Every line of the script brims with wicked hedonism, as this gripping period drama gets into its groove – and war rages between Fanning’s Catherine and Hoult’s Peter
he Great is a pleasure. Often, as it careers around a lushly stylised Russian royal court in the 1760s, it’s concerned with pleasure directly: few comedies feature quite so many banquets, while the frequency with which The Great mentions or depicts cunnilingus must be record-breaking. It satirises the 18th-century Russian ruling class, and by extension all ruling classes, as chronic overindulgers, their eyes rolled too far back into their heads to see the damage they do.
To recap: Catherine , a young German princess, has arrived in Russia to find that its emperor, Peter III, her arranged husband, is a corrupt manchild who is a danger to the citizenry and the people around him, since he is obsessed with his own desires – food, sex, violence – and maddeningly adept at using them to retain power.
It has not been wholly successful. Her husband is frustratingly still alive, with both spouses’ supporters entrenched as they fight for the royal palace – as in, they’re at war for the palace itself, since he’s in the east wing and she’s in the west, behind barricades made of exquisite furniture. The ongoing battle between thoughtful, doubtful Catherine and the utterly shameless Peter is delicious, yet The Great’s most powerful weapon is its revolving cast of hilarious supporting players, all of whom come back on ripe form: Douglas Hodge as General Velementov, the bibulous military strategist, or “balloon-shaped traitorous fuck”, as Peter calls him; Adam Godley as Rasputin-esque theological guru Archie, biding his time: “God will blow the right wind soon. We wait on his perfect whim.