From “Dogtooth” to “Bugonia”: How Yorgos Lanthimos Made Strangeness Irresistible
In the landscape of modern cinema, Yorgos Lanthimos has emerged as a glorious anomaly: a filmmaker who wields absurdism and discomfort like surgical instruments. With deadpan dialogue, unnerving silences, and an unblinking camera trained on the joke that is the human condition, Lanthimos has carved out one of the most distinctive directorial voices of the 21st century. Before he was the toast of Cannes and the Oscars’ strangest darling, he was quietly sharpening his tools in the fringes of Greek media,
Interview
Director, Screenwriter
Director Yorgos Lanthimos and Writer Will Tracy on the Blurred Morality of “Bugonia”
The title of Yorgos Lanthimos’s newest psychological thriller, Bugonia, refers to an ancient Greek belief that bees are born from the corpses of cows. In the film, protagonist Teddy (Jesse Plemons) keeps bees, but it’s a minor hobby compared to his main passion, which, as it develops on-screen, is as curious, revolting, and belief-beggaring as bugonia’s original ancient meaning. Teddy is absolutely certain that Earth is under the control of an alien race called the Andromedans,
Interview
Cinematographer
How Cinematographer Robbie Ryan Used VistaVision To Capture the Claustrophobic Terror of “Bugonia”
A good deal of Yorgos Lanthimos‘ new psychological thriller, Bugonia, is set in a cellar. Teddy (Jesse Plemons), alone in the world except for his cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis), and their belief that Earth is under the thumb of an alien race called the Andromedans, kidnaps Michelle (Emma Stone), whom he believes to be the aliens’ local representative and an architect of a plan to destroy Earth via colony collapse disorder.
