The cultural imprint of Lady Di, 25 years after her death

This Wednesday, August 31, marks the 25th anniversary of the death of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, Lady Di for most of humanity, in a car accident that turned a fascinating figure from the end of the 20th century into a legend, in the village princess

If in life she had already received an outrageous media attention, once she died her story has inspired numerous cultural products: movies, telefilms, documentaries, musicals, biographical and fiction books.

Below is a selection by subject.

Cinema

Spencer

(2021).

Pablo Larraín decided that if the life of Diana of Wales had become a horror story surrounded by silence, emptiness and ghosts, that was how it had to be filmed.

“The mystery surrounding Diana is seductive.

It is a paradox that increases interest the more incomprehensible it is.

For the cinema, this is valuable: viewers have a preview image of Diana and after seeing the film, each one creates their own version of her, ”said the Chilean at its premiere.

For this drama reminiscent of a Henry James story, Larraín had a faithful collaborator: Kristen Stewart.

They may not look alike physically, but in her gestures, her movements and her behavior, she transports the public to that suffocating season in which Lady Di understood that she only had divorce as a lifeline.

Diana, the musical.

It couldn't be less.

Someone with such a short life and marked by misfortune, was musical cannon fodder.

Based on the book by Joe DiPietro, the play, directed by Christopher Ashley, premiered at the Californian La Jolla Playhouse in March 2019. It was not bad, and at the end of the season they jumped to Broadway, at the Longrace theater, where they scheduled the premiere of a longer version for March 2020. That's where the disaster began.

After a year of hiatus due to the pandemic, the premiere was announced for November 2021. But the usual previous Broadway showings set off the alarms: it neither attracted people nor had any strength.

Finally, after 33 performances and 16 previews, with the theater at 51% capacity, the curtain fell on

abruptly on December 16, 2021. There is a recording of the musical, which bears witness to the disaster.

In the summer of 2020 Ashley filmed a performance-rehearsal, which premiered on

it achieved nine nominations and five awards (including worst film) in the last Golden Raspberry, the anti-Oscars.

Diane

(2013).

The approach to Diana of Wales directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel

fascinates because of how disastrous she is.

Not even the talent of Naomi Watts, who faithfully transformed herself into Lady Di, saves this film, which focuses on the last two years of the princess's life and her alleged romance with Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan.

TV movies

The land in which the figure of Diana of Wales has had the most travel.

Because of her origin, because of her love story, because of the subsequent lack of love and her new crushes.

In 1982,

with Catherine Oxenberg as the protagonist and two luxury secondary characters playing the Queen Mother and Prince Philip of Edinburgh: Olivia de Havilland and Stewart Granger.

More Dianas for the small screen: Caroline Bliss —former Bond girl, who brought her to life in 1982 in

with Christopher Lee as Philip of Edinburgh—.

Nicola Formby —in 1992 in

about Diana of Wales and Sarah Ferguson—;

Serena Scott Thomas—Kristin's sister, played the princess in 1993 in

based on the book by Andrew Morton—;

Julie Cox — actress of

gave life to Lady Di in her relationship with Captain James Hewitt in

(1996)—, and Genevieve O'Reilly —now popular as Mon Mothma in the Star Wars universe, the embodied in

(2007), a fictional documentary—.

In addition, Tress MacNeille voiced her in The Simpsons

episode (episode 527, season 24) where the princess appeared as a hologram with Gandhi.

sets

TheCrown.

The irrefutable reference.

She has already been seen as a young woman in her fourth season incarnated by Emma Corrin, who did a great job, and in the fifth and sixth she will have the face of Elizabeth Debicki, an exceptional interpreter from whom one can only expect a true and adjusted Diana.

documentaries

As it could not be less, there are numerous documentaries focused on this figure.

On this 25th anniversary, British television is throwing the house out the window.

Two stand out:

by Channel 4 and Discovery Plus, investigates the investigations of the accident carried out by the French criminal squad and Scotland Yard, and its four episodes have been broadcast these days.

And Sky's

directed by Ed Perkins, which depicts her life and her relationship with photographers using stock footage.

This series, translated as

Books

Diana, Her True Story

, Andrew Mortobn (Simon Schuster).

If there is a book that can test the strength and controversy of the figure of Diana of Wales, it is this one.

Published in 1992, Lady Di denied any relationship with the work.

In 1997, however, the author published the transcripts of all the recordings and the revelations of a sad and frustrated life gained even more force.

There is a Spanish version from 1992, but it is practically impossible to find.

Perhaps the most revealing book that has been written about her figure.

Queen of Hearts

, July Heiland (Planet).

The novel that tells the story of Diana Spencer's path to the top, disappointments and heartbreak.

The plot begins in 1978, three years before her wedding to Prince Charles, and tries to be a small epic of a woman's struggle to find her way.

Desktop literature, full of exalted feelings and light prose.

Lady Di book covers.

Imagining Diana

, Diane Clehane (Metabook).

An interesting experiment: imagine the life of Diana of Wales projected into the future beyond August 31, 1997. That is what this novel does in which the protagonist survives the fateful accident in Paris and rebuilds her life full of luxuries, with a new partner, an apartment on New York's Upper East Side, stunning engagement rings and 100 million prenuptial agreements.

We'll never know what her life might have been like, but the gamble is fun.

Remembering Diana

.

(National Geographic).

On the twentieth anniversary of her death, this book was published with 100 images of the people's princess.

The photographs review the best moments of the public life of Diana of Wales and bring out all the class of her in front of the camera.

The foreword by the journalist, biographer and friend of Diana, Tina Brown, author of the best seller

is worth more than many books published on this figure.

songs

Candle in the Wind,

Elton John.

The most popular.

It becomes difficult to separate the figure of Lady Di from this song.

And the fact is that Elton John and his main collaborator, Bernie Taupin, composed it for Marilyn Monroe in 1973, eleven years after the death of the actress.

Then the English singer recovered it in 1997 for his friend Lady Di, and they are now inseparable.

Lady Di,

The Inhumans.

The Valencians dedicated a song to the princess well before her death, in 1983. Ironic and carefree, as they liked, in the song they declare themselves to the Princess of Wales, even going over her husband: “Lady Di, Lady Di, my love Is For You.

/ I know that Carlos is not an obstacle between the two.

/ Buckingham Palace will be our love nest.”

Lady Di,

Richard Clayderman.

Curious: the king of the piano ballad preferred an accelerated rhythm to honor the princess.

It is due, in part, to the fact that her theme was launched to celebrate her and not to mourn her.

In 1982, a year after the wedding of Diana and Carlos, he put this song in stores with a happy melody and, as always with this man, with a mellifluous result.

Princess Die,

Lady Gaga.

Those were other times, when Lady Gaga was starting her career and she had a point of transgression that was later nuanced to enter every home in the world.

In 2013, Gaga wanted to include the song

on her third album

but her record company convinced her not to do it because "it was a subject that ignited many sensitivities".

The New York singer swallowed, but she performed it on tour with a special rage (she had already premiered it live in 2012).

She always assumed it was a tribute to the Princess of Wales, but the lyrics were as murky as Gaga at the time: "I wish I could face it, but I took the pills and left a note."

Or: "Dead princess, I want to see her cry. / Dead princess, we want to see her cry."

She thus presented the song in a recital of the time: “Princess Diana has always been one of the most important people in my life and in my mother's.

I think this is going to generate controversy, but I don't care.

We are going to dedicate a moment of her concert to pay tribute to her”.