Dynamic Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ anticipated latest, Poor Things, got a rapturous reception at after it world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, with a standing ovation timed at 10 minutes and 37 seconds.
It was one of the most enthusiastic responses to a film some Venice festgoers have ever seen. At different points during the post-screening ovation, the audience was chanting “Yorgos, Yorgos.”
Stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo were not in attendance for the debut of the Searchlight pic, owing to the SAG-AFTRA strike, but that didn’t stop the crowd inside the Sala Grande from honoring the director of a “glorious paean to freedom,” as Stephanie Bunbury called it in her Deadline review.
Based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name, Poor Things follows Stone as Bella Baxter, a creation of the brilliant and unorthodox scientist played by Dafoe in an echo of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel Frankenstein. Ruffalo plays a slick and debauched 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 much easier for everyone.”
RELATED: Venice Film Festival 2023 Photos: Wes Anderson, ‘The Promised Land’ Premiere, Mads Mikkelsen
Lanthimos’ regular collaborator Tony McNamara wrote the script. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe produced for Element Pictures, along with Stone and Lanthimos.
Poor Things is also playing the Telluride, New York and London film festivals before bowing in the U.S. on December 8.
