SCREEN SHOT - Poor Things

Godwin, or 'God' for short, ( WIlliam Dafoe) is a monstrously deformed surgeon, having been experimentally operated on by his own father as a boy. A pregnant woman takes her life, throwing herself off a bridge into the Thames. He rescues the woman's body and decides to implant the living brain of the unborn baby into its mother's lifeless cadaver. Then bring her back to life, and she becomes Bella ( Emma Stone)

Though a fully grown woman, Bella has the mind of a child who has to learn how to speak and what life is about. Every man who encounters her falls, in someway, under the spell of her vibrant uninhibited nature. But each man, in the end, wants to contain, control and imprison her so she'll remain with them. The dastardly Duncan Wedderburn, begins by exploiting her naivete, but then falls in love with her and whisks her off to explore Europe together. Through out this adventure, Bella continues to learn about who she is, how to protect herself and maintain a sense of agency over her unfolding life.

This matter of fact recounting of the storyline of Poor Things, barely scratches the surface of the exotic and brilliantly imaginative delights contained within this movie, and the fundamental profundity concerning gender and fulfillment that underlies its storyline. it is unusual these days for a Hollywood film to be filmed entirely on a physical constructed set. And what surreal and elaborately constructed sets they are. Stylistically they're Victorian steam-punkish, but they offer up so much more that is unexpected, and goes beyond the cliche. It owes a cinematic debt to Juno's Amelie crossed with Children of God, and Fassbinder's Querelle. 

Bella does not recognise sexual norms. She simply does what she wants, rather than what others think she should do. There is a delightful and knowing cameo from Hanna Schygulla, Fassbinder's muse, which holds all the echoes of that film makers own transgressive agenda. 

Poor Things is outrageously funny. Emma Stone should win every award available for this performance, it is quite astonishing how absorbed she is in it. From set design, to costumes, this is big and lavish. Yorgos Lanthimos makes great use of black and white, fish eye lens and long zooms to amplify Bella's cut off alienated state. Whereas the colours in Europe are more sensual and sumptuous, whilst the rooms her ex husband inhabits are blood red and wet looking, There is a lot of sex, none of it quite as wild or as graphic as some reviewers seem to think. Basically you see more male penises and flabby pumping bottoms, than you might be used to. Don't be put off by that, There is so much more to enjoy here than that

The word 'masterpiece' has been bandied about this film and I think I must concur. It is a superbly wrought example of Powell & Pressburger's concept of 'composed cinema'. Where you create your own self contained world with its own particular aesthetic and rationale, into which you are magically drawn.

CARROT REVIEW  - 8/8