Spencer (2021) - Lady Diana’s personal camera

Credit: allocine.fr

The Christmas turkey is roasted. The table is set. The servants are a’waiting. So, the question is, where is Lady Diana? Such a query often comes about in Pablo Larraín’s 2021 Spencer, a drama inspired by “a tragedy” according to its disclaimer. Sometimes, she is in the grounds, sporting casual attire when she is expected at the table in no less than two hours. At others, she is running across to the abandoned house opposite, her childhood home, in white gown and wellingtons, flashlight in hand. Often, she is with Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII, with whom she has started to feel rather close considering their similar circumstances as abandoned royal wives. Taking place over the course of Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing Day, Larraín’s camera tracks Diana, played by the astonishing Kristen Stewart, on her way to the Queen’s Sandringham Estate, getting changed into one of her many labelled outfits for the holidays, desperately trying to nab a minute with her two sons, the only solace she has. There isn’t a moment in which she is alone, and even if the paparazzi doesn’t catch her through the window once her curtains have been sewed up (she is judged too careless), Larraín makes sure to pick up the slack. Perhaps it is that Spencer lacks a little in plot, without much substance to make up for it: the Anne Boleyn comparison and consequent hallucinations don’t have the desired effect, nor do the lingering close ups of Stewart’s uncomfortable face as she tries to avoid the press. There is a sort of hazy, fairytale quality to the picture, mirroring Diana’s state of mind as her mental health gradually declines, culminating in hasty midnight feasts and self-harm involving wire cutters. Larraín highlights details that have an impact: the scarecrow Diana notices on her way to Sandringham, sporting her father’s clothes; the pearl necklace as a symbol of luxury and choking responsibility; and the scales at the entrance of the Estate, a traditional “bit of fun” for everyone else but a nightmare for our heroine. If Diana is certain of one thing in response to ‘where’, it is that she does not want to be ‘here’. However, the question that seems to matter the most, in the end, is ‘who?’. And it is in this that resides the true value and power of Spencer.