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Pablo Larraín’s Spencer, a fantastical imagining of a few fateful days in Princess Diana‘s life, begins with an epigraph that notes the film is “a fable from a true tragedy.” The true tragedy, of course, is the dark story of the late princess’ life, which included a turbulent marriage to Prince Charles, the pressure of being a member of the royal family and facing unrelenting scrutiny from the public and the media.
The film, which stars Kristen Stewart as Diana, speculates on the inner turmoil she may have faced ahead of her separation from Prince Charles in 1992. Set over three days during the 1991 Christmas holidays at the Sandringham, one of the royal family’s country estates, the movie offers a glimpse of Diana’s innermost thoughts and feelings as imagined by Larraín, amid the purported real-life tensions within the royal family and the dissolution of her marriage.
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While the film is inspired by real-life figures, longtime rumors and real events, it is still very much a work of fiction, anchored by Larraín’s experimental direction, which includes, among other things, hallucinations and a visit from Anne Boleyn.
Here’s what’s fact and what’s fiction in Spencer.
The separation of Princess Diana and Prince Charles
The film takes place in 1991, placing it just one year ahead of the time that Diana and Charles formally separated in December 1992. This was eleven years after they wed in 1981; at this point in their marriage, there had been years of rumors and speculation of marital strife, much of which was attributed to Charles’ sustained and longtime affair with his first love, Camilla Parker Bowles.
The painful canker of Charles’ affair is apparent in the film when Diana realizes that the pearl necklace that Charles presents to her at Christmas is the same one that he also gifts to Camilla, a scenario that had actually happened at another time with another piece of jewelry to the real Diana. Another scene in Spencer shows Charles…
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Source : time
