COSTUME DRAMA FILLED WITH INTRIGUE

AESTHETICS USED TO COMPEL AUDIENCE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

How do you get audiences to attend another of the season’s costume dramas? The trailer was a bit deceiving by portraying in a thumb nail The Favourite as a comedy when in essence the historical film is a drama back lit with that British monarchical charm and English wit.

The Yorgos Lanthimos film has 10 Oscar nominations, including picture of the year, directing, cinematography, actress in a leading role, and two nominations for actress in a supporting role.

Lanthimos uses an original score to compel the narrative and brilliantly brings the story line to a reversal by building suspense through several scenes with the score and aesthetics while painting atmosphere with the camera.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan shows depth by initially using the natural light through the windows of a castle for daytime scenes, as well as the light emitted from candles and fireplaces in various rooms of the castle, but then is able to switch to the opposite.

Ryan also does well with the light in a number of different staging situations, including outdoor scenes in heavily wooded areas.

Lanthimos is able to create mood and atmosphere for the audience without even considering the dialogue and abilities of the actors cast in the roles of court.

Ultimately the costume drama is another historical piece about court intrigue during the rule of an English Queen.

Olivia Colman caste as Queen Anne must find a place in the genre not occupied by Cate Blanchett as Elizabeth I (2007)(1998), Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan in Mary Queen of Scots (2018) and Eric Bana, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girls (2008), and if you subscribe to Netflix, Claire Foy in The Crown (2016-2017).

Colman must also first get past Rachel Weisz as Lady Sarah and Emma Stone as Abigail in supporting roles.

Colman, Weisz and Stone are caste well together, as are the various actors in background supporting roles and the tiny boy figurines waiting on doors and running errands for the Queen of England.

Weisz, who won an Oscar for her performance in Constant Gardener (2005), is certainly deserving of the nomination for Lady Sarah, as are Colman and Stone for their performances.

Lanthimos allows all three actors a fair share of the camera time and gradually unravels a compelling narrative based on the three story lines running together linearly.

The dialogue is not so much interesting as what the characters feel, think and do and how those aspects of their characters change when they interact with each.

The actors are under the spotlight a bit too long at one or two points where they do hold the emotion but they make the audience uncomfortable watching them do so.

Lanthimos however successfully develops the characters and the relationships between the three of them slowly deliberately and methodically.

The audience knows the personalities involved in the narrative well enough before the plot reverses into an interesting, although not entirely unanticipated, conclusion.

Lanthimos also creates a series of sideshows such as Queen Anne’s pet rabbits, and Lady Sarah’s skill with a rifle, and of course young Abigail’s court suitor, that create interest while exploring through dialogue the depth of each character.

In the end, Queen Anne is no better or worse off than when the camera was turned on her, but Lanthimos does not feel the same way about the rest of the cast.