The Trailer For Chilean Filmmaker Pablo Larraín’s Princess Diana Movie Finally Dropped And It’s Breathtaking
Screenshot via YouTube
On Thursday, the long-awaited trailer for Pablo Larraín Princess Diana movie, “Spencer”, finally dropped. In the one minute and twenty-nine second clip, we see Princess Diana–played by Kristen Stewart–appearing beautiful and while traipsing around an English country estate. In other words, it’s exactly the Princess Diana movie that everyone has been waiting for.
Chilean Filmmaker Pablo Larraín says he was interested in making a movie about Princess Diana because of how her life turns the “fairytale Princess trope” on its head.
“We all grew up, at least I did in my generation, reading and understanding what a fairy tale is,” Larraín told Deadline last year. “Usually, the prince comes and finds the princess, invites her to become his wife and eventually she becomes queen. That is the fairy tale. When someone decides not to be the queen, and says, I’d rather go and be myself, it’s a big big decision, a fairy tale upside down.”
Interest in Princess Diana has piqued in recent years both because of her portrayal in Netflix’s “The Crown,” as well as the media circus around her children, Prince Harry and Prince William, as well as their wives, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle. Indeed, all of the toxic media attention surrounding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is somewhat reminiscent of the media’s obsessions with Princess Diana when she was alive.
According to Deadline, the movie will follow the dissolution of Lady Diana’s and Prince Charles’s marriage over the course of three days. “December, 1991: The Prince and Princess of Wales’ marriage has long since grown cold,” reads the official synopsis. “Though rumors of affairs and a divorce abound, peace is ordained for the Christmas festivities at Sandringham Estate. There’s eating and drinking, shooting and hunting. Diana knows the game. This year, things will be a whole lot different.”
While the trailer is stunning to look at, it is also doesn’t reveal much of the movie’s plot.
In fact, only a few words are spoken throughout the entire trailer. “They know everything,” says an unnamed woman to Diana. To which Princess Di responds, “They don’t.” Based on the clip alone, Kristen Stewart’s British accent sounds very convincing.
While Princess Diana fans were vocally anxious about Kristen Stewart’s casting, Pablo Larraín is confident that she is perfect choice to embody Princess Diana. “To do this well, you need something very important in film, which is mystery,” he told Deadine in the same interview. “Kristen can be many things, and she can be very mysterious and very fragile an ultimately very strong as well, which is what we need. The combination of those elements made me think of her.”
After the Jackie Onassis biopic “Jackie”, and now, “Spencer”, Pablo Larraín appears to be carving a niche out for himself in Hollywood as a director of biographical films. But Larraín says he doesn’t see his movies as biopics.
It’s a Pablo Larrain movie so Whatever about Stewart’s performance the guarantee here is that this film is gonna be lush
— Jake It’s Chinatown (@IdiotB9720) August 26, 2021
“I don’t think I’ve ever done a biopic,” he told Vulture recently while promoting his newest movie, “Ema”. “They’re not really biographical analyzations; it’s not the study of a life of someone. I think some people could misunderstand it.”
“Before they go to see a movie like Spencer, they might say, We’re going to really understand who this person was. No! Wrong number! Wrong movie! We don’t do that!” he said. “We’re just trying to work with whatever that person was and create a fable out of it. That’s what I’m looking for.”