Alasdair Gray

Some people call it "the best movie of the year" - "Poor Things" will be one of the main contenders for this year's Oscar Awards. Based on Alasdair Gray's novel of the same name, the film offers a modern perspective on the story of Frankenstein.

It is sickly hilarious to make a movie in which so much consensual sex is had, often so gleefully, that is not the least bit sexy. Though Bella Baxter's insatiable libido might be her guiding light at first in "Poor Things," sexual liberation (or "furious jumping," as she calls it) is only part of this fantastical, anarchic journey to consciousness.

It's one thing to cry while performing. Emma Stone can do that. What she doesn't want to do, and what she found herself doing anyway, is to cry in the middle of an interview.

"I'm such an actor, what is wrong with me?" she said, her eyes welling up with tears.

Award-winning Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos will be premiering his latest offering at the 80th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, which kicks off in the historical Italian city on Wednesday.