Reader TTS

Dynamic Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos’ anticipated latest, _Poor Thing_s, got a rapturous reception at after it world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, with an ovation timed

at 10 minutes and 37 seconds. It was one of the most enthusiastic responses to a film some Venice festgoers have ever seen. At different points during the post-screening ovation, the

audience was chanting “Yorgos, Yorgos.” Stars Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo were not in attendance for the debut of the Searchlight pic, owing to the SAG-AFTRA strike, but that

didn’t stop the crowd inside the Sala Grande from honoring the director of a “glorious paean to freedom,” as Stephanie Bunbury called it in her Deadline review. Based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992

novel of the same name, _Poor Things_ follows Stone as Bella Baxter, a creation of the brilliant and unorthodox scientist played by Dafoe in an echo of Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel

_Frankenstein._ Ruffalo plays a slick and debauched lawyer. Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, and Christopher Abbott also star.  WATCH ON DEADLINE Earlier today, Lanthimos addressed the

film’s many sex scenes and praised intimacy coordinator Elle McAlpine, saying “she made everything much easier for everyone.” RELATED: VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023 PHOTOS: WES ANDERSON, ‘THE

PROMISED LAND’ PREMIERE, MADS MIKKELSEN Lanthimos’ regular collaborator Tony McNamara wrote the script. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe produced for Element Pictures, along with Stone and

Lanthimos. _Poor Things_ is also playing the Telluride, New York and London film festivals before bowing in the U.S. on December 8.