(Venice Luigi Noera with the kind collaboration of Marino fearful- Photos are published courtesy of the Venice Biennale)

A timeless story about the power, on money and sex closes the second day of the enthusiasm of the public

The story here staging is that of two cousins: Sarah Churchill - for years trusted the queen chaperone Anne - and Abigail Masham, fall into poverty because of the dissolute life of his father, but determined to undertake a rapid social climbing and to curry favor with the Queen herself. Even if it means playing dirty. In short words, a sort of Barry Lyndon in a skirt (it is inevitable that even the same Lanthimos thought of that).

With a situation so controversial and intricate, there is no doubt that the director has found bread for their teeth and had a good time to give us a new portrait of the human race - specifically, those who hold important powers - observed, as always, with eye hyper critical and downright cynical, where it seems there is no hope of salvation nor space - with few exceptions - for all any form of natural humanity. The story staged, therefore, It is the story of three women and their relationship with power: if the Queen Anne appears tired, proven by numerous deaths, dangerously fragile and eager only to be loved, the two women that surround it are, Unlike, strong characters, volitive, willing to do anything to win the hearts of the sovereign. But who of the two will prove, at the end, the most ruthless? Who will achieve its objective?

If initially the tone adopted by the director of the comedy are those (Nobles, in particular, The ridiculed almost as in his time did Rossellini in his The power socket by Louis XIV), soon the situation is getting heavier, stifling, claustrophobic. The royal palace - thanks, as usual by the director, in a copious use of wide-angle and fisheye, as well as an important musical commentary signed Mozart and Beethoven - becomes a kind of trap, a gilded cage in which the two protagonists are locked. From there seems to be no way out. and yet, for a strange perversion of the human mind, everyone seems to want nothing more than be locked up.

Impeccable aesthetics, The favourite - while drawing heavily from what has been achieved in the past by filmmakers from around the world - has been a successful product altogether, where above all stand out of the three protagonists performance: the excellent Rachel Weizs (in the role of Sarah) and Emma Stone (who plays Abigail) They gave further confirmation of their talent, yet particularly worthy of note is the proof actor Olivia Colman, in the role of Queen Anne. Possible Coppa Volpi? It is probably too early to tell.

The only criticism that could be moved by this work is, perhaps, the lack of quell'autorialità that has always characterized the Lanthimos film and that allowed him to get noticed in the international film scene, prior to conform more and more to Hollywood royalty. A little bad, But. As stated, indeed, the product in question is more than decent. And the powerful final scene in which we see fading the first queen plans, a sufferer Abigail and a large group of rabbits is, in fact, a real icing on the cake.

marina fears