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Yorgos Lanthimos

The Favourite – Machiavellian Comedy

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“I’m on my side. Always.”

It isn’t news that politics can be a cutthroat sport. But in the hands of Yorgos Lanthimos, all that palace intrigue can become the basis of humor. The Favourite is a Machiavellian comedy set 400 years ago that reflects the way power often happens in secret, but with important consequences.

Olivia Colman in the film THE FAVOURITE. Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

Set in the reign of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) the story takes place almost entirely within the royal household. Anne is frail, crippled by gout, and retiring. She lacks the confidence and, it seems, the intelligence to handle matters of state. Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) is Anne’s longtime friend, confidant, lover, and controller. Even though Anne holds the power, Sarah knows how to manipulate her. Sarah is the éminence grise who, while working with the Whigs in the Parliament, actually runs the country.

When Sarah’s cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) shows up at the palace looking for a position, Sarah is not all that impressed. Abigail was born a part of the aristocracy, but her family’s bankruptcy took away the life she had expected. Sarah sends her to the kitchen to work as a scullery maid. But when Abigail makes an herbal remedy that helps the Queen’s gout, Sarah appoints her to be her own maid, perhaps grooming her to assist her in her political mechanizations. But Abigail sees it as a chance to make her own way. The Tory leader sees in Abigail a backchannel to the Queen. When Abigail discovers how Sarah is running things, and the power she has over Anne, Abigail begins to undermine her cousin and put herself forward. Eventually, their rivalry will take on much larger significance as each pushes the agenda of their political allies.

Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz in the film THE FAVOURITE. Photo by Yorgos Lanthimos. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

This is a dark comedy, with a good deal of scatological and bedroom humor. There is also a satirical quality to it as it looks at the political system as buffoonery. The Queen is unintelligent. The leader of the Whigs carries his prized racing duck around with him. The leader of the Tories is a consummate dandy. None of those tabularly in power is in any way worthy of respect. Or course, we could look at our own political system and wonder if anything has changed.

The story is based on historical people, however the events are fictional. Even so, it shows how important matters, even war and peace, may be determined not so much by reason as by personalities and how they manipulate situations. And because it is nearly all dealing with the aristocracy, we also understand that those who really pay the price for all this are people with no voice.

Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in the film THE FAVOURITE. Photo by Yorgos Lanthimos. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

It makes for an interesting twist that the world of politics in this story is based on these three women. The men in the story really have no control; they are used by the women to further their own goals. Each of the women is seeking something for herself. The Queen is looking for love. Sarah desires power. Abigail begins by seeking status and prestige, but soon that is not enough, she wants autonomy and freedom to do as she wants. It is a matter of everyone wanting their own good, even if it is at the expense of others.

Photos courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Wednesday at AFIFest 2018

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In the theater before each screening at AFIFest 2018 Presented by Audi, there are slides about AFI that show sponsors and donors. Those are all very important. Those are the reasons AFIFest is free to the public. But there are also those not listed because there are so many of them—the volunteers. It takes lots of volunteers to make a festival work. Some of their work is behind the scene, or they may be on their feet for hours wrangling the lines or collecting tickets and queue cards. Each screening gives the volunteers a round of applause (which they probably never hear.) If there is a festival near you, consider volunteering. At least you’ll get a t-shirt out of it—and you’ll help people see some wonderful films.

Dogman is Italy’s official entry for Oscar consideration. Directed by Matteo Garone, it is the story of Marcello (Marcello Fonte), of a dog groomer who gets caught up in the criminal underworld. Marcello is meek and caring, but the local thug Simone (Edoardo Pesce) terrorizes him and pushes him into crime. In time Marcello loses everything important to him and must find a way out of Simone’s grip. But at what cost?

Penélope Cruz stars as Laura and Javier Bardem as Paco in Asghar Farhadi’s EVERYBODY KNOWS, a Focus Features release.Credit: Teresa Isasi/Focus Features

The secrets of the past come out in Everybody Knows (Todos Lo Saben) from director Asghar Farhadi. When Laura (Penélope Cruz) returns home to Spain for her sister’s wedding, there is great celebration. But when her daughter is kidnapped, the story turns dark and suspenseful. Her childhood love, Paco (Javier Bardem), becomes highly invested in trying to help, putting both of their marriages at risk. As the days go on, questions arise of old relationships and old resentments. Is it the work of outsiders, or is it someone close to the family? Will the old sparks bring new love or destroy everyone involved? Everybody Knows is scheduled to open in U.S. theaters in February.

Emma Stone in the film THE FAVOURITE. Photo by Yorgos Lanthimos. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

Yorgos Lanthimos has created some bizarre societies for his films, but perhaps nothing quite like the British royal household during Queen Anne’s reign in The Favourite. Lady Sarah (Rachel Weiss) is Queen Anne’s (Olivia Colman) confidant and advisor. She is also the éminence grise, controlling the kingdom through her influence with the queen (who needs all the help she can get because she is a twit). When her down-on-her-luck cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) turns up seeking a post, she is sent to work as a scullery maid but, bit by bit, Abigail works her way around Sarah and into the Queen’s service. Abigail becomes allied with the parliamentary opposition, thwarting Sarah’s work with the prime minister. This is a Machiavellian comedy about deception and power. Lanthimos fans will surely appreciate his humor. The Favourite opens in theaters later this month.

 

The Lobster – When Love is a Chore

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In a somewhat benign dystopia (The City) all people who are not in a relationship must go to a resort for single people. They have forty-five days to fall in love and become a couple, or they will be transformed into an animal. Yorgos Lanthimos (previous film: Dogtooth) brings us films that have very strange settings and allows us to see what seem to be fairly normal people in bizarre situations. So it is with The Lobster. This is a very different kind of romantic comedy than most viewers expect.

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David (Colin Farrell) is recently divorced and must check in to The Hotel and try to find a suitable mate. You would think people would be going crazy to pair up, but there is such a lack of emotion in this strange world that we’re not surprised that there are so many who fail. As David begins to close in on his end date, he manages to escape to the woods where there is a group of “Loners”, people who choose not to follow society’s rules about being in pairs and carry on a guerrilla war. There are rules to being in The Loners, including no flirting, but soon David is attracted to “Short Sighted Woman” (Rachel Weisz). Whereas in The Hotel such attraction would be encouraged, amidst The Loners, they risk being ostracized, so must develop their own way of showing affection.

There is a wonderful supporting cast that includes Olivia Colman (Hotel Manager), Lea Seydoux (Loner Leader), and John C. Reilly (Lisping Man). David is the only character with an actual name; the others are defined by their roles or their flaws.

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For those unfamiliar with Lanthimos (and since this is his first film in English, that will be most people), the kind of quirky world he has created might be compared to the films of Wes Anderson, although Lanthimos uses a more subtle and drier sense of humor. Here that translates into an entertaining look at what it means to love and be in love in a world where loving is not so much a joy, but a chore. For those in The Hotel, love must be found to survive, but that means it is not something that we experience so much as something that must be accomplished (or perhaps even faked). For David it is only in the freedom of the forest among the Loners that he finally finds love, but then it is forbidden. David and Short Sighted Woman must forge their own way to finding the joy that love represents.

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The film gives us a chance to consider the expectations of society that we fit a certain mold in our relationships. If we aren’t paired up, if we aren’t a couple, if we don’t meet certain criteria, we are outsiders. But then it seems the outsiders have their own set of rules. They expect conformity within their nonconformity. Trying to fit love into any set of rules may lead us to miss the kind of happiness that we find through the discovery of what makes any love unique.

Photos courtesy of A24