Start with The Lobster, which establishes the method most legibly: a hotel where single people have forty-five days to find a partner or be turned into an animal, played completely straight. Then The Favourite for the funniest, Poor Things for the most lavish, and Dogtooth only once you know what you are agreeing to.
Lanthimos builds worlds with one absurd rule and then refuses to acknowledge that it is absurd. Nobody in the film questions the premise, the dialogue is delivered flat, and the camera holds too long. The comedy and the horror come from the same source: total commitment to a system the audience can see is insane.
The Greek films are considerably harsher than the English-language ones. Dogtooth and Alps are close to unbearable in places, while The Favourite and Poor Things are lavish, funny and star-driven without softening the underlying cruelty. He is one of very few directors whose move into the mainstream cost nothing.
Where to start
The Lobster. It is the most legible statement of the method, funny for most of its length, and the rule is explained in the first two minutes so you know immediately whether you are in. The Favourite is the safer choice if you want stars and period costume. Do not start with Dogtooth.
Top picks
Filmography
- Kinetta (2005)
- Dogtooth (2009)
- Alps (2011)
- The Lobster (2015)
- The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
- The Favourite (2018)
- Poor Things (2023)
- Kinds of Kindness (2024)
Sources and further reading
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FAQs about Yorgos Lanthimos
Which Lanthimos film is the hardest to sit through?
Dogtooth, and it is not close. Three adult children raised in total isolation with a deliberately falsified vocabulary, and several sequences are genuinely difficult. Alps is the runner-up. The English-language films are all considerably gentler in incident while keeping the same underlying cruelty.
Are his films comedies?
They are constructed as comedies and frequently land as horror, and he does not distinguish. The flat delivery, the absurd premises and the too-long holds are comic techniques; what they are applied to is usually cruelty. Viewers who laugh and viewers who wince are both responding correctly.
Did going mainstream change the work?
The budgets and the casts changed and the method did not, which is unusual. The Favourite and Poor Things are lavish, funny and star-driven, and they retain the flat delivery, the absurd systems and the refusal to explain. He is one of very few directors whose move to the mainstream cost nothing.