The realm of the absurd was always the playground of Yorgos Lanthimos. His cinema is uncomfortable due to the fact that it transports us – without any sort of warning – through some of the darkest and most unpredictable corners of the human mind and habits.

Whereas his first films, shot in Greece, were mysterious and almost opaque, providing little to no explanations, once he made the big step and jumped into the fray of international, English-language, star-studded cinema, his works have become more accessible. This is the reason why he is increasingly successful with larger audiences.

This is not to say that Lanthimos is no longer a daredevil. It’s just that the level of shock that spectators may feel towards the films from this artistic stage is mitigated by showmanship. The cynical regard towards mankind is sweetened by the need for entertainment (which is also given, to a certain degree, by his entry into a new system of production, dominated by big budgets and influential studios.)

Based on the eponymous novel by Alasdair Gray, Poor Things, which has just been awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, is probably the filmmaker’s funniest offering. Or, at the very least, the one in which he least seems to take himself seriously. And Emma Stone, starring as the film’s protagonist, is even more explosive than Olivia Colman was in The Favorite (2018), the filmmaker’s other unconventional period piece.

Granted, absurdism was always a main feature in Lanthimos’ work. Now, however, he has veered into a freewheeling burlesque style, a fantasy that is at times dizzying, and that has feminist undertones – Bella Baxter, the creature brought to life by a Victorian-era scientist, a Doctor Frankenstein of sorts (performed by a disfigured and scarred Willem Dafoe), evolves from being a youthful body with the mind of a child to being a strong, independent woman, after feverishly discovering her own sexuality together with a man (Mark Ruffalo) who leads her on a trip through several countries.

The world imagined by Lanthimos, inspired by the universe drawn out by the Scottish novelist, is a cabinet of curiosities: Dr. L Godwin Baxter is an extravagant scientist, his creation is an unpredictable and all-absorbing oddity that wreaks havoc all around itself due to its physical and mental disarticulation (in some of the film’s best sequences), whole their home is inhabited by creatures that are half-mammal, half-board. To underline the strangeness of this farce, many shots are deformed, by means of Lanthimos’ signature technique of using wide angle shots.

Two opposing forces run through the film. These are the same currents that set into motion another film that was the recipient of a prestigious award: Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or-winning Parasite (2019). Just like the South-Korean film before it, Poor Things is both a cheeky crowd-pleaser and the work of an auteur endowed with vision and nerve.

I must admit that I don’t count myself amongst the unconditional supporters of Lanthimos’ sensationalist and intimidating cinema. However, at the same time, it would be unfair for me not to admit that the Greek flaunts his copious amounts of creativity and frenzy in Poor Things, which have won him a well-deserved award on the Lido. His audacity could not have gone unnoticed.

Ionuț Mareș

Journalist and film critic. Curator for some film festivals in Romania. At "Films in Frame" publishes interviews with both young and established filmmakers.