Still from Poor things (trailer: YouTube)
When I heard the premise of director Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor things, I was outraged: A pregnant young woman dies, has her own baby’s brain transplanted into her head, and is then reanimated by a disfigured man called God.
From the trailer and reviews, it seemed as if the education of the creature, named Bella Baxter, focused mainly on her sexual awakening. Red flags waved wildly in my head. The plot sounded like the ultimate paedophile’s dream. I refused to watch it. Then a friend told me that I had to watch the film, as Poor things was so much more than a film about sex. After more prompting from said friend, I decided to brave it.
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No woman I know has ever used an apple the way Bella does, or, if they have, they haven’t told me. That particular scene smacks of a twisted male fantasy.
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Without a doubt, the so-called sexual awakening of Bella, especially when she uses fruit and vegetables to pleasure herself, was disturbing. I thought these scenes were gratuitous. No woman I know has ever used an apple the way Bella does, or, if they have, they haven’t told me. That particular scene smacks of a twisted male fantasy. The film is written by Tony McNamara, from Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name, and directed, as mentioned before, by Lanthimos. No woman’s point of view here, I thought.
There are many other scenes that I have no doubt are included for pure shock value: Bella stabbing a cadaver in its eyes; God and others performing surgical procedures which the director chooses to focus on in extreme close-up, as just a few examples. I’ve never been a fan of gratuitous sex or violence and this film is littered with moments that seem to be there for their outrageousness. I have to admit that it is a horror film and horror isn’t my favourite genre.
Eventually one becomes immune to the shocks and I found nothing erotic about any of the subsequent sexual acts that Bella performs when she leaves God’s house. To me, they’re carried out coldly and consist of simple mechanics of movement, and I disagree with many male critics who celebrate the film’s outrageous sex scenes and delightedly call the film “filthy”.
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However, the most important aspect of the film has been overlooked by most critics and viewers. A few critics give a nod to the novel Frankenstein, and mention its creator, Mary Shelley, in passing. Herein lies the most interesting aspect of the film in my view.
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However, the most important aspect of the film has been overlooked by most critics and viewers. A few critics give a nod to the novel Frankenstein, and mention its creator, Mary Shelley, in passing. Herein lies the most interesting aspect of the film in my view. The original author of the novel, Alasdair Gray, would have known the history of Mary Shelley. I happen to have written at great length about Mary Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, the first feminist, whose treatise A vindication of the rights of woman was published in 1792. I featured Wollstonecraft in a play I wrote and also wrote a biographical feature film about her. She believed that women should be able to live their lives as freely as men in terms of education as well as to work and earn a living without having to resort to marriage to sustain themselves. During her short and turbulent life, she had a child out of wedlock and swore against marriage until she met and fell in love with the writer William Godwin. To the surprise of both of them they married and Mary gave birth to their only child, Mary. Mary Wollstonecraft died of a fever fifteen days after giving birth to young Mary, and a heartbroken William wrote a memoir praising the life of his unorthodox wife. Godwin’s daughter, Mary, Fanny (Wollstonecraft’s illegitimate child from before her marriage to Godwin), and Godwin’s stepdaughter grew up listening to the words Wollstonecraft had written. They worshiped at the altar of the wonderful Mary Wollstonecraft under the tutelage of William Godwin.
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It was during a wild and stormy night of wild excess that Byron challenged his party of guests at a lodge in Switzerland to write the most terrifying horror story they could imagine.
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Not one mention is made by critics of the fact that the name of “God”, Godwin Baxter, is a nod to William Godwin, who brought his daughters up to live their lives as freely as men. “God” is a more twisted version of “William Godwin”, but young Mary believed she, like her mother, was free to live like a man. When she was only 14, she ran off with the married poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Her stepsister, Claire, joined her and the two girls disappeared with Shelley, as well as the infamous Lord Byron. It was during a wild and stormy night of wild excess that Byron challenged his party of guests at a lodge in Switzerland to write the most terrifying horror story they could imagine. That is when Mary (now Shelley) wrote Frankenstein, which Byron subsequently tried to take credit for.
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It is only in the latter part of Poor things that the film became bearable to me, as Bella took agency over her life. This is the part that mirrors the life of the woman who inspired the story, in my opinion.
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Mary Shelley’s life story underpins Bella Baxter’s story of emancipation, and “God’s” tutelage of her is similar to William Godwin’s education of his daughter, Mary, brought up to be a free human being and not a repressed product of the 18th century. It is only in the latter part of Poor things that the film became bearable to me, as Bella took agency over her life. This is the part that mirrors the life of the woman who inspired the story, in my opinion. I wish more viewers and critics would appreciate the phenomenon that was Mary Shelley, the inspiration behind Poor things, and not simply focus on the sex scenes.
Perhaps they’ll listen now.
Watch the trailer:
Also read:
Cut to the chase: Scriptwriting for beginners – an interview with Janet van Eeden