LWLies 101: The Poor Things issue – Out now!

When the film Dog­tooth played for the first time to press and pub­lic at the 2009 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, it was clear to every­one in the room that its mak­er har­boured a per­verse fas­ci­na­tion with how we devel­op as human beings, and how that devel­op­ment can be manip­u­lat­ed to make enter­tain­ing­ly trans­gres­sive movies. That film­mak­er was Greece’s Yor­gos Lan­thi­mos, and over the inter­ven­ing years he has assid­u­ous­ly ploughed this live­ly intel­lec­tu­al fur­row with films like Alps, The Lob­ster, Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Favourite. This inter­est in brain func­tion, learn­ing tech­niques, and psy­cho­log­i­cal pow­er-plays has always remained present, and sur­faces once more in his lat­est – and pos­si­bly great­est – work, Poor Things.

This new film is the prod­uct of a con­nec­tion that was made with the famous Scot­tish nov­el by the author Alas­dair Gray, about a Franken­stein-like cre­ator and the daugh­ter he builds and then sends out into the world. That daugh­ter is named Bel­la Bax­ter and she is played in the film by Emma Stone. While the film is packed to the gills with per­ti­nent ques­tions about how our bod­ies func­tion as phys­i­cal tools for learn­ing and lov­ing, it’s pow­ered by a cen­tral per­for­mance of such com­mit­ment that it’s hard to see how Stone could return to main­stream come­dies again. It’s Lan­thi­mos’ most ambi­tious film to date, an inti­mate epic that encom­pass­es the gamut of human devel­op­ment while thread­ing the nee­dle between his for­ma­tive strange­ness and the type of release that’s cen­tral to big awards cer­e­monies (it already nabbed the Gold­en Lion at the 2023 Venice Film Festival).

In this issue, we speak to the direc­tor about his long and wind­ing rela­tion­ship with the nov­el and how he received Gray’s bless­ing to make it. We also meet the craft team behind this eye-pop­ping mar­vel, and how they helped refash­ion an ear­ly-19^th cen­tu­ry Europe into a colour­ful play­ground of expres­sion­ist delights.

On the cover

Ham­burg-based illus­tra­tor Julia Plath places Emma Stone on the slab with this amaz­ing por­trait which taps into the film’s cen­tral themes of manip­u­la­tion and empow­er­ment. Oth­er illus­tra­tors inside the issue include Aga­ta Samul­s­ka, Stéphanie Sergeant, Régi­na Dargère, Prze­mysław Berestko and Andrew Bas­tow.

In the issue

Lead review: Poor Things
Sav­ina Petko­va picks apart the sub­tle psy­cho­log­i­cal core of Yor­gos Lan­thi­mos’ lit­er­ary picaresque.

The Mod­ern Prometheus
Han­nah Strong explores the epic adven­ture of Poor Things’ pro­duc­tion and cre­ation with direc­tor Yor­gos Lanthimos.

Wild Nights with Emi­ly
Han­nah Strong lauds the mul­ti­far­i­ous, awards-gar­land­ed career of the actor Emi­ly Jean ​“Emma” Stone.

Art and Craft
Leila Latif con­ducts a round table inter­view with the cre­ative heads of depart­ment on Poor Things.

Strange Fre­quen­cies
Mari­na Ash­i­oti takes a trek into the past to explore the wind­ing cin­e­mat­ic roots of Greece’s so-called ​“weird wave”.

The Wick­er Woman
Will Sloan charts the jour­ney of erot­ic screen empress Emmanuelle across a con­ti­nent of sequels and spin-offs.

Free Brochure: Red Light / Green Light
Catch the diverse line-up for the first annu­al fes­ti­val of rad­i­cal cin­e­ma from inside the system.

In the back section

David Finch­er
Adam Wood­ward goes deep with the Hol­ly­wood auteur on the pre­ci­sion mechan­ics of his new film, The Killer.

Cailee Spae­ny
Han­nah Strong meets the star-in-ascent who has deliv­ered one of the year’s best per­for­mance as the lead in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.

Lois Patiño
Caitlin Quin­lan meets the young Span­ish mae­stro behind the tran­scen­dent new film Samsara.

Daniel Kalu­uya and Kib­we Tavares
Rogan Gra­ham talks to the writer-direc­tors of sear­ing new dystopi­an dra­ma, The Kitchen.

Andrew Haigh
Han­nah Strong gets emo­tion­al with the direc­tor of one of the year’s most pow­er­ful films, All of Us Strangers.

Lau­ra Citarel­la
David Jenk­ins talks nov­els and mys­ter­ies with the Argen­tinean direc­tor of the epic Trenque Lauquen.

In review
David Fincher’s The Killer
Sofia Coppola’s Priscil­la
Michael Mann’s Fer­rari
Aki Kaurismäki’s Fall­en Leaves
Wim Wen­ders’ Anselm
Jeymes Samuel’s The Book of Clarence
Alexan­der Payne’s The Holdovers
Lois Patiño’s Sam­sara
Tai­ka Waititi’s Next Goal Wins
Daniel Kalu­uya and Kib­we Tavares’ The Kitchen
Leo Leigh’s Sweet Sue
Paris Zarcilla’s Rag­ing Grace
Thomas von Steinaecker’s Wern­er Her­zog: Rad­i­cal Dream­er
Jane Giles and Ali Catterall’s Scala!
James Hawes’ One Life
Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers
William Oldroyd’s Eileen
Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron
Lau­ra Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen

Plus, Matt Turn­er selects six key home ents releas­es for your consideration.

Also, David Jenk­ins writes in mem­o­ry of the recent­ly depart­ed British film­mak­er Ter­ence Davies, and Ele­na Laz­ic sends a musi­cal post­card from Film Fest Gent, which includes an encounter with Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

In her 4^th col­umn focus­ing on LGT­BQ+ cin­e­ma, Sticky Gold Stars, Mari­na Ash­i­oti sur­veys a num­ber of recent doc­u­men­taries look­ing at non-con­for­mi­ty as a mode of polit­i­cal activism.

LWLies 101 is avail­able to order now from our online shop. Become a Club LWLies Gold Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.