Questão de Língua Inglesa

09 Like in the book, the period is impossible to pin down exactly. The story unfolds in a parallel 10 past, a gothic, steampunk-infused Victoriana, a world that is distorted by the patriarchal power 11 disparities in society. Without giving away the specifics, the picture is a subversive spin on Mary 12 Shelley’s Frankenstein, with the role of Bella’s creator and guardian taken by unorthodox genius 13 Dr Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Called “God” by Bella, Godwin bears grotesque scars on his face 14 and body resulting from his childhood experience as the subject of his father’s deranged scientific 15 curiosity – an experience that failed to stymie his own rather baroque quest for empirical facts. 16 When Godwin recruits eager student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) to keep a record of Bella’s 17 accelerated progress, her grasp of language expands exponentially. 18 But Bella’s hunger ___ knowledge and experience is too voracious to be contained ___ the 19 walls ___ Godwin’s mansion. She grasps the opportunity offered by caddish lawyer and man- 20 about-town Duncan Wedderburn (a marvelously hammy Mark Ruffalo) and ventures forth ___ 21 London, first to Lisbon, then by steamship to Alexandria, and finally to a Parisian brothel. As Bella’s 22 horizons broaden, so the look of the film alters to encompass her experiences. The chapter set 23 predominantly in Godwin’s home is black and white, but once Bella ventures forth, the film shifts 24 into color. But not just any color – there’s an uncanny, hyperreal quality to the palette that makes 25 each frame look like a hand-tinted piece of Victorian postcard erotica. 26 It’s an alchemic combination, this continuing collaboration between Lanthimos and Stone, a 27 working relationship that started with The Favourite and will continue with another feature film 28 project, titled Kinds of Kindness. They unleash in each other an extra level of uninhibited artistic 29 daring that must be rooted in an uncommon degree of mutual trust. Nowhere is this more evident 30 than in the physicality of Stone’s remarkable performance. Stone’s virtuoso use of her body – the 31 way it inhabits space, the way she gradually masters her gangling, string-like limbs, the guilelessly 32 open play of emotions in her face – is one of the most crucial elements in our experience of Bella’s 33 journey. 34 That journey is supported by a deliciously eccentric score by Jerskin Fendrix. An uneasy, 35 detuned four-note motif played on flayed violin strings opens the film and returns in various 36 incarnations throughout, sounding at one point like a hippo mating with a harmonium. The gradual 37 build of intricacy and sophistication in the music brilliantly mirrors Bella’s intellectual growth. 38 Bella’s appetite for novelty is reflected in film-making that evokes a similar sense of wonder and 39 discovery in the audience. From the quirky flamboyance of Holly Waddington’s costumes to the 40 off-kilter production design by Shona Heath and James Price, Poor Things is an endlessly 41 fascinating carnival of oddness. (Available at: www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/14/poor-things-review-yorgos-lanthimos-emma-stone- frankenstein – text specially adapted for this test).