Yorgos Watch: The Favourite (2018)

Watched:  03/17/2024

Format:  Hulu

Viewing:  First

Director:  Yorgos Lanthimos

Selection:  Me

My viewing of Poor Things did finally get me to check out director Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite (2018).  I had intended to see this film eventually after seeing the trailer, but time is a slippery mistress.  Featuring four actors I quite like and what seemed like a curious sense of humor as indicated by the clips I'd seen, it seemed like a good time.

It was a good time.

To be clear:  I know absolutely nothing about British history, and the more I learn about the royals and monarchy, I feel pretty good about democracy and two-term presidencies.  As I said to my brother as we stood in Westminster years ago: "damn, this whole place is about 'get rich or die tryin'."

So, while I was aware Queen Anne existed, mostly because of architecture, furniture, I'd spent approximately no time learning anything about her until after watching this movie.  And if there's something that will send you down a Google-hole, it's an engaging two hour movie about melodrama run amok in the royal palace.  

Quickly - because this is all on Wikipedia:  Queen Anne was ruler of England from 1702-1714.  When she took the throne, she had a close friend, advisor and confidante, Lady Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough.  Marlborough was thought to have undue influence over the queen, but the two began falling out due to competing philosophies/ political affiliations.  Eventually, Marlborough was supplanted by her own cousin, Abigail Marston (nee Hill).  Abigail had fallen on hard times and came to court as Marlborough's maid, only to find paths to rejoin nobility (marry a fancy dude) and stand with the queen.  With the shift in besties, some of Anne's policies were thought to change.  In the manner of courtly affairs, this BFF falling out led to speculation, innuendo, etc... 

Taking place almost entirely within the palace of Queen Anne, the movie is not entirely imagined, but prints the legend, so to speak.  It digs into the motivation and imagined thinking, creating a drama out of what are admittedly gossipy facts, but which did impact the course of a nation.  The movie is not interested in a staid depiction of royalty, or to reinforce a sort of aloof notion of the monarchy, and it's a wild ride.

The cast is brilliant, full stop.  Rachel Weisz as Marlborough, Olivia Colman as Queen Anne, Emma Stone as Abigail and Nicholas Hoult as Harley, who stand in political opposition to Marlborough.  Stone could have petered out in American film, playing manic pixie dreamgirls or tough tomboysih cute girls, but someone saw what she could do, and it was a great gamble.  Weisz is a chameleon, and it's hard to believe this is the same actress I watched in part of Black Widow on basic cable before bed this weekend.   The road from Look Around You to The Favourite is a winding one (she also killed in her 2 minutes on The Bear in season 2).  And Nichola Hoult is showing he's going to be around for a long, long time (and is our newest Lex Luthor).

Abigail arrives at court unannounced and unwanted.  She's put to work in the kitchen before making her way to become her cousin's maid.  Marlborough is de facto performing the work of the Queen (and quite liking it) as the Queen is often ill, suffering from an assortment of maladies (not least of which is a diseased leg).  Abigail's proximity to the Queen and Marlborough provides Harley with a semi-willing spy.  Who works her way into Anne's good graces with compliments and, eventually, sexual favors.

What the movie makes abundantly clear is that morals are a luxury one can't really afford in 18th century England.  There is a drastic difference between the noble classes and the peasant classes, and one's place in the upper-crust is tenuous at best.  Abigail has the unthought of opportunity to claw her way back into being a lady, and that of the court, and shoots her shot.  

Colman's Anne is deeply complex, though perhaps not up to the actual task of rule.  Too much damage has been done by the time we meet her, and despite Sarah's protests, it's unclear that she knows how to love anything but England and the possibility for further advancement.  

Occasionally I'll read "this darkly funny story/ film" and think "well, I mean, it's a bit absurd.  I don't know that it's funny, per se," but with this film, I felt like the "darkly funny" tone actually hit.  Lanthimos' depiction of the court is absurd and surreal, which is somewhat unavoidable in the era of massive wigs and duck racing in the palace.  But the injustice of the world is so matter-of-fact, and the cruelty so banal (and petty) it's never punching down.  There's a genuine horror that draws laughs of discomfort in the fates of people in this era, but especially women, who - Anne and Sarah aside - are treated horrendously.  It may not be a mistake that Lanthimos' follow up film (Poor Things) was based on the work of Mary Shelley, the daughter of an 18th Century feminists philosopher.*

It's a reminder of what becomes the baseline state for government in monarchies with winner-take-all mentalities.  Life is short, brutal and cheap, and the games played at the top have nothing to do with the lives of the peons at the bottom.  The considerations of England are not that of the welfare for all - they are for those at the top (those at the bottom could hardly expect to see much change if the French, Danish or anyone else took over).  And then there's the absurdities of the court itself, and it's a wonder no one decided England couldn't use a little of Madame Guillotine in the coming years.

But all of the characters are given their moments of hilarity, of pathos, and no one is really the hero - there's only their personal stakes.  

The film itself seems lit through natural means - I was shocked to see a scene lit with both candle and natural light and for the scene to work so shockingly well.  Other times the light is natural through the windows.  I have no idea if the costumes are period accurate, but they - and the makeup - are something to behold - complete with the elaborate wigs of the aristocracy, washed out make-up and multiple layers and petticoats.  And the DP work to get it all is really pretty fantastic.

Anyway - I dug it.  My understanding is that even in 2018 the movie had some trouble getting financing, which is pretty wild.  This seems like a slam dunk of an art or indie film 20 years ago, but not so much now, I suppose.  But it did wind up with multiple Oscar noms and a win for Colman, nominated as Lead Actress (I suspect Weisz and Stone split the vote that would have carried either for their roles).  

*I can't find the link, but Marshall did forward to me a thread in which someone suggested Poor Things actually echoes some of Wollstonecraft's work