Watching: The Favourite

[white_hart]

After a very poor autumn for films (it feels like we've hardly been to anything except Vintage Sundays in ages), there seem to be several things coming up this month that I'd like to see. The first of them was The Favourite; I was feeling slightly trepidatious about it after I realised it was by the same director as The Lobster, which I found deeply weird and not as enjoyable as it should have been, but I liked this one a lot better.

The Favourite is a fictionalised version of the rivalry between Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, and Abigail Hill, later Baroness Masham, at the court of Queen Anne. Plot-wise, it's basically All About Eve with ridiculous eighteenth-century wigs and more overt lesbianism; it features terrific performances from Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone and Olivia Colman as the three central figures, all of whom are realistically flawed (Sarah is overbearing and frequently cruel, Abigail is a manipulative social climber and Queen Anne is capricious and cantankerous) without ever being completely unlikeable; and I'm always happy to watch films where the women are foregrounded with all the male characters relegated to supporting roles* (Nicholas Hoult was particularly good as Robert Harley). There are fantastic costumes and stunning sets (some of it was filmed in the Divinity School - I remember walking past when they were filming there and seeing men in eighteenth-century costumes and wigs getting curry from the catering trailer outside the Sheldonian), a nicely-calculated use of deliberate anachronism for effect, and amazing wigs (yes, I know I keep harping on about the wigs). And it's very funny, if not quite as funny as the man behind me who appeared to have decided to laugh at literally everything** seemed to think. Highly recommended if you get a chance to see it.

* one of the last films I saw before this was Widows, which I thought would do this, but that was much more about men than I was expecting.

** he was also part of the obligatory group of North Oxford People Who Think They're Entitled To Give A Running Commentary, which is the major disadvantage of the Picturehouse.

Comments

[aella_irene]

I am definitely going to see The Favourite. I saw a play based on the same relationships, and it was fab, and this variant sounds equally amazing.

[caulkhead]

I meant to ask if you wanted to go and see it with me when we met up on Monday.

[white_hart]

I thought it would be your sort of thing!

[alithea]

I saw a trailer for this and told Kev we have to go see it, glad it lives up to expectations!

[jadesfire]

The trailers looked like a lot of fun, so I'm glad the film lived up to them!

[antisoppist]

I am going to see it with my 17 year-old daughter. I don't know whether either of us will die of embarrassment. Olivia Colman and Nicholas Hoult were great on Graham Norton (there were wigs).

[white_hart]

It wasn't particularly explicit (while still being very unambiguous). Though there is a lot of swearing, including frequent use of the c-word, if that is something that will embarass either of you in the presence of the other...

[antisoppist]

We take a linguistics-based approach to language so that is not a problem. She asked me to go with her so I must just be less embarrassing than watching it with any of her friends. And have cash.

[nineveh_uk]

I'm looking forward to The Favourite - a trailer last week made it look a combination of interesting and slightly bonkers!

[white_hart]

Yes, "interesting and slightly bonkers" is a good way to describe it!

[strange_complex]

I saw this yesterday, and remembered you had reviewed it recently, so came back to see what you had said. Thanks in particular for confirming that they'd used bits of Oxford in it, as I thought I had suddenly recognised the room you go into half-way through a DPhil graduation ceremony to change out of your Masters gown and into a doctoral one. I think that is indeed part of the Divinity school if I remember rightly.