\n<\/p>\n
The gift and the book itself are fictional. The 2021 film, directed by Pablo Larra\u00edn<\/a>, is too, proceeding from the idea that where there\u2019s a martyr there must be a monster. Elizabeth is a freeze-dried witch, Charles a snarling prig. Perhaps to avoid accusations of defamation, the filmmakers identify their story, in a prefatory caption, as \u201ca fable from a true tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n A fable and a tragedy I grant you: The famous outline of Diana\u2019s story, if not its unknowable guts, is Grimm indeed.<\/p>\n But the word \u201ctrue\u201d doesn\u2019t belong anywhere near \u201cSpencer.\u201d No reputable history has suggested, for instance, that the princess ate a bowlful of pearls emancipated from a Flintstones-size necklace given to her by her unfaithful husband. Nor is she known to have hallucinated Boleyn, who urged her toward self-harm, or dismissed a lady-in-waiting, as one does, by saying, \u201cNow leave me, I wish to masturbate.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, surrealism is as convenient a fig leaf as any to hide one\u2019s sins under. And at least \u201cSpencer\u201d means to be sympathetic, if sympathy can coexist with character assassination. Turning Diana into a martyr by stripping her of all decorum means turning her into a madwoman: a threat to herself and possibly her children. By the time she plants herself in the middle of a pheasant shoot, all but daring her family to kill her<\/a>, our sympathy has started to reflux. Perhaps the monsters were on to something.<\/p>\n Schemer, hysteric, victim, saint: It may be that Diana was any or all of these, as even a fanboy must concede. I did not, finally, know her. That doesn\u2019t mean I can stand to watch writers, pretending they do, torture her as she was once tortured by paparazzi, only this time For Your Consideration as award bait. A woman whose bereaved children are still living is not primarily an artistic, let alone a financial, opportunity. Her value as gossip or as evidence in a political argument does not trump her right, even in death, to personal integrity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHow Long?<\/h2>\n