The Favourite Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
The Favourite
Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Starrings: Emma Stone, Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz, Emma Delves, Faye Daveney, Paul Swaine, Jennifer White, LillyRose Stevens, Denise Mack, James Smith, Mark Gatiss, Horatio Willem Dalby, Edward Aczel, Carolyn Saint-Pé, John Locke, Nicholas Hoult, Everal Walsh, Jenny Rainsford, Liam Fleming, Martin Pemberton
Year: 2018
Contry: Ireland, UK, USA
Author Review: Roberto Matteucci
Click Here for Italian Version
“How does the kingdom proceed?"
At the beginning of eighteenth-century, Europe was devastated by the umpteenth bloody conflict. It was the war of Spanish succession, which began in 1702 and ended in 1713. Nine years in which England was engaged in tremendous and costly conflict.
Inside the English parliament, there were two opinions, one for the continuation of hostilities, the other for a truce.
The current of the whigs was favourable; the tories was the contraries: "... a systematic justification of an interventionist foreign policy, which found its clearest expression in the campaigns on the continent of William III and Marlborough. These considerations, however, would not have been enough to induce many English to approve the enormous expenses and waste of resources of those years ... " (1)
From 1702 it was Queen, Anne Stuart: "... a pious and theologically conservative sovereign ..." (1)
It was a confusing period; the war, the power struggle between the tories and the whigs, the religious disputes, those parliamentary, the popular unrest, the political instability, the very intense electoral battles:
"... Anne's reign has been described by historians as the frame natural for the achievement of political stability, but to the contemporaries, it seemed rather the counterpart of a monarchy with limited powers and low economic was political chaos. " (1)
Leading the British troops in the battles in France there was John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, married to duchess Sarah.
Queen Anne and Duchess Sarah were intimate friends. The friendship was disturbed by the arrival of a cousin of Sarah: Abigail Hill. A historical event from which, the fervid mind of the Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, has created a totally female story in the film The Favourite presented at the 75th Venice Film Festival.
From historical events extrapolates a creative plot. A monarch almost cloistered in the royal palace, sick with annoying and painful gout, with sudden bursts into unmotivated rage and depression, with seventeen pregnancies all ended with abortions. A difficult life despite being the sovereign.
The clever Sarah is her favourite lady-in-waiting, she takes care her and she obtains many benefits, because she can condition her often; a relationship outside the rules.
Everything works well, Sarah knows how to subjugate Anne even in political matters, pushing her towards the continuation of the fighting.
Peace ends with Abigail. Her arrival is the symbol of the film. She is inside a carriage. A man sitting near, touches her ass and masturbates libidinously. Going down from the carriage she falls into the mud of the roads.
Her family has bankrupted and needs to work, so after a long journey she asks helping aunt Sarah. The relative will accept her with some doubt.
Between the two women, both cunning smart, begins a battle with so many low blows to conquer the likings, in human love and politics affairs, of the queen.
Around them, there is the immense royal palace, integral part, fundamental for the exhibitionism of exaggerated luxury, with abundance of food and with servants excessively submissive.
Three women, mercilessly, Machiavellian, ready to squabble extreme fighting. The director is able to entertain narrating their cheap shots:
"This was a history that already existed, obviously. An already interesting narrative by itself, even without someone else's intervention. What I had to do was get some confidence with these three strong and real female characters, because they are three very complex and complicated people, it is rare to have such intriguing starting material.
...
For once, it was interesting to start from a storyline not mine, but I admit that it was a long nine-year job, so we have made many changes to the story and in the tone. The only certainty was that the focus of the narrative should be the triangle among these three women. If you think about it, in the film the historical context is understood, but it is secondary as if it were a distant echo. Even politics is seen through their eyes, as if Anne, Sarah and Abigal were the three filters necessary to get in touch with the story. There was no need to describe the history socio-political context because it was important for me to point out how the mood and opinion of very few people could influence the fate of millions of others. This, by the way, is something that still happens. It is a timeless theme." (2)
The author's ideas are the three belligerent and "intriguing" females, and the background of a true, real events, but secondary respect the women. Because the first years of 1700 is a chronicle scrutinized with their eyes: a deformed society, like the wide-angle used by the director in many scenes. The world is in the hands of limited people playing on the lives of population for banal personal whims.
Anne, will be remembered as the last sovereign of the Stuart dynasty. The character is lustful, a sensuality to be fulfilled carnally: "I like when she puts her tongue in me."
The lust is not only sexual but also greed accompanied by violent anger and by a depressive sloth, deeply melancholy. The director shows her a bit silly: "What country do we speak about?" Ignore the fighting, even the contending countries, how can she know the causes? And when she is doubtful, frightened, uncertain, put under pressure, she can not find a solution, triggering her depression.
The duchess Sarah is married to an important man, a hero, the commander of the troops at war, with many victories on the French earth. Sarah would like to keep him away for a long time. It is the futile reason for her support of the continuation of the campaign, indifferent to the death of so many people. She only wants a boring husband out of the house, she must satisfy her pleasures alternately. Sarah is arrogant, has tenacious self-esteem and a sure belief of superiority. They lead her to treat both the queen and her cousin Abigail with contempt. It will be fatal because she underestimates of the new rival.
Abigail is sly, savvy. She has an ostentatious consideration of herself, a virtue with which she jumps many social positions but at the same time makes some lethal mistakes. She is the most determined and the most perfidious character. He has no mercy for anyone and is ready to exploit everyone, thanks to a deep cynicism and a ruthless irony. Become poor, she married, to save the family, with an old and ugly German man with little experience. She denied the sexual pleasures because: "I convinced him that women have a cycle twenty-eight days a month."
Lanthimos realizes some symbolic scenes.
More ironic than merciless, the queen and the ladies begin strong conflict. The palace is the locked-room and inside, their battle became into pure madness. The author often shoots cutting and sarcastic scenes.
The nobles are represented in their luxury. In alternate scenes shows the servants. Domestics all sleep together, among them there is an Abigail still without luck. They are also piled up in the promiscuous use of the bathroom.
Yet, the servants appear as statesmen compared to the stupid nobles, engaged in competitions among ducks, with faces deformed by wigs, intent to cuddle the duck Horazio, the superstar, more spoiled than the servants.
In another framing, there is the description of lascivious parties, with participants attend in wild ways, they transform themselves in monsters, even physically.
The dispute between them will end with a change of role among the favourite of the monarch. But the choice may have been wrong. There is a small bunny, love obsession for the queen. Abigail crushes the poor little animal thinking not to be seen, it is her pride. Anne will repay with the same behaviour, ordering her to be silent and grab violently to her hair.
In these scenes, there is the tone, the language, the reading by the director:
"I think it was apparent from the screenplay itself. ... And what's the difference? ... And what's the difference? the darker aspect of it. But I guess it's easy to make it." (3)
The irony is in the dialogues, mainly of a mischievous Abigail:
"Have you come to seduce me or rape me?"
"I am a gentleman."
"Therefore, to rape me."
Anna shows her unawareness in a long in close-upsduring a queen reception. Unconsciousness turns into anger without justification during the dances.
Yorgos Lanthimos uses the wide-angle shot to deform and ridicule the many characters:
"The wide-angle is an instinctive choice that follows to my personal taste, I felt it was the right thing to do, also because it's a technique I've been using often lately, in which case I take it to extremes because I liked showing a reality distorted in which these three solitary people move in large environments. And proposed to environments, it must be said that we have turned into locations full of environments out of historical context, so we have taken care of every detail, removing everything that could seem anachronistic. This has favoured the creation of simple spaces, not too full and pompous. We wanted to focus on the three female characters, also because I wanted to create a claustrophobic effect in which to confine these women who are wrong and desire as any human being ". (2)
And the wide-angle shot works well thanks to the large rooms of the royal palace and photography that enhances the darkness, thanks for little light from external sources.
The film has everything. A plot, a brilliant storyline, a lively screenplay, a characteristic and animated language. The soundtrack is composed by orchestral and majestic music.
Sarah Churchill is defeated, exiled in luxury, after the initial victory
Other members of his next family tree will suffer the same humiliation. Sarah Spencer's direct heirs is Diana Spencer, who died sadly after the fairy tale wedding with Prince Charles.
Before inheriting Sarah's astuteness and cunning, there was Prime Minister Winston Churchill, winner of the Second World War and then discharged by the voters.
Kenneth O. Morgan edited, The Illustrated History of Britain, 1984
https://movieplayer.it/articoli/la-favorita-intervista-emma-stone-yorgos-lanthimos-venezia_19452/