The Venice Film Festival is one of the most important in the world. This year, the grotesque fairy tale “Poor Things” by Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos was awarded the Golden Lion for best film.
The Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival goes to the film “Poor Things” by Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos. The jury announced this in the evening. “Poor Things” is an experimental variation on the Frankenstein story starring US actress Emma Stone. Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo also play other roles – and German actress Hanna Schygulla can also be seen briefly.
The 50-year-old director Lanthimos is known for films such as “The Favorite”, “The Lobster” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”.
Trophy for grotesque fairy tale
In the grotesque fairy tale “Poor Things,” Stone plays a pregnant woman who kills herself to escape her husband’s abuse. Scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) finds her corpse, inserts her unborn child’s brain into it, and revives her. She is now called Bella and has the mental age of a child, but is constantly developing.
The audience follows Bella as she learns to move and speak. Eventually she escapes from the confines of Baxter’s house and gets to know life on her travels. Those around her are both irritated and fascinated by her unprejudiced and sexually permissive nature.
One of the most important competitions in the world
Other important prizes at the film festival went to the American Cailee Spaeny for her role in “Priscilla” (best actress), the American Peter Sarsgaard for his part in “Memory” (best actor) and the Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who received the Grand Jury Prize for his film “Evil Does Not Exist” (Japanese: “Aku wa sonzai shinai”).
The Venice Film Festival, which began on August 30th, is one of the three most important in the world, alongside the Cannes Film Festival and the Berlinale. In this year’s competition, 23 works competed for the prizes. The awards were presented by an international jury. Its chairman was the American director Damien Chazelle.