by James Mottram
Yorgos Lanthimos is back, the director unleashing his second film in nine months with Kinds of Kindness.
Bowing this year in Cannes, Kinds of Kindness caps a remarkable run for Lanthimos, following the roaring success of his Victorian fable Poor Things. Winning Venice’s Golden Lion last September, it claimed four Oscars (from 11 nominations) earlier this year, while also becoming the biggest hit of Lanthimos’ career, grossing $117 million worldwide.
Under such an umbrella of success comes Kinds of Kindness, a triptych of shorts with the cast playing different characters in each. In the first, Jesse Plemons’ character appears under the control of Willem Dafoe’s businessman. It’s followed by a story with Plemons playing a cop who comes to believe that his wife (Emma Stone) is an imposter. Stone also fronts the third short, playing a woman who leaves her husband and child for a sex cult run by Dafoe’s charismatic leader.
For Lanthimos, it marks another trip back to the days of his career when films like Dogtooth and The Lobster led him to be seen as the leader of the Greek Weird Wave. In particular, it reunites him with Efthymis Filippou, the co-writer on his early movies.
When FilmInk meets Lanthimos in Cannes, he’s in good form, talking about everything from Plemons to the secret to his very strange success…
You’re back working with co-writer Efthymis Filippou, who you last worked with on The Killing of a Sacred Deer. How did you get back with him?
“I didn’t get back with him. We’re always working on things. Killing of a Sacred Deer was 2017 and we immediately started writing something else. I started developing a lot of projects. And deciding which one goes next is always like which script kind of comes together first, and other conditions – who’s available, where can you shoot, the weather, whatever. So, we’ve always been working together, and we’re very close. We’re good friends. So, every time we finish something, we start something new. And actually, this script we did start working on right after Killing of a Sacred Deer. It just took many years to complete. And that was quite beneficial as well, because we looked at it from different perspectives. We had time to get some distance while we’re doing other things in between. So, yeah, it took a while, and we’re still working together. To me, it’s not like coming back to work with him, because I’ve always been working with him.”
It feels like this has come right off the back of Poor Things?
“Well yes and no. On the one hand, it took so many years to complete this script. So, it was in our minds for a very long time, and it changed over time, and it grew, and it matured. So, we just felt that at that point… there was a very mature script we felt confident about. They linger for years anyways, because of the logistics of it. It takes time to complete each film. So, having that in mind, that it takes so long to complete a film, the fact that there was this script, that we felt it was ready and was sitting around, it just made me want to find a way to do it. But it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, we don’t have any idea. Let’s take these people, maybe we’ll think of something. Let’s go and make that.’ It was like a very long process, but at the same time, a true process.”
What is the secret to sell a project like this to a big studio like Fox Searchlight? You have a big budget…
“I mean, it wasn’t that big! I mean, it’s strange what is big and what is small these days. It’s really hard to understand. We’ve just been working with them, and they have a faith in filmmakers. And I think when you develop a relationship, it’s kind of the same relationship with other people in the crew or other actors. If they actually believe in you, and they want to support you, they’ll do that. I’ve been enjoying creative freedom throughout. I’ve been very lucky… I mean, lucky in the beginning was because we made them on our own, so nobody was there to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. But at the same time, growing and moving to other places, and involving more people and getting a little bit of financing… I was always lucky to have this creative freedom. And they just saw the potential in this film as well, and they just came onboard. I mean, it was an easy thing. It’s very straightforward. And they know the kind of filmmaker I am, and they know that this is what you get, and it’s like a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Would you like to be involved or not? And they wanted to be involved. So that’s great, I think.”
Did the three-part structure come straight away?
“No, we started writing the one story. After reading about Caligula and being inspired and having this situation in mind, we started writing that script, and it was supposed to be this one story. But soon after, we also felt the need to experiment a little bit with form as well, to do something with a film that we hadn’t done before. So, we came up with this idea of making a triptych film. And so, we just sat down and collected our ideas that we had, and we made a list of the ideas, and we just instinctively chose two more that would go with this one thing that we started working on. And then we started developing all three of them together. So, we’d write all three of them together. And then I had the idea of the same actor playing multiple roles in the film, in the different stories, so that then pushed us into writing the stories individually, present them one after the other, instead of showing the stories in parallel. And that led us to the form.”
Do you think the film is ‘hopeless’ in tone? Is that your style?
“I just made a film before that had a happy ending. I mean, I don’t think hope necessarily comes from the plot of a film. Even if the film is quite dark or it deals with those kind of vision issues, I think humour helps. I think that the film is quite funny. I mean, I find it quite funny in many ways.”
How did you come to choose Jesse Plemons?
“I just thought that he’s one of the greatest actors of his generation and of his time, and I’ve been watching him for many years, and I always wanted to work with him, and it just felt like the great opportunity. And, yes, I think he’s great. He said ‘yes’ immediately, and he was very excited about the prospect. And we had a lovely time working together. He became part of our troop. And, yeah, it was great experience.”
What do you feel has shaped your artistic vision?
“The world itself is enough to shape you. Of course, we are the product of all of influences… how you grow up, whatever happens in your life, what things make an impression on you, what doesn’t, circumstances, being brought up in Greece, whatever… seeing the world in a specific way. I think there’s so much, and every person is, I think, very unique and individual. It’s just how then you take that and transfer it into some kind of work, or how you express those things. And it’s never easy to say exactly what it is. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. There’s not just one thing that makes you what you are.”
Kinds of Kindness is in cinemas now
