(Review) Poor creatures, regain self-awareness

Five years later favoriteYórgos Lánthimos returns with him behind the camera Poor creaturesAn adaptation of the eponymous novel by Alasdair Gray and a cast including Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Remy Youssef, Suzy Bemba and Jarrod Carmichael, focusing on Bella’s journey, returned from the dead following the intervention of a young woman. Unconventional Scientist…

2019 and be wise with the release of favoriteYórgos Lánthimos remembers us fondly by transferring to the screen Poor creatures, the eponymous novel by Scottish author Alasdair Gray, proved to be the setting of choice for the filmmaker with a bleak story laced with sarcasm, a touch of humor the latter likes. The result is a caustic re-reading of the modern Prometheus myth, imbued with an independent spirit to aptly debunk the conventions of a far-off era, the resonance of which still resonates today. Or when the men are having fun being the priceless scofflaws of the moral story – in a nice way – a provocation card to score points. And provokes discomfort with a certain sense of style.

Keeping with the essence of Gray’s text, screenwriter Tony McNamara delightfully weaves a plot synonymous with chaotic and disorganized early journeys, gradually expanding his characters’ horizons as they wander, with new visions of the world they ill-advisedly explore. is Corrupted from the foundations of man. A chiaroscuro odyssey that begins in the heart of Victorian London, where the script focuses on first introducing us to the workings of its universe with Bella at its center, a woman-child who reveals herself to be the product of a law-breaking mad scientist’s experiment. Medicine and ethics taking themselves for God. ‘Designed’ by the eccentric Godwin Baxter, this is how our protagonist learns to take his first steps within the four walls of a residence that serves as an open-air laboratory, not very conducive to the discovery of what constitutes the salt of life. Until the desires of the male gender and the search for a husband, lead the latter to literally set sail, even if it means a few slaps in the face during her journey.

After the opening act sets the tone for what awaits us, Poor creatures A path of adventure leads Bella into the arms of a rogue lawyer, a lover who serves to open her up to the pleasures of the flesh, among other things. For if she allows herself to be invaded by her desires, her desires, our young woman also sees her innocence slipping away from her, while before her eyes the outline of a society rich in its differences, but most of all consumed by its greed, unfolds. , his selfishness. Between two stops in Egypt and France, Yorgos Lanthimos uses the evolution of his heroine’s view of the mind from Frankenstein to Candide, the latter’s naivety serving as a fuse to dynamite these 19th-century peculiar habits and customs, the unequal and sexist old code from which we find ourselves. Must be freed, the watchword of the film that highlights this quest for freedom of body and mind, with the brutality inherent in the cinema of the Greek director, who has no equal in abusing his characters.

If she faces a quandary at the end of the journey, the satirical fable still borrows from feminism, extending her feverish passage through the capital of Paris to the scene of her final direct exit – before a somewhat disheveled return home. Caused by the desire to be confusing and explosive. At this point, Lanthimos’ visual touch helps establish this cracking atmosphere, especially as the filmmaker adds a new element to his arsenal in terms of staging. In addition to his famous fish-eye lens and his sequence shots, the latter plays Terry Gilliam and propels his actors into his cardboard sets, adding to the artificiality of this childish and whimsical world. Within this restricted framework, the actors, on the other hand, can give their all in terms of interpretation, as evidenced by Emma Stone’s score, which does a balancing act of being from one end of the footage to the other on the edge of the footage. This turn with precision and risk in Bella’s skin, an alter-ego that certainly isn’t afraid. Beside him, let’s remember a beloved Rami Youssef but most of all a freewheeling Mark Ruffalo, knowing how to mischievously bring out the failings of Duncan Wedderburn, this unwilling lawyer acting as a poor traveling companion.

With Poor Creatures, Yorgos Lanthimos creates a caustic baroque tale that invokes the spirit of Mary Shelley and Voltaire to feed the bleakly satirical odyssey undertaken by an unabashed Emma Stone.