Yorgos Lanthimos does not make costume dramas. He makes films about people trapped in systems, and in The Favourite the system is a palace, a war, and a queen who cannot decide which of her two cousins she loves more. The film premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on 30 August 2018, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for Olivia Colman.
Trailer, via SearchlightPictures.
Queen Anne’s Seventeen Rabbits
Colman plays Anne, in poor health and little interested in governing. She keeps 17 rabbits, surrogates for the children she miscarried or who died in infancy. Sarah Churchill, played by Rachel Weisz, rules the country through her influence over the Queen. The two are lovers, and Sarah’s control is the real government. Emma Stone’s Abigail Hill arrives impoverished, her father having gambled her away in a game of whist, and takes work as a scullery maid. She forages herbs for the Queen’s gout. Sarah has her whipped for entering the bedroom without permission, then appoints her Lady of the Bedchamber once the herbs help.
Abigail Hill Learns the Room
Abigail witnesses Sarah and the Queen having sex. Robert Harley, the Leader of the Opposition, played by Nicholas Hoult, asks her to spy on them both. She refuses and tells Sarah. Then she kindles a friendship with Anne that becomes sexual, and Sarah tries and fails to remove her. Knowing she has a powerful enemy, Abigail reconsiders Harley’s offer. She drugs Sarah’s tea; Sarah wakes in a brothel. Anne, thinking Sarah abandoned her, takes Abigail into her favour and lets her marry Colonel Masham, restoring her noble standing as a Baroness.
Tony McNamara and Deborah Davis Write Sharp
The screenplay, by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, is the film’s engine. It is funny in a way that never softens the cruelty. Weisz compared the film to a “funnier, sex driven” All About Eve, and that is close. Colman said playing Anne was “a joy because she sort of feels everything,” and described the character as “a woman who is underconfident and doesn’t know if anyone genuinely loves her.” That reading is exactly what the performance delivers.
Casting a Lanthimos Film
Casting began in 2014 when Lanthimos contacted Colman. By September 2015, Stone, Colman and Kate Winslet were attached; by October 2015 Weisz had replaced Winslet. Lanthimos offered the role to Cate Blanchett before Weisz. Stone auditioned after asking her agent to contact him, and he asked her to work with a dialect coach. Colman was his only choice for Anne. Principal photography ran from March to May 2017 at Hatfield House and Hampton Court Palace.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| March–May 2017 | Principal photography, Hatfield House and Hampton Court Palace |
| 30 August 2018 | Premiere, 75th Venice International Film Festival |
| 23 November 2018 | US theatrical release, Fox Searchlight Pictures |
| 1 January 2019 | Ireland and UK theatrical release |
What the Rivalry Costs
The film grossed $96 million worldwide on a $15 million budget, and won ten British Independent Film Awards, seven BAFTAs, and eight European Film Awards. It drew ten Academy Award nominations, tying Roma for the most that year. The awards matter less than the thing they reward: a period film that refuses to be polite about power. Sarah issues Anne an ultimatum; Abigail, now Baroness, helps Harley influence the Queen’s decisions about the war. Neither cousin is the hero. The palace is the machine, and both women are inside it.
The Favourite is the rare awards-season film that earns its noise. The rivalry is the plot, but the real subject is need — Anne’s, Sarah’s, Abigail’s — and how quickly it converts into leverage. The film is 120 minutes and does not waste them.
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