The one movie that directly inspired Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Poor Things’
With a dark, almost acidic sense of humour, the Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos has become one of the most celebrated directors of the contemporary industry, with audiences relishing his offbeat approach to comedy. Sideling up to the likes of Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Greta Gerwig in a Mount Rushmore of the greatest working cinematic creatives, Lanthimos’ unabashed creativity has forced the industry to up its game.
First emerging to popularity back in 2009 with the Oscar-nominated drama Dogtooth, Lanthimos later made the leap to Hollywood, working with the likes of Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz and John C. Reilly for 2015’s The Lobster. Such sparked a new era for Lanthimos, with his films suddenly becoming vehicles for awards success, with The Killing of a Sacred Deer being nominated for a Palme d’Or and Oliver Colman taking an Oscar home for her performance in The Favourite.
Years later, Lanthimos is back with Poor Things, an adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name. Inspired by Mary Shelley’s iconic gothic horror Frankenstein, the story follows a mad scientist who brings a woman named Bella Baxter back from the dead and must learn how to become human once more. Starring the likes of Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo, the film has already been tipped for Oscar glory.
Shot in a remarkable style that invokes a strange, saturated dreamworld, Poor Things is a contemporary gothic tale inspired by a range of sources, including, primarily, Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Such was unpacked by the cinematographer, Robbie Ryan, who previously worked on the Andrea Arnold movies American Honey and Fish Tank.
“[Poor Things] is very obviously artificial in many aspects,” he told Hollywood Reporter, “[Dracula] leaned heavily on early cinema techniques like miniatures, processed backgrounds, false perspective and speeding up the camera, and loads of crazy lighting effects. Bram Stoker’s Dracula really enjoyed that madness. We definitely leaned toward how evocative that was”.
Certainly one of the most curious movies of Coppola’s career, Bram Stoker’s Dracula was a postmodern take on the classic blood-sucking tale, featuring steamy erotica and a melodramatic approach to tone. Starring the likes of Keanu Reeves, Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder, the film remains beloved by a particular group of people who praise it for its peculiar take on the source material.
Lanthimos’ latest movie, which takes inspiration from Coppola’s 1990s curiosity, was shot entirely on film, with the director allowing Ryan to have considerable freedom when capturing the protagonist’s travels as she learns to become human. “He’s very good at giving you freedom to do what you think is right until he thinks it’s wrong,” the cinematographer added, “And then he’ll tell you. It’s a really healthy collaboration. We have a lot of fun together, and we both love celluloid, so we have a lot in common in that respect”.
Take a look at the original trailer for Coppola’s Dracula adaptation below.
