Yorgos Lanthimos receives 8-minute standing ovation for ‘Poor Things’
The new film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things, received the longest standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival so far this year. The movie, which stars Emma Stone, earned an eight-minute-long round of applause from the audience on Friday, September 1st.
Stone plays a woman who makes her way in European society after suffering a series of traumatic events as well as a scientific change of course, and the Venice Film Festival goers lapped up every moment of her appearance.
Some members of the crowd shouted, “Genius! We love you! Yorgos!” The Greek director then basked in the praise, shaking hands with film fans and signing autographs as he made his way along the balcony of the Sala Grande Theatre.
Poor Things features some very explicit and sometimes violent sex scenes involving Stone’s character, Bella, when she becomes a Parisian prostitute, which led to some of the audience leaving the theatre before the final credits rolled.
Lanthimos had warned the audience about such scenes in an earlier press conference and noted how Stone was prepared to give her all for them. “It was very important for me not to make a film that would be prudish because that would be like completely betraying the main character,” the director said.
“We had to be confident Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity, engaging in those scenes, and she understood that right away,” Lanthimos added. “As soon as I started saying something about sex, she would say: ‘yes,’ of course, it’s Bella. We will do what we need to do.'”
Check out the trailer for Poor Things below.
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