The Problem With Princess Diana Biopics
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- čas přidán 14. 07. 2024
- Let’s talk about Princess Diana Biopics: The Good, Bad and Awful. And some love for Spencer (2021), Kristen Stewart and Pablo Larrain!
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⚡️ Twitter: / tahkawa
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0:00 Intro
01:16 Part 1 The Bad
04:26 Part 2 The Awful
10:59 Part 3 The Good - Zábava
🕯️Kristen Stewart prayer circle for Sunday🕯️ 🤞🏽
Kristen is my pick also. She was absolutely amazing, that dinner scene is one of the best pieces of acting and cinema I have seen in a long time. Jessica was also good she had a lot of moments (mainly her quiet realizations) that won me over, but I cannot help but always perceive it as simple mimicry when a performance so heavily relies on prosthetics. I am also biased towards Spencer, because I loved the film as a whole, for me it was perfect, while The Eyes of Tammy Faye, was mediocre at best. Honestly, if Kristen wasn't in the mix I would give it to Olivia or Penelope.
I think Kirsten Stewart and Robert Pattinson have gotten too much undeserved hate for twighlight as they're both great actors
@@expressyouropinion9527 Yeah for sure but thankfully people are way over that now. They've both done a phenomenal job at making sure people see them as more than Edward & Bella with the roles they chose post-Twilight. And it's really paying off now at the same time which is cool to see. So happy for them!
Not happening sorry
@@ThePalkiaxdialga No, I know Jessica Chastain is the frontrunner. Followed by Penelope Cruz. Then there's a big gap for 3rd which is where I think Stewart is. But I'm still hoping! Upsets have happened before
I feel like people underestimate Kristen Stewart’s acting range. Like yes she’s a great meme & we’ll never forget her as Bella but YALL. It’s time to move on.
It's comments like these that gaslighted me into trying to watch Spencer. She has zero range. I am not sure what movie y'all were watching because surely it was not the same one.
@@tarakennedy707 yeah idk why people act like she’s an amazing actress. She acts almost the same in every movie I’ve seen her in.
@@tarakennedy707 i think you just dont like her.
@@tarakennedy707 i loved the movie but she’s not an incredible actress. the great script and cinematography were what did it for me, not her performance
The script and cinematic carries the movie, her not much, she is the most uninspired actress I ever seen, her acting skills can be replaced easily, she has a good manager now, I hope she starts doing something more
Fantastic essay as always! Diana was so human in Spencer, the whole movie was masterfully executed. It was really cool to just capture one weekend in the film rather than try to tell every part of her story.. We already know all those iconic moments.
Reminds me of the brilliant structure of Steve Jobs (2015). It chose to focus more on 3 Apple keynote highlights throughout Steve's lifetime and its accompanying personal life highlights amidst them.
Did we watch the same movie! Bc they made her dumb as hell in spencer ,y’all can’t be serious.
I agreed with the issue the movie had with other Diana films. But I hated Spencer also. It was generic sad girl having mental health issues in glamorous setting narrative that twisted her and the people and events around her to suit its own aesthetic. Hawkin’s character in the end basically was there to say what the filmmakers did feel, which was not very deep ideas of who Diana is.
Crown is the only adaption of her life I have seen that actually did what this video asked for prior of specking of Spencer. Not just dealing with her image (but still including important moments and addressing their significance) and showing a complex portrayal of someone who is did use media and who did have internal issues, not just sad Princess. I think he got too dazzled by the look and novelty of Spencer to see it’s flaws.
In the wake of #FreeBritney, I think we're gonna get a lot of biopics about famous women with mental health issues who were driven to either silence or death by an obsessive public and a paparazzi with no regard for ethics. Britney didn't lose her life or her public career, just her human rights and basic freedoms, which put her in the unique situation of living to tell the tale of exactly what it was like to have her private issues become a public media circus, and for people to actually listen and care because she was still a famous pop-star and not some has-been who disappeared. Princess Diana is the most high profile example of this sort of dehumanizing parasocial violation and its deadly consequences, and thus has been done to death then beaten like the dead horse it is then resurrected and killed all over again. But in pretty much every other case, I think this sort of narrative being examined with fresh eyes that are more aware and critical than ever before has the potential to do a lot of good. But that also means there's a lot of potential for Hollywood (and apparently Broadway now too??) to squander by prioritizing the Oscars over the actual women these films should be about. Only time will tell which way this whole thing is gonna go.
But until then, leave Diana alone, please. Leave Princess Diana alone right now. I mean it.
Well, I appreciate your point ma'am, but I think Britney Spears and Lady Diana had very different coloured lives.
@@lawrencewellington2343 They did, but they didn't.
@@carlycrays2831 Sort of ma'am. Where are you from, though?
I don't think we should leave here alone. Why? Because Camilla will be queen soon. In the coming years...
@@lawrencewellington2343 So you mean average girls being forced onto the world stage for the selfish gains of other? Yeah they lived very similar lives. Everyone is unique when compared to another, but you cannot ignore similarities where they land.
Musicals can be serious & tasteful. The Diana musical just isn’t.
I think they're better as serious and tasteful when they are new stories, or stories people don't know very well.
Agreed, that was the only point in the video that I disagreed with. That said, It is very difficult to create a tasteful musical about a real person and their struggles without it feeling exploitative.
I think a well made, well written musical is a 100% more tasteful and less exploitative than a docuserie, for example. It's not about the narrative tools you use, it's about your intent on telling an honest story.
Yeah, the lack of any specific criticism of the medium beyond "contains song and dance" shows a real lack of knowledge. Like, Falsettos is a musical partly about AIDS and nobody has a problem with its portrayal of it. Cabaret is a musical about the rise of the Nazi party that ends by implying that most of the characters are gonna die in the Holocaust and it's one of the most critically acclaimed musicals of all time.
"Six" isn't even serious yet "all you wanna do" tells Katherine's story so well while being funny somehow
None of the movies can get her hair correct. Diana was FAMOUS for that over the eye swept feathered hair and I wore it for years and loved it but today's stylists cannot recreate it for some reason.
Well I can confirm that all 4 Diana's in the video are wearing wigs, so maybe that's why it always looks off? I don't know anything about hairstyling though
I think The Crown has gotten the closest so far
It's typical for Hollywood to make hairstyles from another era inaccurate to look more relatable or edgy or what they decide looks more attractive. Just like they give women in period dramas long open beach waves instead of accurate updoes. It's all about the aesthetic rather than accuracy.
Emma Corrin is perfect Diana and her hair in crown looks the same as Diana's
I never would have thought to cast Kristen Stewart as Diana (although I adore her) but as soon as I saw photos from the film i was shocked by how she seemed to embody her. I've been thinking about the resurgence in interest in Diana's life for a long time now and I was so glad to see someone do a video on it, one of my favorite film video essayists no less. This was so well explained and so concise!
I... really thought this video was going to be about the strange dissonance between a story about someone who abused and killed by the media's intrusion of her privacy, and the movie's that seek to dramatize this, thus continuing to intrude her life even while demonizing that intrusion. I'm not sure if it's possible to make a good Princess Diana movie, they also just feel so gross and tone-deaf to me.
The most ludicrous Diana media I've seen was a romance manga. They drew Charles... they just... it's amazing... I can't even...
They just drew a generic shoujo-style pretty man and said, "Yup, that's the Prince of Wales. Honest. Can't you tell? It looks exactly like him."
dear lord i have to read it now :D
How dare you share this. Can I have a link?
Oh, I think I remember this manga! The mangaka also shared in her extra notes that she made everyone more attractive and younger looking in her manga. So it wasn't just Prince Charles. She also shared that if she had drawn everyone more closely like they were in real life that even Princess Diana would have looked kinda ugly.😅
I need a link
Omfg I didn't realize this was a thing. The way they drew Charles is sending my sides to fricking Pluto. 😂🤣😭
Great video. I will say, I think I disagree with the implication that musicals are a medium that can’t tell tragic stories and give them the seriousness/respect they deserve, but I do think it is difficult and agree that the Diana musical is both awful as a musical and a terrible, disrespectful handling of Diana and her life. I also appreciate your biopic commentary in general.
Thank you! Yeah I replied to someone else that I definitely should've worded it more carefully. I LOVE musicals and I know that they aren't just a medium for happy sing-song stories. Poverty, racism, bullying, disease, war, death have all been covered by musicals and very successfully. When I wrote that part I was more thinking along the lines of "this was a real individual who died not too long ago, if you're going to broadcast her story do it respectfully". Especially given how she died, it was because the world was gawking at her. Turning that into a musical.. its just not a good fit. For example I'd be really against an Amy Winehouse musical, because it's just too personal imo and wouldn't translate well to that format. Neither Amy or Diana presented themselves the way musical actors on stage have to present themselves.. in musicals there has to be an element of fun and theatrics that doesn't fit for certain public figures and their story. But I wouldn't be against a musical about a jazz singer struggling with addictions y'know? And I don't doubt that it could be done respectfully.
@@TropeAnatomy you should definitely consider Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grille. It’s like the ‘Spencer’ of Billie Holiday stories. It’s basically as if it’s really her final performance
@@TropeAnatomy Tbh I don't think biopics are any less tasteless, they just have a better reputation. And I think an Amy Winehouse musical would work if it in a similar style to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, where the songs are all diegetic and reflect different parts of the singer's life. Technically every biopic about a musician is inevitably gonna be a musical because the audience is gonna expect to hear the entirety of several of their songs.
Absolutely! 'Blood Brothers,' while it does have its moments of humour, is gritty and tragic pretty much all the way through, but it's excellently done, and the songs don't feel out of place at all. That's the main problem with the Diana musical; we already know the main characters as being these rather serious, stiff-upper-lip Royals from real life, so the idea of them EVER bursting into song to express themselves is ludicrous to start with. And that's before you even get into portraying serious and sensitive subjects with flippant, tone-deaf lyrics ("I may be unwell but I'm handsome as hell" from an AIDS patient? SERIOUSLY? How did they handle Diana visiting starving Africans? "They eat gruel from a cup, whereas I just throw up - either way we're both fashionably thiiiiin!")
as someone who struggled with an eating disorder and other things for many years, i think the crown and spencer did a great job of showing the impact it has on your life. not just glamour and drama, but how much it hurt her and how the people around her reacted to it
Ok but "I may be unwell but I'm handsome as hell" is my new motto
I really like this new wave of historical movies that don't claim to depict reality. "the great" did it perfectly and I love the approach.
Love your video
I've been meaning to check out The Great, thanks for the reminder! And glad you liked the video :)
The great is so funny I really love it!
also dickinson
@@laurabelacqua9064 I've been thinking of watching it. Is it good?
This is a small thing but coming from a british person whos heard lots of really shitty attempts at british accents from americans, kristen stewarts accent was actually really good
Kristen Stewart actually made a decent Diana. I really loved her performance, and think that she has a fair shot of nabbing the Best Actress Oscar this year! 😍
We must’ve been watching different movies
I heard she was so good in it and that everyone was giving her a bad rap because of Twilight, etc.... two scenes in and I discovered that was a lie. She's not a good actress and I could not watch the movie.
it's Bella in a costume doing an impression of Princess Diana.
She was great. I feel like people just thought the movie was slow and don’t give Kristin Stewart credit even though she plays all different kinds of rolls like in The Runaways, or even I believe her first movie Panic Room. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I know, but that movie was so beautiful my eyes fell in love w that performance!
@@ericabingham0417 first of all, it's spelled 'roles'. second, quality of acting is not judged by beauty, it's judged by technique and training, paired with a good screenplay.
none of this exists in this movie. all those scenes about eating, mimicking bulimic behavior, are disgusting and degrading. bulimic people don't behave like that. that type of carelessness and lack of research is humiliating to people who actually suffer from that type of mental illness.
That's why Rocketman is to me one of the best musical biopics I've ever seen so far. Why? Because we're lucky to have Sir Elton fucking John still with us and having him participate actively in the making of the film. So he went all extra and colorful with it, even if it's trippy and fantasy-like. Taron Egerton deserved a nomination. Not to mention the director had been fired from Bohemian Rhapsody 😉
Oh I agree I LOVE ROCKETMAN!!! I've watched it so many times
Have you read Elton John's biography- actually the audiobook is the best Elton is the narrator mans yes - taron was amazing in this role
@@KEENDARLING it's my comfort movie 🤩 I haven't, I think it's not available in my country yet and I'd like to read it in English. And of course I hope I get to see him in concert at least once!❤️
Amen, Sister!
I have to say something about Spencer. Kristen Stewart did a phenomenal job in her role as Diana. My mom said, “that if I didn’t say Kristen Stewart’s name, she would not have guessed it was her.” She really looked and sounded like Diana. She deserved her nomination.
While I like some adaptations of Diana’s story, I feel they only focus on her relationship with George and repeat what we already seen. The crown is an exception because they are going in chronological order of events.
What I loved about Spencer is that it focused on her having a nice relationship with her children which we don’t see a lot. I am always seeing how kids can still have a good relationship with their mom (in this case) even when she is going through a tough time. Her kids was her refuge and she made sure they had a good childhood.
But I feel we need to leave her story alone and give her some peace.
Spencer was my favorite film of 2021 I totally was captured by the psychological gothic horror aesthetic that was totally opposite to what we know of typical biopics of a historical/cultural figure like princess Diana. It reminds me a lot of citizen Kane, Marie Antoinette and the favourite on films that challenges preconceived notions of Hollywood biopics, it was interesting to use that element of psychological gothic horror to capture the true complexities of princess Diana was at her lowest during her time as a member of the royal family and why she finally made the decision to it, it leaves you on the edge of your seat and Kristen Stewart’s performance … listen I’ve already raves about her for almost 4 months now that there’s nothing else but that she was 100000/10 in this film.
I was really surprised at Kristen Stewart--she NAILED Diana's attitudes, facial features and mannerisms! She DESERVES being recognized for her role of Diana!! BRAVO! ✨👏👏😊
My problem with Diana's biopics is first, as mentioned, there are one too many of them and second, contrary to what was mentioned, they all depict her the same whether or not they chose to focus on the glamorous moments or on the heartbreaking behind the scenes one. They all paint her as blameless, completely exempted from responsibility. Diana was a human, like all of us. And like all of us she had flaws, she hurt people, she challenged people, she made bad decisions and she even sinned. But as you say, there is a huge crowd that adores her and elevates her to a god-like status and even the smallest of allusions towards her being responsible and not merely reacting in self-defence would have them severely triggered. Diana possessed a number of personality traits that if found in anybody else would be condemned on the spot. Yes, she had great qualities as well, but if you chose to paint her as this angelic figure it actually makes her very unappealing. What makes us connect and feel for others is not them being perfect, and she wasn't either ...
Exactly I like diana but I do admit she did make many choices that were iffy but the new wave of fans who only know her from the crown really are hurting her image even more by making her this goddess figure. Diana herself admitted that she knew she could be difficult and irrational at times traits that are usually brushed over by these portrayals which is odd as you’d think they’d try make the peoples princess a person flaws and all.
Thank you. I hate this worship of Diana. She was not that exceptional. And this holier than thou look and voice she always had in interview...
@@seratia123 I know right? Diana was a person hurt by her past, but she also hurt others. She is no saint.
She was a person with many serious mistakes but no one is willing to believe it because they would lose the image of a "perfect woman"
Well said. I think I would have found her absolutely exhausting in real life. She seemed painfully immature and self-pitying. I didn’t have patience for that behaviour in the 90s and I think her relentless self-pity would be even less accepted now.
The only good thing I can say about that musical is the team responsible for creating the costumes did an incredible job recreating her famous looks. But I agree so many interpretations cannot seem to grasp that Diana wasn't an angel nor was she insane or completely vindictive against Charles. Diana was a human being who had many beautiful qualities and who deserved to be loved but also was very capable of manipulation and pettiness because of her pain and anger that she couldn't make her husband forget his real love. I do like Spencer quite a bit and I agree at the humanity. Diana was more than capable of doing her public performance but that's what it largely was, a performance, and I imagine she spent many nights crying. I also love The Crown, but my one nit to pick is that it clearly does lean on Diana's account given at a time when she was throwing caution to the wind and wanted to hurt Charles. I'm not calling her a liar, more a potentially unreliable narrator. But, that's the version of events that captured public imagination so I understand and can't wait for the next season to see the latest portrayal.
The way the Kristen played Diana was mesmerizing, she really became a different person. The scene where she starts running, and we see all these versions of Diana, and the music comes in, and then she's dancing and playing with her kids.. it's just such an impactful visual sequence. I understand the dislike for the way this movie exaggerates and fictionalizes her mental health problems, as well as the negative impression it leaves about Dianas real life character, but as a work of art this movie is 10/10 for me. The music is amazing, the camera work is phenomenal at helping portray character information, and the use of scenes like the pearl soup and the Anne Boleyn appearances act as such powerful storytelling metaphors. This movie is great at showing, not telling, what feelings this character of Diane is experiencing. As someone who's had an ED and depression, I related to this movie hard, and I think the mental claustrophobic-ness of these disorders was very well portrayed.
The mental claustrophobicness is what makes me love the movie so much. It feels so real and uncomfortable and like a great representation of how they feel
Also the teenage me hating Twilight in 2007 would've never thought I would love Kristen Stewart this much in 2022
i still can't believe it's Kirsten Stewart which I've heard is a sign of a great actress, the interpreter lost in the character
I know Kristin must've been nervous, scared & felt tremendous pressure to portray Diana so she wouldn't be crucified by the British Nation who lost their beloved princess. But from what I'm seeing from these clips Kristin knocked it out of the park Kristin really has shed herself from being typecast I can imagine her watching videos of Diana, reading about her, asking those who knew her what she was like etc.
I was shocked by how much I liked Spencer. Kristin Stewart killed it like I had no idea she could.
The Diana musical sure is something special….
Spencer was so humanizing for Diana it was kind of hard to watch sometimes cause my mind keeps drifting back to connect the movie to what happened irl. Kristen Stewart delivered incredibly well, every subtle detail was on point.
I'm old enough to have seen the real thing so no, Stewart was mediocre. Diana was the real thing.
@@annademo Yes, real thing. Because the biopic is based on her. Make some sense in your head before putting it out, just a thought. Unless you're tryna tell a joke, which in that case, it was very funny.
Diana the Musical was abysmal and embarrassing. I feel bad for the actors, I hope they can get work after it. That's the stuff that ends careers.
Diana wasn't perfect, and she stated so by saying that no one should ever take more than 50% of the blame for a failed relationship and she was willing to take her 50%. That made her real to everyone who had been taking 100% of the blame or didn't know how not to take on extra blame. She gave strength to people. And despite being exalted and revered, she became totally human to other humans the moment she died.
I think it would be interesting to compare Evita to the Diana musical because it shows you can talk about the darker parts of a real person in a compelling way
I literally thought about Evita this entire video.
I was actually disappointed that The Crown took up the Diana storyline in only the 3rd season. The first two seasons with Claire Foy as QEII were exemplary. To skip decades of content in order to arrive at the beginning of Diana's story seemed rushed and meant to sensationalize it all over again. Charles was a bachelor for a VERY long time. He was the "most eligible man in Europe" at the time! There was a lot of speculation about who he would choose to be the next Queen of England, and a lot of commentary on so-and so's suitability etc. I felt that none of that was explored in The Crown, although they touched on it very briefly. It is inconceivable to me that Diana didn't know what she was letting herself in for in joining the Royal Family. I have felt and still believe she was the author of her own misery, like Meghan today. I also find it interesting, and disappointing that an actress cannot be found to believable portray her. She was undoubtedly a beauty, but not so perfect that someone with style and a statuesque figure should be too hard to find for the role. But no one that I've seen even comes close. Maybe they all declined.
Honestly if you really think Diana was “the author of her own misery” that means you only hold her accountable and not her royal counterparts/the British media/society, which is fucked up. Diana was barely a teenager when she fell in love with Charles and couldn’t possibly know what she was letting herself into at this point
The first two seasons of the Crown can be summed up as follows: "how can I (the Queen) throw my sister (Princess Margaret) under the bus today?
Musical Diana looks like Hiliary Clinton
😭
I wondered if you’d cover the musical. “Wait in the Wings” does a great breakdown of it, and especially the constant tonal shifts. He also saw it live onstage, so he’s got a good perspective of it. Although the ending scene with Diana singing, the flashing lights of the press going past, and the different news reporters from around the world announcing her death; that was a very intense moment.
But the problem with Spencer was that it bore absolutely no resemblance at all to a woman who had actually once lived and breathed. Surely a Biopic has to have some grounding in reality? And the accent that Kristen Stewart adopted made me wish for subtitles as I only managed to understand about half of the words she delivered. Having said that, I did find this video very interesting!
(i haven’t seen spencer yet so the comment I’m making isn’t targeted towards that movie) while I’m glad that there’s more attention towards Diana’s mental health issues, they even put a trigger warning at the beginning of an episode of The Crown, I wish more biopics/shows focused on her achievements. Mental health issues ≠ weakness, but it’s almost like shows like The Crown puts so much focus on her ED to kind of use that as the reason that the marriage wasn’t working out. She was pretty revolutionary for the British monarchy for her time and those actions (like hugging an AIDS patient or being “the princess of the people”) were what made the monarchy hate her.
the quality of your content is unparalleled. you never miss. thank you for this insightful, thoughtful video.
Wow, thank you! I really appreciate it
A big issue I have with portrayals of Princess Diana is the actresses overact her mannerisms and try too hard to get her coy smile right and just end up looking weird or the little head tilts and what not. Diana was more subtle yet everyone I've seen portray her is over the top and exaggerated, a great example is that lady who plays her in the Crown. She may look a bit like Diana but she was WAY to animated in doing Diana's mannerisms. Stewart was also overacted but idk if it was as bad I'd have to watch the whole movie.
I've always found it fascinating, how people adore Diana's biopics without a second thought, and at the same time never ask themselves, why Charles still wanted Camilla more. It would be only fair to see a biopic of the affair from Camilla's perspective and I'm glad 'The Crown' is trying to give some insight into Charles and Camilla as well. No one is saint in the family, but if you want tragedy with sort of a happy ending, they got it - and since no one cares what Queen Elizabeth has to say about biopics of her family members, filmmakers can't use the excuse that Charles and Camilla are still alive and it's distasteful, because they've already crossed the line before.
'Spencer' is great, I'm not hating on Diana or sth, but I liked seeing the more human approach to her and Kristen's acting nailed it perfectly. I even enjoyed 'The King's Speech', because it contradicted the idea that a flaw of a monarch should be swept under the carpet, but can be the subject of the biography film. Real people with their imperfections are always more entertaining than statues and robots, hopefully Hollywood gets to learn that the hard way and we'll get more real good biopics like that
I didn't even recognize Kristen Stewart as Diana.
I remember when I was a kid, there was a children's song with lyrics of my native language "my mommy is Lady Diana, My Daddy is Prince Charles..."
I didn't even know who this Lady D was, why everyone adored her and became the archetypal Mother when I was growing up.
But then I learned that Ancient Public Relations used Children Rhymes to create 'gossip, rumours, make people famous'
It made me wonder what kind of people behind her iconic Figure. They did great job to make the citizens of far away country cared about her existence.
I totally, and respectfully, disagree about “Spencer” being a “good biopic”.
Is not. Definitely not a good biopic. Just a pretty collection of moving pictures to look at.
The parallel with Diana and Anne Boleyn makes no sense. See Georgiana Spencer (her relative, and the original Spencer It Girl).
Spencer’s version of Diana makes her, if any, pathetic and as a victim.
Diana had several affairs by the time of the story, and only shows Charles as a cheating monster.
Spencer is a pure exploration of the depression and suffering of Diana, is overly exploiting the “Victim Complex”.
The Crown, as “matter of fact” as it might be, does show how multidimensional she was, and that she grew to be more than a “little bird in a gilded cage”.
PS. I do find the correlation of Diana/Anne Boleyn appalling. It shows complete disregard for historical research of both characters and only perpetuates stereotypes of people how never existed but the malicious myths, if any, told about these type of historical figures.
I couldn’t agree more. They just make her look like a victim nothing more, not a real woman just a pretty picture of sad pretty woman. Nice to look at but empty inside. Diana if anything was charismatic woman, sure she had a lot of struggles but I always saw her as a strong woman. In Spencer it is all lost.
@yourbestie you are 100% right. My point being, is that ”Spencer” seems to portrait Diana as a passive character in her own life. The last few years prior to her divorce she was already empowered, and commanding her own life. Not to mention already getting help for her mental illnesses and eating disorders; a powerhouse. The portrayal of Diana in “Spencer” works if the story is set when she was much younger, not at that age.
I've always wondered if the Royals have any control of what is allowed to be portrayed or not? Seems like the ones making these movies are still tip-toeing around the real scandalous treatment of her.
This is the most accurate video I've ever seen of her, people like to romanticize her, but in reality she was just another aristocrat looking for a good life, intelligent enough to manage her public life, and with a good publicist, managing to make a good inocent and victim directed persona, when in reality she could hide the things she didn't wanted out, like boyfriends or her mental health, personally I don't care about her story but it bugs me how peple believes all the media feeds them 🤷♀️
Despite my minor obsession with Princess Diana’s story, this is the first I’d heard of Spencer.
The documentaries I’ve seen focused more on the love triangle and mentioned her eating disorder and other harmful behaviors in passing; it was never the main focus. I’m glad there’s a film that shows she wasn’t a perfect angel 24/7 but a human being with real emotions behind closed doors.
Definitely watching this film as soon as possible.
I'm SO glad I found your channel. You're amazing. Please keep posting more content!
Thank you, I really appreciate it! I'll work on more videos 😊
@@TropeAnatomy thank you! I’ll keep my notifications on 😊💓
You’ve made me want to watch Spencer. Thank you for the amazing video as always!
Honestly, a great example of a good biopoc that told the truth most of the time (though admittedly lied about a few serious things), was The Temptations miniseries! The actors looked like the legends they were portraying and sang like them, too. Most importantly, the emotions portrayed were raw, vulnerable and real.
Also, Leon did an EXCELLENT job playing David Ruffin as did Terron Brooks playing Eddie Kendricks. Hell, even the real-life Smokey Robinson made a cameo and sang in it! There were definitely moments that could have been better, but overall, it's a great biopic and worth the watch ❤❤
I encourage everyone to watch it if you haven't yet.
I'm glad that the majority seem to dislike Spencer also. I found the 'eating pearls' scene to be very contrite. The RF also seemed to be bizarre cardboard cut-outs rather than actual representations of their real-life counterparts. However, there were still some very good scenes.
It’s definitely not the majority
I almost died from boredom while trying to watch neurotic Spencer, I was so happy when it ended. Never for a moment I believed that Kristen was Diana, but she was great at using all the ways Diana moved and talked.
the Crown takes the crown for me. it shows all the sides and all the drama not overly dramatizing it. she isn't vanilla there. I hope they keep it up in the coming season, I really am waiting for it.
I felt the same; Glad it was over.
It took me two days to watch Spencer. It was so incredibly boring.
Same…..I wasn’t bored but I didn’t see Diana at all! Kristen was too cold and “prickly” is what comes to mind. Diana was warm and inviting and soft and tragic…..Kristen’s eyes couldn’t even look soft. Kristen is just too cold and I think that’s just her .
The movie just wasn't for me. It was really Bizarre. She didn't seem like Diana to me. She didn't seem like just Kristen Stewart in a costume, either, so at least theres that. She became a character, just not sure who the character was. The portrayal didn't make me feel sympathy for Diana.I kind of felt sorry for the kids and the family, having to endure such a neurotic Individual. Sorry to be so harsh, this,wasn't the only nominated movie I wasn't impressed with. Lost daughter was weird, too.
@@samiam5434 people are not exactly warm and inviting when they are depressed or having mental health problems, this movie shows her pain not how the public perceived her .
Perfectly well put. And I never noticed the pattern with biopics.
I enjoyed your perspective. Thanks for putting this together.
thanks for watching!
Art can take time to understand, especially if it's art that challenges our expectations of what it //should// look like
love your all of your analysis'. please consider exploring disability tropes, they often end in magical cures or suicide or death. or the disabled Character is a villain
Movies about real tragic events can feel exploitative. From the outset, Spencer sets itself apart from the biopic genre by calling itself a Fable. It’s not pretending to tell us every private, insidious detail like a cheap tabloid. In a way, it breaks the fourth wall but it also protects Diana by giving her the space and privacy her real life lacked.
As someone who's dealt with mental health issues, I found Spencer to be insulting. I completely understand why her son would avoid attending the Oscars.
Why insulting?
@@natalianat5736 besides being poorly written & trite, it exaggerated her mental state just to give the actress something to do on screen. Pretty scenes of surrealism can't hide the fact they're exploiting a dead woman's trauma for an Oscar nod.
@@absolutelynot87 It's called art. The fantasy-like sequences were meant to convey how she felt. They weren't saying it was literally like that or that she was delusional.
audibly yelled WHAT THE FUCK to "I may be unwell but im handsome as hell!"
Amazing video! Pablo Larraín’s last name is pronounced “La-ra-in” though :)
None of them ever look like her. As a horsey looking lady myself, this really irritates me.
Really enjoy the background music, makes its more emotional 😭
Great essay. I think the difficulty people have with portraying Diana is that people tend to try to aim for a deep interpretation of a very one dimensional character, who was idolized largely for being high profile. While women made their mark in almost every field, Diana was bottom of her class and could never hold a full-time job. While she was claimed to be "one of the people", the last person you'd marry if you were one of the people is the future king of England. Love had a part in that, but a part of her thought "My family is incredibly distinguished. Let's milk this for what it's worth." The error in that kind of thinking is that she was a severely unstable and not very educated person placed in a high-stress position many normal people wouldn't handle. To improve her image, she was marketed as being charitable, but that was just marketing. Go to any celebrity's Wikipedia page and you'll find they all have a signature charity they adopt to look good. Charles, of course shouldn't have cheated on her. However, while normal people walk away from unhappy marriages, she cheated on him, partly in retaliation and ran smear campaigns. That is self destructive, vindictive behavior consistent with borderline, which she was diagnosed with. She might not have been a bad person, but I don't think she was a great one or even an exceptional one, which makes her hard to portray given the pedistle she was put on despite women having achieved so much more who go unnoticed.
Hmm that’s interesting. Never heard this take before…
Spencer was shot just a 15 minute ride from where I live, it's so crazy
I love how Spencer was cast with someone who loved Diana as much as many do, I know Kristen adores Diana and her memory, her art in this movie showed how much she did
Excellent essay. Thank you
A fine analysis of the biopic formula. I wish more filmmakers would see this and take note.
I’m a Lady Diana Completist and words fail me how happy I was watching Kristen Stewart getting the Academy Award Nomination.
That musical is Soo crazy. She looks and was dressed more like Hillary Clinton.
Kristin Stewart was okay but I prefer Emma Corrin as Diana.
Really excited to see Elizabeth Debicki's Diana in season 5. Even though I said I've had enough of Diana content lol I'm making an exception here
I disagree that musicals are a poor format for tragedy. It’s overdone now, but Hamilton is still a good example of injecting catchy songs into a tragedy. It just sounds like the writing for the musical was bad.
Yeah that felt like a weird thing to say when a musical adaptation of Romeo & Juliet swept multiple award shows this year
I'm assuming this was supposed to mean for a modern real life tragedy that people alive still remember. Diana's story is too fresh and recent to be tasteful I think
My fave biopic is LA Vie en rose in which Marion Cotillard play Edith Piaf
I really am happy I watch this essay. I love Spencer and was confused when all of my friends said it's boring.
I loved Spencer; and you so captured WHY!
I saw Spencer and I felt that they made Diana out to look crazy. They also made no effort to flesh out any other character, which I get, it was a Diana biopic. I will say that I thought Kristen Stewart did a good job in the movie.
diana is also a strikingly stunning movie. seeing ann boleyn was awesome
While I do agree on 99% on what you said, the musical genre is so underrated and usually deemed as less than other genres. Musicals can be serious, tasteful and can evoke really deep feelings. Rent for instance is a musical about the AIDS crisis, and is deeply serious and emotional. Tick tick boom, as well. I do agree, that the Diana musical is none of that, which is even more heartbreaking since Diana loved musicals, especially Phantom of the Opera.
Yup! Believe me I agree with all of this. I like Rent, I LOVE Les Mis. I love Sarafina which is set in apartheid South Africa. So not for a second do I think musicals are nothing but happy songs and bright colours and I definitely should've made this clear in the video. If I could edit it I would talk about why I personally do not believe a musical is the right format for THIS particular story and why. Because I still really struggle to imagine a version of Diana the musical that gets acclaim. Maybe for future generations, when her story is so distant it's almost like royal folklore could it work imo.
Let the poor woman rest for christs sake
I would argue that you can tell a tragic story as a musical, but the Diana musical (what i saw) was just so unsettling. I also am not a big fan in this hyperfixation on Diana in media with zero concern for anyone that is still mourning her. The Crown obviously can't tell it's story w/o her and i think they did a decent job, but so much just feels exploitative no matter how nuanced a take you have.
I appreciate the Spencer movie much more after watching this video. Thanks.
I have just started, but I wanted to say-I feel like with what areas of her life gets the most focus, in meaning the most publicized, it's like the people who put them together are trying to get some conspiracy confirmation to come out. I mean, al any biopics seem to show is from meeting Prince Charles up until the divorce or her death. I haven't seen Spencer, yet, but I really hope it's not another of the same.
"I may be unwell, but I'm handsome as hell", the mantra we all needed 🤣
I'm so glad you included Jackie in this. A favorite of mine.
You've made me rethink my decision to not watch Spencer.
Also you should do a video on Jackie. As you say, it's amazing
I love both the 2013 movie and the musical, I do semi-agree with what you say about the musical
Biopics are always here but after Bohemian Rhapsody I needed to understand why some of them felt so fake. Spencer didnt feel like that at all and i was confused i couldnt put into words why didnt i understand this movie as a biopic. Thanks for the video, i have a better notion of this now
Sometimes in real life you don't get a history arch.
@@anaporcel9245 exactly
Hold on lemme get my ice cream before your start
Oki I’m back, please, continue
damn now I want ice cream lol
Okay, you’ve convinced me to watch Spencer
The cartoon like 80s fashion on the musical is awful , it takes away how elegant she was
And yes very insulting way to show the real story
Agree and all but I need to know the name of the track you're playing on the video. Also have you watched Debicki's portrayal of Diana?
What i hated about spencer though, is the fact that they inserted anne Boleyn as a metaphor. I mean yes, she’s an indirect descendant of anne through mary boleyn, but a comparison with Catherine would’ve been far more striking, given the message of the biopic described in this video and the fact that diana was the first wife like catherine and camilla was the homewrecker like anne.
i think that might be because both of them are mostly remembered for their deaths? and both struggled to fit in with royalty due to their personalities. some believe diana's death was no accident, too.
oh my god lets GOOOOOOOOO
woww this video is a wonderful video and pushed me to some other videos in your channel. great content. thanks for uploads. =-
I didn't watch Spencer. As a fan of Diana I didn't want to get anywhere near it. My biggest fear is exactly what you pointed out: that it will be a squeaky clean affair, depicting more of the Saint Diana cult image perpetuated in the mainstream instead of looking into the eyes of a complex woman with her flaws and desires. However watching this video and learning that Pablo Larrain directed it (I watched "Jackie", and enjoyed it tremendously), I just might see it and judge for myself.
Just as a minor gripe, surrealist or not I still think some of the dresses in Spencer are all wrong for the period. Too modern princessy tulle frou-frou. Diana in the early 90s began adopting a more streamlined style.
Neruda, Jackie, Diana, Pablo Larrín it's a beautiful storyteller
Many thanks!
🙏🏻💔🙏🏽
Interesting! I'll actually watch Spencer now!
Hope you like it!
Well done and Spencer is fantastic. Kristen Stewart was a revelation.
What's the name of the piano track that starts playing at 5:45?
Had Natasha Richardson lived, I feel like she would have made an amazing Diana film in the early 2000s.
Nicely done
Definitely will have a look at the Spencer film
It had caught my attention but seeing it featured Kristen Stewart I just couldn’t bother with it
After seeing this video I have a different opinion…. so thanks 😉
Thank you and yeah give it a chance! It's polarazing but who knows, you might like it as much as I did 😊
@@TropeAnatomy 😊👍🏼💕
@@TropeAnatomy came Back to say thanks for that the movie recommendation, really appreciate it!
Omg 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
It was just bloody fantastic! Stewart at times did really look like her ….
Me at times watching: 😳🫢🫢😥
Thanks again
💕👌👍🏼
Interesting analysis.
Shockingly I'd be interested to see the Spencer movie now, all the clips I've seen (including the ones you've shown) it just looks like Kristen Stewart dressed up like Diana but you seem pretty sold on it so maybe I'll check it out.
I haven’t seen Spencer but man; now I really want to