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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 middle third of episode two (here’s the first episode and the first part of episode 2):
Henry is coming home from the war, Diane is conflicted:
He brings home a filthy Philippa Duci, who we then never see again:
Diane decides that the way to get Catherine knocked up is to drill a hole in the wall between their bedrooms and have Catherine spy on Diane and Henry’s sexytimes. Apparently it’s a technique problem here?
Diane urges Henry to shag Catherine, literally telling him it’s because she knows Catherine isn’t competition the way a pretty young princess would be. She’s back in her nun’s outfit:
Kerennes follows Diane around the gardens, I think to do the whole acid attack. Diane wears a sparkly hat for the occasion.
She communes with nature via a tree, Kerennes is touched.
François is dying! His mistress Anne wants to visit him, but Catherine says no, and Diane is the one to tell her. Catherine gets a darker red for the somber occasion; Henry sticks with his corduroy; Diane with her knitted partlet.
Anne is in a dark green cape-y thing.
Kerennes tells Anne he didn’t go through with the acid attack (?). Anne is in very dark green for mourning.
It’s Henry’s coronation day! Diane is being dressed in her best Christmas wrapping paper gown plus witchy AliExpress tiara. I literally own this tiara in another color. It cost me about $3. Maybe I am Diane de Poitiers??!!
Henry gets dressed in his coronation robes:
He visits Diane and tells her he’s sad because she can’t be crowned with him. Diane is wearing all the smokey eye makeup for the special occasion.
That dress was also on display:
Catherine is pregnant and mute in a new red overgown over her power blazer:
Anne comes to ask to keep her titles and lands given to her by François, but Henry says they’ve all gone to Diane. Diane keeps her mouth shut.
A fur merchant comes to offer merchandise to the royals; somehow the convo turns to Protestantism. Diane asks him if he’s Protestant, he says yes, she tells him off.
Henry burns the merchant at the stake for being a Protestant and forces Diane to watch. Diane is regretful.
Catherine continues to be pregnant. She’s got a maternity gown with laced darts; yes to lacing letting things out, but weird placement.
Stay tuned tomorrow for more of The King’s Favorite aka Diane de Poitiers!
It doesn’t sound like burning a merchant at the stake can compare to the scene in “The Serpent Queen” when Henri stabs a Huguenot to death in the throne room then he and Diane make out while smearing blood all over each other.
Did this exhibition of costumes also include costumes from “La reine Margot?” Because I’d bet that would be quite the contrast in quality.
The most hilarious thing about the scene with the wiccan tiara is that… Adjani wears a Van Cleef and Arpels necklace (yay an other product placement ! It’s subtle but it’s mentioned in the credits) I guess they did not bother to lend the matching tiara https://soirmag.lesoir.be/475635/article/2022-11-07/isabelle-adjani-porte-un-collier-37-millions-deuros-dans-diane-de-poitiers-il-y
“anglerfish. forehead. accessory.” Glad I wasn’t drinking an adult beverage while reading that, but might need one soon if I consider the popsicle-stick-with-silver-paint tiara further.