Yorgos Lanthimos’ canonisation as an exciting new voice in modern cinema was almost instantaneous when, back in 2009, his ingenious and provocative third feature, Dogtooth, premiered to slack-jaws at the Cannes Film Festival. With films such as 2011’s Alps and 2015’s The Lobster, Lanthimos offered esoteric but increasingly popular variations on his interest in the more arcane and paradoxical aspects of human psychology. Surprisingly, for a filmmaker who in no way panders to mainstream convention, he became a household name in 2018 with the scabrous period comedy, The Favourite, on which he developed an important creative partnership with actress Emma Stone. Since shooting his latest film, Poor Things, in 2021, the pair have made two more films together (an experimental short titled Bleat and a forthcoming anthology titled And), but the charmed coming-of-age tale of Bella Baxter, adapted from the classic 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray has been a labour of love – one that began over a decade ago.
LWLies: Alasdair Gray sadly passed away in 2019, but you met him many years before that to discuss Poor Things.
Lanthimos: Yes, it was a long time ago, I think it was 2012 that I met him. When I read the book, I was surprised to see that it hadn’t already been made into a film. I think there were a couple of times that they thought about making it, but it never materialised. So he agreed to meet me and I went up, a friend of mine helped me put the DVD in. I think you’re a very talented young man, and you’re welcome to adapt my novel into a film.’ And that was it. But unfortunately, it took me a while to get there.
