Spencer
Rating: 
A fable ‘from a true tragedy’, declares a caption at the start of Spencer, which – with all eyes on Kristen Stewart, the screen’s latest incarnation of Princess Diana – had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last night.
The caption might equally have read ‘a tureen of purest whimsy’, from which director Pablo Larrain and screenwriter Steven Knight dish up the imagined goings-on at Sandringham over the three days of Christmas 1991, with the marriage between Charles and Diana ruptured beyond repair.
The tableware reference would have been apt. Spencer drips with symbolism and metaphor – like Diana’s pretty neck dripping with jewels – and food is at the heart of it.
One of the wackiest moments comes during dinner on Christmas Eve, when she tears off a pearl necklace identical to one Charles has also given to Camilla (not that the C-word is ever actually mentioned).
The enormous pearls then plop into Diana’s soup, whereupon she promptly starts scoffing them before later, naturally, throwing them up. The poor woman’s bulimia looms large in this film – and loud.
A fable ‘from a true tragedy’, declares a caption at the start of Spencer, which – with all eyes on Kristen Stewart, the screen’s latest incarnation of Princess Diana – had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last night
Her bulimia issues also featured in the Netflix series The Crown of course – although The Crown this is definitely not. But then that was clearly never the intention. Instead, Spencer is presented as a fairy tale turned on its head: the fragile beauty who loses her prince.
That said, for all its considerable dramatic licence – some of which is fanciful enough to send seasoned royal watchers puce with indignation – the film depends pretty much entirely on Stewart’s portrayal of the princess.
You only see the differences at first. But gradually, such is the Hollywood star’s expertise, all you see is Diana. It would be hard to muck up the flicked hairdo of 30 years ago but she also nails the breathy voice and Sloaney accent, as well as that curiously beguiling mixture of coyness and directness.
Where she cannot replicate Diana is in the height department; Stewart is much shorter. But then height doesn’t seem to matter to Larrain.
The Queen (Stella Gonet) looks like she’s been stuffing herself with steroids. She’s not much shorter than the Duke of Edinburgh (Richard Sammel) – who, by the way, appears to spend the entire movie
