Pornographic? LOL, no.

Yeah. A lot of people who hadn't seen the movie were complaining about that brothel scene where Bella has sex with a dad while his young sons watch so they can learn about sex. I totally get why someone would find that weird, but in context it was, as you said, absurd and comical, not icky or erotic.

That said, it is very explicit. We don't see that much outside of porn, so of course people will associate them.

It would be strange to see Americans complain about the sex scenes when, as a nations, we're one of the largest consumers of porn. Filmmakers know what we want to see. lol...

Apparently this movie did a lot better in other nations than it did in the US. According to the box office info on IMDB, it made around 180 million worldwide but only 34 mill in the US. Although. I don't think this includes streaming views, which is probably really high in the US.

The sex is not much different than the sex scenes found in other movies. The odd part in Poor Things is when Bella has sex with unattractive people. It's not all that erotic.

The scene with the two sons watching the dad do it with a prostitute is typical Yorgos. I've seen stuff like that in some of his other movies. But you can tell the boys weren't really watching this, it was edited.

To me, the most disturbing part was the madam biting Bella. So weird, like cannibalistic type of stuff. Which I find to be a huge turn off. And the woman was hideous looking to boot.

"It's not erotic because I personally don't find it erotic."

Every time.

They don't really think it's pornographic by any legal standard. They're just using hyperbole to underscore their standard puritanical, pearl-clutching objection to sex and nudity in films. They've been doing it for a hundred years. Oh the fuss Hedy Lamarr caused them in 1933.

If they watched more European cinema* -- and, yes, something like Blue is the Warmest Colour would be a good example of this -- they wouldn't bat an eye at Poor Things.




* -- Poor Things is an international co-production, including US financing, but is essentially a European arthouse film.