Those familiar with director Yorgos Lanthimos' penchant for dark comedy and mesmerizingly unsettling auteur cinema won't be shocked that his latest project, The Favourite, premiering today, is a far cry from the stereotypically stilted English period piece. Set during Queen Anne's reign during the 1700s, the film tells the story of two royal cousins who become rivals, vying for the affection of their needy and emotionally unstable monarch. Rachel Weisz plays Lady Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, who serves as the longtime confidante to Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) and the only person blunt enough to tell the Queen to her face that her makeup makes her look like a badger. And because Anne would rather spend her time in bed, doting on her numerous pet bunny rabbits than rule the country, Sarah control the affairs of the state from the sidelines, and in turn, wields tremendous power in the ongoing war between England and France.
And then there's Abigail Masham, played by Emma Stone, who was once a lady herself but has found her family name disgraced due to her father, who gambled away all of their money and honor. Abigail arrives to the castle drenched in manure and Sarah takes pity on her once-esteemed cousin, granting her the position of her personal maid. Although Abigail seems sickly sweet on the surface, she slowly begins to plot her rise by currying favor with Anne. Unlike Sarah, Abigail is more than happy to humor even the most nonsensical of the Queen's whims, whispering doting compliments into her ear and providing the affection that Anne never received from her longtime friend.
Like the black comedy's unconventional tone and dialogue, the costumes for The Favourite defy expectations and stereotypes, casting women as the main political pieces in the chess board of war and men as the secondary characters in comparison. One wouldn't typically think of a corset genre film as empowering for women, portraying the unrealistic beauty expectations of the time period, but that's exactly what costume designer Sandy Powell, best known for her work on Shakespeare in Love and Velvet Goldmine, set out to do.
"The whole film is a reversal in that most films are about men and women quite often are the pretty things in the background," she tells CR. "Even though the men have proper parts to play, they are secondary to the women and [Lanthimos] said he wanted the men to look overly made-up, ridiculous peacocks and the women to be much more naturalistic with barely any makeup."
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