The Favourite, by Yorgos Lanthimos

This is a good movie, a dark comedy about the backstage struggles for power, in the guise of a period drama - in this case set in Queen Anne's court, even if we actually don't get to see much of the court itself. It's mostly the inner rooms we see, where the ruthless fight between two beautiful women for the status of favourite to a vulnerable and ageing queen takes place.

The story is based in true facts, although reasonably adapted for dramatic purposes and easier appeal to our present conceptions - that kind of historical distortion has a quite time honoured tradition in the movies. I find somewhat annoying the fashion now to present the past as excessively gross regarding sex and language - probably as inaccurate as when it used to e presented as sexless and what used to pass as "noble". I guess the truth lies somewhere in between these two extreme depictions, but of course we'll never know for sure, and historical novels and movies end up by telling us more about the present mores then the past ones. For instance, I never watched a period movie regarding these times that approached the lively portraits in Saint-Simon's memoirs or the Princess Palatine's letters, or even Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

But that said, this movie is still very entertaining, especially thanks to the superb acting of the three protagonists, and I think Olivia Colman's Oscar was totally deserved. I knew her from her work in Broadchurch, and she's really a great actress.