Lanthimos to Take a Break After Bugonia: “Filmmaking Without Rest Is a Huge Mistake”

According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Yorgos Lanthimos plans to take a break from filmmaking following Bugonia. Over the past three years, the Greek director has made three films with Emma Stone — Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness, and Bugonia. After The Favourite (2018), another collaboration with Stone, Lanthimos had already taken a five-year hiatus from directing.

In a new interview with Collider, Lanthimos said he can no longer continue making films without pause:

“It’s a huge mistake. I think I need a break. I said that between the other three films too, but now I mean it. You can expect me to actually take a break this time… You find the will and strength to keep going, but at some point, it runs out. And that’s where I am right now.”

Bugonia marks Lanthimos’s tenth feature film as a director. By Quentin Tarantino’s own philosophy, it would be the point where a filmmaker should consider stepping away from cinema. Lanthimos’s debut feature, My Best Friend (2001), was followed by several acclaimed works, including Dogtooth and The Lobster.

Earlier reports revealed that LuckyChap Entertainment, headed by Margot Robbie, is collaborating with Lanthimos to adapt Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Another Lanthimos project currently in development is Fatale, based on a novella by Jean-Patrick Manchette.

One reason for Lanthimos’s desire to rest is the exhausting nature of press tours. During a Q&A session after the screening of Bugonia, he admitted:

“I’m not interested in going around, getting photographed, and talking to people about the film. That’s why I wonder if there’s another way. When you talk to your colleagues, all they discuss is this interview or that interview, and I’m like, can’t we cancel some of them? I end up repeating myself a thousand times. I forget what I said and get confused. But apparently, it’s part of filmmaking. I just don’t understand why I have to do it a million times — but it seems to remain part of the system.”