LIDO, Venice, Italy – Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”, which received its world premiere Friday, is easily destined to be the 80th Venice Film Festival’s most audacious, surprising and unabashedly sexual entry.
A spectacular stew, a vivid mix of Frankenstein riff, sly sex comedy and feminist revenge tale, “Poor Things” is striking for its frequent, unabashed full-out nudity as it traces the evolution of Emma Stone’s Bella, a science experiment in late 19th century London who leaves home to seek adventure and a sense of self.
“Weird isn’t it,” Lanthimos wondered at a pre-screening press conference. “Why is there no sex in movies?” The nudity and graphic sexual situations, he said, “are first of all an intrinsic part of her feelings about everything, including sexuality. It was important to me to make a film that wasn’t prude. We had to be confident like the character and have no shame — and Emma had to have no shame about her body, nudity, doing those scenes. She understood that right away.”
Although set over a century ago, “It feels extremely contemporary, speaking about freedom, the way we see the world, the position of women in society and the relationship between men and women.”
As both star and executive producer on “Poor Things,” “Emma has lived with this character for a long time and has been involved in every aspect,” Lanthimos, 49, said. She was absent due to the actors’ strike.
“Poor Things” opens theatrically in December.
Wes Anderson landed in Venice for Thursday night’s world premiere of his 40-minute short, an adaptation of a Roald Dahl story “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” with Ralph Fiennes as Dahl.
Anderson, who had a summer hit with his “Asteroid City,” lives in Paris. Would he, as Woody Allen has just done with his new film premiering in Venice, make a French language movie?
“First of all,” he said with a straight face, “it helps if you speak it.” He manages, he explained, if people talk in their own language and somehow communicate. “It’s called non-accommodating bilingualism and I find that’s often the way we communicate.
“My lifestyle is I’m a foreigner almost all the time. Until I was 23 years old my life was virtually in Texas. The people I knew were in a small physical area. The thing was, I was always interested in movies — and the movies are from everywhere. The movies are my way to get out and see the world.
“In Paris going for a walk is like going to the movies. I do like the experience of being on the outside of the place I’m living. I observe myself kind of liking that.”