Spencer is anything but a classic biopic. Rather, this is a psychological experiment that gets under your skin and the audience into one dark undertow of oppressive soul-searching and surreal imagery.
Kristen Stewart plays Princess Diana in Spencer
The year is 1991, it’s Christmas time. A certain one Diana Spencer (Kristen Stewart) struggles to get through wintry fields to Sandringham House, the British royal family’s country estate in Norfolk where Christmas celebrations are to take place. She got lost and had to ask for directions in a café. Captivated looks are directed at her.
Hardly at the finish line, it becomes clear from the first scene that Diana does not feel comfortable in the decadent setting that has determined her everyday life since her marriage to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing). Their discomfort is particularly reflected in their relationships with those around them. Besides her sons William and Harry, the only ally she seems to have at court is her maid Maggie (Sally Hawkins).
The events surrounding Diana will be familiar to most viewers – and so Spencer doesn’t even try to spin a new story. Rather, it succeeds in creating one
intimate insight into life one of the most famous women in world history, and with a great sense of atmosphere and subtle tension.
Spencer creates a close-up portrait of his heroine and puts her in a new light
At the beginning of the film a short sentence appears: “A fable based on a true tragedy”. So the audience is forewarned. The following scenes do not represent reality. Rather, they are a possible reality, a narrative.
This story is expressed in colorful, dark imagery. Sometimes the camera bathes in the golden-red Christmas glow, sometimes it freezes in frosty winter landscapes. Sometimes she follows Diana as she has to be forced into a magnificent dress at the request of Elizabeth II (Stella Gonet), sometimes she glides dreamily through an otherworldly park landscape. The slowly pulsating heartbeat of this film is its true-to-life production, which aims to explore the person beyond the fairy tale.
The longer we accompany the protagonist in her rigid everyday framework, the more intensely it creeps up on ushat feeling like you’re sitting right inside Diana’s head. Whether dream or reality, the camera focuses on it until the cool present and nostalgic memory blur into dense, eerie images.
In its final scene, the film makes one thing clear: Diana was more than the public image that everyone thinks they know. A breathing, complex human being with many possible facets. Spencer is a successful attempt to make these facets visible.
Spencer streams with a subscription to MagentaTV and from the usual purchase and rental providers.