Directed by:
Yorgos LanthimosCinematography:
Robbie RyanCast:
Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, James Smith, Mark Gatiss, Nicholas Hoult, Basil Eidenbenz, Anthony Dougall, James Melville, Timothy Innes, Joe Alwyn (more)Plots(1)
Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) may occupy the throne but it is her co-dependent, Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz), who makes most of the Monarch's decisions, leaving The Queen to get on with eating pineapples and racing ducks. When Lady Sarah's cousin, Abigal Masham (Emma Stone), arrives and is given work at the palace as a servant she quickly endears herself to The Queen and threatens Lady Sarah's status as the favourite. Lady Sarah cannot hide her jealously and a bitter and petty rivalry ensues as both ladies vie for The Queen's affections. (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (10)
Like all of Lanthimos’s previous films, The Favourite is a description of a bizarre struggle for the favor of authority and a deliberately distorted caricature of human society, defined by a constant struggle for power. As a bonus, however, this new films is also a serious historical drama with an conservative narrative arc (one can feel that fragmentary storytelling lover Efthymis Filippo is not involved in this). The Favourite tries to be a venomous and scathing period piece, where (toxic) relationships between women play a leading role, while men are ephebic fools and horny idiots. The central trio is a joy to watch mainly due to their great acting and the sparkling mischief of mutual interactions. Unfortunately, over time, the film, which is a bit violently cut into chapters, becomes what it is at its core - a sparse, monotonous story with a predictable subtext. While until now Lanthimos has always been able to misalign and surprise viewers, to troll them with something that may contradict the laws of logic, but effectively comments on the arbitrariness of our existence, The Favourite is in some ways conventional. Although it contains typical choreographic excesses, it flows according to genre rules. It is dirtier, more vulgar, more crooked (Robbie Ryan FTW), sometimes effectively elliptical, but sometimes cruelly literal (the rabbits). In part, I support her, but she also did not stimulate me in any way, did not upset me, and she did not make me think. Yeah, humanity is a bunch of degenerates and really destroys character. We know, Jorgos. But I didn't feel it this time. For the first time ever, I left Lanthimos's film slightly apathetic rather than morbidly exacerbated.
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The Favourite was my first encounter with director Yorgos Lanthimos, whose name has been resonating at various festivals in recent years thanks to his distinctive creative style. The film certainly cannot be denied an original approach to the historical theme and to the work with the actors. It is essentially a concert of three very talented actresses, the most outstanding of whom is Olivia Colman in the lead role – I really hope she gets the Oscar, even though she is up against the Academy's long-neglected Glenn Close. I have to admit that I felt very sorry for Queen Anne at times, and I certainly wouldn't want to be in her shoes – surrounded by manipulators who know how to exploit a situation and take advantage of a queen with a fickle health and a poor education. The director certainly doesn’t pull any punchs and serves more than one raw scene, which underlined the local atmosphere, where a knife-edge fight between two supremely intelligent women takes place. The most emotionally powerful scene for me was probably the justification of rabbit breeding. The film benefited from a novel script, amazing performances and its visual style (unusual camera shots). P.S. I think I'll find time for more of the director's films in the future.
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If you are into Lanthimos’s peculiar poetics and stylistic whims, The Favourite will very possibly be the most entertaining film of the year for you. Though the division into chapters and some of the visual deformations leave a dodgy impression, the absurdly escalating conflicts, the play with the setting and the lightning, the performances and the music are so good that the film flows as smoothly as if it had been directed by Kubrick himself. It is very nice that in the age of Hollywood feminism there are so many Oscar contenders where female characters are uneducated, indecisive or unbearably manipulative bitches. 85%
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Next time I need a heavy dose of the bizarre, I will just watch election campaign videos of various political parties and I might even have a good laugh. This was just 2 hours of the bizarre without the funny part and all 3 main characters were just plain unlikeable and annoying. The quality of the filmmaking and acting performances is undeniable, but I was bored throughout the whole runtime.
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The Greek director flew out of Greek weird cinematography as the mythical bird Phoenix and got an offer to make something bigger, European, from the life of English aristocracy. In addition, he got three experienced actresses, who show us an absolute moral bottom and since he himself is a bit strange, he made it quite opulent. Too bad the movie is so long. If it was shorter, I would maybe not have time to get bored. There are so many weird things in this film, that what you considered weird in the first five minutes will feel quite normal in the last half an hour. So normal that you will watch that scene and not even raise an eyebrow. The movie is so weird that I lost a few human emotions while watching it. I had to drink a bottle of Port wine to compose my thoughts and jump out of the world of nobility, where there are lot of disgusting things happening and everybody thinks it’s normal. However, the movie has its qualities. Apart from the emotionless performances of the actors, I was mainly amazed by the castle and its surroundings and the original camera.
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