Details

Poor Things is a 2023 film^[a] directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and written by Tony McNamara, based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray. A co-production between Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the film stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott, and Jerrod Carmichael.^[6] Stone plays Bella Baxter, a young woman in Victorian London who has been brought back to life via brain transplant.

Principal photography took place in Hungary from August to December 2021. Poor Things premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 1, 2023, and won the Golden Lion there. The film received critical acclaim and was released theatrically in the U.S. on December 8, 2023, and in the U.K. and Ireland on January 12, 2024, by Searchlight Pictures. It grossed $117 million worldwide on a budget of $35 million, making it a box office success.

Poor Things was named one of the top ten films of 2023 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute, and received various accolades, including four wins at the 96th Academy Awards, two at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, and five at the 77th British Academy Film Awards. Stone won Best Actress at each ceremony.

Plot

In Victorian London,^[b] the medical student Max McCandles is recruited by the mad scientist Godwin Baxter to record the behaviour of a strange, nearly mute woman living in Godwin’s house. Godwin reveals that Bella’s body is that of a woman who was pregnant and committed suicide by leaping off a bridge; Godwin replaced the woman’s brain with that of the fetus, giving her an infant’s mind, and named her Bella Baxter.

As weeks pass, Bella’s vocabulary improves and she exhibits childlike wonder at the world. With Godwin’s encouragement, Max falls in love with Bella and proposes marriage. Bella accepts, but soon discovers masturbation and sexual pleasure, leading her to run off with Duncan Wedderburn, a debauched lawyer, to Lisbon. There, they have near-constant intercourse as Bella lives purely for pleasure. She is mistakenly addressed as “Victoria Blessington” by a fellow hotel guest.

As Bella becomes difficult for Duncan to control, he smuggles her onto a cruise ship, where she befriends two passengers who open her mind to philosophy. Duncan attempts to stunt her growth to no avail, and indulges in drinking and gambling. During a stop at Alexandria, Bella witnesses the suffering of the poor and becomes distraught. Wishing to help them, she entrusts Duncan’s winnings to unscrupulous members of the crew, who falsely promise to give it to them. Unable to afford the rest of the trip, Bella and Duncan are dropped off at Marseilles and make their way to Paris, penniless. Seeking money and accommodation, Bella begins working at a brothel. Enraged, Duncan breaks down and Bella abandons him. At the brothel, she comes under the tutelage of Madame Swiney and begins a relationship with fellow prostitute Toinette, who introduces her to socialism.

Now terminally ill, Godwin asks Max to bring Bella to him. Max finds her after tracking down Duncan, who has been institutionalized. Back in London, Bella reconciles with Godwin and renews her plans to marry Max, but their wedding is interrupted by Duncan and General Alfie Blessington. Alfie, addressing Bella as Victoria, declares that they were married before her disappearance and that he has come to reclaim her. Bella leaves Max to learn of her past life, but discovers Alfie’s violent and sadistic nature. Bella realizes that she was Victoria, and that she killed herself to escape Alfie.

Alfie confines Bella to his mansion and tells her that he plans to have her clitoris removed and impregnate her, threatening her with a gun and demanding she drink a sedative. She tosses the sedative in his face. Alfie accidentally shoots himself in the foot and passes out. Bella returns to Godwin’s house and, with Max’s help, transplants a goat’s brain into Alfie’s head. Godwin dies peacefully with Bella and Max at his side, and Bella, Max, and Toinette begin a new life in Godwin’s house, while Alfie eats grass happily.

Cast

The film stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Christopher Abbott and Jerrod Carmichael.

• Emma Stone as Bella Baxter
• Mark Ruffalo as Duncan Wedderburn
• Willem Dafoe as Dr. Godwin Baxter
• Ramy Youssef as Max McCandles
• Christopher Abbott as Alfie Blessington
• Suzy Bemba as Toinette
• Jerrod Carmichael as Harry Astley
• Kathryn Hunter as Swiney
• Vicki Pepperdine as Mrs. Prim
• Margaret Qualley as Felicity
• Hanna Schygulla as Martha von Kurtzroc
• Keeley Forsyth as Allison the maid
• John Locke as David the butler
• Kate Handford as Kitty
• Owen Good as Gerald
• Damien Bonnard as Father
• Tom Stourton as Steward
• Raphaël Thiéry as Saveur the butcher
• Wayne Brett as Priest
• Carminho as Fado singing woman
• Jerskin Fendrix as Lisbon restaurant musician

Development

Produced by Film4 Productions, Element Pictures, TSG Entertainment, and Searchlight Pictures, development on the film began as early as 2009, when Lanthimos went to Scotland to discuss the acquisition of the rights to Poor Things with the author, Alasdair Gray. “He was a very lovely man”, Lanthimos said. “Unfortunately, he died just a couple of years before we actually made the film, but he was very special and energetic; he was 80-something [when we met], and as soon as I got there, he had seen Dogtooth and said, ‘I had my friend put on the DVD, because I don’t know how to operate these things, but I think you’re very talented, young man.'” Lanthimos said Gray took him on a personal tour of Glasgow, where Gray showed him several places he had incorporated into the story.^[8]

While filming The Favourite (2018), Lanthimos revisited the project, which he discussed with Emma Stone, who starred in that film. He began developing Poor Things more actively after the success of The Favourite: “After the relative success of The Favourite, where I actually made a slightly more expensive film that was successful, people were more inclined to allow me to do whatever it is that I wanted, so I just went back to Gray’s book and said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ It was a long process, but the book was always on my mind.” While developing the film, Lanthimos and Stone collaborated on the short film Bleat (2022).^[9]

Pre-production

Poor Things was announced in February 2021.^[10] Lanthimos said that working with Stone again gave him an advantage, as they had developed a mutual trust. Stone also discussed how the process of making Poor Things was different from making The Favourite because she also acted as a producer: “It was so interesting to be involved in how the film was being pieced together, from cast to department heads to what have you. Ultimately, Yorgos was the one making those decisions, but I was very involved in the process, which started during the pandemic; we were reaching out to people and casting and everything during that time, because we couldn’t go anywhere.”^[9]

Casting

Willem Dafoe entered negotiations to join the cast in March 2021.^[11] By April, Ramy Youssef was in talks to join.^[12] Dafoe and Youssef were confirmed to join in May, with Mark Ruffalo and Jerrod Carmichael also added to the cast.^[13][14] In September, Christopher Abbott was cast.^[15] In November, Margaret Qualley and Suzy Bemba were cast,^[16] with Kathryn Hunter also revealing she had a role in the film.^[17]

In preparation for her role, Stone took dance lessons and accidentally dyed her hair black. Lanthimos liked the contrast between the dark hair and Stone’s fair complexion.^[18][19] Stone said she was attracted to the idea of portraying a woman reborn with a liberated mindset free from societal pressures:

It’s such a fairy tale, and a metaphor—clearly, this can’t actually happen—but the idea that you could start anew as a woman, as this body that’s already formed, and see everything for the first time and try to understand the nature of sexuality, or power, or money or choice, the ability to make choices and live by your own rules and not society’s—I thought that was a really fascinating world to go into.

Stone especially appreciated Bella’s lack of shame:

Even though Bella has obviously been through trauma in her life, it just isn’t there for her now. She was the most joyous character in the world to play, because she has no shame about anything. She’s new, you know? I’ve never had to build a character before that didn’t have things that had happened to them or had been put on them by society throughout their lives. It was an extremely freeing experience to be her.^[9]

Youssef said that to prepare for their roles, he and Dafoe attended mortician school. Reflecting on the “experimental theater games” Lanthimos assigned the cast before filming, Dafoe said, “You’re very patient with everyone, and everyone’s patient with you. They need to be confident in what they’re doing, because what we’re doing is quite risky. It’s not a normal film.”^[18] Dafoe spent six hours each day in the hair and makeup department—four hours getting extensive prosthetics applied to his face at the start of the day and two hours to get it all removed at the end.^[20]

Discussing the male characterizations, Lanthimos acknowledged that while each male character was different and had his own motivation, they all reflected male attitudes typical of the story’s Victorian setting. He said:

There are variations, I guess, but in this film, there’s a general tendency to try to control [Bella]—even if it’s done in a caring or subtle way, in the way that a parent might or that [Dafoe’s character] Baxter does, or just being infatuated in the way that Ramy is. You know, being a nice man deep down, but still having the characteristics of a man of that era.

Stone also said that “the more agency Bella gets, the more she learns and grows, the more it drives these men insane. The more she has an opinion and her own wants and needs and all of that, it makes them crazy; they want her to stay this sort of pure thing.”^[9]

Filming

Principal photography took place in Hungary, beginning in August 2021 at Origo Studios in Budapest^[21] and wrapping that December.^[22] It is the first feature film to be partially shot on Kodak‘s 35mm Ektachrome color reversal motion picture film stock since its revival in 2018.^[23]

Influences

According to cinematographer Robbie Ryan, Francis Ford Coppola‘s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula served as the main source of inspiration to everyone making the picture.^[24] Other films that served as influences were Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger‘s Black Narcissus (1947), Federico Fellini‘s And The Ship Sails On (1983), and several films by Roy Andersson.^[25]

Costumes

Lanthimos worked closely with costume designer Holly Waddington to reflect Bella’s growth and development through her wardrobe, from the more puffy silhouettes of her childlike era to the nearly corseted gown she wears at the film’s climax.^[26][27][28] Stone elaborated on Bella’s growth as reflected through her costumes, noting how at the beginning of the story she dresses in more traditional clothing and dresses more bizarrely as she transforms. She said:

I loved that element of, how would Bella put clothing together with the way her mind works at this point? At the end, there are these very military-looking dresses that look like nothing you’ve seen Bella wear; things are much more form-fitting and constrained, but that’s because she’s come to a place where she’s grown and decided who she is and what she’s going to do. She’s not assimilating, necessarily, but there’s just more structure there.^[9]

Music

Main article: Poor Things (soundtrack)

Poor Things was the first film scored by the pop musician Jerskin Fendrix. Milan Records released the soundtrack album in conjunction with the film’s release date, December 8, 2023. Two singles, “Bella” and “Lisbon”, were released on November 14.^[29]

Genre

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter called Poor Things “genre-defying”.^[5] Critics have described its genre as a sex comedy, gothic comedy, black comedy, and an absurdist comedy.^[30][31][5] Some noted steampunk elements in the visual design.^{[32][7][33][34]}