A 2nd Oscar for Emma Stone thanks to Poor Creatures by Yorgos Lanthimos?

Just as bizarre as The Lobster or The Favorite, this feminine Frankenstein made a big impression on the audience at the Venice Film Festival. Her actress particularly caused a sensation.

Friday evening, festival-goers at the Venice Film Festival discovered Poor creaturesthe adaptation of the eponymous live performance by Alasdair Gray by Yorgos Lanthimos. And the least we can say is that this story of female emancipation has turned the Lido upside down!

Filled with bizarre, sometimes crude sequences (particularly with regard to its sex scenes), this rereading of Frankenstein The heroine is Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a young woman with a sad life who decides to end it. But a scientist (played by Willem Dafoe) will resurrect her, by transplanting the brain of the baby she was carrying when she committed suicide. Bella therefore literally becomes a child woman, a being discovering everything about life like an infant but in the body of an adult.

A second Oscar for Emma Stone?

Since the screening of Poor Things, the first spectators are already predicting Emma Stone a new Oscar nomination. At only 34 years old, she was already in the running in 2019 for her previous collaboration with the Greek director, The Favoritein best supporting actress against her playing partner Rachel Weisz, but they both lost to Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk. On the other hand, the interpreter of the queen in this film, Olivia Colman, won the statuette for best actress. A prize won two years earlier by Emma Stone for La La Land, by Damien Chazelle (whose envelope caused the famous mix-up of the Oscar for best film that year). Without forgetting that before that, the actress had already been acclaimed for Easy A and for Birdmanthe latter having also earned her a nomination in the best supporting actress category, in 2015.

“Poor Things is Yorgos Lanthimos’ most technically stunning film, writes Matt Neglia, from Next Best Picture. It’s a sexually liberating, pro-feminist tale of rebirth and discovery that contains the best performance of Emma Stone’s entire career. Mark Ruffalo has never been funnier. It’s a sensational triumph.”

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Brian Rowe (In Session Film) is of the same opinion: “Emma Stone delivers the performance of the year in Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos’ magnificent new masterpiece. His artistic and technical talent is breathtaking. The entire cast is spectacular. And his dazzling story is filled with surprises, disquiet, fantasy and humor.”

The Lobster, La Favorite, Poor Creatures: the fascinating posters of Yorgos Lanthimos

Lex Briscuso, journalist for The Wrap Or IGN, find that “Poor Things is the most magical odyssey about humanity, science and liberation imaginable. Which makes sense knowing the genius of Yorgos Lanthimos. Emma Stone is absolutely captivating as Bella, she gives THE performance of her entire career so far.”

In France too, the actress impressed the first critics. Damien Leblanc writes for example for Three colours that the film has as an asset “a stunning performance from Emma Stone in one of the most difficult Hollywood roles of recent years.”

Emma Stone recounts the creation of Poor Things: “The idea that you can start over as a woman…”

In short, Poor creatures could well leave the Lido with an award (which would not be a first for its creator, already winner of a Grand Jury Prize in 2018 for The Favorite). The film had the right to a long standing ovationand this despite the absence of its stars, who were unable to make the trip during these times of strike of screenwriters and actors in Hollywood.

In France, Poor creatures will be released in cinemas in early 2024. Here is its trailer: