Princess Diana's power of fascination remains intact even 25 years after her death.
Present in the cinema with the controversial biopic of Pablo Larrain with horrifying accents
Spencer,
revelation of season 4 of
The Crown
, Lady Di also captivated the Sundance festival, proof that everything has not yet been said about her.
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Spencer
: in Venice, Kristen Stewart revives Diana, princess without a crown
Forced once again to a 100% virtual formula because of the pandemic, the showcase of American independent cinema opened its 2022 edition with an “immersive” documentary devoted to Princess Diana and her troubles with the British royal family.
The Princess
by Ed Perkins traces the life of the mother of Princes Williams and Harry through the eyes of the media of the time.
The successive waves of the coronavirus have also forced many filmmakers to adapt their way of working and
The Princess
is part of this series of films present at Sundance which have been conceived solely from archive footage.
Without a narrator, the documentary transports the viewer in a kind of "minute by minute" to the time of the tumultuous marriage of Diana and Prince Charles, exploring the impact that the obsession of the media and the public.
Shakespearian tragedy
"It's a kind of Shakespearean tragedy, but a tragedy that many of us have known, and in which we have even taken part",
deciphered Thursday Ed Perkins.
Many documentaries devoted to this episode had tried to "get into Diana's head".
The documentary filmmaker, nominated for an Oscar in 2019, chose to analyze how the press and the public of the time perceived and judged the young woman.
Read alsoWho is Emma Corrin, the fabulous Diana of
The Crown
?
The film thus reviews awkward interviews given by the princely couple on television, interspersed with images showing paparazzi hiding in the bushes with their telephoto lenses and complaining about Diana's distrust of them. The tragic disappearance of the princess, in 1997 in Paris, is illustrated by an amateur video shot by a group of friends watching the television news, whose initial good mood is quickly swept away by the announcement of the fatal road accident. .
Ed Perkins is aware of the incalculable number of documentaries already devoted to Diana but explains that he wanted with his film to create something
"more immersive and experimental".
He “tries to give the point of view of the time through archives, unfolding the events on the mode of the present of narration”, says the director.
The Princess
comes out as the British Royal Family is challenged by the departure of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who say they have faced racist backlash within the family and are battling with the tabloid press to preserve their privacy.
“Their story is one of the reasons we made this film, or at least the reason why the moment seemed right to us
,” assured producer Simon Chinn.
The virtual format made it possible to diversify the audience of the festival
Earlier in the evening, Sundance festival director Tabitha Jackson explained that the "virtual" part of Sundance would likely be maintained even after the pandemic is over because interviews and round tables via the internet help to
"diversify the audience »
.
“Now that we've figured out how to do this, I don't want to go back to it
,” she says.
Co-founder of the festival, actor Robert Redford, 85, was also delighted with the addition of this new platform, which he described as “an evolution of the vision of Sundance”.
Read alsoVariant Omicron: the Sundance festival still entirely virtual this year
Among the other films screened for the opening night of the festival was
Fire of Love
, also an archival documentary, which traces the journey and tragic end of iconic French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. The couple were killed in an explosion on the flanks of Japan's Unzen volcano in 1991.
Jesse Eisenberg's directorial debut, a comedy titled
When You Finish Saving The World
starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard (
Stranger Things
), also premiered.
But the narrative was received more freshly than the documentaries sparked.
The star of
The Social Network
follows the upheavals of a troubled American family and the disputes between its various members over several decades.
Renowned for its ability to spot future talent among independent films (
Reservoir Dogs
by Quentin Tarantino, Damien Chazelle with
Whiplash
), the Sundance festival continues until January 30.