In early 18th century England, two women, the Duchess of Marlborough and her cousin, Lady Masham are in a rivalry against each other for the affections of Queen Anne. The Duchess of Marlborough is the Queen’s oldest friend (going back to childhood) and confidant, often advising her on matters of state. She is also her lover. After arriving in the royal household as a servant, Lady Masham quickly works to become friends with her cousin and is soon scheming to take her place with the Queen.
Blaine: Deborah Davis was the one who started the project in the first place. She had never written a screenplay before, but she found this story about Anne, Queen of Great Britain, and her two helpers very interesting. Deborah spent much time digging up whatever she could find. She even found old letters that had been written by the women. Deborah wrote the first draft for “The Favourite” in 1998. It took a while to find the right people to make this into a film. Deborah then met with producer Ceci Dempsey in 2009 and she was very impressed that someone who doesn’t have a lot of experience in screenwriting wrote something so well written. A new screenwriter, Tony McNamara, was hired to rewrite the script and write it brand new. Director Yorgos Lanthimos says you never know how a film is going to look, but the more you work on it the more these ideas come to you. Yorgos and Tony spent a lot of time trying to figure out who these women should be in the film because “The Favourite” is about three strong women. Yorgos Lanthimos had been experimenting with a lot of camera work through his previous films, with the movement, the angles, the lensing and for “The Favourite", Yorgos felt it was a perfect opportunity to take things further. Yorgos wanted to use a lot wide angle lenses for huge spaces with very few people in them.
My dad and I both agree that the look of “The Favourite” looks quite similar to Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon”, but “Barry Lyndon” didn’t have humor in it. The reason “The Favourite” is like “Barry Lyndon” is because for one it has the same style for lighting dark interior scenes. Everything is lit by candle light and that’s what Stanley Kubrick did with “Barry Lyndon”. My dad says even the locations they shot “The Favourite” at remind him of “Barry Lyndon”. My dad also says that “Barry Lyndon” always had music through out the whole thing where as “The Favourite” has sound effects. “The Favourite” has 23 fisheye shots. That’s more than any other movie I’ve seen. The composition of some shots is good as well.
Yorgos was reunited with actresses he had worked with on “The Lobster”, Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz. The Queen hardly does anything except lay around because she is ill with gout. It’s Sarah Churchill who basically does all the work she is supposed to be doing. Sarah is very hard core. Sarah is the person the Queen trusts the most because she is closer to her than anyone else. It can be dangerous to mess with Sarah because she’s a mean shot with a pistol. It’s always fun for Olivia Colman to play someone who is completely different from herself and that’s why she’s an actress. Olivia knew nothing about Queen Anne and she was asking herself why they didn’t teach something about her when she was in school. Basically England tells it’s citizens a lot about it’s history. Olivia got a real learning experience in reading the script. The queen doesn’t know if anyone loves her basically because she acts like a brat a lot of the time. Olivia did a good job screaming to the top of her lungs at times whenever her character was very upset. If you show the Queen kindness she can be very calm. In real life Queen Anne had 17 children who all passed away and it’s mentioned in the film. Anne has 17 rabbits to replace them. Anne had pour health issues and had a bit of an eating disorder. One of the most hilarious scenes in “The Favourite” is when Sarah is dancing with a man named Masham and what’s so funny about it is that the characters are dancing like it is the ‘50s. It was like watching the dancing in “Pulp Fiction” for my dad. Dancing during rehearsal was fun for Rachel Weisz, but it became a challenge when they started shooting the scene because she was wearing heals and the costume was heavy. Some of the moves they tried didn’t work for Rachel because of the way the costume was built.
A lot of people Yorgos has worked with found him disturbing and Emma Stone heard about that. Emma met Yorgos during the summer of 2015 and she thought he could be a psychopath, but the more she got to know him she saw he was a normal guy. Emma didn’t feel uncomfortable at all being next to him. When he’s not working, Yorgos is a normal guy. Emma has been apart of movies that have unique cinematography work like “Birdman” and “La La Land” and her favorite learning experience while making “The Favourite” was all the cinematography work. She was completely blown away by the work they did at night because it was so dark and the whole room was lit by candle light. And Yorgos Lanthimos was amazing to work with. Emma had never worked a director who had more ideas of how a scene was going to be shot before. Yorgos thinks like a photographer. He even carries a camera with him around with him at all on set. Emma Stone had trouble keeping a straight face whenever Olivia made these weird sounds from her voice. Emma would crack up and make Olivia laugh.
Emma Stone’s character, Abigail Hill, starts off as this kind person who just wants to help. Abigail gets bullied a lot by the staff, Sarah Churchill, but the Queen is the only person who takes a liking to her after she nurses the wound on her leg. While I think she was trying to help the Queen by finding herbs in the forest to make into a paste to put on her leg, she makes sure to tell the Queen that it was her who did (the Queen was asleep while she was putting the paste on her leg.) When it comes to being around men, Abigail talked sarcastically to them. She was bold. Abigail wrestles with a boy who likes her out in the forest. My dad says they used a steady cam for that and it was choreographed well the way they moved. Emma Stone would kick him in the crotch, smack his face, rolled around while tackling him. It made my dad ask who would end up on top. Of course Abigail is tougher than she looks, so I would say she would win the match. Abigail works her way up from being a servant to being the Queen’s new assistant and her behavior becomes cruel. Abigail is reading a book in the Queen’s library during the night and manages to catch the Queen in bed with Sarah Churchill. I was just as shocked as Abigail to learn the Queen prefers the company of women. I wasn’t expecting that at all. At one point, Abigail shows off her nude body to Anne just to get her attention. Abigail will do whatever she can to survive because she doesn’t want to be end up a servant again. Sarah and Abigail are competing against each other and the Queen is the trophy. Sarah behaves as though she can not lose, but Abigail out smarts her by poisoning her drink. Sarah doesn’t get poisoned to death, but she gets ill and falls off her horse. She gets serious damage to her face after the horse drags her around for a while. Abigail has successfully gotten rid of Sarah and takes over her position. Abigail shows her cruelty by stepping on one of the Queen’s rabbits, causing it. The rabbit made noise and the Queen heard it. Queen Anne is asking herself if she made the right move in the end in banishing Sarah and choosing Abigail. Anne would go back and forth between Sarah and Abigail. Yorgos’ movies are known for strange and hard to understand endings. While this ending is a bit strange, it is not as strange an ending as his early films.
My rating on “The Favourite” is five out of five stars
