Searchlight Pictures, the distributor for Poor Things, released a new trailer for Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest movie following the director’s Golden Lion win at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. The Greek director’s highly anticipated movie is set to grace Greek cinemas in January 2024.
The cast and plot
The trailer provides a glimpse into Lanthimos’ luxurious black comedy, an adult fantasy featuring the director’s muse Emma Stone in the captivating role of a lady who ended her life to escape her violent past. Later on, she is brought back to life as ‘the sexual-innocent primitive Bella Baxter, the secret experimental subject and ward of charismatic, troubled anatomist Dr. Godwin Baxter played by Willem Dafoe,’ as the Guardian puts it. Enthusiastically seeking knowledge about the world, Bella embarks on an extensive and absurd cross-continental journey with Duncan Wedderburn (played by Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer. Unconstrained by the prejudices of her time and free of shame, Bella demands equality and liberation in a role Stone has described as extremely emancipating. Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott are also part of Lanthimos’ stellar cast.
The book that started it all
Tony McNamara’s screenplay is adapted from Alasdair Gray’s 1992 comic novel of the same name, which Variety describes as ‘a work of peculiar, obsessive genius, a book-within-a-book-within-a-book that satirizes Victorian Britain’s seemingly conflicting preoccupations with decorum and grotesquerie, all while teasing the modern reader’s own tabloid-trained taste for the lurid. ‘Lanthimos, who acquired the rights to Gray’s novel after a visit to Scotland, shared his admiration for Gray in an interview for Vogue, emphasizing the special connection they formed before the author’s unfortunate passing just before the film went into production. Lanthimos also revealed that Gray guided him through Glasgow personally, pointing out various locations he had woven into his narrative.
As Poor Things gears up to open worldwide, with a Greek cinema premiere set for January 2024, Lanthimos is already diving into a new project, this one to be filmed in Greece. Starring Emma Stone once again, this venture promises to be a very different beast from Poor Things, and to move away from the intense sexual nature of that film. Lanthimos remains tight-lipped about the details, keeping audiences eagerly anticipating his next cinematic creation.
