The Favourite (2018) notes
This was my first attempt in a long time at writing film notes. Unfortunately the festival this was written for did not end up using it, but I still think it's pretty good.
Here is The Favourite (2018)
In the same vein as Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos’ other English language works (The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer), The Favourite is, at its core, a drama, and a dark comedy. However, in an expansion of, and departure from his previous films, rather than the present or a dystopian (near) future, this time Lanthimos chooses to explore the genre of period biography, setting his film in 18th century England. The Favourite follows the disruption of the relationship between the sickly Queen Anne and Sarah Churchill by the arrival of Baroness Abigail Masham - and her ambition to advance her royal standing.
Starring Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz and Olivia Coleman, this is the second of Lanthimos’ films that Weisz and Coleman have appeared in. When selecting actors for each film Lanthimos strongly considers their ability to improvise and fit in with the deadpan, delivery now expected in his work. In an interview with The Globe and Mail he states, ‘I think it’s connected with the style of the writing because I don’t really ever ask them to do anything, I don’t ask them to speak or act in a certain way. It comes down to them understanding the tone of the writing and delivering it in a way that sounds the most natural to them to be saying those words. All I do is encourage them to just say the words, to be there, to do it, and they themselves understand if it’s the right way or the wrong way.’
The Favourite was filmed almost entirely at the impressive Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, a key filming location for other period films such as The King’s Speech and The Importance of Being Earnest. Interestingly for a film rooted in historical events, in the same interview with The Globe and Mail Lanthimos explains that he favours style and storytelling over historical accuracy or abject truth, ‘In film, I like transformation. That goes for the language, for the image, for the performance. I am not interested in representing reality. Actually, I am interested in representing reality but that doesn’t mean a naturalistic approach, which I think is kind of impossible. Even in documentary; documentaries are so staged and the people in them, it is a kind of performance. There are various ways of delivering some kind of truth, so I try to find the style or the way that I find more effective.’
Lanthimos’ direction and finesse has been described by The Washington Post as ‘a bold cinematic style that lands somewhere between the clinical precision of Stanley Kubrick and the prankish malevolence of Lars von Trier.’ When The Favourite premiered at Venice Film Festival, it won the Grand Jury Prize, and Olivia Coleman was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her role as Queen Anne.
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