Bleat

Q&A with Yorgos Lanthimos on Oct. 4

Director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone have worked together before (The Favourite, NYFF56; Poor Things, NYFF61), but never in black-and-white on a remote Greek island with a herd of goats. In this entrancing, wordless collaboration, Stone gives a mesmerizing performance as a young widow who, along with her late husband (Damien Bonnard), embarks on a singularly unclassifiable journey through sex, death, and resurrection. Showing for the first time since its Athens premiere last year and designed never to be presented with a recorded soundtrack, this unique 35mm screening of the silent film will feature live accompaniment by an ensemble of musicians and a choir, performing pieces by J.S. Bach, Knut Nystedt, and Toshio Hosokawa. Followed by a conversation with Yorgos Lanthimos.

Commissioned for the program The Artist on the Composer, Bleat is a Greek National Opera (GNO) co-production with NEON, a nonprofit organization funded solely by its founder Dimitris Daskalopoulos. The annual program, which invites contemporary artists to create new works that embrace classical music performed live, is curated by GNO Artistic Director Giorgos Koumendakis and NEON Director Elina Kountouri. The GNO’s participation in this co-production and its U.S. premiere was made possible by a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) to enhance the GNO’s artistic outreach. Additional support for this New York Film Festival presentation was provided by Superprime Films.

Recommended Film Comment reading:

• Last Ten Films: Yorgos Lanthimos
• Film Comment Selects Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
• Deep Focus: The Killing of a Sacred Deer

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