Filmic Friday 210: The Favourite

This one's been a long time coming, folks.

The Favourite is "the best film about rabbits you've seen this year" according to the person who runs the theater Z & I saw the movie in.

She's not entirely wrong.

Rabbits feature heavily in this on-the-surface-costume-drama-but-secretly-insane movie, especially since Queen Anne, one of the three main characters, was obsessed with them.

She did keep them in her bedroom and name them after her numerous deceased children, after all.

So what is this bizarre creature about?

Actually... yeah. It's about this. This is the movie.

The movie is about the two women in Queen Anne's life - Lady Sarah (on her knee) and Abigail (on the floor). Anne is mercurial and disinterested in leading England, which is at war with France. To put things plainly, however, the movie is best described, I think, like this:

Queen Anne is 100% bananas and takes on too many lovers at once in both Lady Sarah (who has basically been leading England for her) and Abigail (Sarah's cousin and apparently much freakier than Sarah). Meanwhile, the men dress badly and race ducks.

Sarah helping Anne through an episode in the halls.

If you've ever wanted to come out of a movie feeling slightly insane, this is absolutely the film for you, and that's a good thing. You come out of this feeling like Anne - who do you trust? What is justice? What is love (lady, don't hurt me)? The rabbits are everywhere. You're drowning in them.

The movie begins with Lady Sarah basically carrying England through its war with France, since Anne neither understands nor cares for the war. She just wants to give Sarah a palace in the woods. Sarah's husband is the leader of the armies, after all, and she wants Sarah to have a safe place to live (where they can visit without anyone noticing that they're much more intimate than was acceptable). Meanwhile, Abigail is arriving via crowded coach, looking for work, and being constantly abused, harassed, and otherwise horrifically mistreated.

Abigail becomes a scullery maid, but eventually she ingratiates herself both to her cousin Sarah and to Queen Anne by finding a way to help alleviate Her Majesty's gout pains.

The sympathy you have for everyone quickly dies, however, because everyone in this castle is completely insane.

And dangerous

One moment, we're being treated to the light, funny romance between Sarah and the Queen and the next we're shown that everyone and everything exists purely to be disposed of at the will of the wealthy. If ever there was a film to make you despise monarchy and the rich, this'll do it. Seriously - racing lobsters to see which one you'll cook, shooting doves for fun, having corpulent men dance naked to be pelted with rotten fruit, screaming at children for practicing chamber music... it's brutal.

Even things that should be fun have a mild edge of "what the heck is happening here?!"

Now, I've mostly talked about the three strong female leads. What about the men?

... Is that guy on the left one of the clockwork automata from Doctor Who?

The men are largely ineffectual, abusive, or scheming. If they're not racing ducks and being gentle, daffy fellows, they're chasing down women in the woods or trying to destroy servants unless they spy on the Queen for them. They also all look like they're emulating the enemy - look at that floof and tell me it's not French. Seriously. That's some Sun King nonsense right there...

Eventually, a rivalry develops (okay, it's pretty much instantaneous) between Abigail and Sarah over Queen Anne's, culminating in Abigail making Sarah freaking disappear temporarily. The war between the two is lost the second Sarah isn't in the picture. Not even a lifetime of loyal and supportive service can win back the Queen at this point, and Sarah is so clumsy with blackmail (having never needed to resort to it) that she gets herself evicted from the castle and ejected from Her Majesty's life.

Even then, it's not enough for Abigail, who has gotten the Queen to allow her to marry above her station and become a Baroness. She completely destroys Anne's confidence in Sarah by accusing her of embezzlement. Anne doesn't really believe this, I don't think, but has Sarah banished, nonetheless.

Which Sarah takes surprisingly well, I feel.

The movie ends with one of the most insane and trippy sequences I've ever seen outside of Twin Peaks.

Actually, this movie does seem like what would happen if David Lynch wrote a costume drama...

If you'd like to watch the trailer for this mad genius film, click here.

I cannot recommend this movie enough, and if you don't believe me, than believe the BAFTAs - it won seven.

Now Go Enjoy Something!
FC