Diana from Anna's blog
So today I went to the cinema to watch the movie "Spencer." It wasn't really what I expected and it was a bit amusing to watch several people leave the theatre. Perhaps, they were bored or disappointed. As with any other celebrity, if people fall in love with Diana, they love not the real person but the legend, and the movie totally ruins it portraying Diana as a freaking looney. However, Kristen Stewart was so convincing in her lunacy that I just sat there and watched.
I loved the weirdness of this movie, its haunting, unreal, dream-like atmosphere. It was charming because it was so strange. Its focus is not on Diana's life but on the state of her mind. Trapped in the cold, limbo-like palace, too weak to make it or leave it, she's gradually losing her sanity, suspecting everyone of watching and controlling her and plotting against her. She even goes as far as accusing the royal chef of putting the book about Anne Boleyn in her bedroom in order to frighten her into submission. Being bitter and frustrated, she fails to notice the small acts of kindness and care on the part of other people.
She defies her cage but not enough to leave it behind. She escapes but comes back. The freedom comes only in her imagination and dreams. Like she imagines wounding herself or throwing herself down the stairs. The symbol of her enslavement is the pearl necklace she's ordered to wear, the gift from her husband, the same he gave to his mistress. She has a fanciful vision of riping it apart and eating the pearls with her soup but the necklace stays in place. It's near the end of the movie that she destroys it.
The breakthrough is visiting the ruins of her childhood home. Finally, she gathers enough of strength to interrupt the shooting of pheasants her sons were forced to take part in and run away with them, regaining her freedom.
The movie wasn't too sentimental due to some comical moments. Then, there were beautiful costumes and the enchanting scenes of Diana dancing through the palace rooms. It was like a strange fairy-tale.
But well... it was just a movie. I think that the real Diana was a spoiled capricious doll who didn't really know what she wanted out of life. She was too rich to have real problems so she suffered from imaginary ones.
The Wall
Just meeting someone for 5 minutes, in a public way, doesn’t give you an accurate picture of what the person is really like, I think. I’m sure Diana was adept at presenting a certain, skillfully contrived, version of herself for public consumption. It’s almost as if she created a lesser magical persona, due to the pressures imposed upon her, by her place in a certain social class.
Diana reminds me a little of the character Charles Foster Kane. Everyone presents their view of him, after he is dead and a picture is consequently painted, but Diana’s “Rosebud” may be just as lost and unknown to the outside world, as Kane’s appeared to be, when his sled went into the fire to be consumed. Anyway, the film you have reviewed seems to be a bit like that. It seems like another Citizen Kane to me.
I’m sure the royal family could present a better, or more accurate representation of Diana or some of her friends and lovers could do it, but then again maybe not…I once worked with an older guy, years ago, who was somehow connected to the world of theatre. He claimed he had once met Diana and Charles. He met them at some sort of royal reception. He told me Dia...See more