Spencer

They take a lot of photographs of you, don't they? The only photograph they take that really matters is the one they put on the ten-pound note, and they took that one. You understand, my dear, that all you are is currency.10 CHRISTMAS MOVIES CHALLENGE DAY 1 It would be smart (and kinda ironic) to use the title "Diana" for this movie, attracting people to the princess, the icon, the celebrity everyone adores. But Larraín understood what kind of movie he was making and instead called the movie Diana's real name, "Spencer," because that's who she really is—the person they don't photograph. This movie is the moment where she remembers who she was. Larraín here is focused on one thing: showing us who she really is and what she went through. The movie explores themes of isolation and loneliness because that’s what she went through. She was a nursery teacher's assistant, a real person, not a media-trained people-pleaser princess, and the family around her mostly failed to even acknowledge that or at least try to help her going through this big change, which led to this 3-day period where everything (Diana’s struggle with her real persona and public one, the tension, the disorders, the emotions) came crashing down on her. I find it really interesting how coldly Diana’s eating disorder is treated by the rest of the family. For me, they aren’t only the royalty because neither of them cared about what she went through and were instead focused on the material parts they could get from her, judging her when she simply showed feelings. The movie is full of symbolism, the main one for me being that necklace given to her but also equal to another he apparently gave someone else. We see her forcing herself to wear the necklace and forcing herself to believe it was an act of love. The necklace symbolizes the constraints imposed on her, and when she finally gets to express herself, she breaks free two times. The first time is an hallucination to show what she actually wishes—tearing the necklace and eating her as a way of mocking the rules of the family. The second time, for real, when she visits her old house, the place where she once was her true self. When she entered it, she woke up from the royals' illusion of what they wanted her to be, and faces an illusion but also a warning of what would happen if she stayed. The necklace and other royal things like the curtains and guards are all symbols of the royal family’s entrapment and containment, forcing her to isolate herself and drain her identity. That’s what the movie is about—it’s about a person trying to reclaim their identity from a society that tries to suck it away from them. The majority of Spencer explores Princess Diana’s fight to reclaim her identity. As Larraín’s film plays out like a horror movie, Diana’s reactions to certain things become more desperate and yearning. She quite literally wants to escape the trappings of the royal establishment, constantly trying to leave the grounds of Sandringham House to revisit Park House, her childhood home (her identity). Cinematography plays a huge part in enhancing Diana’s true persona and feelings. It reflects her emotional state, whether with tight close-ups to show the constriction or erratic camera movements for the desperation she felt to leave. Lighting and colors are very muted, not bright, to show that this was not a moment of joy—it was a task. And then the ending, where everything completely changes. This movie has a weird obsessive relationship with food, so basically, it’s perfect since Diana had an eating disorder and Charles was obsessed with organic food. So food here serves as a way to not only show real problems Diana went through, which only made the tension and judgment from the royal members rise, but also kind of hint at us the obsessive side of Charles. Food is all over this "fable of a real tragedy." It weaponizes it and acts like it's war. The movie literally opens with armored trucks looking like a war scene, going to the kitchen, and the chef yelling out food dishes—whatever he was saying—like he was an army chef preparing his soldiers. The scene that stands out is obviously her eating the pearls. A dinner scene of a royal family should be luxurious, glamorous, and happy since it’s Christmas, but her mealtime is the main symbol of the oppression the royal family put on Diana. As soon as she arrives, she gets related to her food by being forced to weigh herself to see if she will gain some pounds. "She always said that her eating disorder was a symptom of a larger problem," Stewart says. "It wasn't the problem. That didn't come from her innately. This is how she was reacting to an environment that felt impossible to live in. And so to think that sandwiches are more important than your life—that's so fucking ridiculous. 'The holy sandwiches.' I had to hide so much snarl in that because I, as Kristen, am so upset by that. That’s so infuriating." The soup scene is a turning point where we finally are able to see Diana’s full perspective. In this whole Christmas, the dinner scene is organized almost ritualistically, with everyone following the same steps and moves at a fucking Christmas dinner instead of talking—focused only on the food, which again forces Diana to do something she doesn't like. Christmas and joy itself are completely dehumanized. Every single tradition, every single "enjoyable" moment gets destroyed by obligation, repression, by forcing someone to be someone they aren’t overnight. THAT'S the life Diana had to go through. Then we have the ending, where everything switches. She manages to break free from the royalty, the oppression, and takes the only thing she likes with her. She gets to live what she always wanted. Everything brightens up—the camera movement stops being so meticulously perfect and gets messy. The soundtrack also is no longer elegant but full of happiness. The ending, for me, was the brief moment of happiness Diana had. It was perfect to end like this because it again represents Spencer, not Princess Diana. It represents someone once unhappy, finally escaping entrapment.