After Netflix’s The Crown, Diana: The Musical, and the film Spencer, a new documentary is being released about the death of Lady Di: The Princess. The film marks the 25th anniversary of her death.
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Former Prime Minister Tony Blair dubbed Diana 'the people's Princess'. She died in a car accident while trying to escape the paparazzi in Paris in the early hours of 31 August 1997.
The film 'turns the camera back on ourselves'
The HBO documentary spans the period from Diana’s engagement toPrince Charles in 1981 to the Princess’s death in 1997. It 'aims to explore our complicity in Diana’s tragic death,' as reported by Tatler.
According to the film's logline:
The Princess’ tells the story of Princess Diana exclusively through contemporaneous archival footage creating a bold and immersive narrative of her life and death. Turning the camera back on ourselves, the film also illuminates the profound impact she had and how the public’s attitude to the monarchy was, and still is, shaped by these events.
The Princess is produced by Simon Chinn, whose previous work includes award-winnersMan on Wire and Searching for Sugar Man. It’s directed by Ed Perkins, the man behind the Oscar-nominatedBlack Sheep. Perkins explains to The Guardian his decision to use solely archival footage in the documentary:
I wanted to use archive because that is the record of how we consumed her through the media. And that was my core question. What does this story say about us? About what we still consume and the demand we create?
It's an 'origin story'
Chinn was interested in creating the film as he sees history repeating itself. He told The Guardian:
I’d thought Diana was overfamiliar. A bit of a dead end. Then I realised it was an origin story. Not just about Meghan but so much of modern Britain.
According to Deadline, Perkins and his team also came across another hard-hitting 'observation' in regards to Princess Diana's situation at the time that was made by broadcaster Darcus Howe. He said:
When you put a modern person in an ancient institution, they will be destroyed.
To that, Perkins said:
He says the institution of monarchy places demands on people that simply cannot be satisfied in the world in which we live.
I think it’s possible to argue that there’s a clear parallel… to the experience of someone like Meghan [Duchess of Sussex].
The Princess openedthe online Sundance Film Festival on 11 June.Itwill be released in cinemas in the UK from 30 June.
Read more:
⋙ Princess Diana was a ‘spectacular lady’ according to Jeff Goldblum
⋙ Princess Diana: BBC apologises and pays 'substantial' sum to her private secretary
⋙ Princess Diana: A brand new portrait of her will be revealed at Kensington Palace
