23 thoughts on “The Favourite In Depth

  1. Yes exactly. I have not yet seen this movie, but from the descriptions and reviews it is pretty obvious that a lot of liberties have been taken with the truth. Which I suppose is to be expected. One report that bothers me is that Sarah is supposed to be “running the government”. Sarah was not running the government. Sidney Godolphin was running the government and doing a pretty good job of it too!

  2. “The dialogue is very contemporary, and the themes are very contemporary, and if we’d dressed it up as too period, it would have been a distraction.”…then why, pray tell, make an historical film?

    1. I’d only seen one film from this director but i gather he’s more interested in the material (relationship of the three) than the historical aspect of it – so i don’t think the point was taking us to a different time, rather showing something in an interesting context

  3. I really like this. It’s clear the costume designer had a very clear view of what she wanted, and also know the period- what isn’t period correct is a concious decision, and not an asumption that no one cares and everything goes. I much rather have this kind of costumes than something sold as being SO ACCURATE when in reality it is not.

  4. I loved this movie! It is NOT a typical frock flick, and I very much enjoyed the stylization.
    Something I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned is the use of blue in the costumes – as Sandy Powell said above, they used blue for the kitchen staff, and the servants more generally. As Abigail rises in rank, you can see blue working its way out of her clothes until she’s a proper lady, and is only in black and white.

    But watch for smatterings of blue in other characters, too. It’s an indication of servility.

  5. Listening to the first third of the podcast prepared me for laser cut fabrics, and so I knew about limited palette going in. I didn’t recognize use of denim for lower servants, but I saw film on a very small theatre screen.

    The setting, set dressing and props (custom carriages!) are so detailed and beautiful, it’s a bit of a disconnect to feel the costumes were the “save money” line item. The use of laser cut vinyl seemed to drive some stiff silhouettes that didn’t drape in a way I expect even heavy fabrics to. But, still a visual costume feast compared to everything else I’ve seen this year, and I want to see it on a bigger screen.

  6. I thought that Powell’s costumes were great. The cuts of the Mantua dresses for Sarah and Abigail as she reached her ascent were close to surviving examples in the Met, V&A, and other costume collections. The black and white color scheme was interesting because both the surviving garments and depictions of period dress in portraits show the use of bright and bold colors as well as traces of silver and gold thread in some of the dresses.

    The small detail I really liked was the use of white and blue china tea service by the three lead women. Blue and white porcelain, both Chinese export and Delftware, became popular during the joint reign of Anne’s sister Mary and her husband William.

    it was a great film and really fascinating examination of the nature of female power and authority.

  7. I saw it today and loved it! Coincidentally quite a few friends had also booked into the same session. Before the movie was a trailer for MQOS and I blurted out “Oh for God’s Sake” when the denim appeared, and we all laughed. I think we need to convince the theatre to do a snark session where we can shout at the screen as much as we want!
    The favourite I LOVED. LOVED everything. he costumes worked entirely for me.

  8. Just got back from seeing this as a NY treat, and it was BRILLIANT! We cackled and sniggered our way through it, the costumes looked fab, and oh boy that dance sequence… also it didn’t hurt that Rachel Weisz looked damned HOT. Years ago I saw the BBC drama ‘the First Churchills’ so this made a fantastic contrast

  9. Why on earth is the Duchess referred to as “Lady Sarah”? She was not the daughter of a peer. She was either Mistress Jennings, Mrs. Churchill, Lady Churchill, the Countess of Marlborough or the Duchess of Marlborough. I know that the director said he had no interest in historical accuracy (obviously) – so why do a historical film then? What kills me is that this era is fascinating and so are the people involved. However they are now caricatures to most people who views the film. Poor deeply religious and prudish Queen Anne – she was better off when nobody had heard of her.

  10. I recently saw this in theaters and I went in very excited. I’m a historian, historical archaeologist, and a reenactor . This entire movie is supposedly set between 1710 and 1711.

    The sets were gorgeous, I have no flaws with them. However, one of the few things I noted and despised was the monochromatic use of colors and how much black there was, this was the early 18th century, it was a colorful time, especially when you look at court fabrics.

    I immediately disliked like the use of the laser cut leather and trim. I was shocked at the lack of lace. The limited wardrobe of the queen greatly surprised me, though I did think the ermine was well done.

    I’m not going to go into the history that they got wrong with the details they left out. Once again Hollywood has taken history which is interesting and rich details and decided to make things up.

    The use of vulgarity and explicit sexual scenes didn’t particularly surprised me as it was an 18th century setting and most of what was shown was correct for the time. Speaking of sexual scenes Emma Stone’s monologue was delivered in such a way that I may never, unfortunately, forget it.

    Of course some of the music post-dated 1710 and I’m not even going to talk about the dancing because that hurts.

    As a side note I actually quite like the blue heavy working cloth for the servants clothes I didn’t realize until later that it was denim and I have no problem with its use. However, the gown for the vocalist who was singing with the harpsichord with the very large polka dots look like it’s came straight out of an upholstery shop.

    Having learned after seeing the film how limited the budget was for clothing I am impressed with what they accomplished, but I don’t like their selections.

  11. it was a great film and really fascinating examination of the nature of female power and authority.

    I don’t know how to feel about this comment. There are a good number of women who are turned off by “THE FAVOURITE”, because they felt it conveyed a negative message about women in power.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from Frock Flicks

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue Reading