A warm and prolonged applause gave the audience to the new film by Giorgos Lanthimos, after its morning press screening at the 80th Venice International Film Festival was completed.

“Poor Things” participates in the official competition section of the festival, contending together with 22 other films for the grand prize of the event, the Golden Lion, which will be awarded by the jury chaired by Damien Chazelle. It is a modern adaptation of the Frankenstein legend based on the award-winning book of the same name by Alistair Gray published in 1992, starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo. The story, set in the Victorian era, replaces the monster with Bella, a beautiful young nymphomaniac, who kills herself to escape her abusive husband. Bella is brought back to life by an eccentric scientist, Godwin Baxter, who, however, gives her the mind of a baby. Thirsty to know what life is all about, she runs away with Duncan, a capable and morally challenged lawyer, on a wandering adventure. Freed from the prejudices and barriers of her time, Bella seeks to fight for equality and freedom.

“It is a film that is not easily described. It’s hard for me to explain what it is,” said Giorgos Lanthimos at the press conference held today (1/9) at noon, but without the protagonists of his film, due to the American actors’ strike. On how faithful he stayed to the book, he stated, “We based it on the novel, we changed the structure of it a little bit, but we stayed pretty faithful. Ever since I read the book, I knew that the movie would focus on Bella’s character, follow her point of view. A free-thinking woman, without fear or prejudice, who experiences the world on her own terms. This is the direction we followed in the film. But also the humor, the heroes, the style, the essence of the novel is in the film.”

When asked about how modern a period story is, the Greek director said: “I think it is extremely modern because it talks about freedom, the position of men and women in society, the world view. Things have changed a bit over the years, so maybe now we have better tools to spot inequality. However, the book was written in the 90s and since then, it’s kind of funny but not much has changed. But the author himself uses a Gothic novel to talk about today.”

Speaking about the involvement of Emma Stone, who in addition to being a star is also a producer of the film, he said: “I first read the novel by Alistair Gray in 2011. I met him and he gave me his wish to proceed with his adaptation for the film. Emma joined the project very early on. When we did The Favorite together I think we were already working on the script for Poor Things with Tony McNamara, and as soon as we finished shooting I told her about this idea and she wanted to be involved. She was terribly excited, she wanted to embody this heroine and be involved as much as possible. So I informed her about everything, about our potential collaborators, about the worlds we were creating, the rest of the actors in the film. This helped her a lot, even in her performance, because she kept the idea of ​​the film in her mind for a long time. She lived with the character of Bella, not necessarily consciously, but it was constantly with her.”

When asked about the fact that “Poor Things” has more sex scenes than what we see in movies anymore, George Lanthimos said: “Movies should have a lot more sex, I don’t know why that doesn’t happen anymore. It’s a shame Emma isn’t here and I have to speak for her. First of all, sex is a structural element of the novel itself: the freedom Bella feels about everything, including her sexuality. But we didn’t want to make a vulgar film that would betray our heroine. We had to be confident and let go of any shyness, so did Emma with her body, and she understood that from the first moment. We have made four films together and have developed our own way of communicating, where not many words are needed. As soon as I hint at something, he’ll say yes, we’ll do whatever it takes.”

As he said, although for the needs of the film they worked in large studios, with a large crew, they maintained as much as possible the atmosphere that existed in the previous filmings they did together with the American actress.

“Sometimes we lit from outside the windows, so there were only three people on the set, the cameras, not even the sound people. We have created an environment of intimacy and safety. I would also like to give credit to Elle McAlpine, our intimacy coordinator. It’s a specialty that at first seemed threatening to filmmakers, but if you work with a good person, you realize it’s something you need and El made it all so easy. Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, who have the most sex scenes, built an intimacy in rehearsals. But also for the actors who came only for one or two scenes on the set, Elle created a very comfortable environment.”

Answering about his aesthetic choices, if they are made for the needs of each film or for his personal creative development, George Lanthimos said that it is a combination of both.

“I always start with what feels right for a film, a hero, a story, but also what interests me in terms of creating and evolving the way I want to tell stories. I’m interested in pushing myself further, not necessarily to the extremes. Poor Things is about creating a world. We created a world for Bella to inhabit, distorted and teased through her own gaze. That’s why we chose to make everything in a studio, add unrealistic elements, either exaggerated or more subdued, use black and white and color. The choice has to do with the world of each film, but also with my personal perspective and exploration of direction and photography.”