The Princess

"Her life. Our obsession."

2022 1h 44m EN

😐

6.4

MID

★6.4TMDB · 39

DocumentaryHistory

Synopsis

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Decades after her untimely death, Princess Diana continues to evoke mystery, glamour, and the quintessential modern fairy tale gone wrong. As a symbol of both the widening fissures weakening the British monarchy and the destructive machinery of the press, the Princess of Wales navigated an unparalleled rise to fame and the corrosive challenges that came alongside it. Crafted entirely from immersive archival footage and free from the distraction of retrospective voices, this hypnotic and audaciously revealing documentary takes a distinctive formal approach, allowing the story of the People’s Princess to unfold before us like never before.

“Her life. Our obsession.”

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Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Ed Perkins
Writers: Ed Perkins
Languages: English, Portuguese
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

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Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 4 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Portuguese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Martin Phipps. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Jinx Godfrey shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Her life. Our obsession.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt13393128 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Ed Perkins directs. Martin Phipps scores. Jinx Godfrey cuts. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English, Portuguese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 4 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Portuguese.
3International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
4Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
5Original score by Martin Phipps. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Jinx Godfrey shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Marketing tagline: "Her life. Our obsession.".
8IMDB entry: tt13393128 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 39 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Original score: Martin Phipps
Editing: Jinx Godfrey
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Princess (2022)

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Ed Perkins

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2022-07-08
★ 6/10
This is a very well researched chronology of the life of a woman who took the world's media by the scruff of the neck in a way that had never happened before, nor is likely to again. Using actuality from her engagement to the Prince of Wales through to her eventual death, Ed Perkins delivers a largely recycled and one-sided depiction of this flawed human being that pays scant regard to her numerous critics and is somewhat annoyingly peppered with the out of vision views of anonymous, uncredited, talking heads - some of whom are more recognisable (e.g. Dr. David Starkey) and others less so as it progresses. There is no doubt it is a well crafted film and is a testament to archivists the world over who have carefully preserved such historical footage for us to remember now, 25 years after her fatal car crash. I have to say that I found most of the adulatory vox pops cringe-makingly embarrassing - most of the contributors here knew no more about the intimacies of the royal marriage than anyone in the cinema watching. The lack of any semblance of a neutral narrative thread, I felt, leads to an interesting retrospective that tells us little fact, but fuels the divisive epitaph of a woman, and a relationship, about which it impossible to generalise. Given the scenes seen recently in London as Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her platinum jubilee, it also seems to completely misunderstand the dynamic between the monarchy and the citizens of Britain with assertions that somehow the idolisation of this Princess would remain far longer in the minds of the populace than they certainly do amongst the bottom-feeding media. Nothing at all new to see here.

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