Marking the 25th anniversary of her death, HBO Max will stream The Princess, a documentary about Princess Diana that premiered on the opening night of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Diana has been the subject of a lengthy catalog of film and television productions – including the most recent season of the Netflix series: The Crown and the 2021 drama Spencer, that featured an Oscar-nominated Lead Actress performance by Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana.
The Princess tells Diana’s story from a different perspective, relying entirely on archival audio and video footage from the 1980s and 1990s that plays out in chronological order.
From the jubilance and celebration that marked the Royal Wedding and the births of William and Harry to the dark and arduous unraveling of Charles and Diana’s marriage, the film chronicles many of the royal’s familiar milestones. However, what I found most interesting and inspiring was the coverage of Diana coming into her own as a devoted mother and a champion of many causes, post-Charles and the monarchy.
The Princess was directed by Ed Perkins and produced by Simon and Jonathan Chinn. They have said their hope is that The Princess, though it tells a story of the past, will encourage viewers to think about and examine the current fascination with the British monarchy, which like Diana remain under the intense scrutiny and pressure of tabloids and paparazzi.
Letting the images tell the story – The Princess has no narration or unseen footage – the filmmakers succeed in creating an unbiased chronicle of the People’s Princess.
If you’ve seen any of the fictionalized portrayals of Diana, and your familiar with the tragic story of her rise to royal fame and her untimely death, the experience of watching The Princess can be both poignant and somber while seeing Diana’s story unfold in real time, and in real life.
I enthusiastically recommend it as a film worth watching.
Running 1 hour and 44 minutes, The Princess is not rated and available to stream on HBO Max beginning August 13.
