After excellent favoriteGreek director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Killing of the Sacred Deer) Reunited with Emma Stone for her new film, Poor creaturesOn display from January 17, a surreal ode to freedom.
More than a film, a work, offered as a legend, that pays no heed to our greatest pleasures, as spectacular as it is political, as jazzy as it is bright, as funny as it is funny. is malleable, allowing for a certain offbeat tone. The filmmaker will tackle a very contemporary and universal theme at the same time and will be among the favorites for the upcoming Oscars, which will be awarded on March 10.
Bella (Emma Stone) is a brilliant and unconventional Dr. Godwin is a young woman brought back to life by Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under his protection, he is eager to learn. Eager to explore a world she knows nothing about, she runs away with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a brilliant and notorious lawyer, and embarks on a dizzying odyssey across continents. Invulnerable to the prejudices of his time, Bella is determined not to give in to the principles of equality and emancipation.
In the world of cinema, Yorgos Lanthimos is one of those brilliant directors who are non-conformist and full of courage and creativity.
A “retro-futuristic” world
Thus, if Poor creatures It is unique in its genre, yet we can think of Jeunet, Anderson, del Toro or Burton with ease playing on the gothic and dreamlike palette. Based on the novel of the same name by Scottish novelist Alasdair Gray published in 1992, Poor creatures Not only is it the director’s best work to date, but it has changed from what we know in our history books by marrying his most extravagant, grand and surreal imagery to the Victorian era… Lánthimos here explores a world retro-futurist, very There is marked, stunning beauty, timelessness and universality.
Through all these visual and narrative phenomena, we find Bella, played by the extraordinary Emma Stone, wide-eyed and innocent, a blank human slate who learns the ways and tricks of the world and, often unwittingly, manages to turn it to her advantage. is If Doctor Godwin Baxter’s abode is not really Eden, yet the outer garden and
We can imagine the animals we encounter there, Bella reminds me of Eve, created by God himself… This first woman, who naively seeks life and who allows herself to be seduced by the thirst for knowledge and freedom. There is no snake here, but this is a cunning, manipulative and sex-hungry man with Bella, with whom he will eventually fall madly (literally) in love, to the point of becoming a goat…
Lanthimos skillfully mixes the grotesque and the macabre (I’m thinking here of Godwin’s surgical scenes) with the very funny passages where Bella grows outside of social conventions. There is also tenderness, especially in the father/daughter relationship between Bella and Godwin. Perhaps one of the most moving moments is when Godwin tells Bella that instead of being repulsed by his disfigured face, only she looks at him with love.
In fact, there’s plenty to constantly marvel at throughout its 2 hours and 21 minutes, but ultimately, it’s Bella’s odyssey of self-discovery that makes the film stronger. A discovery that prides the filmmaker in probing our neuroses with his scalpel camera, while at the same time addressing numerous ultra-modern and universal themes with great subtlety.
It is all the violence of our world, in all its forms, with its economic and social contradictions, that confronts this woman-child’s body becoming a woman.
A question by Bella of social order
The feminist dimension also effectively has its place, sometimes not without humor, but without exaggeration and above all with great insight into the question of social order, male dominance, victimization and injustice by Bella. It is also a question of trauma with its underlying consequences, especially through the character of Dafoe, as a genius creation, this man who himself became a monster because of his terrible childhood is very remarkable. We are of course talking about love, to be seen in the plural because it is not always the same and often painful, even destructive. The film sometimes takes on the dimension of a veritable philosophical pamphlet that dissects our society with such clarity and seriousness. It is also a way of forcing us to think about our condition as the poor human beings that we are.
Artistically, we don’t know how to recognize it Poor creatures Is it really one of the most imaginative and magnificent films of recent years? It would be a shame if this film didn’t win an Oscar for its stunning cinematography (Robbie Ryan), dazzling costumes (Holly Waddington) and stunning production (Shauna Heath, James Price). Ryan makes excellent use of wide-angle and fish-eye lenses, making the world seem more surreal and offbeat. Emma Stone might also be among the winners of the ceremony as her performance is impressive. She’s so adorable from start to finish, and the way she uses her body to show Bella’s evolution is stunning.
Hats off also to the venerable Willem Dafoe, who has never given a half performance during his illustrious career, as evidenced last year again with this film. inside. Her character story here is almost as interesting and touching as Bella’s.
So, okay, this film won’t please everyone, though, because Lanthimos pushes the limits with his genre-bending narrative without inhibitions. But those who have a strong nature and choose to look beyond and allow themselves to be “touched” differently, Poor creatures Will bring absolute joy, hypnosis and magnetism.
