Who would have ever thought the guy who directed a movie about Colin Farrell possibly turning into a Lobster would become an Oscar darling? But in spite of all the taboos he’s determined to break, that’s exactly the career trajectory Yorgos Lanthimos has had.
An idiosyncratic filmmaker, Lanthimos’ filmmaking quirks — stilted speech, deadpan acting, painstakingly framed cinematography, and pessimistic stories about the cruelty of men, both on a singular and societal level — haven’t disappeared since he made the leap to Hollywood. But the Greek director has slowly found himself an awards season staple. After a Best Foreign Language Film nomination for his breakout “Dogtooth” and a screenplay nod for his English-language debut “The Lobster,” Lanthimos ended up with ten nominations at the Oscars in 2019 for his darkly comedic period drama “The Favourite.” An acidic and subversive love story about the rule of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and her scheming court favorites, Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail Masham (Emma Stone), the film earned Colman the Best Actress trophy, while Lanthimos earned Director and Screenplay nods.
Lanthimos seems poised to return to the Oscars in 2024 with a bang. His newest film, “Poor Things,” re-teams him with Stone for the oddball tale of a young Victorian woman resurrected by a mad scientist, who runs away from her maker to pursue her own self-discovery and sexual awakening. The movie debuted at Venice Film Festival to critical applause, winning the Golden Lion at the conclusion of the festival, and award prognosticators have heavily pegged the film as a frontrunner for this upcoming Oscar season. Should Lanthimos’ creative partnership with Stone remain fruitful for their next collaboration, anthology “Kind of Kindness,” expect to keep hearing the Greek auteur’s name mentioned on the Oscar stage for some time.
As you might expect from such a singular filmmaker, Lanthimos has an eclectic taste. His favorite films range from mainstream popcorn thrillers like “The Bourne Ultimatum” to cult classics like “Possession.” For more modern films, he’s publicly sung the praises of the Safdie brothers’ acclaimed 2019 drama “Uncut Gems” numerous times. And, in his current costume drama era of filmmaking, he’s taken significant inspiration from subversive period dramas of the past, drawing on “Crimes and Whispers,” “The Draughtsman’s Contract,” and “Amadeus,” while making “The Favourite.”
With “Poor Things” hitting theaters, IndieWire decided to compile some of the films Lanthimos has publicly mentioned as favorites (or should we say favourites?) and inspirations over the years. Read on for our list of eight films Lanthimos enjoys, listed in no particular order.
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“The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection In a 2010 interview, Lanthimos praised the film “The Bourne Ultimatum,” the last in a trilogy of action films starring Matt Damon, as a “masterpiece.”
“It’s a masterpiece of this type of cinema. It’s perfect: pure action, no bullshit dialogue. It’s action to the highest degree of beauty and perfection,” Lanthimos said. “I think he [Paul Greengrass] is a very good director.”
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“Uncut Gems” (2019)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection In 2019, Lanthimos revealed to Variety that his favorite movie of 2019 is “Uncut Gems.” From brothers Josh and Benny Safdie, the film stars Adam Sandler as a diamond dealer who runs into trouble due to gambling debts. Lanthimos called the film “like watching a Robert Altman film dipped in acid.”
“The balance they achieved between the naturalistic and the heightened elements is masterful. I was always impressed — frankly jealous — by their casting skills and instincts,” Lanthimos told Variety. “They manage to create a seamless cast of characters by working with people that have never acted before all the way to veteran actors that in the end seem that they were meant to be part of the Safdies’ universe.”
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“Heli” (2013)
Image Credit: Outsider Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection In 2013, Lanthimos discussed his love for the film “Heli,” by Mexican director Amat Escalant, in an interview with The Fader to promote “The Lobster.” Lanthimos described the film, about a family caught in the middle of a drug war, as “extremely violent.”
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“Possession” (1981)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection In 2018, during a promotional video for the New York Film Festival, Lanthimos described five films that inspired “The Favourite.” One of the films he selected was “Possession,” Andrzej Żuławski’s cult classic psychological horror film. Starring Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill, the film follows a woman who abruptly leaves her husband, and begins displaying increasingly concerning and strange behavior.
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“Amadeus” (1984)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Another film Lanthimos listed as an inspiration for “The Favourite” is “Amadeus,” Miloš Forman’s much loved ’80s period drama stars F. Murray Abraham as titular composer Antonio Salieri — here fictionalized as a mediocre talent consumed by jealousy over the prodigious Mozart (Tom Hulce). The film’s opulent depiction of 18th century Vienna and psychological take on the costume drama feel remarkably similar to “The Favourite’s” portrayal of Queen Anne’s rule during 18th century Britain.
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“The Cremator” (1969)
Image Credit: Criterion Collection “The Cremator,” a 1969 Czechoslovak comedic horror film, was another movie listed by Lanthimos as an inspiration and influence on “The Favourite.” The film stars Rudolf Hrušínský as a cremator who goes insane due to the influence of the Nazi party, and largely consists of monologues from Hrušínský as his character descends into insanity.
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“Cries and Whispers” (1972)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection One of Ingmar Bergman’s most famous films, “Cries and Whispers” focuses on two sisters (Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann) struggling to care for their third sister (Harriet Andersson) as she slowly succumbs to her terminal cancer. Lanthimos listed the film as an influence on “The Favourite.”
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“The Draughtsman’s Contract” (1982)
Image Credit: ©United Artists/Courtesy Everett Collection The last film Lanthimos listed as an influence on “The Favourite” is “The Draughtsman’s Contract,” a 1982 film from British director Peter Greenaway. The film stars Anthony Higgins as an artist hired to make 12 landscape illustrations for a nobleman, only for his art to become evidence for a murder investigation when the nobleman turns up dead.
