Godwin ‘God’ Baxter (Willem Dafoe) prides himself as a man of science whose most intriguing specimen is Bella (Emma Stone)—a woman who is revived by procedures that only Dr. Frankenstein would approve. With the mind of a child and the body of a woman, Bella is instinctively anarchic and awkward in her attempts to make sense of so-called polite society. Before God’s good-natured assistant Max (Ramy Youssef) can join Bella in matrimony, she takes off with the theatrical womanizer Duncan (Mark Ruffalo) in her quest to experience the world. Greek Weird Wave flagbearer Yorgos Lanthimos meshes Victorian society, retrofuturism, gothic horror, and gender politics into one bizarre journey of self-discovery. Featuring a stellar cast and spectacular production design, Lanthimos’ Golden Lion winner is bound to broaden the arthouse provocateur’s following.

Yorgos Lanthimos (b. 1973, Greece) had a brief stint playing professional basketball before completing his studies in film. After releasing the two feature films domestically, his third film Dogtooth (2009) won the Prix un certain regard at Cannes Film Festival and became an international arthouse hit. His English-language debut The Lobster (2015) was another hit at Cannes, winning the Jury Prize while garnering him his first Academy Awards nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Poor Things (2023) marks his second collaboration with American actor Emma Stone, who will also star in his next film, Kinds of Kindness.