Last year it was The Crown that broke the streaming services, this year it is the cinemas that will be jam-packed with intrigued visitors, exploring the myth of Lady Diana. From Emma Corrin to Kristen Stewart, she was adored by everyone until her dying day, the late Princess became a global symbol for warmth, kindness and being the “odd one out.” Her silhouettes shaped a generation, always wearing the liveliest colours, when her inner world, after the publication of numerous books and documentaries about her marriage has become to be shadowed by darkness. Trapped in the golden cage in Central London, she was hiding bulimia and depression behind a perfectly curated smile for the photographers. In the media, she is portrayed as a saint gone too soon, or as the New York Times put it in 1996, “most writers sympathize with her and demonize her former husband, Prince Charles”. Every cinematic portrayal of her resembles the essence of a dark story, wrapped in the most beautiful and precious fabrics. Her story seems to be the recipe to success, but what is it that draws us as a society so close to those beautiful but broken characters?
Spencer (2021). Directed by Pablo Larraín. Image Courtesy of NEON.
The most recent screen adaptation, Spencer (2021), led by award-winning actress Kristen Stewart is about to embark on the German theatres next month. Cinematically, the trailer is drawn by the idyllic images of the English countryside, golden accessories and Diana’s fragile silhouette wrapped in silk, knit and moire fabric. A bright smile with dying blue eyes, she is expressing her brokenness when the curtains are shut – all the photographers see is the sacrificial lamb wrapped in a wedding dress and a 20-metre long train. The obsession with Diana began the day she wed Prince Charles, and is ongoing to this day: the internet is full of Instagram fan accounts of her style, fashion critic Rachel Tashjian mentions her almost on a weekly basis on her social platforms and her newsletter “opulent tips” and last year, when a sweater she once bought from a Scottish knitting company got restocked, it sold out within minutes. The influence of her style goes beyond the iconic cycling shorts and jumper combination, it is about being society’s favourite “enfant terrible”, breaking every dress code the royals set in stone. Taking off her precious gloves to feel genuine human touch, wearing velvet to let disabled people feel her warmth and ditching the hat to hug children in hospitals were only a few statements marked by the late Princess.
Diana’s spirit is more present than ever in 2021 though the connections may not be direct, it’s made its way on the runway. Miu Miu embarked this fall season with a mashup of preppy skirts, disrupted power structures and bright colours, just like she did with her attitude. Gucci’s latest season captures the glitter of Hollywood, the acropolis of dreams in the words of Alessandro Michele, a world covering up the dark reality of making it in the land of the free. A world as dark as Diana’s – captured beautifully in a photograph, perfect curation manages to hide the dark truth buried between closets full of unlived dreams.
Dark characters with beautiful shells have been filling the cashiers of local cinemas for decades, take note of French actress Romy Schneider, praised for her beauty, when she was suffering silently from substance abuse after the loss of her young son and much of her life would imitate the tragedies of the characters she once played and like Diana, she was not only admired but sought-after.
Spencer (2021). Directed by Pablo Larraín. Image Courtesy of NEON.
In another example, meet Daisy Buchannan from The Great Gatsby. In Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film adaptation, her character is introduced with the lyrics “filled with poison, blessed with beauty and rage” of the artist Lana del Rey, who herself has made her dark inner world her unique selling point. Del Rey’s contribution of her hit single ‘Young and Beautiful’ in The Great Gatsby can be seen as an open letter. Daisy, who is as beautiful as a warm summer evening and as dark as the winter in the Nordic countries, is the secret villain of the story, yet profits from the love she couldn’t give back to Gatsby. Through cinematic exploration, the narrator once again manages to make the audience fall in love with the beauty of a character drowning in the sadness of her own life.
Dark but beautiful figures do not only exist within the pages of Luhrmann or Fitzgerald, they go as far as mythology and folklore until today’s Instagram feeds. Are beautiful women meant to be sad in order to live through the stance of time in popular culture? Whilst Bob Dylan is remembered for his artistic work, Edie Sedgwick, a model and former lover is forever immortal for the unrequited love she had for him. “With her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls,” he describes his former lover Edie in his song ‘Just like a Woman’, touching on the substance abuse issues she suffered from. In a long portrait of Warhol’s and Sedgwick’s friendship, she has been described as “beautiful, rich and damaged”, which was known to be the target of Warhol’s desires and society’s obsession. Sedgwick triggered the same fascination and obsession in society as Diana. People did not only admire her, they wanted to be her. Opposites like Sedgwick and Warhol attract, and so do dark and beautiful. What may never see the light of day is kept under the beautiful wraps of the outside shell. Male figures on the other side, such as Jim Morrisson, Robert Mapplethorpe or Alexander McQueen, who have the same emotional turmoil as Diana are remembered for their struggles than the image they projected.
Spencer (2021). Directed by Pablo Larraín. Image Courtesy of NEON.
Broken and beautiful characters trigger an obsession in popular culture and out of this obsession, a sense of unlimited protectiveness is born. In an interview about Spencer, Stewart mentions how protective she feels about Diana and her suffering, a protectiveness that led her to tears in the first screening of the movie at the Venice Film festival this summer. Going back to the trailer of Spencer, a one minute work of art, encapturing the torture the Princess felt, is underlined by Lou Reed’s song ‘Perfect day.’ ‘Perfect day’ is a nearly six-minute song describing perfect scenery, a life that everyone desires from the essence of their bones, with a dark melody. It’s slow, and if the song had a colour it would be a dark royal blue. The song, as well as Diana, is broken, its two incoherent visions failing to meet in the middle. Contrary to Corrin’s rather naive version of the Princess, Stewart is portraying the last four days before Diana decides to leave the Royal Family. Set in Sandringham castle, the audience meets the Diana that the cameras never captured – a beautiful figure drawn by turmoil, a double-identity and the nation’s weight on her tiny shoulders. It may have been seen as the end of a scripted fairytale, but in reality, it may have been the most accurate deception we have of fairy tales to date – it’s beautiful in its own grotesqueness. What draws us to them remains a mystery, it may be the clothing, it may be the escapism, or it may simply be the relatability they carry within what’s broken. In the end, we may not be that different after all.