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lucanewton

The Genius of 'Spencer' - A True Masterpiece

By Luca Newton


I finally got around to seeing Spencer, my second most anticipated film of the year, yesterday in cinemas. I just HAVE to talk about it.



The tragedy of Princess Diana is something that's been touched on in so many forms of media, to varying success, but the popularity of the People's Princess never fleeted decades later. When I heard Pablo Larrain was helming this Diana movie starring Kristen Stewart, it truly piqued my interest. Jackie is another film he directed, and I really did love that; starring Natalie Portman, it was an incredible peak into the mind of Jackie Kennedy after losing her husband. To say I had high expectations going into this would be an exaggeration.


Spencer is a psychological drama following Diana Spencer on the Christmas of 1991, the fateful event that lead her to divorce herself from the Royal family - figuratively and literally. The film starts with Diana being completely lost trying to find her way to the house where she will be spending Christmas, except unlike every other royal, she is literally by herself in a car and is completely clueless of where she is. She even enters a cafe to ask for directions as if she's nobody. I think the opening of Spencer masterfully establishes Diana, and who she was and what she was known to do. She eventually finds her way due to a scarecrow which was outside of her childhood home. As she runs for the scarecrow, it sorta plays into this theme of the past, and longing for the innocence of youth.


Subsequently, she makes her way to Sandringham Estate, and is very late - even later than the Queen. She is asked to hurry up for sandwiches, however she chooses to spend time with her children instead; William and Harry. Playing into another major theme of Spencer. She is portrayed as such a warm and caring mother in front of anything else. I personally found this to be my favourite aspect of the film, it is the reason for my 2 favourite scenes. The first one takes place around halfway through the film, after midnight, Diana wakes up William and Harry and all 3 of them sit around a candle-lit table. They play a game where they ask each other questions like a commander and demand the truth. What's so phenomenal about this scene is how it digs into Diana's psychology. She is clearly holding a lot in, and Harry and William clearly can see something is wrong. I think this scene really establishes her motherhood, and the reason she's still keeping herself together. It's such a warm scene. Alternatively, the end of the movie sees Diana take her children to Central London to let them eat KFC on Boxing Day. The scene where they're in the car and singing, it's the most joy we see Diana with in the entire movie, we see freedom from her, we see true happiness, and we see her care for her children. Both scenes are so quaint and small, yet take huge strides to making a masterpiece.


Additionally, Pablo Larrain and Claire Mathon create an atmosphere and aesthetic fitting of the psychology of Princess Diana through exquisite direction, and stunning cinematography, and Jonny Greenwood hauntingly perfects the score making for one of the most satisfying cinematic experiences you'll have this year. The overall aesthetic of the film in Sandringham feels so robotic, and claustrophobic. It's figuratively cold as well as literally, and instead of turning up the heat, they give an arbitrary workaround by putting blankets on everything. There's no humanity, it feels very artificial and lifeless, contrasting with Diana's dynamic.


For example, the snooker scene where Princess Diana confronts Prince Charles; the colours are as washed out as ever, really is common in the film, really helping establishing this empty and lifeless feel to the rooms and events. Kristen Stewart and Jack Farthing on opposite each other on the snooker table, talking about how she needs to pretend, she needs to be a different version of herself. What is incredible is the positioning on the balls. Charles has the triangle of balls, while Diana's side has a few balls very separate and sparse, it re-enforces this mentality that it's her and a couple other people vs the entire Royal Family as an establishment, which is one big group with no distance or different view, all in formation against her. The score really starts to ramp up with unsettling strings getting more and more intense until Diana loses her composure and slams the table, and as the black ball that was rolled from Charles' side falls to the ground, the music stops. The black ball symbolising this opening Charles gives Diana to be fake, and join that formation. This scene is bloody brilliant; completely masterful on all aspects.


The overall imagery of Spencer is so well done. The two prevailing ones are Anne Boleyn, who shows up several times, as well as a book about her. Her purpose is to show Diana her fate due to several parallels between their roles in their relationships. Diana also feels like a ghost in her own body. The pheasants were greatly used to almost be a physical embodiment of what Diana felt she was to the Royal Family. At the start of the film, several cars barely avoid running over a dead pheasant, even though one is gonna run it over, and Diana feels like that pheasant; dead and on the road but barely avoiding being "ran over" by the royals. The pheasants are also killed and fed to the royals too, and Diana feels she's being eaten up by them, but also used as game. Charles wants to William and Harry to shoot pheasants, but Diana is very against this, as she doesn't want her children to become one of them and start killing the pheasants, which is what she sees herself as. When Diana takes her children away before they can, it's her successfully taking them from that life. The imagery of food in general is very prevalent, and quite focused on, used as visual irony given Diana's eating disorder, which plagues Diana throughout the movie. I thought the scene where she chooses to go to the bathroom to make herself throw up and William is really upset outside the door, trying to tell her to stop was very powerful.


Furthermore, there's also a presence of value and fame in the imagery. When Diana talks to the Queen, she is told how her fate is to be on currency, and her face to only represent that currency, which directly refers to her legacy as someone to be used and tossed aside for profit and popularity, she isn't human to them, she is money. Additionally, there is the pearls she wears, which were also given to Camilla, and represent the wealth, but also the other relationship, she is locked in a relationship that Charles doesn't want, instead he wants the other girl with the same pearl necklace. The fact it's a necklace also subliminally shows up that this is strangling her mentally, and almost has no space in that relationship. She wants to rip them off at the dinner table, but doesn't. She finally does in her abandoned family home, where she feels safest and most human. She breaks from the claustrophobic shackles. And the way the camera is always so close up to Diana in most scenes really bring home this uncomfortableness.


I don't know if anything I'm saying would even work without Kristen Stewart in the titular role. She really makes the movie with her stunning role. With easily the most transformative role of the year, and by far the most deserving for Best Actress. As all good roles should be, Kristen Stewart completely loses herself in her role as Diana. I mean, her accent is so spot on, I legitimately forgot she wasn't actually British, her accent sounded so incredibly authentic. It isn't just her accent, but her mannerisms and the way she presents herself. Going back to that snooker scene, the way she reacts to the notion that Charles makes his body do things he hates, and the way she breaks in front of him. It's so full of turmoil. When she's in front of the cameras, you can see how uncomfortable she is just by her facial expressions and the way she composes herself. The way she changes her entire composure when she talks to Harry and William, as well as Maggie, just shows how restricted and held down she is surrounded in the climate she is, she doesn't like the attention at all.



Sally Hawkins in the role of Maggie is actually very underrated too. Her role isn't too big, but she is that support figure that is the only person who understands Diana properly, and she is instrumental in setting free Diana. The scene in the sunset near the beach, as they sit in grass and have a discussion. The sunlight creates this warm feel to the scene, and that is what it is, it is an endearing interaction, and Sally Hawkins certainly shone her, obviously among Kristen Stewart. I also thought that Jack Farthing was an effective Charles here. He had a presence in the whole film, but doesn't seem to have much emotional range. He is very cold, and robotic. He acts as an antagonist for the film, and really fills that role.


Ultimately, what's successful about Spencer is that it doesn't just appeal to the standard audience wanting to watch a paint-by-number biopic of Diana's life; it is, instead, an arc of acceptance and breaking free from your chains, and living your life to your own desires. The ending leaves on a happy note, let's you believe it's a fairy tale ending - everyone lives happily ever after. The bittersweet about it, though, is that because this is real life, we know what happens. We aren't told, but we know she goes on to die tragically not that long after. It isn't concerned with telling us the truth though, the point is that it's a fable based on a true tragedy, as it says itself. It only concerns itself with what it wants to focus on, and gives a very satisfying character growth for Diana, as we see deep in her psyche. But the dramatic irony of it, is that we know how it truly ends. And it is quite sad.


Pablo Larrain is an absolute genius, and I beg he gets given more opportunities to make biopics like Jackie and Spencer - he brings something to his films which is truly unrivalled.


Spencer is an absolute masterpiece, and the best film of 2021. Go watch it!


Thanks for reading.


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