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What’s on Abraham Verghese’s night stand? The author of “The Covenant of Water” talked about his reading habits, saying his stack of books “reflects the overlapping compartments of my life.” Read his By the Book interview.

Persons: What’s, Abraham Verghese’s, ”, ” Read

☆ ‘Poor Things,’ the Weird Movie, Was a Weird Novel First
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( A.J. Goldmann | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Hot air balloons soar above the Mediterranean. Aerial streetcars fly along ropes suspended above the alleys of a candy-colored Lisbon. Pastel green smoke billows into the night sky from the funnels of a cruise ship. And it may not even be his most eccentric book. A prolific writer and visual artist who died at 85 in 2019, Gray wrote five other novels, two novellas, 89 short stories and a version of Dante’s Divine Comedy (“Decorated and Englished in Prosaic Verse”).

Persons: Bella Baxter, Emma Stone, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Oscar, ” Bella, Alasdair Gray, Gray Locations: Lisbon

☆ Emma Stone defends ‘honest’ sex scenes in ‘Poor Things’
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Hollywood star Emma Stone has responded to criticism of the graphic sex scenes in her latest film, “Poor Things,” telling the BBC that sex is a crucial part of her character’s storyline. Sex plays an important role in the film as one way Bella learns to understand her body, and how others covet it. Stone (left) with co-star Mark Ruffalo (right), who plays Duncan Wedderburn, one of Bella's not-so-suitable suitors. Though the film, which was released on December 22 in the US and January 12 in the UK, has mostly received positive reviews, its frank and abundant sex scenes have proved too much for some movie-goers and critics. Stone plays a woman who is brought back to life with the brain of a baby.

Persons: Emma Stone, Alasdair Gray’s, Bella Baxter, Bella, Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Duncan Wedderburn, Bella's, Samira Ahmed, ” Stone, ”, “ I’m, “, Ahmed, Yorgos Organizations: CNN, Hollywood, Searchlight Pictures, Landmark Media, BBC Locations: Scottish, Hollywood

☆ Arts Calendar: Happenings for the Week of December 3
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-03 | by ( Wsj Arts In Review Staff | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

‘Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’ Photo: UbisoftFilm• “Poor Things” (Dec. 8): The shapeshifting Yorgos Lanthimos (“The Lobster,” “The Favourite”) works his directorial magic once again with this darkly comedic fantasy based on Alasdair Gray ’s novel. Emma Stone , Jerrod Carmichael , Willem Dafoe , Mark Ruffalo and Ramy Youssef star in this tale of a woman brought back to life by an eccentric scientist who then flees to see the world. • “The Boy and the Heron” (Dec. 8): The newest film from anime icon Hayao Miyazaki (“My Neighbor Totoro”) and his much lauded Studio Ghibli follows a boy mourning the death of his mother, only to be told by a magical bird that she’s still alive in a different realm.

Persons: ’, Alasdair Gray ’, Emma Stone, Jerrod Carmichael, Willem Dafoe, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Hayao Miyazaki Organizations: Ubisoft, Ghibli

☆ ‘Poor Things’ Takes Top Prize at Venice Film Festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-09 | by ( Nicolas Rapold | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, was awarded the Golden Lion for best film at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on Saturday by a competition jury led by Damien Chazelle. The film stars Emma Stone in a virtuoso performance as a woman with an initially childlike understanding of the world who comes into her own through a sexual and philosophical journey. Bella Baxter, the main character in the film, “wouldn’t exist without Emma Stone,” Lanthimos said. Like many other actors in films screened at the festival, Stone was not in attendance, as the strike by SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents television and movie actors, continued. Set in a partly fantastical 19th-century Europe, “Poor Things” follows Bella (Stone) on her eye-opening adventures in Tony McNamara’s adaptation of the 1992 Alasdair Gray novel.

Persons: ”, Yorgos Lanthimos, Damien Chazelle, Emma Stone, Bella Baxter, ” Lanthimos, ” Stone, Lanthimos, Stone, Tony McNamara’s, Alasdair Gray, Willem Dafoe, Bella’s, Ramy Youssef, Mark Ruffalo Organizations: Lion, SAG Locations: Venice, Europe, Bella

ROME (AP) — “Poor Things,” a film about Victorian-era female empowerment, won the Golden Lion on Saturday at a Venice Film Festival largely deprived of Hollywood glamour because of the writers and actors strikes. The film, starring Emma Stone, won the top prize at the 80th edition of the festival, which is often a predictor of Oscar glory. The film tells the story of two young boys’ odyssey from Dakar, Senegal, to the detention camps in Libya and finally across the Mediterranean to Europe. Peter Sarsgaard won best actor for “Memory,” in which he co-stars with Jessica Chastain in a film about high schoolers reuniting. Cailee Spaeny won best actress for “Priscilla,” Sofia Coppola's portrait of the private side of Priscilla and Elvis Presley.

Persons: Emma Stone, Yorgos Lanthimos, Stone, ” Lanthimos, Alasdair Gray’s, Bella Baxter, Matteo Garrone, Seydou Sarr, Agnieszka Holland’s “, Peter Sarsgaard, Jessica Chastain, Sarsgaard, Cailee Spaeny, “ Priscilla, ” Sofia, Priscilla, Elvis Presley, Damien Chazelle, Saleh Bakri, Jane Campion, Mia Hansen, Løve, Gabriele Mainetti, Martin McDonagh, Santiago Mitre, Laura Poitras, Shu Qi Organizations: ROME, Lion, Venice Film Locations: Venice, Europe, Dakar, Senegal, Libya, Polish, Belarus, Shu

☆ Venice Film Festival: Emma Stone Is a Bizarro Barbie in ‘Poor Things’
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Kyle Buchanan | More About Kyle Buchanan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And you thought Barbie’s creation myth was head-spinning! “Poor Things,” which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Friday, often plays like a wild, art-house remix of Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster doll opus. But this is no family film: As baby-brained Bella starts to come of age, her lack of inhibitions steers her toward sexual situations that had the Venice moviegoer next to me squirming in his seat. Quite literally a child in a woman’s body, Bella can barely string words together and is given to shocking outbursts. Even gaining control of her limbs is a challenge: Bella lurches through Baxter’s mansion like a zombie dressed in drag, which I suppose she kind of is.

Persons: Billie Eilish, “ Barbie, Bella Baxter, “, ”, Emma Stone, Yorgos Lanthimos, she’s, Willem Dafoe, Greta Gerwig’s, brained Bella, Alasdair Gray, Tony McNamara, Bella, Dafoe’s Dr, Godwin Baxter, McCandles, Ramy Youssef, Bella lurches Locations: Venice

☆ 'Why is there no sex in movies anymore?' asks Yorgos Lanthimos
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] The 80th Venice Film Festival - Premiere for the film "Poor Things" in competition - Red Carpet - Venice, Italy, September 1, 2023 - Director Yorgos Lanthimos poses. The picture was made by Yorgos Lanthimos and stars Emma Stone as Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life after committing suicide in Victorian London. So you can understand that there is a shorthand," Lanthimos said, adding this meant the actor understood why the myriad sex scenes were needed. Stone also produced "Poor Things", which meant she was involved in the decision-making from the word go. "Poor Things" is one of 23 movies competing for the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, which runs until Sept. 9.

Persons: Yorgos Lanthimos, Yara, Emma Stone, Bella Baxter, Mark Ruffalo, Stone, Lanthimos, Emma, Alasdair Gray, Elle McAlpine, it's Bella, Mike Davidson, Crispian Balmer, Alison Williams Organizations: REUTERS, Hollywood, Golden Lion, Venice Film, Thomson Locations: Venice, Italy, Victorian London, Paris

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