The greatest Greek movie ever made, according to Yorgos Lanthimos
After the recent awards season, Yorgos Lanthimos is the name on every cinephile’s lips. As Poor Things picked up trophies from the Academy, the Baftas, the Golden Globes and beyond, Lanthimos solidified his position as one of the brightest working talents and one of the strangest minds in contemporary filmmaking.
Beyond the awards bodies being blown away by his latest project, Lanthimos also had casual film watchers everywhere up in arms. Similar to the social media spiral that Saltburn caused, Poor Things’ twisted fantasy plotline sent families into a frenzy after they stumbled upon the project on Disney+.
That’s the Lanthimos way. The director appears to be interested in the uncomfortable and the odd in his films. Features like The Lobster or The Favourite take a regular and recognised centre, such as the rom-com or period dramas, and twist them into his own wild cinematic world. Rather than sticking to what might be expected, his characters instead are unfiltered and unrestrained, playing at the very edge of social convention or often falling fully off the other side.
That subversive streak seems to be traced back to the film education given to him by his native Greece. Born and raised in Athens, Lanthimos studied at the Hellenic Cinema and Television School in the city, learning everything he could about writing, filmmaking and directing. During his time there, he clearly learned about the masters and mavericks of his home country.
When asked about his favourite films of all time, one Greek picture stands out as vital for not only Grecian cinema but also Lanthimos. “Definitely one of the greatest Greek films ever made,” he says of the 1967 film The Shepherds Of Calamity.
Similar to his own work, this classic film takes a simple plot and makes it strange. It tells the story of a poor farmer trying to marry her son to the daughter of a rich land owner, but through director Nico Papatakis’ eye, it becomes something bigger and weirder.
“I could have never imagined something so modern, absurd, anarchistic set in a bucolic environment and made in Greece during the ’60s,” Lanthimos said of the movie. “ I’m always taken by surprise when I re-watch it.”
Really, “modern”, “absurd”, and “anarchistic” is exactly how his own work could be described. He plays with convention, then totally throws it out, daring to push his plots and characters into new, exciting and somewhat controversial directions, especially when it comes to Poor Things’ Bella Baxter. Seemingly borrowing that from the school of the Greecian 1960s masters, Lanthimos definitely sits in their lineage.
