| The Favorite (Intimate Power) | |
| Director: | Jack Smight |
| Producer: | Georges-Alain Vuille Ascona Films Inc. |
| Starring: | F. Murray Abraham Maud Adams Francesco Quinn Amber O'Shea |
| Music: | William Goldstein |
| Cinematography: | Giorgio Tonti Howard Wexler |
| Editing: | Dennis Virkler Devon Heffley Curry, adr supervisor |
| Distributor: | 20th Century Fox |
| Runtime: | 104 min. |
| Country: | United States Switzerland |
| Language: | English |
The Favorite (also titled Intimate Power) is a 1989 Swiss-American historical drama film based on the unsubstantiated story of Aimée du Buc de Rivéry that takes place at the dawn of the 19th century. It was the final film of director Jack Smight.
A young French woman named Aimee is kidnapped and forced into a Sultan's harem in the Ottoman Empire. Fiercely independent, she resists, but must make choices in order to survive. She begins to influence the Sultan toward more fair manners of solving his conflicts, but finds herself at odds with another one of his wives, who wants her son Mustafa to become the new sultan. As the years pass, she must deal with the new Sultan's advances while protecting her adopted son Mahmud, and helping the Ottoman Empire against Russia during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792.
The source for the story is a novel by Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark titled Sultana - La Nuit du Serail.
The film was shot in Turkey. Halfway through the production, original producer Georges-Alain Vuille ran out of money and Steve Friedman's company completed production. Smight finished the film, stating "it turned out better than expected, but once again 'into oblivion'."[1]