The Favourite

[YouOverThere]

I was roped into watching The Favourite on Sunday. I'm still trying to figure out highly I think that it should be rated. I found it for the most part quite entertaining to watch - the acting for the most part was incredibly well done, the wardrobe was about as good as it gets, the music (at least to this fan of Baroque music) was perfect, and the plot was unpredictable and engaging enough (at least for someone who had no idea before watching the movie that there even was such a person as Queen Anne) to keep me glued to the screen. From that, you might think that I would give it 5 stars. But there were a few things about it that bothered me. At the top of the list, there were some crude semi-explicit sex scenes that seemed to be included for shock value or to show that the movie was "pushing the envelope" rather than as necessary elements for telling the story - I perhaps was more sensitive to this because I went with a Chinese woman friend whom I knew would be uncomfortable with that aspect of the movie. There were some implausible components which perhaps also weren't necessary for the plot, such as portraying the leader of the Tory Party as a quite young man (the real-life person was a 40-something during the time period covered in the movie) or having said person push one of the Queen's favorites into a drainage ditch. And then there was the issue of the historical accuracy - or lack thereof. Perhaps it would have been better to invent fictional characters rather than create an unrealistic scenario loosely based on actual events. Or maybe I'm just being stubborn and should just enjoy the plot without caring about how much of it actually happened.

[Mashinka]

I believe this film is supposed to be a comedy.  Frankly I don't see how a biography of this particular queen could be presented as anything other than a tragedy. 

Anne's father, King James II was deposed and succeeded by his ambitious Dutch son in law, William of Orange,  reigning jointly with Anne's older sister, Mary.  Mary died young of smallpox and her husband died a few years later.  Anne had not expected to become queen but made a reasonable go at it.  Politically the highlight of her reign was the act of union which joined Scotland to the rest of the country. she also enjoyed spectacular victories against the French.  Her private life was tragic as she lost all of her seventeen children and suffered ill health in adult life.  Letters she wrote throughout her life indicate unusually intense relationships with women, though it is unknown whether she pursued an active lesbian life style.  Between running the country and multiple pregnancies she may have had little time for more than writing.

Historically Anne is considered more competent than her immediate successors but it is generally considered that her life was not happy.   As you didn't know anything about this queen prior to seeing the film, I hope this helps.

[YouOverThere]

My impression is that most historians are skeptical about Queen Anne having had sexual relationships with either Sarah or Abigail. For one thing, in real life Queen Anne's husband was alive during most of the time period covered in the movie (he died a year after Abigail married). Also, part of the reason that the Queen soured on Sarah was that Sarah was frequently absent.

[dirac]

I haven't seen The Favourite, but my understanding is that it's comedy of an acerbic sort and not overmuch attention was paid to sticking too close to the historical record. I doubt that the Queen did the deed with either Sarah or Abigail but I guess it juices up the movie, so to speak.

The old BBC series The First Churchills is available for checking out with John Neville and Susan Hampshire as the Marlboroughs and Margaret Tyzack, excellent as Anne. (The production values are of course not what we expect these days in television serials, which does present something of a handicap when telling the story of England's greatest general, with the armies of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet being represented by about a dozen carefully placed extras.)

[cubanmiamiboy]

I saw it, and enjoyed it... although realized about the liberties taken in its historical accuracy.  I also didn't care for the "shock value" of the lesbian scenes. They looked forced.

 

[YouOverThere]

On 2/26/2019 at 12:59 PM, dirac said:

I haven't seen The Favourite, but my understanding is that it's comedy of an acerbic sort and not overmuch attention was paid to sticking too close to the historical record. I doubt that the Queen did the deed with either Sarah or Abigail but I guess it juices up the movie, so to speak.

I keep seeing it labelled as a comedy, but it didn't strike me as a comedy. I thought that it was a somewhat dark drama. There were other historical inaccuracies that bother me more than the lesbian portrayal, such as in the movie Abigail was the source of the trumped-up charge of embezzlement that caused the Queen to fire Sarah's husband from the army while in reality Abigail had not yet become the "Keeper of the Privy Purse" at the time the Duke was fired and so would have been unlikely to have been involved.

[canbelto]

I saw it and enjoyed it a lot. Here is what I wrote about it on my blog:

Quote

This wickedly funny costume drama about two scheming, grasping women (Sarah Churchill and her cousin Abigail, played masterfully by Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, respectively) vying for the affections of the obese, gout-stricken Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) deftly mixes politics, palace intrigue, and a fierce sapphic love triangle. Of course it's VERY loosely based on history (in real life Sarah Churchill was the mother of 7 -- here she literally wears the pants in her relationship with Anne). It's more a rumination on the different ways women had to fight for power when officially they had little power. Director Yorgos Lathimos avoids any hint of starchiness despite all the corsets and frippery. And even though all the characters are basically despicable, you care about them nonetheless. 

 

[Mashinka]

10 hours ago, YouOverThere said:

I keep seeing it labelled as a comedy, but it didn't strike me as a comedy. I thought that it was a somewhat dark drama. There were other historical inaccuracies that bother me more than the lesbian portrayal, such as in the movie Abigail was the source of the trumped-up charge of embezzlement that caused the Queen to fire Sarah's husband from the army while in reality Abigail had not yet become the "Keeper of the Privy Purse" at the time the Duke was fired and so would have been unlikely to have been involved.

This is always a problem with historical drama.  The lives of the monarch's from about 1500 onwards were subjected to intense scrutiny and details of their private lives (such as there were) have been discussed and dissected for years and for anyone with an interest in history it quickly becomes apparent that fact is being ditched in favour of fiction. 

The composer Purcell was said to be in love with Anne's sister Mary and the music he wrote for her funeral does indeed touch on personal grief, that might make an interesting film, though of course no scope for lesbian romps.

[sandik]

On 2/26/2019 at 9:59 AM, dirac said:

The production values are of course not what we expect these days in television serials, which does present something of a handicap when telling the story of England's greatest general, with the armies of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet being represented by about a dozen carefully placed extras.

Oh snap!