After the public and critical success of ‘Poor Creatures’, which won 4 Oscars (out of 11 nominations) and became Yorgos Lanthimos’ highest-grossing film with $117.6 million worldwide, The Greek director returns just half a year later with his new film, ‘Kinds of Kindness’in which he collaborates again with his muse, Emma Stone and other performers from his stimulating filmography.
‘Kinds of Kindness’ is a triptych that explores love, power, control and belonging. Throughout his three stories, we meet a man who lives according to the whims of a mysterious boss, who orders him to do what he wants; to a police officer who is convinced that his wife is a different person after disappearing at sea; and finally, a young woman determined to find someone with an extraordinary gift, convinced that he is destined to become a spiritual leader.
In this film, Lanthimos also reunites with an old acquaintance, Efthimis Filippou, who wrote the unforgettable film that put the Greek on the map, ‘Canino’, as well as his following and unclassifiable feature films, ‘Alps’, ‘Lobster’ and ‘The Sacrifice of a Sacred Deer’. Filippou is in charge of the script for ‘Kinds of Kindness’ after Lanthimos made his last two films, ‘The Favorite’ and The Poor Creatures’ with Tony McNamara.
“We’ve been writing together for a long time,” says Lanthimos in an exclusive Disney interview for eCartelera. “It started as a story. The first story in the movie. Then we realized that we were interested in a different format, in a different structure of film. “That’s how the idea of the triptych arose, because it was obvious that its structure was different.”
It was Lanthimos who thought that the project would be enriched by bringing together a troupe of actors to take on different roles in each of the three stories. This concept helped establish the structure of the film, which consisted of making one story after another, because interspersing them would have caused some confusion. For that reason, he chose a specific group of actors, of which some knew Lanthimos and others had never worked with him.
Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Margaret Qualley and Joe Alwyn had previously worked with him, while Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau and Mamoudou Athie They join their unique and eccentric cinematographic universe for the first time.. Each of them plays three roles (except for Qualley, who has four roles).
For Plemons, who recently won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival Because of his work on this film, joining Lanthimos’ universe was an exceptional pleasure: “Yorgos is a master with a very specific and unique style,” he says. “Especially these days, it’s very stimulating and encouraging to meet someone who doesn’t try to fit into any category and who, if presented with one, is willing to break it. It’s an experimental way of working that I love.”
Lanthimos is famous for his system of working in rehearsals, in which he plays a series of theatrical games with his teamencouraging their vulnerability and instilling trust between them without directly addressing the script or the scenes they were going to shoot. For Chau, that process was very stimulating. “I think it was very helpful,” he recalls. “I didn’t know what the purpose was when we were rehearsing. I was like, ‘Okay, we’re rolling around on the floor and being funny, but how is all this going to help us when we have to shoot really complicated scenes? ’ But it was really fun not knowing what we were trying to get out of each scene. It was actually Yorgos who was guiding us very gently.”
Alwyn, who returns to Lanthimos’ hands after a small role in ‘The Favourite’, also praises the way the director approaches his work. “He’s not going to sit down with you and talk to you about the characters, the themes or the stories,” the actor notes. “That is ruled out. In reality, in those rehearsals bonds are created between everyone. It is as if you forget what you have learned in order to act and be free, and with Yorgos you do not have the feeling of what is right or wrong. You feel like a big kid who goes into a sandbox and gets the chance to play.“.
“Yorgos is not someone who gives too many answers,” adds Plemons. “At times that can be frustrating, but then you start to appreciate it, because you start to feel like you’re getting closer to discovering for yourself what moves you most about each story.” Qualley, for his part, points out the importance of working with a director who has such a clear vision: “One of the luxuries of working with someone like Yorgos and with this incredible cast is that you feel great security and freedom when you are making the film, because you know what he wants“.
“Nothing is simple with Yorgos. It never is”says Stone, laughing. “In real life, even the darkest moments have an element of comedy. ‘Kinds of Kindness’ was a project I learned about a couple of years ago, when he and Efthimis were writing it. I was excited about it from the beginning and I loved having the opportunity to work with him again. As it became a triptych, with the same actors playing three characters, I liked that perspective more and more.
Hunter Schafer, a morgue and a tornado
Although her role in the film is the briefest, Schafer is the one who made the most impact on the set. Their scene took place in a morgue and was filmed in a real morgue. “It smells like formaldehyde and then there’s an eerie silence, because I think everyone is aware that there are dead bodies here,” says Schafer about how the day began, which ended up taking a turn worthy of a disaster movie.
Hunter reveals that Lanthimos introduced him to the project by asking him if he wanted to “come and play”, in line with what his colleagues explain about his method. “That’s what he conveyed to me,” Schafer says. “It was like a game. I only read the scenes in which I participated and accepted the project as it was at first glance, trusting in what would happen that day. And although everything is surreal and exaggerated, it is also deeply emotional. In fact, We have all addressed the human issues it deals with with enormous depth. “Those are the pillars that base the film, the gateway.”
But as filming progressed, a weather warning was issued: a tornado was coming. “I was in the middle of filming the scene and I started crying because it was an emotional scene. Suddenly, the atmospheric pressure changed and they put me in a closet with Margaret and a lot of people who worked on the set, as a tornado passed over the building and ripped off part of the roof” She laughs, but “it was really crazy because we were trapped, waiting for the tornado warning to pass and surrounded by dead bodies.”
Lanthimos also laughs when he remembers that moment. “He was with us for a day, but it was the most hectic day he could have had,” says the director. “I always say Hunter disappeared after the tornado. “We continued filming and didn’t see her again until Cannes.”
The Lanthimos family
Having the perspective of its actors, it is time to know that of the director. “The richness that actors can bring and the fact that I work with the same people over and over again allows us to strengthen that relationship and go to places we had never explored,” says Lanthimos, by way of explaining the approach of he. “Trusting each other to be able to do more things with the assurance that everything will turn out well. You can fail, but the other person is always there to fix it and that kind of trust between a group – not just actors, but also from people on the team- It means that we are becoming a kind of family that welcomes new members from time to time. And I think that’s the ideal way forward.”
In relation to this, Dafoe believes that Lanthimos “He’s very clever about getting people in a room and getting to know each other.”. And he insists on the idea of play: “They feel free to expose themselves to others. And once they do, confidence and a sense of humor arise. They have the feeling that they are playing.”
Filming for ‘Kinds of Kindness’ took place during a lull in post-production on ‘Poor Things’, as the visual effects team was busy putting the finishing touches on their shots. Finally, Lanthimos says that this desire to be on set motivates him a lot. “We always complain that we need more free time or that we’re too tired,” he reflects. “But then all these little things go through your head that you think you need to get out as soon as possible. I think that’s what encourages me the most to keep going, because I can’t put aside everything I’m working on and take a break. I need to finish it at all costs“.
‘Kinds of Kindness’ premieres exclusively in theaters June 28.
