Bugonia 2025 or the psycho-sexual analysis of Yorgos Lanthimos
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by Blender Dumbass
Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".
Bugonia - ( βουγονία ) was a folk practice in the ancient Mediterranean region based on the belief that bees were spontaneously generated from a cow's carcass. By extension, it was thought that fumigation with cow dung was beneficial to the health of the hive. ↩ Reply
Yorgos Lanthimos with his 2025 film Bugonia about the question of whether Emma Stone is an alien from the Andromeda Galaxy, is finally tipping my curiosity on its head, prompting me to give him a proper psycho-sexual analysis. ↩ Reply
The main premise of the film is very simple. We have conspiracy theory lunatics played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, who decide to kidnap a CEO of a major corporation, believing that she is an alien. And for as long as possible the movie keeps the audience guessing whether she is, or whether she is not. This framing device is used to keep us interested in the film for as long as possible, giving the film-makers the ability to explore various political and psychological ideas. Which is what I believe the film is truly about. c:0 ↩ Reply
Just to set the stage for the analysis, this was not originally a Yorgos Lanthimos project. It is technically a remake of a Korean film from 2003 called Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan, who was originally going to be the director of Bugonia, before being replaced by Lanthimos due to health concerns. The screenplay for the English version was written by Will Tracy. And the list of producers on the project ( apart from Lanthimos, Emma Stone and a few others ) also includes Ari Aster, who you may know also begs for a psycho-sexual analysis. ↩ Reply
Bugonia tries really hard to be a comedy, but due to horror sensibilities of the various film-makers involved, it is not quite a comedy, but more like a horror-tragicomedy. It is hilarious on a lot of levels. But it is also deeply fucking disturbing. ↩ Reply
So here is a brief run-down ( without spoiling anything from the main mystery of the film ) of what prompted me to psycho-sexualy-analyse Lanthimos. ↩ Reply
We have 2 lunatics: Teddy ( Jesse Plemons ) and Don ( Aidan Delbis ). Early on we get a scene where Teddy convinces Don to take a shot of chemical castration, claiming that it helped him to clear his mind from constantly being distracted by sex. Strong stuff right away. Then we are introduced to Casey ( Stavros Halkias ) who is revealed to be Teddy's babysitter long time ago. And who is constantly talking about something he did to Teddy, for which he apologizes. In more direct language, the film hints at Casey being a pedophile. ↩ Reply
So okay... we can start unpacking it here. Maybe the film is suggesting that Teddy is a lunatic because of child-abuse. And then we can also speculate that maybe Teddy was a very horny person growing up. Probably related to the same thing. Which prompted him to castrate himself, to be able to think again, in a rational way. Or as rational as Teddy can, because the bullshit he does in the film makes him sometimes very irrational. ↩ Reply
But if you take a look at other films by Lanthimos, you may start to peace together a much more interesting picture. ↩ Reply
I have not seen the films Lanthimos did in Greek yet, so I cannot analyse them. But I can analyse his English language films, like, for example, 2015 film The Lobster. ↩ Reply
The plot of The Lobster revolves around a sort of parallel universe to ours where it is illegal to be single. If your wife or girlfriend leaves you, you are sent into a camp where you are forced to quickly find another sex partner, or you will be turned into an animal of your choosing. Our hero chooses to become a Lobster. As you can probably guess, masturbation is illegal too. At some point, the hero joins an underground group or rebels who fight for freedom by not having sex and instead masturbating. And there he finds a girl he falls in love with. lol. ↩ Reply
In The Favourite 2018 ( the first film he did with Emma Stone ) the story is about 18th century Britain and the Queen, who is revealed quite early to be a sort of lesbian. Two women ( fighting for a place near the Queen ) are trying to out-lesbian one another, with how much they can satisfy the Queen. ↩ Reply
Poor Things 2023 ( which was nominated for the best picture and didn't win only because of fucking Oppenheimer ) is about a newborn baby-girl who's brain was surgically inserted into her mother's body. And therefor she looks like an adult. By the time she can talk relatively well, she finds out about masturbation and becomes a vivid sex addict. There is even a scene where she ( working as a prostitute, because she likes the job ) shows sex moves to a bunch of kids, who's father bought her for their sex-education. And the irony is, she is probably actually younger than they are. ↩ Reply
Kinds of Kindness is an anthology film ( a movie that is a compilation of little short films ) where a lot of the subject matter is sex, or abuse, or both. In one story an old man is taking over the life of a younger man. Seemingly for sexual pleasure. Trying to get free from this man, the younger man starts to lose everything: wife, job, money, car... everything goes to shit. Which means that the only thing he can do is to please his older man. Another story is about a cult where every member ( male or female ) needs to have sex with the leader. And where they lick you to find out if you are "pure". Another one about a police officer who's girlfriend dis-appeared on an island somewhere ( presumed dead ). It is revealed that they were avid swingers, having lots of very graphic sex with his co-worker and his girlfriend. Until the girl returns all of a sudden. But something about her is wrong. c:1 ↩ Reply
And then there is Bugonia. ↩ Reply
In a way Bugonia is the least sexual of the films I've brought up. But I have a theory for it. As always, remember, this theory is taken out of my ass. Maybe the movie was going to be more normal at first. But when Lanthimos got attached, he couldn't understand how those 2 crazy motherfuckers didn't try to rape the woman. So he needed a solution. And castration chemicals was something he thought about. Which needed an explanation as well. Which for some reason made Lanthimos think of pedophiles. Hm... ↩ Reply
This is not an outright out-there connection. It is known that in some places in the world perverts and rapists are usually forcefully castrated to stop them from perverting or raping any longer. Sometimes it is done in a form of chemical castration. For example Alan Turing ( the guy who broke the code of the Engima and who thought of an early idea of what we today might call a computer ) was found to be gay back when this was a "perversion" and who was given a choice between jail and chemical castration. ↩ Reply
In 2025 this might be done to somebody who sees younger people as more attractive. And there is some statistical evidence to suggest that some portion of kids who experienced sex, may develop such forms of attraction. Basically because Casey did this to Teddy, Teddy wanted to do this to other kids. And was therefor given a similar choice to Alan Turing. ↩ Reply
Now that is a theory, but then, in the movie, it seems like we hear Teddy say that he himself found about it and himself chose to do it. This gives us a different theory. And here I bring ( for some reason ) Shane Black's film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, where one of the characters gives an interesting argument. They were visiting a club where nude dancers are performing very erotic numbers for everyone to see. And the characters, observing that, suggest that every single one of them were "abused as kids", which would be the only explanation for why they are willing to do this in the first place. ↩ Reply
Based on my psycho-sexual analysis of Shane Black, I can safely assume Shane Black has some knowledge of what he is talking about. So we can make a different theory. Maybe Casey didn't traumatize Teddy. But maybe Casey ignited in Teddy a sort of intense interest towards sex. Kind of like what happened to the main character in Poor Things. Which made Teddy incredibly horny all the fucking time. But because Teddy was a nerd, he was feeling like his time was wasted on whatever sexual nonsense he was thinking about, so he chose to deal with it, by completely medically shutting this whole thing down. c:2 ↩ Reply
Here is another complication that I think is interesting. Casey ( the pedophile ) is a cop. And at one point he comes to visit Teddy, while there is a kidnapped woman in the basement. And we as the audience kind of hoping the cop will find out, while on the other hand kind of hoping he doesn't. The film builds multiple levels of tension in the same time during this one scene. ↩ Reply
Here my question: Was that an attempt to corrupt the audience? ↩ Reply
Happy Hacking!!! ↩ Reply
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Troler
c:0 for as long as possible the movie keeps the audience guessing whether she is, or whether she is not. This framing device is used to keep us interested in the film for as long as possible, giving the film-makers the ability to explore various political and psychological ideas. Which is what I believe the film is truly about.
⤴ ViewIt is a failure on filmmakers to allow their manipulation be noticed. I won't lie when I say, it's exactly what I search for!
Troler
c:1 Kinds of Kindness is an anthology film ( a movie that is a compilation of little short films ) where a lot of the subject matter is sex, or abuse, or both. In one story an old man is taking over the life of a younger man. Seemingly for sexual pleasure. Trying to get free from this man, the younger man starts to lose everything: wife, job, money, car... everything goes to shit. Which means that the only thing he can do is to please his older man. Another story is about a cult where every member ( male or female ) needs to have sex with the leader. And where they lick you to find out if you are "pure". Another one about a police officer who's girlfriend dis-appeared on an island somewhere ( presumed dead ). It is revealed that they were avid swingers, having lots of very graphic sex with his co-worker and his girlfriend. Until the girl returns all of a sudden. But something about her is wrong.
⤴ ViewFrom the all the movies mentioned, this is the only one I've seen. And it just so happened to be the most Lanthimos film to date.
Troler
c:2 Kind of like what happened to the main character in Poor Things. Which made Teddy incredibly horny all the fucking time. But because Teddy was a nerd, he was feeling like his time was wasted on whatever sexual nonsense he was thinking about, so he chose to deal with it, by completely medically shutting this whole thing down.
⤴ ViewWith no side-effects what-so-ever.
... replies ( 1 )
Blender Dumbass
c:3@Troler The movie doesn't directly address it. But based on how weird he is, you can say there are side effects.
Blender Dumbass
c:3... c:2
Troler c:2 Kind of like what happened to the main character in Poor Things. Which made Teddy incredibly horny all the fucking time. But because Teddy was a nerd, he was feeling like his time was wasted on whatever sexual nonsense he was thinking about, so he chose to deal with it, by completely medically shutting this whole thing down.
⤴ ViewWith no side-effects what-so-ever.
@Troler The movie doesn't directly address it. But based on how weird he is, you can say there are side effects.
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