Bella is a mysterious young woman who lives in the confinement of a mansion. Brought back from the dead by Godwin, a pioneering scientist, Bella has the skills and behaviors of a child. However, she is eager for knowledge, so much so that her creator, after trying to hold her back, lets her go out into the vast world. This, in the company of Duncan, a libertine lawyer on whom Bella has set her sights for sexual learning purposes. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos with his customary unbridled mastery, Poor Things stars Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. The duty attended a virtual conference with filmmaker, actor and screenwriter Tony McNamara.
Winner of the Golden Lion in Venice, Poor Things is a very daring erotic-fantasy story of emancipation, both visually and thematically — even by the standards of the director of the disturbing The Lobster (Lobster) And The Killing of the Sacred Deer (The killing of the sacred deer).
This explains this, Yorgos Lanthimos had great difficulty convincing a Hollywood studio to finance Poor Things.
“I first read Alasdair Gray’s novel [publié en 1992] around 2010 or 2011: it blew me away, remembers the Greek filmmaker. I traveled to Glasgow to meet Alasdair, and he gave me his blessing for the film. Except that all the studios then refused it. I made other films, but I kept this one in the back of my mind. After the success of The Favorite [sorti en 2018], I said to myself that perhaps the time was right to propose this project again. »
This time, Searchlight Pictures, the “prestige” division of 20th Century Fox, owned by Disney, was seduced.
For the screenplay, Yorgos Lanthimos called on Tony McNamara, who had co-written The Favorite (with Deborah Davis). Asked about the parentage of Poor Things with Frankensteinwhether it is Mary Shelley’s novel or its myriad adaptations, the screenwriter nuances: “The starting point of Alasdair’s novel certainly evokes Frankensteinbut I admit to being more influenced by satire Young Frankenstein [Frankenstein Junior, de Mel Brooks ; 1974]. Alasdair built something different on top Frankenstein and all the iconography associated with it. And in turn, Yorgos has designed a distinct, singular work above all that. »
In fact, when faced with Bella’s odyssey, we never think of Bride of Frankenstein (Bride of Frankenstein). If Bella is anyone’s fiancée, it’s herself.
This is because during the intrigue, everyone, especially men, but not only, try to tame her, to enslave her, to rule her — in vain.
To summarize Tony McNamara: “They are trying to control her body, her thoughts, what she says, everything about her… For me, it is the story of a human being who seeks to live his life as freely as possible. possible. »
Awesome Emma Stone
She is also associated with The Favorite, Emma Stone was Yorgos Lanthimos’ first and only choice to play Bella. The star ofEasy A (Anything for an A), of La La Land (For the love of Hollywood) and of Cruella is absolutely brilliant in her most demanding and radical role yet.
“I have no merit: I gave him free reign,” notes the filmmaker. I especially focused on providing a safe environment for Emma. […] Between her and me, it’s easy. Emma and I are close friends: we completely trust each other, we don’t overanalyze everything before arriving at a result… She is very curious about all aspects of a film, especially in this in this case, since we were building an entire universe. »
In this regard, Poor Things is a visual splendor. The action takes place in various European metropolises, including London and Paris, but it is a fantasized past that we are dealing with. The artistic direction, which fuses Victorian and art nouveau styles, certainly counts the cinema of Hayao Miyazaki among its influences (especially The Howl’s Moving Castle).
The appearance of the characters is just as striking, especially that of Godwin, played by Willem Dafoe. Regarding the heavily scarred appearance of this not-so-mad scientist, Yorgos Lanthimos specifies:
“We did research to find visual references, particularly from the First World War, at a time when reconstructive surgery was beginning, but was not yet very advanced. At the same time, we didn’t want Godwin to look like he’d been in an accident: we wanted him to have almost an abstract feel. So we also looked at the side of painting — there is this self-portrait by Francis Bacon, to which I kept coming back. Full of influences, and interpretations of these influences…”
The stranger in the mirror
For Willem Dafoe, this special makeup required a six-hour application process every day.
“I have already had to work with significant prosthetic makeup before,” recalls the actor.
“The trick is to let go. Roughly speakingwe apply pieces to the face [de latex] Already molded, they are painted, then the demarcation lines are erased. It’s very long, but it helps me. Sitting in this chair, I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, but I have to look in the mirror. And suddenly I see myself disappearing, and I see someone else appearing in my place. It’s fantastic preparation. »
Regarding the bonds that unite Bella and Godwin, Willem Dafoe says he was moved by their complexity and their absence of clichés.
“It’s a deep relationship. I don’t see a father-daughter relationship there. I believe that Godwin fell in love with Bella, but there is no predation on her part. As he explains at one point, he has neither the sexual desire nor the physical capacity to take action. At first he tries to keep her captive, but he decides to opt for a higher love by letting her go without knowing if he will ever see her again. There are lots of beautiful things in this relationship, really…”
There are lots of great things in the film too.
The film Poor Things will be on display on December 15.