The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)

The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)

I handed in my notice on Friday. It’s now Monday. Seeing this on Sunday did make me think about social standing and how malleable our plans can be. On the one hand, I could be looking at a position of more excellent post and station; on another, I could be running around looking for Xmas temp jobs with plastic ears and a sense of ennui of a man pushing 50. But in the middle section, it’s a navigation. That privilege and anxiety are captured in the rules of etiquette and detente of the ultimate popularity competition, which is the Queen’s favour in this comedy.

Mainly placed in the large wide eyes of Abigail Hill, we watch a rag-to-riches story with far more Blackadder than great expectations. While the dynamic is squarely in the triptych between three women, the war is as much a veil as a backdrop on everything she, Sarah, and of course, Queen Anne want in their lives.

Although it is not the war that bothered them to win, in each case, a sense of agency and control is all they really crave.

The men, most notably in sir henry, don’t even revel in their power; it is simply what they have. Like the sun or gravity or a fast-running duck. But the pompom they bring shows a world to be navigated rather than capitulated through Sarah’s cunningly, Abigail’s charms and Anne…well, she is the Queen and above reproach on so many levels. Olivia Coleman wonderfully performs her own illness and feigned illness to avoid embarrassment or compromise, and such a mannered move between hysteria and joy. It’s a whimsical role of an adult child yet filled with a sense of temptation, like eyes that may be painted like a badger but will always find the last biscuit and blame it 0n someone else.

The style of filming, with fish lenses and epic landscapes, adds a great deal of Granbury to the tone, often undermined by the contemporary l; language and, of course, the dance moves.

We know we are not in a real battle with France, but rather a panto, not even a party and it is with this the warmth of the wit comes through.

As does the dry resignation to the tortures of being a woman. The keep calm and carry-on stoicism of the female lead help ensure the film does not become too disparate and fascinating at every turn.

I would say this is a rich Sunday film and one for those who want to see the world as it is and our desires placed in simple terms but with passion., it’s a great afternoon, and I gained so much from seeing it on the big screen again

See it out at a rep screening soon.