Presented at the Venice Film Festival, starring Kristner Stuart nominated for an Oscar, “ Spencer ” is the new film by Pablo Larrain and tells of Princess Diana and her rebellious personality, marginalized on the sides of the royal family. The anxieties of Diana Spencer
So Pablo Larrain after his 2016 success with “Jackie”, with “Spencer” offers a bold and somewhat mysterious portrait of a woman in search of her own identity, evoking “a fairy tale from a real tragedy” which, for all its dramatic invention, seems remarkably true.
They are represented and told “only three harrowing days” in Sandringham – from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day – and made head-on by a perfect Kristen Stewart. Spencer (whose title itself seems to launch a challenge to the House of Windsor) dances between an ethereal ghost story, an archaic social satire and a no-holds-barred psychodrama, while remaining in the heart a hymn to motherhood. Lady Diana’s hidden pain
“Keep noise to a minimum: They Can Hear You,” reads a disturbing sign in the kitchens of Sandringham, where large quantities of food are delivered early in the film. The fact that this food is to be delivered as military supplies only emphasizes the threatening condition in Diana’s eyes. From scales on which party guests are weighed in and out of Sandringham, to nightmare parties where filmmaker, director of photography, Claire Mathon, neatly captures the claustrophobia of royal gazes, Spencer traps her bulimic subject in a web. of royal rituals that strip her of power and identity.
Diana’s every move is monitored by the press, whose lenses are more like microscopes; by tailors, who sew Diana’s curtains as if to preserve some Victorian heritage; and by Major Alistair Gregory (Timothy Spall), the Queen’s squire, who was once in the Black Guard and now watches so that “the others do not see”.
In all of this, we note that Diana’s clothes are labeled “POW” – Princess of Wales or POW Diana and her race to freedom
“Past and present are the same,” Diana tells her beloved young children of this strictly traditional world, in which a secret candlelit cuddle provides a rare moment of warmth, adding that in this house “there is no future. “. Unsurprisingly, Diana wishes to go “home” to nearby Park House, a childhood idyll now sealed behind barbed wire, eerily shrouded in moonlight and mist.
Nor is it surprising, after tears and moments of extreme emotional tension, to see a touching montage in which Stewart dances through the chapters of Diana’s life, with ballets and dance moves that turn into a gallop race when the scent arises. of freedom.
Underlying it all is a magnificent soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood which accompanies and brilliantly amplifies the drama. From the mournful motifs of the main theme, with its melancholy major-minor modulations, to the sounds of a baroque string quartet collapsing in screeching terror, or the skimpy free-form jazz of Diana’s inner turmoil.
In this case, the music does nothing but underline the notable mood swings of the protagonist. Because “Spencer” is a film to watch
Delicate but extremely pungent, Spencer allows us to empathize with a figure often portrayed through stereotypes or brakes.
Of Diana we see her self-harm, her bulimia, her oddities, her curved walk, her forced smile and, in this way, we are able to enter into her pain until we understand it.
This is also thanks to the masterful interpretations of all the actors, of a Kristen Stwart who proved to be a true superfine talent and of Sally Hawkins who adds a much-needed note of love in the role of Diana’s favorite seamstress, Maggie, giving life to a role that in other hands could have fallen flat, but Hawkins gives wings to fly.
Stella Grillo
