‘Poor Things’: Yorgos Lanthimos and Cinematographer Robbie Ryan on the Film’s Most Intense Sequence

Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” spans five different major locations — London, Paris, a ship, Alexandria and Lisbon — which meant production designers James Price and Shona Heath had a considerable undertaking ahead of them when they signed on.

Creating Lisbon proved to be one of the biggest jobs for cinematographer Robbie Ryan and even Lanthimos. As Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter departs her black-and-white world of Victorian-era London and Godwin’s (Willem Dafoe’s) home, the movie transitions into a pastel-colored world — there’s a soundstage with a water tank for the scenic sea view, and a giant picturesque backdrop.

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Used to filming with natural lighting and exterior shots, Lanthimos and Ryan had to adjust to what they call their most challenging task.

Here the two reflect on working together for the first time and how they collaborated on “Poor Things.”

How did you two first meet?

Yorgos Lanthimos: I think I wanted to do a short film with him in London, but that never happened.

Robbie Ryan: That was the one with these guys standing together, and a gunshot goes through their heads.

Lanthimos: That didn’t happen.

Ryan: It was a bit of a mess getting together, but we got there in the end.

Lanthimos: We had discussed working on “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” but that didn’t happen.

What was it like working at Hatfield House in “The Favourite”?

Ryan: We went to Hatfield House, and as always, we were thinking how many lights are we going to need, and I remember Yorgos saying, “I don’t want any lights. We’re going to use candles.” He chose the location for the natural daylight and Hatfield House had beautiful bay windows that created this special light that everyone appreciates. The candles were a really brave way to go, but they look amazing in the film.

Lanthimos: Up until that point, I started with natural practical lighting with my first films in Greece because we had no budget for anything. We weren’t confident enough in those days, but we could do it with no lights and makeup. I started liking how we worked and how it looked, and that became my approach – if you were getting exposure, why do you need lights to make it more polished?

I hadn’t worked with Emma until “The Favourite” and Olivia had a small part in “The Lobster,” but I remember they were surprised that we would shoot and move the camera and do another shot, and there was no setup. But it just became a thing.

Moving onto “Poor Things,” what conversations did you discuss about the world of this film and what visual ideas did you have?

Lanthimos: Every time we start something, it’s pretty vague. I’ll say, ‘We did something on “The Favourite,” and now we’re going to move on and do something slightly different and maybe build on what we did.”

Ryan: Yorgos wanted to shoot on zoom lenses and develop the scenes where actors could play the whole scene out. This was covered in other shots, but that was the glue to everything. It’s very easy when it’s a wide angle, but when you’re on a zoom lens you have to get it right.

How did you approach the visual language as the world goes from black and white to color, and around the different worlds?

Ryan: The black and white texturally is so lovely. It evokes a step back into that era, but the reasoning behind that was this big jump into a color world, and it would be a nice change of pace in the film, and the visual curtain moves to Ektachrome in Lisbon.

We started shooting on 35mm Ektachrome late in the day. I don’t remember it being tested.

Lanthimos: They weren’t really making it, so it was hard to get the stock and test it. We liked it and got excited, but it had limitations such as there was no stock and it needed a lot of light. So we had to figure out where it would make sense to use it. We had to find the narrative reason, and the practical reason and then come up with a plan.

A lot of the palette had a lot to do with production and costume design. Those departments started early on. They did research into what that world, the palette and different places would look like. And when we’re shooting it, there’s an added layer of what we’re shooting on that adds to it.

What was the most intense scene to shoot and set up?

Ryan: Lisbon was a challenging place because it was on a bigger scale, and the light was difficult to achieve. The main problem was that we were filming in a studio two hours away from our main studio. So, I couldn’t get there very often to prep. Whereas with the other sets, they were on the doorstep.

Lanthimos: It was a big set – Emma would have to walk around that set with a lot of extras. It was in a studio and not a real exterior. We still have to figure out how to cheat things and make things look bigger. So, it was challenging for me too.

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