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SPENCER

The dark depiction of a tormented Diana that I can't stop thinking about.

Elizabeth Holmes

Nov 5, 2021
9

Welcome to So Many Thoughts, a semi-weekly newsletter about royal style and the other parts of life I want to think through with you. You can subscribe here and follow me on Instagram at @EHolmes. Thank you!

I co-hosted an advance screening this week of Spencer, the new movie starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana. What a night, WHAT A MOVIE. So many thanks to Instagram and Neon for sponsoring the event, and *so many* thoughts on this film. I've divided them into two parts below. The first is completely spoiler-free with a bit on the fashion and my overall movie thoughts. The second is clearly marked “light spoilers,” a bit of a review revealing just a bit more.

After you have a chance to see the movie — it’s in theaters now! — I would love to discuss it with you. Please share questions or scenes or moments you want to dissect in the comments of my Bulletin page by hitting “Join the Discussion” at the end of this email. (ICYMI: My SMT of Spencer is here.)

* * *

I was scrolling Instagram awhile back and paused to squint at a photograph. I haven’t seen this picture of Diana before, I thought to myself. While researching my book, I scanned thousands upon thousands of images of the late princess. This one was new to me — and that’s because it wasn’t Diana. It was Kristen Stewart as Diana, the first promotional image released from the new movie Spencer. The uncanny likeness stopped me cold. Kristen is clad in a near-facsimile of an outfit Diana wore on Christmas Day 1993: a large, veiled black hat, a high-neck blouse, and a bright red jacket.

Princess Diana on Christmas in 1993 and Kristen Stewart as Diana in Spencer. (Photos via Getty and courtesy of Neon)

The spot-on recreation of Diana led me to believe that Spencer, directed by Pablo Larraín, was going to be more informed than imagined. But in hindsight it's clear that this was an establishing shot, proof that the 31-year-old actress who made her name in the Twilight films could take on one of the most iconic figures of our time.

From there, the real story telling began. Every image released since was just slightly off. My eyes always went straight for the fashion, which never quite aligned with what the real Diana wore. There was the plaid coat with a bit too much red and green; the sailor outfit and hat is yellow in the movie rather than the original red. The Chanel bag is bigger, the sunglasses flashier, the hair slightly longer.

Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran very intentionally gave Diana’s iconic wardrobe a Spencer twist. “The idea was that we were never slavishly replicating all of Diana's looks, but we were definitely riffing on the idea of them,” Durran told Entertainment Weekly. “So we were quite consciously not trying to do the closest version we could in every instance. But in some places we used things that were exactly her style and then other places we drifted off.” Take the gorgeous white and gold Chanel dress featured on the movie poster. It looks like something Diana would have worn but never did (it’s a recreation of a vintage couture piece by the celebrated fashion house). The silhouette is foreshadowing in a way: glittering with a gold bow up top, closely fitted until it reaches her knees and then explodes into a voluminous skirt.

And then there’s the ring. In one early promotional shot, Kristen is staring straight at the camera, her cheek resting on her left hand to show off her famous engagement ring. Arguably one of the most recognizable and photographed pieces of jewelry of our time, the 12-carat oval sapphire rimmed in diamonds looks noticeably different in Spencer. The edges are smoother, the diamonds are smaller, and the iconic center stone is bigger, ballooning off her finger.

The Crown, with its heavily researched and painstaking recreations, has primed us all to look for the similarities in royal family retellings. But that ring held the secret to Spencer, a clue to the oversize and off-kilter story it spins.

If you are planning to see Spencer, my advice is to free yourself from the urge to scrutinize fact from fiction. This is not a biopic. It is a dark fable, an imagined take on a private time.

Set over three days during Christmas 1991, Spencer doesn't offer viewers much backstory for where and when the audience meets Diana. So a bit of context: A full decade into her royal tenure, Diana was an adored and established global superstar. She was both an asset and a threat to the monarchy. Her marriage to Charles was beyond repair and yet separation or divorce remained out of the question. She was unraveling, but also growing restless, looking for a way to have her story told. Earlier that year she began making secret tapes for writer Andrew Morton. In those recordings, Diana revealed all of her horrific struggles — the bulimia, the infidelity, the self harm. But Morton’s explosive biography based on those tapes wouldn’t be published for months. The rest of the world had yet to realize the depths of her despair; she was suffering in silence.

Courtesy of Neon

* * * LIGHT SPOILERS BELOW * * *

Trigger warning: Self harm and eating disorders discussed

The film opens with Diana driving herself to Sandringham, where the Queen and the rest of the royal family spend Christmas each year. Careening on the winding country roads, with the top of her convertible down and a map in her hand, she’s lost. It’s an absurd premise, given that Diana — Diana Spencer, as she was known then — was born on the estate. But it reveals just how far gone she is, how destabilized she is after a decade of torment. She has, quite literally, lost her way.

What follows is a horror movie, a prolonged depiction of emotional violence within the confines of the Crown. To my surprise, the rest of the royal family is seen but rarely heard; Charles appears on screen sporadically to criticize or degrade, while the Queen utters just a few words. But the threat of the institution is present throughout, looming ominously and judging harshly. The estate is painted as a prison complete with a moat, its staff shown as soldiers marching in a line. Everyone whispers for fear of being overheard and it's freezing but nobody will turn up the heat. Diana interacts sparingly with the other characters, mostly (and tellingly) the help. She connects with the regular people, her people, including her dresser and the chef.

I can't overstate how much Kristen is the movie and the movie is Kristen. Kristen’s Diana is a tortured one, an undercurrent of pain ever present in her searching eyes. Her footing is shaky and her body is clenched as she looks for a way out of this deep, dark rabbit hole. Through a book mysteriously left on her bed, Diana spirals over Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII who was beheaded so his mistress could be queen. The film feels like a bit of a fever dream, going in and out of hallucinations that make it unclear what is real and what is a figment of Diana’s unwell imagination. The tight shots of the princess’s anguished face are particularly arresting on the big screen. (It’s been years since I last saw a movie in a theater; the setting really upped the drama.)

Courtesy of Neon

Fashion makes its way into the narrative, but Diana does not delight in her wardrobe the way she did as a new royal. In Spencer, her outfits are another way she is controlled. They are costumes, forcing her to play a part. In an early scene, her clothes for the weekend are rolled in on a rack, each tagged in gold cursive script: POW. It’s an abbreviation for Princess of Wales, but one can’t help but think of the military connotation “prisoner of war,” too. The ensembles, as glamorous as they are, become part of her rebellion. She is scolded for wearing the outfits out of their designated order.

Spencer leans heavily on the Princess’s struggles with bulimia and cutting, bringing moments of torment from earlier in her royal tenure forward to when the film takes place. There’s even a nod to when she fell down the stairs (by her own account, she threw herself down) while pregnant with William. Condensing a decade of her response to trauma into one weekend later in her life felt a bit unfair. But these moments are a big part of her story, and an easy, highly visual way to depict her pain.

Amidst all the suffering, there is a sliver of hope: Diana as a mother. Given how dark the rest of the movie is, the moments she shares with her sons have a heightened sense of sentimentality. But I welcomed them thoroughly, a chance to see the princess relax (if only briefly) and smile (if a bit sadly). “It was the only thing in her life that felt sure. She wanted to feel unconditional about something,” Kristen said during a virtual discussion at the Toronto Film Festival. “Her strength, power, and feral, unstoppable force of nature really came out when she was with her kids, because she wasn't very good at protecting herself, but she was very good at protecting them.” Kristen said she felt the movie hinged on that aspect of the princess: “If you don't get that right, you don't get her right.”

Courtesy of Neon

But mostly: Like the Crown, I think Spencer will have a lasting effect on how people feel about the monarchy. These moments in the zeitgeist can direct the emotional tide, which matters deeply for an institution reliant on public support. With Spencer added to a resurgence of Diana retellings, will affection ebb while skepticism — or even dissent — flows?

For royal watchers, the shock of Spencer offers a moment reflection. I came to follow the Windsors, like so many of you, through the happy times: the weddings, the babies, the fashion. But we are far from that fairy tale. Just look at Meghan and Harry and all that they have revealed since stepping back. Spencer, as dramatized as it is, is an intense reminder that there is a dark side with which we all must grapple.

* * *

More on Spencer

Sharing a few links that I found worth reading. Note: There are varying levels of spoilers throughout, so please read at your own risk!

  • Playing Princess Diana Was Kristen Stewart’s Fairy Tale (Vanity Fair)

  • Spencer Costume Designer Jacqueline Durran on How She Turned Kristen Stewart into Princess Diana (Entertainment Weekly)

  • How New Film Spencer Kept Kristen Stewart's Diana in Focus (CNN)

  • What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in Pablo Larraín’s Spencer? (Vulture)

  • Spencer Review: Prisoner of the House of Windsor (New York Times)

  • Spencer Review: Kristen Stewart’s Diana impersonation is enjoyably strange (The Guardian)

  • Kristen Stewart’s Spencer Style: How Her Costumes Compare To Princess Diana’s Real-Life Looks (Access Hollywood featuring yours truly!)

* * *

SMT x IG x Spencer

Thank you to all 225+ of you who came out to the advance screening this week in Los Angeles! I am so grateful to Lauren Schutte at Instagram for her support and to the team at Neon for helping make the event bigger than I ever imagined. My hope is that this is the first of many SMT meetups!

A few of my favorite shots from the night below, with thanks to photographer JS Rhos.

* * *

I'd love to discuss Spencer with you! After you have a chance to see the movie, please hit "Join the Discussion" at the bottom of this email to share your thoughts or questions in the comments of my Bulletin page.

Have a wonderful weekend, friends. I'll see you back in your inbox on Tuesday.

PS: Like what you’re reading? Please subscribe or share with a friend!

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9 Comments

  • Stephanie Davis
    I thought it was a brilliant film. And seeing the dark, tortured side of Diana is so important in understanding who she was – – and the potential she had once she had escaped the royal family (which, the true tragedy is that she never got to reach that…
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    • 28w
    • Author
      Elizabeth Holmes
      I missed that look on the Queen's face! I need to watch it again. Thanks for sharing, Stephanie.
      • 28w
  • Jennifer Halm
    Can we talk about the music? It was both beautiful and horrid to listen to, symbolic of her tortured mental state. Then the pop hopefulness of Mike and the Mechanics. It was so abrupt, but also, like Diana, we could breathe again.
    2
    • 28w
    • Author
      Elizabeth Holmes
      YES. I want to watch again just to fully appreciate the score. Added so much.
      • 28w
  • Eve Ross
    I am curious why Diana continues to be such a draw. She doesnt fit the “hero with a 1000 faces“ mythic formula, nor is her life synonomous with anything except tragedy. She didn’t conspiciously serve, or make a difference to society at large - again, n…
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    • 28w
    • Edited
  • Mandy Schwartz Katz
    This depiction of Diana just makes me sad. I feel it is insensitive to her memory, particularly her sons and brother and sisters, and most of all her grandchildren, who will never know her. I'm not quite sure of the motivation to paint such a portrait …
    See more
    • 28w
  • Scarlet V. Rose
    Wow, Kristen Stewart was AMAZING in this film! But I also found myself mesmerized by the score (by Jonny Greenwood!) throughout and how it added so much to the film. Wow wow wow! The dissonance and crescendos were just perfection as we watched some of …
    See more
    • 28w
  • Nicole Sundgren Harterink
    I thought the score was amazing. The chaotic jazz, the increasingly loud music during the soup course, etc. It was all perfect.
    It was ironic (or maybe that’s not the right word) that her confidantes were the chef and her dresser. I’m wondering if t…
    See more
    • 28w
  • Amanda Alonzo
    Interestingly enough I find myself even more protective of the monarch... Particularly the Queen, William and Catherine. My love with the monarch doesn't ebb but continues to flow and the current a bit stronger. Once I watch the movie I will reflect fu…
    See more
    • 28w
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