Lanthimos' film "The Favourite" tells the story of power and love in the court of England in the 18th century. During that period of internal and external troubles, the power struggle between the Tories and the Whigs for the Peace was reduced to a situation dominated by women. The Queen's trusted confidante, Sarah, was a powerful talent for governing the country and represented an interest group. It is a Whig party, and the Queen obeys Sarah's orders. From makeup to politics, only Sarah can lead and control the Queen. Until later, Sarah supported Abigail. Originally, she only planned to train Abigail to be a maid who accompanies the Queen when she was handling state affairs, but she did not want Abigail to succeed in ascending the throne. Succeeded in squeezing Sarah out, and the queen also truly took control of the kingship.
The men in the film are absent. Although the story is about court struggles, men are only used as background foils for power and women. This is obviously different from the Chinese palace fighting dramas in which a group of women revolves around the emperor, and there are only three power figures. It is not like the scenes of many women appearing in a row in our palace fighting dramas. "The Favourite" is more about the psychological and emotional changes of the three women, and they are the characters who really guide the political direction of the country, not the concubines who do not interfere in the internal affairs of our harem and whose lifelong wish is only to win the emperor's favor.
Queen Elizabeth I, who was more than a century earlier than Queen Anne in the film, adopted a policy compatible with Catholicism and Protestantism in order to consolidate her rule, ease pressure at home and abroad, and stabilize the political foundation. She handled the royal power and parliamentary power flexibly and cautiously. Maintaining the stable development of British politics, she sacrificed her marriage for politics and never married. Queen Anne's court political background, as well as some of her character and decision-making can see some shadows of the Elizabethan era. Queen Anne's marriage is not mentioned in the film, but she has 17 rabbits, symbolizing the 17 children she lost. The film doesn't touch on the Queen's past experiences, but her irascibility, emotionality, and childishness illustrate what she has suffered. Pain and lack of love.
Sarah is the Queen's most trusted and relied personal entourage. Her husband is the chief general who fought abroad for the royal family for a long time, representing the political position of Sarah's fighting faction. Sarah has a tough approach and a tenacious character. She is full of arrogant doting on the Queen, and she is well aware of the Queen's temperament. By controlling the Queen, she holds the political power. Sarah came from a noble family and lived in the aristocratic circle all her life. Her pride and self-confidence would not allow her to lower her figure in the face of adversity, which was the source of her tragedy.
Abigail is also of noble blood, but because of his father's gambling, the family fell into trouble. Since then, Abigail has become a tool for mortgage debt. She has done hard labor, been humiliated, and has a lot of scheming. After entering the palace as a maid, she was bullied by her peers. Later, she was supported by her distant relative Sarah, and was seduced by Sarah's opponent, Harry. The long-suppressed desire gradually awakened. After realizing that Sarah was the queen's secret lover, she decided to marry Harry Cooperation, finally climbed onto the queen's bed, squeezed Sarah away, and succeeded in taking the throne. The left and right queens squeezed out the main war faction, agreed with the Tory party Harry's truce proposal, and reduced taxes.
Sarah's relationship with the Queen for many years was still lost to the new favorite. Abigail was more courteous than Sarah, but Sarah was always reluctant to put down her figure to seek peace after learning that she was losing power. She was too confident in the Queen's dependence on her, and could not achieve the inferiority and despicableness of Abigail, which had been tempered by living at the bottom of society for too long.
The former queen, in front of Sarah, was a willful and unruly child who obeyed Sarah's orders. Sarah hates her rabbits, so they are kept in cages. The rabbit was not released until Abigail took over. This marks the Queen's gradual alienation from Sarah and the realization that she has to take power back.
On the surface, Abigail won, Sarah was expelled from England, the queen moved away, and another favorite took her place. In fact, instead of handing over power to Abigail, the queen took power back into her own hands, and she finally realized her power as queen. In the last pitch shot of the Queen, she asked Abigail to bend down and rub her legs. The crisp and scattered piano sound accompanied Abigail's disillusioned feeling. The camera slowly superimposed the Queen's face, Abigail's face and more and more bunny shadows covering it.
The film is narrated in eight chapters. Each chapter in the subtitles has a title, and the sound of the cello reverberates.
The title of the first chapter, "The Stink of Sludge," is about Abigail's journey to the palace, and the title is an objective representation of God's perspective.
The title of the second chapter, "I'm afraid of confusion and accidents", comes from Sarah's mouth. This chapter exaggerates Sarah's strength over Abigail.
Titled "What a Beautiful Dress" in Chapter Three, Abigail marvels at the dress of her lover, Massam. In this chapter Abigail begins to put rabbits to please the queen.
Chapter 4 is titled "A Little Accident". Sarah comforts herself when she feels Abigail's threat. Blood splashes on Sarah's face when the girl she trained by herself is hunting; Abigail dances with the queen The sound of hunting gunshots echoed from time to time, and Abigail took the position.
Chapter 5 is titled "In case I fall asleep and slip off" the Queen said. In order to save the queen, all Sarah can do is say hello to the rabbit.
Chapter 6 is titled "Stopping the Infection," said the prostitute who saved Sarah. Abigail began to assassinate Sarah, and the queen began to resent Sarah.
Chapter 7 is titled "Don't Touch I Like It" by Abigail. The Queen started supporting Tory Harry and announced peace talks.
The title of the eighth chapter is the letter Sarah once wrote to the Queen "I dreamed that I stabbed you in the eye", Sarah began to try to put down her pride and write to the Queen, which was later cut off by Abigail and burned, and the Queen gave up Sarah completely. pull.
The director uses a lot of fisheye lenses to extend and distort the space, representing the changes in the characters' psychology and power.
It is especially suitable for the use of depth-of-field lenses for shooting luxurious scenes of the palace. The composition is well-proportioned, with just the right chiaroscuro to let in bright light from outside the window, and the backlit facial features of the characters suggest depression and gloom. The scene when the characters recall the past overlaps with the current narrative, and the clips are flashed back by cross-editing, which greatly condenses the distance between reality and the past.
It is also worth mentioning Olivia Colman , who plays Queen Anne . The following set of close-up facial expressions are enough to illustrate her superb acting skills. The Queen saw Sarah dancing at the ball, and her expression gradually changed from joy to joy. Angry and sad.
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