36 | Film » Film NOVEMB E R I N T HE S I GN OF L ADY D I Diana's eyes in a newversion of an old story In the filmSpencer, director Pablo Larrain approaches the princess's life by focusing on her personal considerations and emotional dilemmas, rather than on the accumulating of information and the classic biographical adaptation approach For lovers of stories about theBritishroyals, andparticularly the tragically departed Lady Di, the film Spencer won’t be the last work to deal with the breakdown of hermarriage toPrinceCharles.Next Novemberwill seeNetflix air thepenultimate,fifthseasonofTheCrown, inwhichDiana'scharacterwillbeportrayedbyAustralianactressElizabeth Debicki, known to audiences for her roles in thefilmsWidows andTenet. Biographical films have historicallyproven tobe creations that critFOTO: Profimedia.rs / LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy ics andfilmacademies like toreward, partly due to the physical transformationsof the leadactors, but partly becausecritics tendto loveportrayals of real-life personalities.The AmericanAcademyofMotionPictureArts has shown its affinity for thesekinds of roles onnumerous occasions over the past 20 years, awarding Jamie Foxx for Ray, Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose, Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line, HelenMirren for TheQueen,Meryl StreepforTheIron Lady and Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln. However, the first film about the life of the Princess of Wales – 2013’sDiana–withNaomiWatts as the titular character, was an exception to that rule. Pressure from the royal family led to the filmundergoing major script changes during the productionphase, which resulted in a rather poorfilmthat didn’t provide space for its protagonist to present Diana in the way she was remembered by the people. The film experienced a complete fiasco at the box office and received extremely negative reviews. Multiple adaptations of certain segments of Diana’s life have been made since she first shot to fame in 1982, primarily in the form of made-for-televisionfilms,while several documentaries have also been made, including the standout Unlawful Killing, which was banned in the UK after the producers said it would require a record 87 cuts before it could be certified for release. ThefilmDianaplayedit safe,withthe biggest complaint being that it overlookedall the keymoments of her final days, including the car crash that isn’t even shown in the film. Seven years on, Netflix decided to take a bolder stepwith the fourth seasonof the seriesTheCrownbyfinally addressing some of the problems thatDianahad faced–bulimia, misunderstandingwithinthe family andher husband's adultery that ultimately resulted indivorce. Young acFOTO: Profimedia.rs / LFI/Photoshot / Avalon
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