A round of applause! We don’t often get that after our main features, but our audience certainly appreciated Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2023 film. This wonderfully weird, colourful and creative film about a woman’s journey from innocence to liberation grabbed everyone’s attention. It was a true banger, in more ways than one.
Our discussion touched on various themes. We accepted that the gory anatomical details (I shut my eyes at several key moments) were part of the fantastical side of this film. We didn’t ignore the criticism that Bella has a baby’s brain, yet is involved in various explicit sex scenes. One of our group wondered if the film would have been made with a man in the key role, “as women’s bodies sell.”
We were a little disappointed that the baddie’s dead body wasn’t used to house Dr Godwin Baxter’s brain – by this time of night our thought processes were becoming as bizarre as the film itself.
The spooky 2009 horror film The Human Centipede was alluded to by a member of our group, as well as Bosch’s paintings and Kafka’s Metamorphosis. I didn’t mention that the inspired costume designer, Holly Waddington (hooray for her!) had Hilda Ogden from Coronation Street in mind when she gave the brothel Madame a turban to wear.
We adored Shona Heath’s surreal design of the film (some called it steampunk). My personal favourite scene was in Paris, with the bright red trees (“like the veins in the lungs,” said the designer), standing out against the lilac colour palette.
Off we went home after probably the most well-received film of the season.
Anne
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