to mention the costumes of Holly Waddington (Lady Macbeth, War Horse): wonderful, eccentric, incredibly strong. Clothes are almost never complete but always broken, with the aim of making Bella look like a child: in the morning she is always fully dressed but it gets halfway through the day that she loses most of her clothes. Alongside the costumes, the Oscar candidate's hairstyles and make-up also take to the podium Nadia Stacey (The favourite, Cruella). THE hair of the protagonist they are long and almost always loosea symbol of female beauty in the Victorian era as well as rebellion: At the time, women had to tie their hair up in social situations, but Bella says no, his mane is always blowing in the wind.
Emma Stone in POOR THINGS. Photo by Yorgos Lanthimos, Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Every step has its own music
The original soundtrack is composed by Jerskin Fendrix. Already from the first images of the film, when Bella throws herself from the bridge into an intense blue sea, the violin score enters the viewer's depths, immediately generating the thought of aclassical influence. You are struck by the variety of the sound, each melody varies with the changing worlds in which Bella finds herself time after time. Many sounds are air-based, recreated by the use of wood tools which generate different sets of breaths. The music reflects theatmosphere of instability and childishness of the characters, it is therefore not too imposing.
We have to try everything Bella, that's what completes us
Bella Baxter is played masterfully by Emma Stone: onebrilliant comic actress but at the same time dramatic at the right point. Emma is perfect in this role, she has to play a human being who is not fully developed, then quickly transitions to the status of a mature woman through very intense scenes: the flexibility of the actress it is here of great help. The character of Bella represents the acceptance of being a woman, of being free, scared and courageous and for Emma it was a pride to be able to play her. The girl goes through her era with the amazement of those who see the world in its prodigious madness for the first time and embodies the highest human ideals, never ceasing to arouse scandal for the most serious outrage of all: live a radically free existence.
Emma Stone in POOR THINGS. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.
Bella begins to understand what it means to be a member of society, the more autonomous she becomes, the more the men around her feel challenged. The woman it's like a sponge, without a past, lives influenced by all the people she meets, the environments she finds herself in and what she eats. A difficult challenge therefore for the actress, so it is impossible to find someone to inspire her to embody such an unusual role.
To complete the cast, actors of great caliber
Max McCandless is played by the Golden Globe winner Ramy Youssef (Ramy, Mr. Robot). The actor provides the character a lot of sensitivity, intelligence And humorsometimes showing his dark shades, a good guy who actually wants to possess his woman in some way. In the end, a different bond will be created between the two than the one Bella has with other men, there is a different mutual honesty and their relationship will transform into a friendship.
Mark Ruffalo in POOR THINGS. Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.
Mark Ruffalo instead embodies the Duncan's toxic masculinity, with a typical alpha male mentality. A person as sensitive and profound as Mark playing such a role was certainly an interesting choice: Duncan ends up appearing very naive and becomes his own worst enemy. He's a narcissist which Bella destroys along the way.
Willem Dafoe instead he plays Godwin, the scientist who he wants to push his science and his art beyond the limits of the possible, regardless of the rules of society. The actor gives the character great dignity and a mischievous sense of humor. Defoe communicates the man's great warmth but also shows his angular aspects, providing humanity to this monstrous and narcissistic character: the audience becomes fond of him. The bond between Godwin and Bella, between the creator and his experiment, is almost like that between a father and a daughter, despite everything she knows he is there.
Willem Dafoe in POOR THINGS. Photo by Atsushi Nishijima Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.
A story of liberation
A very recurring theme is that of sexuality. Bella explores her intimacy in a way free from society's preconceptions. Her character has never been told that it is wrong to love sex or that there is anything wrong with doing whatever you want at any time: lhe girl is so full of life that every part of the human experience is intriguing to her, even what for others is considered shocking. Bella therefore investigates her sexuality without ever feeling guilty and this makes her a modern heroine, also towards the male universe. The film is in fact one ferocious satire on men, presented as beings who want to have total control over the woman. But Bella doesn't want to know, she is completely autonomous and free.
The feature film, produced by Searchlight Pictures, will arrive in cinemas on January 25th. A fun, gloriously crazy and obscenely brilliant film, which shows the boldest and most rebellious part of ourselves.
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