“Favorite” Yorgos Lanthimos: rabbits, chocolate cakes and other” weaknesses ” of Queen Anne

This week in the Russian hire came “Favorite” (The favorite) Yorgos Lanthimos. The film for Lantimosa highly ambiguous and not so pretentious as “Murder of sacred deer” or “Lobster” – comfortably watch until the end of, understand that is happening (and even obtain from this pleasure) will be able if not all, then many.

The thing is probably that “Favorite” is not an author’s project, but a commercial one. For the first time, the script of the film was not handled by the Director himself, but by writer and producer Deborah Davis and series writer and Director Tony McNamara.The plot of the film is built around the Palace intrigues between two confidants of the British Queen Anne, the last reigning monarch of the Stuart dynasty. The narrative covers the earliest start time of the reign of Queen — the end of XVII and beginning of XVIII century. While the infantile Anna gorges herself sickeningly on forbidden cakes and plays with the rabbit pack in her bedroom, the country is ruled by a “grey cardinal” in the person of lady Sarah Churchill.The idyll of close relations between the Queen and her favorite breaks the arrival of a new servant Abigail, who is a cousin of lady Churchill. Sarah is charmed by the meek and dutiful servant and takes over her patronage at court. However, Abigail has her own plans and ambitions-gradually and imperceptibly for Sarah, she gets closer to the Queen.Yorgos Lanthimos is certainly a very important Director of our time. If in France Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut created a “new wave”, then Lanthimos launched a “new Greek wave”. Soon the Director, with his unique and recognizable style, began to collect awards from prestigious festivals of author’s cinema. His second feature film “Fang” won the prize “Special look” at the “Cannes film Festival”, “Lobster” was nominated for “Oscar” in several categories and also received several awards in Cannes, “Alps” won the prize for “Best screenplay” at the “Venice film festival”. These and other pictures secured for Lanthimos fame as a Director who makes intelligent, but very strange and provocative films.

However, “Favorite” is not like any of them. In the film, there are actually no complex metaphors and images-the plot, motives, actions of the characters will be clear to the ordinary viewer. In the picture, an impeccable artistic production-a game of textures, natural materials and colors: the wooden walnut floor is perfectly combined with the dress of the main character, the scene with goose bumps looks like a revived canvas.
Unlike other pictures of the Director, “Favorite” does not relish the “aesthetics of disgust”, there are no shock scenes and frames-visually everything is done with maximum naturalness.

Special attention should be paid to the work of the operator Robbie Ryan-the film is actually shot in natural light-whether it is shooting in the daytime, in the mode (dawn/sunset) or by candlelight. A very important detail that distinguishes “Favorite” from other historical paintings is the manner of shooting. Here again there is no picture, meticulously symmetrically verified frames-many scenes are shot with a manual dynamic camera, which creates the effect of “presence and spying” on what is happening. And in a duet with convincing performance of actors and at all you forget that you watch the movie — just you observe the events.
Makeup Actresses also maximally natural and, jobs, sloppy — ranging from “badger eye” heroine Olivia Colman (Olivia Colman) and ending all wrinkles Rachel Weisz (Rachel Weisz).

And, of course, the fact that the film was shot by Lanthimos is felt in the presence of … witty and rough humor, which permeates the entire film. It is expressed as in the dialogues (“are You in this outfit come to seduce me or rape?”), and in the whimsical plasticity of court dances, reminiscent of Indian ritual dances around the fire. That is, in fact, it is a “black Comedy” made in historical settings.
As for following historical facts, Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill did compete with each other, but in the film it was somewhat embellished. There was no secret corridor between the Queen’s and Sarah Churchill’s bedrooms, but it was between the bedrooms of Anne’s great-great-grandfather James and his favourite, the Duke of Buckingham.

Speaking about whether to watch a movie-of course, the film deserves the audience’s attention.
First, “Favorite” received nominations for all the prestigious world film awards, such as:” Oscar”,” Golden globe”,” Venice film festival”,”actors Guild Award”.Secondly, the main reason why you should buy a ticket: this is the first and, at the moment, the only life-affirming film by Yorgos Lanthimos, after which you do not lather the rope standing on a stool, but leave the cinema in a great mood, you want to sing and collect flowers in the meadows.