'Fairy tale princess and just like us' - 25 years on from her death, documentary dissects Diana's life and legacy

Record ID: 1685796

  • Title: 'Fairy tale princess and just like us' - 25 years on from her death, documentary dissects Diana's life and legacy
  • Date: 22nd August 2022
  • Summary: WINCHESTER, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 11, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) FILMMAKER, ED PERKINS, SAYING: "A lot of people talk about Diana almost being kind of like a blank canvas onto which we were all throughout her life able to project our own hopes and dreams and fears. She was sort of able somehow to be lots of different things to lots of different people. And I also think there's something about the fairy tale myth that she seemed to inhabit and her life seemed to inhabit. You know, we as humans have been telling ourselves variations of the fairy tale myth for thousands and thousands of years. And suddenly, this real-life fairy tale sort of came into being in this country at a moment where, you know, socio-politically, we were going through a moment of real upheaval and turmoil at the end of the seventies. And this marriage, this fairy tale romance, came onto the public stage and gave, I think, a lot of people a beacon of hope, something that they really bought into and wanted to work. And I think a lot of people became emotionally invested in wanting that story to work. And I think there are other reasons, but those are some of the reasons why I think her relationship, her life, and her story had such an impact on people."
  • Embargoed: 5th September 2022 12:09
  • Keywords: British royal family British royals Diana anniversary Diana death Diana death anniversary Princess Diana Princess Diana legacy
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Royals
  • Reuters ID: LVA008907617082022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Memories of his own reaction to Princess Diana's death provided Oscar-nominated director Ed Perkins the emotional starting point for his new film "The Princess", a documentary he hopes will offer a new perspective on Diana's life in the public eye, 25 years on from her death.
    Perkins, who was 11 when Diana died on August 31, 1997, remembers the confusion he felt over the collective outpouring of emotion and the unprecedented scenes of mourning.
    "I think the only other moment in my life that I really feel like time just stopped was 9/11. Diana's death really was a moment where the whole world just seemed to be focussed on this singular event," he told Reuters.
    "The Princess" relies entirely on archive video to trace Diana's life from a timid teen to her death at the age of 37.
    Perkins trawled through hundreds of hours of footage in search of moments he hoped would offer a new perspective on Diana's life in the public eye.
    In eschewing interviews and retrospective analysis traditionally used as the narrative tool in documentaries, Perkins said he and his team hoped to explore the complicated relationship between Diana, the media, and the public and elicit an emotional response from audiences and encourage them to reanalyse their own relationship with the princess.
    "A lot of people talk about Diana almost being kind of like a blank canvas onto which we were all throughout her life able to project our own hopes and dreams and fears. She was sort of able somehow to be lots of different things to lots of different people," said Perkins.
    "As humans have been telling ourselves variations of the fairy tale myth for thousands and thousands of years. And suddenly this real-life fairy tale sort of came into being in this country at a moment where, you know, socio-politically, we were going through a moment of real upheaval and turmoil at the end of the seventies. And this marriage, this fairy tale romance, came onto the public stage and gave, I think, a lot of people a beacon of hope, something that they really bought into and wanted to work. And I think a lot of people became emotionally invested in wanting that story to work. And I think there are other reasons, but those are some of the reasons why I think her relationship, her life, and her story had such an impact on people," he said.
    Diana was just 19 when she married Charles in 1981 and became the subject of global admiration and scrutiny. The collapse of their marriage, which she blamed on Charles's lover and future wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, only fuelled media and public interest in Diana, who died when a limousine carrying her crashed as it was trying to escape chasing paparazzi photographers.
    Scenes of the film show shifting public attitudes towards Diana and the royal family as her popularity soars. Interpreting Diana's emotions is left to the viewer.
    "I think the impact she had on individual people when she met them, but also when she took on bigger causes, you know, whether it was landmines or the AIDS crisis, you know, she did effect real change. And I think probably that is the thing that a lot of people around the world will remember her most for and will see as her legacy," the filmmaker said.
    Perkins said he approached producer Simon Chinn about making the film some five years ago, eager to explore Diana's story and noting similarities in recent events involving the British royals.
    "We're at a really interesting moment where, yes, Harry and Meghan left the UK and moved to the US, but we're also at a moment where inevitably at some point, there will be change at the top of the British royal family and we will come to the end of the Elizabethan era and a lot of the kind of questions and ideas and themes that I think exist and are offered up by Diana's story, I think are going to be part of a conversation again," he said.
    "One of the central questions that I think this film and Diana's story offers up is, you know, what we, the public, want from monarchy, what we want for the royal family. And, you know, I guess there seems to be this sort of central conundrum or paradox, which is, you know, do we want our royals to be just like us? Do we want them to be normal and approachable and transparent? Or actually, do we want them to be different? Do we want them to be other and special? Do we want to kind of retain that sense of magic? And the truth is, we probably want both of those things at the same time, even if we can't have both those things at the same time. But perhaps Diana, at certain points in her life, uniquely, was able to somehow walk that tightrope," he said, adding that he could see Diana and Charles's sons, William and Harry, being shaped by their experiences as young children.
    "A lot of what we see in the film is, and I saw in the archive, was Diana taking both William and Harry to charities and hospices and exposing them to the more tricky parts of life and people who are far less privileged and were going through hard times. And so I don't think it's any surprise that we see some of the characteristics that we see in Diana also start to be very apparent in William and Harry and in the way I guess the royal family will continue to evolve."
    "The Princess" is streaming on Sky in the United Kingdom, HBO Max in the United States, and released theatrically and online in several other countries.
    (Production: Will Russell, Hanna Rantala)
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