Between The Crown and Kristen Stewart‘s eye-catching performance in Spencer, there has been an influx of renewed interest in Princess Diana. “The People’s Princess” has always been a focal point of cultural interest, but a wave of new media has once again put the spotlight on her tragic story. One of the most-buzzed-about entries in this year’s Sundance Film Festival is The Princess, a new documentary that covers Diana’s story just using archived footage, without the input of talking heads or voiceover.
There are few stones in this well-known story that have been left unturned, but The Princess is being praised for the unique way that the narrative structure allows the viewer to form their own opinions while still pointing out horrifically Diana was treated. The documentary is currently sitting at 81%, Certified Fresh, on the review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes.
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A Life Cut Short
“The use of nothing but archival footage to recount Diana’s rise, her perpetual ‘trial by television’ and her fall isn’t a gimmick – it’s a stroke of genius, a jujitsu finishing move on her tormentors,” wrote Rolling Stone. The outlet also called The Princess “the definitive Princess Diana documentary.”
Media Frenzy
“This is a carefully arranged narrative that doesn’t just chart the story of Diana’s fame but becomes the story of a woman whose private life became public property,” Deadline heralded The Princess. This was a very intentional choice on the part of the director, Ed Perkins.
“I wanted to aim at something more immersive and unmediated, constructed solely from contemporaneous archive from the time — the very imagery that people ‘knew’ Diana through. No interviews. No hindsight reflection. My hope was that in doing so we might get to something more profound, with greater emotional clarity and honesty about those events and the strange power they had, and still have, on so many people,” Perkins said in a statement. “I also wanted to revisit the national dialogue and debate around Diana at the time — something I think we have all too easily forgotten. Diana herself was a complex and paradoxical figure. It was, in my opinion, one of the things people found so fascinating and magnetic about her.”
Human Emotion
“I just got to watch the film The Princess (via Sundance online) tonight and it was incredible,” tweeted critic Cassie Peters. “It’s a documentary about Princess Diana using only press footage and no commentary. The human emotion they captured was outstanding. Highly recommend.”
An Unflinching Look
“Another Princess Diana project??? you may wonder, but Ed Perkins’ remarkable Sundance doc THE PRINCESS — no talking heads, no timelines, no charts — is a wonder,” tweeted IndieWire writer Kate Erbland. “It made me feel horrible, and I think that’s the point.”
A Time Capsule
“THE PRINCESS: Ed Perkins takes a unique approach to telling Princess Diana’s story that critiques everything from media to constructions of gender,” tweeted critic Kristen Lopez. “Less a documentary and more a time capsule of a society. Dense and fascinating.”
Some Negative Reviews
Not everyone was a fan of The Princess, however. “A flawed little time capsule, the doc veers uneasily between kindly character portrait and shallow attempt at media studies,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s nothing new here, nothing original, and no fresh perspective,” wrote The Times.
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