After the one-two English-langue punch of The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos is back, and he’s behind perhaps Fox Searchlight’s biggest film of the fall. Starring Olivia Colman (who gets top billing, for those doing their Best Actress predictions), Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz, The Favourite follows the political machinations behind the scenes during the reign of Queen Anne, the last monarch of the House of Stuarts. As one can see in the first trailer, released today by Fox Searchlight, Lanthimos has cranked up the absurd factor while still keeping his Kubrickian eye, clearly inspired by Barry Lyndon here.
“I would say it’s a comedy. I think he would say it’s a comedy,” Weisz told Indiewire last year. “It’s funny. It’s different in that it’s not an imagined world, almost all of it really happened. There are some things that are dreamt up, but it’s English history, so it’s not just a Yorgosian dystopia or fairy tale.” She added, “My character is basically running the country because the queen is ill. To be frank, she’s pretty useless at running the country. She’s a great best friend, but not a very good queen. So I am running the country from behind the scenes.”
Also starring Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn, James Smith, and Mark Gatiss, see the trailer below.
Early 18th century. England is at war with the French. Nevertheless, duck racing and pineapple eating are thriving. A frail Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) occupies the throne and her close friend Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) governs the country in her stead while tending to Anne’s ill health and mercurial temper. When a new servant Abigail (Emma Stone) arrives, her charm endears her to Sarah. Sarah takes Abigail under her wing and Abigail sees a chance at a return to her aristocratic roots. As the politics of war become quite time consuming for Sarah, Abigail steps into the breach to fill in as the Queen’s companion. Their burgeoning friendship gives her a chance to fulfil her ambitions and she will not let woman, man, politics or rabbit stand in her way.
The Favourite opens on November 23.