THE FAVOURITE, a film by Yorgos Lanthimos

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xp Well, were it not for Olivia Colman's natural charisma, it would've gone 0-for-10 there.

weisz was best imo

phantom thread is better tho

flop otm

"are you here to seduce me or rape me?"

"were you sent here to ruin my evening, or possibly my entire life?"

shot, chaser

Just viewed. I was enchanted until the last 5 minutes, and really wish this could have stuck the landing.

The Draughtman's Contract (likely Lanthimo's major inspiration) is a better film (though the available video transfers from 16mm aren't), but this will remain in rotation.

Really? I thought the ending was perfect! They both realized they were trapped, but were in their own separate versions of reality. After all of the harshness of the preceding story I thought it was kind of moving

this was okay, mostly just reminded me that every 10 years or so everyone in the industry appears to develop an insatiable need for an artsy royals/costume drama to enthuse over

But especially if it lets loose with the c-word throughout.

Dangerous Liaisons, Marie Antoinette, etc. Something about combining the grotesquerie of prior eras' ruling classes and then rendering them "human"

er combining portraying

thought this was really excellent -- Rachel Weisz is becoming one of my "favourite" actors (her failed attempt at seducing the queen immediately after returning from her traumatic accident was darkly hilarious) and i always enjoy Colman and Stone, though i was most surprised by Hoult in this. he's vv funny and also extremely fucking tall, i mean he really downplayed that height in Fury Road w/that hunched over gait i guess but damn. i thought this looked great and just generally the ending was really something else, abrupt but appropriately so. Anne realizing the cruelty of Abigail in that moment and turning on her was quite the moment. i enjoyed the general uselessness of the male characters and the cinematography was really beautiful.

"Anne realizing the cruelty of Abigail in that moment and turning on her was quite the moment.”

yes! and Abigail realized that she was trapped right at the same time. it was a great ending.

Shakey, that's a bizarre argument ocnsidering that 'costume dramas' aren't a static genre. We wouldn't say the same about acclaimed sci-fi, film noir, etc. We can have more than one good genre film per quarter

more lesbian cutthroatery than costume genre

think YL will produce something less fashionably pandering next

The Favourite wasn't even close to a, ah, favorite of mine last year, but I remember it being #1 in the box office for several weeks and grossing well over $500 million, thanks to its fashionable pandering

proof positive!

it shtunk but as usual Shakey doesn't know why

you know that was a joke, right

I have absolutely no memory of last winter's box office

it grossed $96 M worldwide, close enough for I don't give a muddy pile of 18th-century ordure

doesn't stop you and Shakey from being wrong

this is a weird stand to take; it's as if Lanthimos betrayed you by essaying another film into which he poured his usual obsessions, successfully or not.

To think that Lanthimos pandered by making a film in a genre that its makers struggle to get financed

it wasn't a SPIDERMAN reboot and cost $15 million, of course they struggled

i watched this while i was flying to turks and caicos to, uh, get myself in the mood for vacation?

i remember it more fondly now a couple months later. my immediate reaction was that i wanted it to be funnier.

I’m not sure I understand exactly what his obsessions are, except maybe portraying extreme outsiderness and the feeling of being uncomfortable in one’s body, but I really did like this film, more than any other of his. I'm looking forward to Pop. 1280

Dude needs to lose the fisheye

I liked the fisheye in this and don’t remember him using it in any previous films

Lanthimos commented somewhere that the fisheye was motivated (in part) to distance his film from his influences (Draughtman's Contract, Barry Lyndon).

That's interesting. The fisheye worked really well. There are also scenes that are actually candle-lit, I suspect (re barry lyndon)

I think about the draughtsman's a lot with regard to this.

like the cinematography in this.

rachel weisz was a revelation (to me, who am not familiar with her filmography).

still haven't liked any of lanthimos' films as much as dogtooth

never saw the draughtsman's contract, it's on my list of films to watch this year

xp She's great and extremely fanciable, obv, but I didn't find her performance to be any better than any of the other main characters. Everyone is excellent in it. YL clearly has a profound engagement with actors/ performances.

I meant to say that I didn't find her a revelation because I always think she's extremely good.

I think about the draughtsman's a lot with regard to this.

― Funky Isolations (jed_), Friday, July 12, 2019 7:28 PM (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is interesting. i haven't seen the draughtsman's contract in years but would be curious about how you see them relating. there is a certain formalism and they both have some episodic plotting. maybe it's just tough for me to relate greenaway to anything.

I relate Greenaway to Derek Jarman, not that their styles were that similar, I guess because they were both experimental British filmmakers from the 1980s-1990s

Not hard to find Lanthimos namechecking Draughtman's Contract in at least 4 interviews.

4 Oscar-Nominated Directors Reveal Their Biggest Inspirations

During preproduction we looked at different films — some of them period, some contemporary — in order to be inspired in different ways. We looked at period films that made bold choices in the past and were creative in how they dealt with the genre including Amadeus (Milos Forman), The Madness of King George (Nicholas Hytner), The Draughtsman's Contract (Peter Greenaway) and Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman) in terms of tone but also visually.

I loved the first episode of The Great - ploughing much the same furrow as The Favourite (right down to Nicholas Hoult's obnoxious performance), but it's one I apparently can't get enough of.