Hello and welcome back to OTBB: Movie Club!
This week is our final movie of Love Triangles! We’ll be looking at a personal favorite of mine: The Favourite.
Notable Crew
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer)
Casting: Dixie Chassay (Atonement, Dune Part Two, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Cinematographer: Robbie Ryan (Fish Tank, Marriage Story, C’mon C’mon)
Costume Designer: Sandy Powell (Shakespeare in Love, The Aviator, Carol)
Makeup/Hairstyling: Nadia Stacey (Cruella, Poor Things, The Father)
Notable Cast
Queen Anne: Olivia Colman (The Crown, The Father, Broadchurch)
Abigail: Emma Stone (La La Land, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Easy A)
Lady Sarah: Rachel Weisz (The Mummy, The Constant Gardener, Constantine)
Harley: Nicholas Hoult (The Menu, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Great)
Lord Marlborough: Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Dr. Who (writer), The League of Gentlemen)
My Thoughts
Yorgos Lanthimos is a love him or hate him director. You can either vibe with the wavelengths of his movies, or not. So far I’ve mostly been vibing (this year’s Poor Things the only exception so far). He has a distinct directorial voice that, personally, I find the most confident in this movie.
He is able to superbly match his dark comedy with the period this is set in, as well as the ridiculous absurdity found in the real-world monarchial chambers of 1700s Great Britain.
A large part of the success of this film is found in the cast. The actors had previously given great performances, but the sharp dialogue from the script and Lanthimos’ direction bring out some of the best performances we’ve seen from these actors. There’s a reason the cast kept receiving nominations and wins that awards season. I find it to be my favorite Olivia Colman performance, hands down.
Lanthimos’ creative team is stellar as well. Robbie Ryan’s camera utilizes angles and lenses that honestly shouldn’t work, but somehow do. Particularly his fisheye lens use. It’s bold and perfect for this story. I find the costumes to be exemplary, which is what a costume drama deserves and demands.
This to be the most audience-friendly of Lanthimos’ oeuvre. It’s a good litmus test for how you might feel about the more challenging or odd movies he’s made, here’s looking at you, Dogtooth.
The Love Triangle
Participants: Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), Abigail (Emma Stone), and Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz)
Rating: 2/6
Queen Anne: 2/2
Loves Abigail X
Loves Lady Sarah ✓
Abigail: 0/2
Loves Luisa X
Loves Julio X
Lady Sarah: 2/2
Loves Queen Anne ✓
Loves Abigail X
This is definitely the most toxic of the triangles this month.
Extra Materials
Reading
Video
While not solely just about The Favourite, this is a great video on Yorgos Lanthimos.
Let me know what you thought of The Favourite!
The final shot of the movie is so interesting to me, what do you think of it?
Personally, the more I sit with it, the more it feels like the layering of the rabbits on top of Anne and Abigail are representative of the life inside Anne. She said earlier in the movie they are for each of her children she lost, and says “Each one that dies, a little bit of you goes with them.”
I’m wavering if the layering is meant to evoke Anne gaining those bits of life back, or we see her losing her final bits of her life, or humanity, at that moment. Thoughts?
Thanks for a great first month! Next month we’ll have what will be on ongoing theme: Spotlight! No, not the movie. I’ll use this series to spotlight a director, actor, writer, etc.
For March, I’ve chosen the Spotlight to shine on Agnès Varda, a notable filmmaker of the French New Wave, specifically the Left Bank side of the French New Wave.
The following are the films I’ve selected for the month:
3/2 - The Beaches of Agnès
3/9 - Cleo from 5 to 7
3/16 - The Gleaners and I
3/23 - Jacquot de Nantes
3/30 - Le Bonheur
Up next: The Beaches of Agnes | 2008
You can stream it on The Criterion Channel and Kanopy.
Kanopy is a free streaming service you can utilize with your library card, I highly recommend it!
Thanks for reading. Til next time!
— Colton
You're totally right that everyone has one specific Yorgos movie that doesn't work for them. Mine is The Lobster, but I've truly heard this note from others about every individual film in his oeuvre.
That said, The Favourite is indisputably my (ugh) favorite. Looking forward to Varda Month!