In early 18th-century England, 2 cousins compete for the affection of the ailing Queen Anne and the political influence that comes with it. Their tools are seduction, sabotage and cruelty. It's Lanthimos's easiest film to get into, and it strips historical drama down to who has power over whom.
The Favourite is a 2018 biography, comedy and drama film directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (2 cinematography and 2 narrative), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Bugonia uses several of the same techniques.
Filming a scene in wide shots from a distance and refusing to cut to close-ups. You watch awkward or extreme behavior play out in full, like a witness.
How this film uses it
Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan use ultra-wide-angle lenses all the way through, and that gives the palace rooms their warped look. The widest of these, the fish-eye, bends the corridors and ballrooms into curves. The halls of power look slightly wrong. The grandeur comes across as magnificent and absurd at the same time.
Where to see it
The court sequences. The wide-angle lens makes the palace's formal rooms bulge at the edges. The warped image matches what the film says about power at court, which is that it is warped too.
Showing extreme, violent or surreal events while the characters react as if nothing unusual is happening. That mismatch is funny and unsettling at the same time.
How this film uses it
People bet on duck racing as seriously as they plan military strategy. Queen Anne keeps 17 rabbits as stand-ins for the children she lost. Sarah's fall from grace is talked about the way you would talk about weather or management. Lanthimos never breaks the period formality to admit how absurd it all is. Keeping a straight face is the whole technique.
Where to see it
The duck racing scene. The aristocrats bet on waterfowl with the same focus and commitment they give to real political decisions.
Spreading good and bad qualities across 3 or more characters, where most stories use 2 sides. Nobody is purely the hero or the villain, so you can't easily pick who to root for.
How this film uses it
Sarah loves Anne and manipulates her. Abigail wants power and has survived enough to earn it. Anne is treated like a child and is also the sovereign. The 3-way setup refuses to cast anyone as the victim or the villain. Each woman is using someone and being used. Each has been shaped by circumstances that explain her behavior without excusing it.
Where to see it
The final scene. Anne manipulates Abigail and Sarah is in exile. The 3-way struggle ends with no winner. All that is left is a pecking order of people who have destroyed each other.
Giving each time period or social world in the film its own set of colors. You always know where and when you are, and the colors carry a mood too.
How this film uses it
Ryan shoots in natural light and candlelight wherever he can, so the interiors look like paintings from Queen Anne's time. The whites are cream, the shadows are warm brown and the outdoor scenes show gray-green English countryside. The colors make a case. This world was as real as ours, and its power struggles were as real as its colors.
Where to see it
The palace interior sequences. The candlelit rooms sit in warm amber and deep shadow. The period color makes this historical world feel lived in.
Questions
The Favourite: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does The Favourite use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in The Favourite (2018): Wide-Angle Observational Staging, Deadpan Absurdism, Triangulated Moral Ambiguity and Period Color Separation.
Who directed The Favourite?
Yorgos Lanthimos directed The Favourite, released in 2018. CineCode also covers Dogtooth (2009), The Lobster (2015), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017), Poor Things (2023), Kinds of Kindness (2024), Bugonia (2025).
What films are similar to The Favourite?
Films that share techniques with The Favourite include Bugonia (2025), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Network (1976), Fargo (1996).
