«Why keep it in your mouth if it’s repulsive?» — Bella Baxter
- What is the film about?
- Discomfort with those who live outside the boundaries
- Visual imagery in the film
- Manifesto on the human right to freedom and individuality
What is cinema about?
Yorgos Lanthimos’s film «Poor Things» is a provocative story that examines the conflict between the individual and society from an unconventional perspective: Bella Baxter, whose main character, has committed suicide, has the brain of her unborn child transplanted into her.
The protagonist confronts the rigid expectations of society, which not only imposes its standards on her but also judges her for any attempt to be authentic.
Displeasure toward those who live outside the established framework
Bella, inhabiting the body of an adult woman, experiences all the developmental stages of a child. Her fresh, unbiased perspective on the world intrigues and provokes those around her—they cannot comprehend why she says and does only what she desires.
The scene is set in a high-society gathering where everyone adheres to strict etiquette: patience for a baby’s cries and bland food, conversations held merely for the sake of conversation. Yet, these are only external rules; internally, this society was likely in agreement with Bella’s disregard for behavioral norms.
She wants to approach and strike the screaming child, spits out food she dislikes, and doesn’t speak to those who don’t interest her.
Visual imagery in the film plays a crucial role.
Set designs, seemingly pulled from dreams, and costumes that convey Bella’s inner state craft a bizarre and mesmerizing world where the line between the normal and the anomalous dissolves.
Lanthimos employs grotesque and eccentric aesthetics to emphasize the absurdity of social control while simultaneously highlighting the individual’s vulnerability when confronted with that control.
Manifesto on the Human Right to Freedom and Individuality
Lantimos challenges the viewer with a question: how ready are we to accept and understand those who refuse to comply with rules, and are we ourselves not becoming part of the system that suppresses the vital and unique within each of us?
Bibliography
- https://theblueprint.ru/fashion/cinema/poor-unfortunate
- https://moskvichmag.ru/kino/poor-unfortunate-jorgosa-lantimosa-k-tomu-zhe-smeshnye-pohotlivye-i-neveroyatno-prekrasnye/
Image Sources
- https://theblueprint.ru/fashion/cinema/bednye-nescastnye
- https://yandex.ru/images/search?from=tabbar&text=scenes%20from%20the%20poor%20and%20unfortunate
- https://ru.pinterest.com/search/pins/?rs=ac&len=2&q=the%20poor%20and%20unfortunate&eq=the%20poor%20and%20unfortunate&etslf=6877
