Searchlight Pictures releases teaser for new Emma Stone movie the poor And unlike most teasers, this trailer lives up to its name, with just 30 seconds of footage and one line of dialogue (two lines including Mark Ruffalo’s very campy “wow”). .
Nonetheless, there is a lot to be intrigued and mysterious about in this collection of surreal images from the mind of director Yorgos Lanthimos (lobster, favorite). And it’s not just from Lanthimos’ head. the poor Alasdair Grey is an adaptation of the 1992 novel by the idiosyncratic Scottish author and illustrator Alasdair Grey. He had very original interests (including sex, socialism, typesetting, etc.). He not only illustrated all his books, but also typeset them by hand.
So, as a fan of both Gray and the book, let me explain what you’re seeing here. In fact, it’s not bad to start with the official logline.
Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and producer Emma Stone bring the astonishing story and fantasy of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought to life by the brilliant and unconventional scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). I will draw a evolution. Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for her worldliness, which she lacks in herself, Bella embarks on a whirlwind adventure across the continent with her brilliant and prodigal lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo). Freed from the prejudices of her time, Bella holds firm to her purpose of upholding equality and emancipation.
It’s a decent summary, but leaves out some of the more engaging and entertaining details of Gray’s plot and character portrayals. Let’s analyze each character. Lanthimos and co-writer Tony McNamara said: favorite and Stones Cruella In addition to producing television programs, The Great) may not have wanted or been able to reproduce all of this on screen.
- Bella Baxter in Emma Stone She didn’t just bring a young woman back to life. She is the corpse of a young pregnant woman, reanimated with the brain of her baby in her arms, developing at an abnormally rapid rate. So she is her daughter and her mother. She is curious, intelligent, kind, caring, and has a voracious appetite for both food and sex (window shape behind her). This group photo no coincidence).
- Willem Dafoe’s Godwin Baxter Bella is brought to life by a brilliant and privately wealthy doctor, a reclusive doctor. In this book, he is a real giant with a huge head, strange conical hands, and a deafening shrill voice, but he is also kind and principled. Lanthimos seems to have opted to shrink him to normal size and show his grotesqueness with the scars on his face instead, though in the trailer he doesn’t appear in the same shot as the other characters.
- Mark Ruffalo Duncan Wedderburn A caddy-like lawyer and avid gambler, he decides to take advantage of a beautiful, innocent young woman and kidnaps Bella during a long trip to Europe. But to his surprise, her appetite outstripped her own and he couldn’t keep up.
- Ramy Youssef’s Max McCandless Presumably a film adaptation of the book’s narrator, Archibald McCandless. He is Godwin’s friend and colleague, a brilliant doctor from a poor background, but also a bit bored and betrothed to Bella before she runs off with Wedderburn.
- Jerrod Carmichaelof Harry Astley An English gentleman Bella meets on her travels, whose cynical and imperial worldview is challenged by her compassion. He falls in love with her, just like the other men in her story.
While the film is visually very stylized and looks almost fantastical, the book is set in a semi-realistic Victorian world with a touch of Gothic flair. The opening shot of the trailer is a nod to the story of Frankenstein that Gray quotes in his book. Otherwise, the film seems to focus on Bella and Wedderburn’s steamboat tour. In the book, she has other adventures, including a spell in a Parisian brothel, along with Godwin and McCandless (whom Bella calls “Candle”), in Glasgow during her absence. spend a lot of time walking around.
It remains to be seen how much Lanthimos and McNamara will bring to the screen in this book, but if you’re even slightly interested, I can’t recommend it highly enough–like all Alasdair Grays, this book is hilarious, Inspirational, passionate, and glorious.
