The Princess

This documentary tells, at a pace, the story of Princess Diana through media coverage.

Many phases of Diana's relationship with the media, eg the Bashir interview, are worth a documentary in their own right.

The commentary is unspoken through the editing and music score. It doesn't tell those who lived through the 80s and 90s anything new and it certainly won't be last work on Diana's life.

There has been a lot of work selecting a vast range of archive footage, primarily from the UK and the US, with many hitherto unseen finds.

Most, if not all, of the original source material was shot in 4:3. I question the decision to crop and zoom all of this for widescreen, with a consequent degradation in picture quality. It would have been better to have preserved the original 4:3 aspect ratio.

On the Bashir interview, these are the only clips credited to the source on screen during the documentary. I understand this is because the BBC didn't give clearance for their use (the BBC has actually banned it from being licensed or repeated) and the documentary makers are claiming fair dealing on its use.

As soon as I saw this had premiered at Sundance, I suspected it would be worth the watch. Why? Because unlike the glut of so-called documentaries about this ill-fated yet fascinating woman--with their dubious research, endless speculation, and onslaught of unverified opinions--this extremely well-made film doesn't tell you what the producers are pretty sure must have happened during Diana's life using a bunch of crap from the public archives that everyone's already seen a zillion times. Instead, it shows you exactly what went on through the use of historical footage and audio--most of which (as a Yank) I've never before seen or heard before. It's meticulously edited to chronologically follow the facts. By doing this, the story becomes so engrossing that there were times I felt swept up in the saga as if I was there and experiencing everything for the first time. That's good filmmaking imho. Totally worth the time investment.

Solid documentary that doesn't shy away from all of the opinions about Diana and the monarchy. No narrator or interviews, instead just a collection of interesting news clips and found footage that helps portray her life. Well edited, engaging, and interesting. I was 13 when she died, and this film helped me to understand why everyone was so devastated by the loss. Good companion piece to 'the crown' and 'the queen'.

I love documentaries more when they include archival materials such as videos and documents. This documentary is full of videos from the early 1980s to 1997 covering the time Diana passed from Prince Charles's girlfriend to her death. However, the film does not offer a timeline, a context, or an interview that helps situate the viewer in the images they are watching. For those who lived through those times, it is not challenging to situate themselves in the time situations shown in the archive videos happen. But anyone who did not live during those years can feel lost in the film. It feels like the people behind the film had to access all that video material and focus mainly on the editing part forgetting about the viewers. It could be done much better.

I watched this only because of the recent death of the queen of England. I was very young when princess Diana cam into the spotlight and all I could remember of her and an adolescent and young adult was her philanthropy and kindness. To me that says it all. I don't believe in the monarchy one bit. I do believe in respecting individuals that leave a positive mark in the world and that is what the princess did. There is no dispute in that. This documentary left me with like the title of my review says my jaw dropped in many instances. Many times I thought to myself of how "cringy" to use a modern term the kids use these days so many things that were done , said and thought of this person for no other reason than for being. Of course no one is perfect and princess Diana certainly was not but she definitely did not deserve a lot of the negative things that were done to her by that family. This documentary showed a lot of that in such a different and interesting way. Very well done in my opinion.