Director Yorgos Lanthimos and cast members Emma Stone, Hunter Schafer and Margaret Qualley leave after a screening of the film ‘Kinds of Kindness’ in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Photo credit: Clodagh Kilcoyne

Following his feminist Frankenstein remake, director Yorgos Lanthimos was back on Friday with a trippy triptych featuring dogs masquerading as humans, a fingerling served with a vegetable and a cocktail called “Emily’s Forehead.” Was.

“I always think we’re taking things to extremes,” the 50-year-old Greek filmmaker said ahead of the premiere of “Kinds of Kindness” in Cannes Film Festival competition.

“But sometimes the reality is even stranger than what you’re trying to make it out to be.”

The wacky feature, one of 22 competing for the Palme d’Or, is his latest team-up with actor Emma Stone, who won an Oscar for returning from the dead in her steampunk “Poor Things.”

Emma Stone attends the ‘Kinds of Kindness’ red carpet at the 77th Annual Cannes Film Festival | Photo Credit: Christy Sparrow

Lanthimos said that, as trust grows between them, the pair have become “more adventurous and adventurous”.

Willem Dafoe and rising star Margaret Qualley from “Poor Things” also return for an experimental ride in which the same actors transform from one character to another in three different stories.

The settings vary from a high-rise office to a pond of sacred tears by the sea, but all center on the main characters – Jesse Plemons (“Breaking Bad”) and then Stone – rapidly losing the plot and becoming a murderous distraction. Is inspired towards.

The occasionally regressive scenes are balanced by dark humor, notably Dafoe as a scary guru in an orange Speedo and a very shocking home movie that got lots of laughs at the Cannes screening.

From left, Margaret Qualley, Emma Stone, Mamoudou Athie and Hunter Schafer pose for photographers as they leave the premiere of ‘Kinds of Kindness’ at the 77th International Film Festival, Cannes. Photo Credit: Scott A. Garfitt

Lanthimos said, “I thought it was funny and Emma thought it was funny, but we didn’t know if people would find it funny or not.”

He developed the script over seven years and shot it, finalizing “Poor Things”.

He said, “I thought, instead of sitting around and going to VFX once a week, why don’t we go and shoot this thing and then we can finish ‘Poor Things’ and then I can edit it. “

On top of being a professional actor, Lanthimos said he enlisted the help of employees and people he met along the way.

He said, “The gynecologist was a waitress at my hotel. And I thought she was amazing and her presence was incredible.”

Director Yorgos Lanthimos, cast members Willem Dafoe, Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons pose on the red carpet as they arrive for the screening of ‘Kinds of Kindness’ in competition at the 77th Cannes Film Festival. Photo Credit: Sarah Messonnier

The police chief who delivered the film’s best lines was a member of the staff on the set.

He said, “He was our transportation captain. I just needed to include him in the film.”

The director, whose previous works include the royal intrigue drama “The Favourite”, which won British actor Olivia Colman an Oscar in 2019, will not reveal his next project.

But they gave the same clue: “bees”.