Introducing Little White Lies 101: Poor Things with Emma Stone

I have been given this platform by my august colleague Ben Smoke [Huck Digital Editor] to deliver the good news: there is a new issue of Little White Lies on the shelves, and it’s dedicated entirely to the upcoming expressionist sex-positive odyssey, Poor Things, starring Emma Stone. 

The concept of the magazine is simple: with each issue, we select a single film, and that film influences both the theme of the editorial and the illustrated aesthetic and typography within the issue. As such, we hope, this will give the reader a fully-immersive (though very non-spoilery) experience into the films that we – and, hopefully, you – are looking forward to. So to answer your question before you’ve asked it: yes, we do start from scratch with each issue, and each turn of the page delivers a delightful surprise. Well, that’s out aim at least.

Inside this issue, we talk to the director of Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos, as he wades headlong into the mire of award season having already netted the top prize at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. The film is a an eye-popping wonder in terms of its immersive production design, and he tells us all about how he created a retro-futurist version of Europe while also remaining true to the trappings of the Edwardian-era as detailed in the novel upon which it’s based by Alasdair Gray. We also have a natter to all the production heads of department about how they worked towards this supreme cinematic vision.

As always, we use our cover film as a jumping off point for wider conversation, and this issue contains a number of intriguing essays that run at a thematic tangent to Poor Things. Lanthimos is seen as one of the key progenitors of the so-called Greek “weird wave” with his 2009 film Dogtooth, and we look back at the Greek art films that may have influenced him. And in the spirit of a movie about a woman on an erotic adventure through Europe, we take a peep at the X-rated icon Emmanuelle and the strange multiverse she spawned.

Although the issue serves as a mini paper-based shrine to Poor Things, we don’t ignore the scads of other amazing films being flung down the chute. Among other delectable treats, we’ve got in depth interviews with director David Fincher, on his assassin comedy-thriller, The Killer, and actor Cailee Spaeny who discusses her lead role in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, about the young life of Elvis’s first wife, Priscilla Presley. There’s lots and lots more in there, but you’ll have to buy it to find our what (or at least flick through a copy in the newsagent). Thank you Ben Smoke for this pedestal.

Little White Lies issue 101 is out now.

This article is published as part of our collaboration with our sister magazine Little White Lies.

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