{"id":11961,"date":"2022-08-13T13:03:51","date_gmt":"2022-08-13T17:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=11961"},"modified":"2023-12-12T05:58:52","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T10:58:52","slug":"the-director-ed-perkins-questions-about-how-it-deals-with-the-consciences-of-our-individual-power-of-media-consumption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=11961","title":{"rendered":"The Princess : Review \/ Mesmerizing Diana Doc Questioning Media Consumption"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young or old or somewhere in between, most people by now have a pretty clear image of Princess Diana\u2019s life 25 years after her death, retold recently in the acclaimed TV-series \u201cThe Crown<\/strong>\u201d and Pablo Larra\u00edn\u2019s Kristen Stewart helmed \u201cSpencer\u201d<\/strong>. Even so, the new documentary \u201cThe Princess<\/strong>\u201d by Oscar nominee Ed Perkins is an absolutely necessary one with a fresh approach, yet so familiar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With a mixture of professional and amateur archival footage, seemingly edited, he reveals how the myth of the royal outsider was born and how it was presented to the public. Mesmerizing, and sometimes ironic, he turns the gaze at the viewer\u2019s unhealthy obsession, participation and projection of building this myth through media, with the Shakespearian tragedy that was to come.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou gotta choose someone very carefully who can fulfill this particular role\u201d, says Charles, Prince of Wales when asked about a potential marriage in the beginning of \u201cThe Princess<\/strong>\u201d. \u201cIt gotta be someone pretty special\u201d. The chosen one, and indeed special, was the 19-year-old Diana Spencer, daughter of British nobility. This kind girl, working as a nanny at the time, a \u201cseemingly suitable catch with no previous partners\u201d with a sweet personality, shy smile, sparkling eyes and head down, came into the spotlight in 1981. And her private life becomes public property forever.<\/p>\n

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In an early interview, with uncertainty in her voice, she claims, \u201cCharles and I can\u2019t go wrong, he\u2019s there with me\u201d, not sure if she understood what she was getting into. The statement though proved to be very wrong. It wasn\u2019t an affair of the heart that the public wanted it to be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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We start to follow the unstoppable enthusiasm, or hysteria, the British people felt when this \u201cmuch needed fairy tale\u201d took place – the best thing that happened to the British monarchy in centuries. The telephoto lenses business just wouldn\u2019t stop, recording every twitch she makes. Diana is the big news, an immediate superstar and people come to see her while an annoyed Charles had to take the back seat. You just cannot resist her glow, the same way you cannot resist seeing her in this addictive documentary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Diana was early on considered to be the people\u2019s princess. She could talk to anyone and acted away from the royal protocol. She hugged people with AIDS in the 80\u2019s, she danced with John Travolta, concentrated on the welfare of the Indian people, meeting homeless people, meeting Nelson Mandela and Pavarotti. Her very existence, her behavior, her superstardom and her humility shook the British monarchy to its ground.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

British director Ed Perkins (\u201cTell me Who I am<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cBlack Sheep<\/strong>\u201d), with the excellent editors Jinx Godfrey and Daniel Lapira, unfolds her story in real time, taking the same approach as Asif Kapadia did in his successful \u201cAmy<\/strong>\u201d, \u201cSenna<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cDiego Maradona<\/strong>\u201d documentaries by letting the archival footage alone speak for themselves. He doesn\u2019t reveal any new information nor does he create an intimate portrait of the princess. There is no need to and this is not a biopic. Instead he mixes public television footage with ordinary people\u2019s, crowd\u2019s and royal correspondent\u2019s comment, judgment and praise. When, for instance, the announcement from a speaker at a supermarket tells that Diana is pregnant with William, we see people\u2019s reactions. Images show television screens with people having opinions about her suicide attempts and bulimia, Camilla Parker Bowles, the Royal love tapes and her own affairs. Her life, love and misery are everyone\u2019s business as the many unidentified voices add to the substance of the absurd realism and obsession.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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C6W4RT Princess Diana attends a White House event September 24, 1996 in Washington, DC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To dramatize events we hear classic music composed by Martin Phipps. We also see strong scenes one after another: Charles shooting down birds after the birth of William and Queen Elisabeth watching the fire at Windsor castle after the meltdown of the marriage is a fact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But the most interesting part of this documentary is not what we already know or think we know. It is how it asks questions about the public\u2019s yearning for the perfect fairy tale, putting the magnetic Diana on a pedestal. And at the same time it wants her to be one of the people. Having it both ways is doomed. And yet we still have no real idea of who she really was. She remains mythical, a ghost, an image. Perkins suggests that our way of consuming this image of her, through media, our demand of having it, is spelled misery all over, which ultimately resulted in Diana\u2019s death at a young age, and this happened even before social media exploded.<\/p>\n

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Perkins also touches on the dual relationship she herself had with the media, using it for her own advantage after the divorce while finding a new role in life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whoever she really was or what her intentions were, it is astonishing how one of the most well-known stories of the last century can still be so touching and keep you on the edge of your seat. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the film’s fluidity, density and above all, Diana\u2019s radiance. Astonishing how it deals with the consciences of our individual power of media consumption, and the relevance the Diana cult has today – long after she left this world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Grade<\/strong> A-<\/p>\n

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A2TNFF funeral of princess diana central london sept 1997 1997. Image shot 1997. Exact date unknown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Check out more of Niclas’ articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s the trailer of the film<\/strong>.<\/p>\n