The tragic death of Lady Di in 1997 at the age of 36 marked the spirits. Hounded by the gossip press her entire life, the Princess of Wales ultimately perished in a traffic accident while trying to escape a paparazzi. The news shocked the public all the more that just a year before, she had finally divorced Prince Charles, thus ending a marriage as unhappy as it was publicized. It is on the key period preceding the revolt of Diana, towards the beginning of the years 1990, that returns Spencer (VF), by Pablo Larraín.
“It’s a fiction,” the Chilean filmmaker immediately specifies during a videoconference interview.
This fiction, or this “tale inspired by real events” as indicated by a title, is a continuation of the previous films of Pablo Larraín: Jackie, on the famous first lady after the assassination of JFK, and Ema, about a dancer fleeing a toxic union. Like these two films, Spencer offers a portrait of a woman approaching the breaking point, but who draws from herself the strength to rebuild herself.
If the theme of motherhood is common to all three, it is central in Spencer. And for good reason: “Growing up, I saw how much my mother was interested in Diana. When she died in 1997, I saw my mother upset, broken. I wondered why the fate of someone she didn’t know who lived so far away from us mattered to her. Then I realized that my mother was one of the millions who felt the same way. So I got interested in Diana, because there was a very mysterious, and very human aspect to her story. “
Then 21 years old, Pablo Larraín had not started his career in cinema, but already believed that there was “film material” there.
An ideal structure
It took a while, but after many critical and festival successes, the project was finally able to take off. It’s to the friend Steven Knight, screenwriter ofEastern Promises (Shadow promises, by David Cronenberg) and creator of the series Peaky Blinders, that Pablo Larraín and his producer brother, Juan de Dios Larraín, entrusted the task of writing the screenplay.
“We were supposed to make a film together, but it didn’t work. I have a lot of admiration for Steven, so it was natural to turn to him. “
The proposed story takes place over three days, for as many acts: “Christmas Eve”, “Christmas”, and “Boxing Day” (or Boxing Day). From this classic structure, Pablo Larraín imagined a staging full of invention, poetry, even fantasy. The filmmaker shows, for example, certain thoughts of the heroine, these thoughts becoming dreams and nightmares, which then move into hallucinations as one penetrates further into Diana’s psyche. This modulation in three stages is in phase with the narrative construction.
“I liked the three-step structure: from the end of the first day, the audience can perceive reality through Diana’s eyes. And we stay in his head. Afterwards, several events occur and shake her before, towards the end, we enter with her in a process of healing, when she manages to define and assert her identity. Three days, three cycles, three ways of approaching her which, in the long term, perhaps, allow us to understand how she decided to leave the royal family; how she found herself focusing on what was most important to her: her children. “
Brio by Kristen Stewart
The exquisite craftsmanship of the film in turn echoes the structure, but also the inner evolution of the protagonist.
“It’s a film that called for a particular style, because the line remains blurred between reality as it is and reality as Diana perceives it. I wanted to feel the pressure she must have felt. This mansion where Diana stays [avec la famille royale] is like a box where the pressure exerted on her is more and more strong, threatening to crush her, until she escapes and gives free rein to her desires. “
She ends up in the house of her childhood, an old condemned house full of shadows and memories straight out of a gothic film. Not reviving so much with the ghosts of the past as with the child and the young girl she once was, Diana begins to dance, dance …
“It was a beautiful shoot…, confides Pablo Larraín thoughtfully. There were unexpected finds, but the essentials were planned. I was fortunate to work with extremely talented people. “
It is a film that called for a particular style, because the line remains blurred between reality as it is and reality as Diana perceives it. I wanted to feel the pressure she must have felt.
One of those people is Kristen Stewart, who is arguably delivering her career performance. The actress radiates like never before, while, paradoxically, she disappears behind the character.
“I had no doubt Kristen would make it happen. What surprised me was how quickly she got there. She has an intense process, sure, but she got to grips with the first layers of the character really quickly. By that I mean the whole physical dimension […] the coach William Conacher worked on the accent with her and, again, it came to him very quickly. Then she was in front of the camera and… ”
Pablo Larraín does not finish his sentence, still under the influence of the emotion provoked by the performance of Kristen Stewart. When asked what his mother thought of the film, the filmmaker smiles.
“In fact, she didn’t see him. But she will see it soon. I look forward. I hope she’ll like it. I think he’ll like it. “
We believe so too.
The film Spencer will take the poster on November 5.