Yorgos Lanthimos names the six movies that inspired ‘The Favourite’
The cinematic world of Yorgos Lanthimos is a surreal fantasy, often bordering on nightmare territory through the Greek director’s unsettling depictions of violence and sexuality. Take Dogtooth, for example, often considered his breakout film, which is laden with incest, abuse and bizarre sex scenes that will have the most seasoned cinephile squirming in their seat.
While Lanthimos rose to prominence with the offbeat project, he has found greater success since he transitioned to English-language productions, becoming one of Hollywood’s best-known creators of unconventional cinematic experiences. With The Lobster, starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, Lanthimos attracted a wide audience through his fascinating tale about people who are turned into animals if they fail to find love.
He made another successful movie in the form of The Killing of a Sacred Deer in 2017 before releasing his hugely popular 2018 release, The Favourite. The film became one of the biggest hitters at the Academy Awards, racking up nine nominations. It also won seven Baftas, with unanimous praise given to the film’s writing, direction, costume design, cinematography and performances. Put simply, The Favourite was one of the best releases of the year, although it ultimately lost ‘Best Picture’ at the Oscars to Green Book.
The movie sees Olivia Colman play the moody Queen Anne, with Weisz and Emma Stone (another frequent collaborator of Lanthimos’) playing cousins desperate for their leader’s attention and affection. The movie feels distinctively Lanthimos, yet the filmmaker took influence from other period dramas, as well as “completely different films.” Speaking to Vox, he picked out six movies that inspired The Favourite.
Since the movie was set in the 18th century, Lanthimos looked at other films set several centuries ago, such as Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers, which takes place in the 1800s. The movie is remembered for its vivid use of red decor and lighting, which gives it a slightly timeless look. Lanthimos described the movie’s colour palette as “very limited; they only wear black and white.”
He added, “It’s a very dark and dramatic film — there’s that aspect of drama in our film as well, but we were mostly making it a comedy with a tragedy interweaved in some parts of it.”
The director also studied Amadeus by Miloš Forman, which follows the career of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart during the 1700s. Alongside The Madness of King George by Nicholas Hytner, set during the Regency Crisis, Lanthimos called these films “inspiring for trying to do something different with the [period] genre.” Forman’s movie is unabashedly fun, dramatic, luxurious and humorous, becoming a key reference point due to its unconventional approach to the period drama biopic.
Lanthomos picked out Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract as another source of inspiration, calling it “striking visually,” praising its costume and set design, which influenced his approach to the visuals that define The Favourite. “I think they used a lot of simpler fabrics while retaining the shape of the period. They used fabrics that weren’t that elaborate,” he explained.
When it came to cinematography, Juraj Herz’s The Cremator and Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession provided vital inspiration. Within both movies, unusual, almost uncanny camera angles often frame the characters. For example, in The Cremator, Rudolf Hrušínský’s character is sometimes framed from above, as though we are God looking down on him. In Possession, sprawling shots follow the characters as they act outrageously, with the characters sometimes breaking the fourth wall. Lanthimos watched these and “other contemporary stuff that just felt inspiring to what we were trying to do” when making The Favourite.
Six movies that inspired The Favourite:
- Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972)
- Amadeus (Miloš Forman, 1984)
- The Madness of King George (Nicholas Hytner, 1994)
- The Draughtsman’s Contract (Peter Greenaway, 1982)
- Possession (Andrzej Żuławski, 1981)
- The Cremator (Juraj Herz, 1969)
