Yorgos Lanthimos

Made films the shows talk about.

Wikidata Q975410: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by the only person by that name on Wikidata.

Counted as director, the making department they hold the most credits in. The films the hosts said they directed, which the two lists below run through too: My Best Friend (2001); Dogtooth (2009); The Lobster (2015); The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017); The Favourite (2018); Poor Things (2023); Bugonia (2025); Alps; Kinds of Kindness; Kinetta.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

Alasdair Gray: 1 line

  1. lineage (source novel) · through Poor Things (2023), which they directed: Alasdair Gray ⇒ Poor Things (the host's read). The film is based on the Scottish author's novel, from which Lanthimos took liberties.
    “this is actually based on a novel by Alice Dare Gray, the Scottish author.”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 1:18:42 · Sean Fennessey (0.60 sure it was them)

Bride of Frankenstein (1935): 1 line

  1. lineage (influence) · through Poor Things (2023), which they directed: Bride of Frankenstein ⇒ Poor Things (the host's read). Sean says the Frankenstein novel and the first two Frankenstein movies are major influences on Poor Things.
    “the Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein are, like, huge influences on this movie.”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 1:14:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.75 sure it was them)

Dogtooth (2009): 1 line, within their own work

  1. lineage (sequel in spirit) · through Poor Things (2023), which they directed: Dogtooth ⇒ Poor Things (the host's read). Both are about who gets to dictate the rules; Poor Things is described as a sequel to Dogtooth's fathers-and-language themes.
    “It's like the sequel to that movie in some ways because the Godwin character”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 0:41:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)

The Wizard of Oz (1939): 1 line

  1. craft (visual echo) · through Poor Things (2023), which they directed: The Wizard of Oz ⇒ Poor Things (the host's read). The black-and-white film turns to color once Bella discovers sex in Lisbon.
    “the movie turns to color once she knows about sex. So Wizard of Oz.”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 0:46:39 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

Poor Things (2023): 1 line, within their own work

  1. lineage (sequel in spirit) · through Dogtooth (2009), which they directed: Dogtooth ⇒ Poor Things (the host's read). Both are about who gets to dictate the rules; Poor Things is described as a sequel to Dogtooth's fathers-and-language themes.
    “It's like the sequel to that movie in some ways because the Godwin character”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 0:41:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.55 sure it was them)

What the speakers said they did

Directing (17) everyone in directing

What was said about them, by kind

career (3)

  1. career (career shift): Alexander Payne → Yorgos Lanthimos. A host is a fan of both directors and felt both The Holdovers and Poor Things were shifts away from what she loved.
    “these movies felt like shifts that I didn't vibe with as much, ultimately.”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 1:43:02 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): Yorgos Lanthimos → Population 1280. Next project is an adaptation of a Jim Thompson novel, gritty stuff from the writer of The Killer Inside Me.
    “adaptation of a Jim Thompson novel called Population 1280”
    The Big Picture · Oscars 2019: Instant Reactions to ‘Green Book’ and the Two Warring Academies | The Oscars Show (Ep. 131) · 1:13:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.40 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): Yorgos Lanthimos → The Lobster. The Lobster, Dogtooth and The Favourite are his most beloved, with a cockeyed sense of humor.
    “the lobster and dog tooth and this movie, the favorite, are sort of his most beloved movies.”
    The Big Picture · Oscars 2019: Instant Reactions to ‘Green Book’ and the Two Warring Academies | The Oscars Show (Ep. 131) · 1:13:41 · Sean Fennessey (0.45 sure it was them)

craft (2)

  1. craft (craft): Yorgos Lanthimos → Robbie Ryan. Amanda notes Lanthimos reunited with his dream team, with Robbie Ryan coming back to shoot Poor Things.
    “Obviously, Robbie Ryan coming back to shoot the film.”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 0:31:51 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft): The Killing of a Sacred Deer → Yorgos Lanthimos. Wright is fascinated by how Lanthimos gets disassociated performances, reportedly from scripts translated literally from Greek.
    “I'm fascinated by how he gets those strange, almost disassociated performances out of people.”
    The Big Picture · Joe Wright Bounces Back From His Darkest Hour | The Big Picture (Ep. 37) · 0:26:17 · Joe Wright (0.95 sure it was them)

people (1)

  1. people (collaboration pair): Emma Stone → Yorgos Lanthimos. Their partnership (two features, a short, a third coming) is likened to Scorsese and De Niro.
    “This is like a Scorsese De Niro thing that is happening.”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 0:33:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70 sure it was them)

unmapped (1)

  1. unmapped (temperament): Yorgos Lanthimos → Stanley Kubrick. Sean calls Lanthimos a 'we are all alone' filmmaker in the Kubrick mold, at least until now.
    “he is like a Kubrickian, we are all alone kind of filmmaker.”
    The Big Picture · Best Picture Power Rankings and a ‘Poor Things’ Deep Dive. Plus: Julianne Moore and Todd Haynes! · 1:21:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.65 sure it was them)

verdict (1)

  1. verdict (verdict): Yorgos Lanthimos → Bugonia. One host has lost faith in Lanthimos, only watching because he gets nominated; the other reads Bugonia as a woman-is-an-alien movie.
    “I don't like weird just to be weird.”
    The Rewatchables · A CR Month Mailbag! · 0:49:22 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

None.