At the start of 2024, many moviegoers – including us – were captivated by the beauty of the images of Yorgos Lanthimos In Poor creatures. Surrealist settings that cross 19th century Europe with flamboyant costumes designed by Holly Waddington through dazzling cinematography, the film was a critical and commercial success, winning no less than four Oscars, two Golden Globes and a Golden Lion. While the Greek continues filming at lightning speed (after having been presented in world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, his new film Kinds of Kindness will be released in theaters on June 26), the publication of the book Dear God, The Parthenon is still broken by Void, a publishing house based in Athens, invites the public to rediscover these photographs.
From the screen to the darkroom, Yórgos Lánthimos frees his poor creatures
“I always hoped that I would manage to get enough decent images to make a book – a body of work that could exist in its own right, independent of the film. I didn’t know if we had achieved it until we started seeing the rough cuts and sequencing of the book” declared the director to his editors. On the set of Poor creatures, Yorgos Lanthimos makes a habit of capturing what surrounds him: the dream world of his dreams, the one he creates thanks to the power of cinema. Supported by the attentive gaze of her favorite actress, the two-time Oscar winner Emma Stonehe then goes to the darkroom that he has improvised to develop the negatives of the day. “I got involved both out of curiosity and friendship. Yorgos has always photographed on set and in life, but when he received the Chamonix, I was very surprised by the large format and by the fact that he was beginning to learn how to process negatives. One day I asked him if I could try loading some negatives into the little tent he had set up, then I moved on to chemicals”explain Emma Stone. A sign that the collaboration between these two creatives is only just beginning.
From London to Lisbon via Paris and the unforgettable cruise along the Mediterranean, we enter the various places of Poor creatures, built in a studio in Budapest. The book, whose title comes from a scene cut from the feature film where the character of Bella Baxter sends a postcard to her father from Athens, opens with a poem by Patti Smith. Inspired by the filmmaker’s work, the American wrote some unpublished verses, collected inside the cover.
The book Dear God, The Parthenon is still broken is available for pre-order from Void Editions, right here.
