Mmmm I really enjoyed this movie too, and I love your analysis! The thing about the m/f relationships being ritualistic but the f/f ones being bare and real was one I never thought of but makes so much sense!!
I don't have a whole lot to offer in terms of commentary but ugh I just really enjoyed how... messy and unattractive the wlw relations in it were? Even when queer women are portrayed as predatory or whatever there's still usually an overtone of Sexiness to it that isn't necessarily inherently bad (I myself enjoy sexy women on occasion) but there's really something so lost when queer women can't just be flawed and gross and strange but still authentic. Like, I know the line right now is 'we don't need tragic stories, we need femslash where everyone is good and perfect and supported and happy all the time' and while I like that occasionally it really ignores the loss that comes from erasing just... the reality that is that relationships are complicated!! In ways that aren't covered either by standard 'everyone dies, probably unloved' stories OR 'cutesey romcom but with 0 conflict' stories!
And something I really like about it is its portrayal of power dynamics. Normally, stories in which everyone is trying to grab power just exhaust me, because I don't see the appeal in power for its own sake, and too few actually bother to think about how people will be using this power. (House of Cards is a biiig offender here.) But The Favourite always knows what its characters want beyond that huge generalisation. Sarah wants political power, yes, and she enjoys being able to boss Queen Anne around, but she also seems to sincerely love her. (And I love that they did it this way - it makes it so much more interesting than if she was just totally cold-hearted and didn't care for her at all!) Abigail clearly wants power, but the reasons shift and change and don't become totally clear until the end - she wants to regain her status and noble pride, wants to protect herself against Sarah's machinations, but the end also makes clear she loves the lifestyle and gets a giddy, sometimes sadistic (holy hell though, even if nothing actually HAPPENED in that rabbit scene that was the most tense I've been in a movie in ages ;___;) joy out of being among the elite and powerful. And then the movie casts a pall on even this - in her struggle for power she's forced herself into two relationships she may not actually really enjoy, and now she has to live with the consequences of that. And in Queen Anne we see all of the best and worst of power - the privileges, yes, but also the heavy responsibility, and how easy it is to forget about that responsibility until it's too late, and to hurt people through your own cowardice, and how it makes you permanently unable to have normal relationships with other people. Not to mention of course that for all her power she was unable to fix the worst thing that has happened to her - the tragic death of so many children. And yet there's still a sense of pride, even if it's more about how she's perceived than about acting a queen in private, and just -
I dunno, I just love how complex it is and everyone is so selfish but they can also genuinely care about each other and don't always necessarily go after the things they really want most of all, and it's just... it's queer women who get to be selfish and mean and ugly but in ways unconnected to their queerness, where if anything that queerness can represent a hidden good side them?
But yeah, definitely very real and a very interesting (if often unpleasant to watch) movie!!
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I don't have a whole lot to offer in terms of commentary but ugh I just really enjoyed how... messy and unattractive the wlw relations in it were? Even when queer women are portrayed as predatory or whatever there's still usually an overtone of Sexiness to it that isn't necessarily inherently bad (I myself enjoy sexy women on occasion) but there's really something so lost when queer women can't just be flawed and gross and strange but still authentic. Like, I know the line right now is 'we don't need tragic stories, we need femslash where everyone is good and perfect and supported and happy all the time' and while I like that occasionally it really ignores the loss that comes from erasing just... the reality that is that relationships are complicated!! In ways that aren't covered either by standard 'everyone dies, probably unloved' stories OR 'cutesey romcom but with 0 conflict' stories!
And something I really like about it is its portrayal of power dynamics. Normally, stories in which everyone is trying to grab power just exhaust me, because I don't see the appeal in power for its own sake, and too few actually bother to think about how people will be using this power. (House of Cards is a biiig offender here.) But The Favourite always knows what its characters want beyond that huge generalisation. Sarah wants political power, yes, and she enjoys being able to boss Queen Anne around, but she also seems to sincerely love her. (And I love that they did it this way - it makes it so much more interesting than if she was just totally cold-hearted and didn't care for her at all!) Abigail clearly wants power, but the reasons shift and change and don't become totally clear until the end - she wants to regain her status and noble pride, wants to protect herself against Sarah's machinations, but the end also makes clear she loves the lifestyle and gets a giddy, sometimes sadistic (holy hell though, even if nothing actually HAPPENED in that rabbit scene that was the most tense I've been in a movie in ages ;___;) joy out of being among the elite and powerful. And then the movie casts a pall on even this - in her struggle for power she's forced herself into two relationships she may not actually really enjoy, and now she has to live with the consequences of that. And in Queen Anne we see all of the best and worst of power - the privileges, yes, but also the heavy responsibility, and how easy it is to forget about that responsibility until it's too late, and to hurt people through your own cowardice, and how it makes you permanently unable to have normal relationships with other people. Not to mention of course that for all her power she was unable to fix the worst thing that has happened to her - the tragic death of so many children. And yet there's still a sense of pride, even if it's more about how she's perceived than about acting a queen in private, and just -
I dunno, I just love how complex it is and everyone is so selfish but they can also genuinely care about each other and don't always necessarily go after the things they really want most of all, and it's just... it's queer women who get to be selfish and mean and ugly but in ways unconnected to their queerness, where if anything that queerness can represent a hidden good side them?
But yeah, definitely very real and a very interesting (if often unpleasant to watch) movie!!