Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos turns lens on photography in Athens exhibition

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos paused his filmmaking and promotion schedule this week to celebrate a quieter creative pursuit: photography. The 52-year-old Greek director on Friday inaugurated an exhibition of his photographs in his hometown of Athens, presenting images he has taken over the past five years — many captured while making his films, wandering through movie sets and nearby neighbourhoods, or on trips back to Greece.

The exhibition gathers 182 still photographs, in colour and in black and white, from the filmmaker known for his distinctive — and often disturbing — cinematic style. It opens days before Lanthimos returns to Hollywood for the March 15 Academy Awards ceremony. In his latest film, “Bugonia,” a pair of conspiracy obsessed men kidnap a powerful female executive they accuse of being an alien. The movie received four Oscar nominations, including best picture and best actress for Emma Stone, along with nods for adapted screenplay and original score. The photos, all shot with a film camera, features several portraits of Stone, a frequent star in his films.

Lanthimos on Friday said he was happy to dive into something different. Photography, he said, began for him as a technical foundation for filmmaking but gradually became something more personal. “In film school you learn that cinema is basically 24 photographs per second,” he said. “So photography is where it all begins.”

Over time, working with still images opened a creative outlet separate from the complex machinery of movie production, he added. “You can be alone with a camera, walking without having something specific in mind,” Lanthimos said. “A photograph can have value on its own, but many photographs together can create another kind of value.”

Oscar nominated director Yorgos Lanthimos speaks to reporters at the inauguration of an exhibition. Photos: Associated Press

For Lanthimos, photography also offers something cinema rarely can: immediacy. “You create something and almost immediately it exists,” he said, describing the process of shooting and developing film in a darkroom. “You can take a photograph, print it and hold it in your hands. That satisfaction is very direct.” While Lanthimos remains one of contemporary cinema’s most distinctive filmmakers, he said photography will play a growing role in his creative life.

Unlike movies, he said, photographs are free to evolve long after they are taken. “You can present them in a book, in an exhibition, combine them in different ways,” Lanthimos said. “There’s a freedom in photography that is very exciting.” The exhibition at the Onassis Foundation runs through May 17.

Meanwhile, in the Yorgos Lanthimos film “Bugonia,” a disturbed, conspiracy obsessed man kidnaps the head of a pharmaceutical company and tortures her in an attempt to save humanity. The kidnapper, played by Jesse Plemons, believes his hostage, played by Emma Stone, is an alien. While the situation is heightened, Lanthimos believes that the film isn’t so far-fetched.

“Not much of the dystopia in this film is very fictional,” Yorgos said Thursday at the Venice Film Festival. “A lot of it is very reflective of the real world.”

“Bugonia” had its world premiere at the prestigious Venice festival, where it’s was in competition for the top prize, the Golden Lion. Focus Features released the film in North American theatres on Oct. 24. The film is a remake of the 2003 Korean film “Save the Green Planet!,” and blends elements of science fiction, horror and comedy. Plemons’ character is obsessed with the idea that Stone is one of an alien species that has have infiltrated Earth with plans to destroy it. The adaptation, written by Will Tracy, has been in development for several years, with Ari Aster involved before Lanthimos came on board to direct.

“I have never before been given a script that felt so ready to be made,” Lanthimos said. “I just thought it was so funny and entertaining but also extremely impactful and made you really think about things deeply. I immediately was interested in making it. It felt very relevant then and that was three years ago and it feels even more relevant now.”

This is Stone’s fourth time working with Lanthimos and Plemons’ second. Both recently appeared in the film “Kinds of Kindness.” Lanthimos last had a film at Venice in 2023, when “Poor Things” won the Golden Lion prize. It went on to win several Oscars including best actress for Stone.

“I love the material he’s drawn to and the worlds he wants to explore,” Stone said. She added that although it sounds cliche, having familiar cast and crew around feels like family and a “really comforting and safe environment to explore.”

Part of the role required shaving her head, which she said was the “easiest thing in the world.” Stone said she especially loved how “funny and (expletive) up and alive” the script was, and how it reflected the world. Over the course of developing the script and making the film, Lanthimos said its themes only became more relevant.

“Humanity is facing a reckoning very soon,” Lanthimos said. “People need to choose the right path in many ways otherwise I don’t know how much time we have with everything that’s happening in the world with technology, with AI, with wars ... climate change.” He added that he hopes his film “will trigger people to think about what’s happening today all over the world.”

Agencies