Yorgos Lanthimos has released a new photo-book chronicling BTS shots of his 2023 award-winning film, Poor Things. Produced in collaboration with Athens-based publisher Void, Dear God, the Parthenon is still broken offers fans a closer look at one of cinema’s most intricate, kinky and eerie visual displays in recent memory.
The God in the title of the book alludes to what Bella (Emma Stone) calls Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) throughout the movie, whose decrepit face mirrors the likes of Frankenstein and to which Void co-founders João Linneu and Myrto Steirou replicate in appearance through the publication’s graphic cover. Linneu and Steirou recalled being “amazed” when being invited to see the sets during the film’s production. “Everything was there: good photography and an artist we felt compelled to work with. These two factors don’t always align.”
Photos: © Yorgos Lanthimos.
Photos: © Yorgos Lanthimos.
Photos: © Yorgos Lanthimos.
Photos: © Yorgos Lanthimos.
Photos: © Yorgos Lanthimos.
Photos: © Yorgos Lanthimos.
Photos: © Yorgos Lanthimos.
Between takes and moments of rest, Lanthimos set up a large and medium format camera that, together with Stone, would capture intimate shots of the set and its characters which the two would later develop together in a darkroom. “The creative complicity I have with Emma added to the excitement of the task,” said Lanthimos. “One would push the other no matter how tired we were after a full day of filming to process the negatives in the evenings…”
“One day, I asked if I could try to load some negatives in the little tent he had set up, then moved on to the chemicals, and I became obsessed,” Stone said in a statement. “The high-stakes meditation of it is very special to me — you have to remain in control, you don’t want to screw up the pictures, and sure, they’re only pictures, but they’re his pictures, his art, not my own. It was like getting to be a sous chef, not dissimilar to how I feel with him on set, and I loved the challenge and focus of it.”
Poor Things is set in 19th century London, Lisbon, Marseille, and a cruise ship, but the images in Lanthimos’ film add a new dimension independent of the film — “a body of work that can exist on its own,” the filmmaker added. Dear God, the Parthenon is still broken will be released in three separate editions: the first is just the book for $60 USD, while the Special Edition is limited to 100 copies with a fine art print signed by Lanthimos for $392 USD and the Portfolio edition, limited to just 30 units (plus four APs) includes two fine art prints numbered and signed by Lanthimos for $1,580 USD. The book is available for preorder online.
