The world of 'Poor Things'

 

A cross posting from my Geography on Film blog.

The new film by Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos is called 'Poor Things' and it's a remarkable piece of work.

Warning: may contain spoilers.

It is based on a book by Alasdair Gray - the original book was generally thought to be unfilmable, and like a lot of his work is structured in an unconventional way and heavily illustrated. Check out 'Lanark' as another example of his style.

The book is a mix of a cyber-punk world, where a Frankenstein-style experiment plays out and is unleased on the world in the shape of Bella Baxter, played by Emma Stone.

There is a lot of sex I should warn you - don't watch it with your mum and dad.

Bella visits Lisbon, Alexandria and Paris - as well as London. In fact the versions of these cities she visits are realised in great detail, as is the ship she travels on, and is a different version of these places, much like the variation on Oxford in 'His Dark Materials'.

Here's the director on the origins of the film:

I wanted to know more about the design as it produces a very detailed and beautiful mise-en-scene and sense of place for the film to take place in. There are some beautiful reimaginings of the places where the action takes place and the production design is incredible. Even the house where she is confined with Godwin is beautifully rendered. This is the start of the 'world building' that goes on in the film.

A key resource to read more is the special edition of the film magazine 'Little White Lies' which goes along with the film. This goes into the many cinematic influences, some of whom were quite obvious, and others less so. Gray's artwork also makes an appearance. There are miniatures and other creative camera work. There are interviews with the creative team.

"Robbie Ryan’s plastic cinematography shows us how life seems to her, with warped fisheye, ravenous zooms, and all."

It explains that the padded walls of Baxter's house are designed from a Victorian 'endless landscape' card set which can be placed in any order. I have one of these.

This article goes into more detail.

Of the amazing ship in the film:

The ship itself was a 10-foot miniature, around which Price and Heath used LED screens to create colorful skies and real smoke. The deck and room sets were built with optical illusions and visual details included to make them seem larger than they really were. 

More on the design process here too.

Here's the trailer finally: