LWLies 101: The Poor Things issue – Out now! | Little White Lies

LWLies Magazine

LWLies 101: The Poor Things issue – Out now!

06 Dec 2023

Illustration of a man's face behind chain-link fence, with birds flying in a blue sky background.
Illustration of a man's face behind chain-link fence, with birds flying in a blue sky background.
Join us on a jaunt across Europe in the wild and won­der­ful lat­est from Yor­gos Lanthimos.

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-19th 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.

Red light: Green light, a festival of radical film from inside the system. Black and yellow text and graphics on a grey background.

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.

Colourful illustrated book cover featuring a stylised figure and the text "Wild Nights with Emily"

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 4th 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.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.