Some inaccuracies (intentional rather than the result of unawareness), but quite irrelevant anyway if the film is half comedy. Obviously among them would be Anne not really having had pet bunnies as substitutes for the all the children she lost.
There probably was no lesbian triangle in the physical or non-Platonic sense. Women from the 18th century well into the early 20th century had a tendency to litter missives to their most dedicated allies with exaggerated endearments and "
romantic friendship" sentiments. The pro-erotic and sociopolitical cognitive filters of our times then project sexual desires into that formal verbal affection and emotional loyalty, misconstruing the style as rare or unconventional rather than arguably common to the times. A blackmail threat of releasing "passionate letters to another woman" would thereby dissolve under closer scrutiny into the stuff below.
Joanne Limburg: Sarah may well have found Anne’s letters dull, but she hung onto them. They were preserved along with the rest of the Duchess’s correspondence, and are now stored at the British Library. I was lucky enough to see them there, and have read the earlier ones, dating from 1683 to 1701, the year before Anne became Queen. Sarah’s description of her friend’s letter-writing style is true enough, but partial, and unkind. Anne’s letters were never intended as literary productions. What she was writing were the 17th Century equivalent of texts and emails – quick scrawls to her BFF to share her news, ask after Sarah’s health and that of her family, offers of help, condolences, requests that Sarah, as her Groom of the Stool, send or purchase little items for her – another pair of gloves, shoes better suited to the weather – and thanks when these arrived. More than anything else, they are a reflection of Anne’s feelings for Sarah, the ‘tenderness’ and ‘kindness’ she ‘has in [her] heart’.
[...] The main impression I took away from the letters was one of heart-breaking insecurity. During the turbulent years of her early adulthood, as Anne found herself alienated first from her father and then from her sister, and lost child after child, she clung more and more to Sarah, her clever, capable, beautiful friend, who could never disappoint her, and who was surely too blessed and too strong to ever die. When her sister, the Queen, gave her stark choice – dismiss Sarah, or face banishment from Court – she would choose Sarah..."
IndieWire:: Sarah did come to court and reportedly circulated a risqué poem believed to have been written by Whig propagandist Arthur Mainwaring, which suggested that there was a lesbian relationship between Anne and her chambermaid, Abigail Hill. Historians largely believe that Sarah circulated it out of jealousy rather than truth.
[...] Sarah could see that she was slowly being replaced as the favourite and such an accusation would hopefully cause Anne to cut ties with Abigail, or even lose the crown, which would benefit Sarah politically as well. In a letter to Anne, Sarah told her that she was hurting her reputation by developing "a great passion for such a woman ... strange and unaccountable." Writing further about Abigail, Sarah stated, "I never thought her education was such as to make her fit company for a great queen. Many people have liked the humor of their chambermaids and have been very kind to them, but 'tis very uncommon to hold a private correspondence with them and put them upon the foot of a friend."
Some modern commentators and filmmakers choose to conclude that Anne was a lesbian, but that's more an embrace of today's social movements than it is a reflection of historical fact. The real Sarah never mentioned that Anne had ever been attracted to her and she struck down any notion that her own relationship with Anne had ever been sexual, which would have given more credence to the suggestion of an affair with Abigail, given that Sarah's friendship with Anne was more intense than Anne and Abigail's. In addition, the film not treating such relationships as taboo is unrealistic for the time, something director Yorgos Lanthimos admitted to approaching with little regard for historical accuracy.
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Dec 29, 2018 11:27 PM
(This post was last modified: Dec 29, 2018 11:29 PM by Magical Realist.)
