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Dynamic Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’s highly anticipated latest film, “Poor Things,” was enthusiastically received after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, with an ovation at 10 minutes and 37 seconds.
It was one of the most enthusiastic reactions to a film that some Venice festival-goers have ever seen. At various points during the ovation after the screening, the audience chanted “Yorgos, Yorgos.”
Stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo were absent from the Searchlight film’s debut because of the SAG-AFTRA strike, but that didn’t stop the crowd at the Sala Grande from honoring the director with a “glorious song of praise.” to freedom,” as Stephanie Bunbury called it in her Deadline review.
Based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Alasdair Gray, Poor Things follows Stone as Bella Baxter, a creation of the brilliant and unorthodox scientist played by Dafoe, based on Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel Frankenstein. Ruffalo plays a slick and dissolute lawyer. Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott also star.
Earlier today, Lanthimos addressed the film’s many sex scenes and praised intimacy coordinator Elle McAlpine, saying, “She made everything a lot easier for everyone.”
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Lanthimos’ regular collaborator Tony McNamara wrote the script. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe produced for Element Pictures, along with Stone and Lanthimos.
Poor Things will also appear at the Telluride, New York and London film festivals before hitting the US on December 8th.