SNARK WEEK RECAP: The King’s Favorite aka Diane de Poitiers (2022), Ep. 2, Pt. 1

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The King’s Favorite, originally called Diane de Poitiers in France, is a 2022 French two-part miniseries starring Isabelle Adjani as the famous royal mistress of King Henry II. It still hasn’t been released in the U.S., but I was able to watch it nonetheless through the magic of VPN (and you can too! just, no English subtitles) and people, it’s WACKY. Medieval Times Sex Dungeon is waaaaay too accurate as the costume theme here.

The costumes were officially designed by French designer Cyril Fontaine, who’s only done a few obscure-to-me period productions (Through the Mill, White Saigon, Rasputin with Gérard Depardieu), while Adjani’s were by Dominique Borg (Camille Claudel, Brotherhood of the Wolf, Artemisia) and Stéphane Couvé-Bonnaire; but a news report says they were designed by Maxime Rebière and made by Borg/Couvé-Bonnaire, so I’m confused. It appears the design directive was Goth Renaissance for Adjani/Poitiers, with chain mail and head necklaces galore; following the real Diane‘s penchant for only wearing black and white, everyone gets color coded.

I can’t recap every single plot point, but I also can’t help but share the many, many “highlights,” so here’s my wander through The King’s Favorite. Today, the first third of episode two (here’s the first episode):

Diane continues to be a goth child of nature:

While examining her in-progress chateau renovations, Diane receives a message that the dauphin, Henry’s older brother who we’ve seen in about 0.5 scenes, has died. She’s legit wearing the 1910s wrap cape reproduced by American Duchess which is in no way 16th century:

Diane returns to court, and in the world’s most painful body double swap, we see this series of shots:

Shit happens, don’t remember, Adjani wears this:

Catherine and Diane scowl at each other:

There’s a continued bitchfest between Diane and Catherine; Diane strategically gives Catherine her room, while Catherine shows off her inability to wear a hoopskirt and her super modern Louboutin boots (they literally discuss the shoemaker Louboutin):

Catherine has some kind of Loïe Fuller moment in the gardens:

Henry and King François have a big fight; the king orders Henry off to the wars. Henry and Diane commune and have a sad.

Catherine and Diane see Henry off; Catherine is grumpy because she hasn’t gotten pregnant yet, and suddenly Diane wants to be helpful about this. Catherine wears a super stripped-down, high-necked silver gown that she’s going to repeat ad nauseum for a while, while Diane looks like a nun:

Anne continues to scheme with Kerennes. He gets handsy, and she slaps him. The outfit she wears to meet with him (her Scheming Outfit?) is kind of vinyl or pleathery?

François is pissed at Catherine for not being pregnant, although with Henry away At The War, I’m not sure what she’s supposed to do about that. He’s now wearing a darker red, I think to indicate he’s aging.

At the war, Henry is dirty and bloody, and a local Italian woman — Philippa Duci — offers him wine; he gets mad at the kilt guy for not kidnapping her and making her shag him. Kilt guy turns out to be Gabriel de Lorges, Count of Montgomery.

Diane mopes, and I think has a dream in which she visits the troops? Unclear. She’s just suddenly wandering around soldiers at night.

She has some tête à tête with her architect, can’t remember the specifics:

François goes for a walk with Diane and Anne, and announces that 1) Henry is coming home, and 2) he’s knocked up an Italian woman (Philippa) and will be bringing both Philippa and baby home with him. Hooray, Henry’s guys can swim! Diane is pained. I should note that this production looks to have been filmed at some really gorgeous French chateaux, including Chateau de Chambord, which I visited a few years ago; I’m guessing they took advantage of the same no-tourists Covid period thing that The Serpent Queen did.

Diane goes to Catherine and tells her about Philippa and the baby. Catherine sticks with her power blazer.

I feel like Diane’s partlet decoration…

…references those Florentine partlets that have drippy beads on them:

Catherine tells François he can repudiate her if he wants; he’s had a change of heart and says no way. She’s in an orangey gown that seems suspiciously like a printed cotton, but with very Florentine sleeves:

Diane goes to Catherine and offers to help her get pregnant; my French fails me and I’m not totally clear how. Diane is wearing that silver and black damask dress we saw a glimpse of before, this time with a partlet:

Here’s that same dress on display. It just screams like they copied the design from Queen Margot (1994):

Here’s its design, credited again to Maxime Rebière:

Catherine’s partlet looks like a bad version of the kind worn by fellow country-of-origin-woman Eleanora di Toledo:

Stay tuned tomorrow for more of The King’s Favorite aka Diane de Poitiers!