عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

New Documentary ‘The Princess’ Immerses Audiences in Diana’s Story

Director Ed Perkins attends the screening of the film "The Princess", in London, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)
Director Ed Perkins attends the screening of the film "The Princess", in London, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)
TT
TT

New Documentary ‘The Princess’ Immerses Audiences in Diana’s Story

Director Ed Perkins attends the screening of the film "The Princess", in London, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)
Director Ed Perkins attends the screening of the film "The Princess", in London, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)

Oscar-nominated director Ed Perkins trawled through hundreds of hours of footage of Princess Diana in search of moments he hoped would offer new perspective on her life and public image, 25 years after her death.

His new film "The Princess" relies entirely on archive video to trace Diana’s life from a timid teen to her death on Aug. 31, 1997, aged 36, and the unprecedented scenes of mourning that ensued.

In eschewing interviews and retrospective analysis traditionally used as the narrative tool in documentaries, Perkins said he hoped to explore the complicated relationship between Diana, the media and the public and elicit an emotional response from audiences.

"Our hope was to use the archive as a kind of time machine to take audiences back into our collective pasts and allow them to relive the story," he told Reuters.

Perkins, who was 11 when Diana died and remembers the confusion he felt over the outpouring of emotion, said he hoped his style of filmmaking would encourage audiences to reanalyze their own relationship with the princess.

"The thing that's most interesting for me is what was our role in this? What was our active role in the story? What was our complicity?" said Perkins, who earned a 2019 Oscar nomination for the documentary short "Black Sheep."

"The part of the Diana story of this puzzle that I felt was less explored and more interesting for me was, what does Diana's story say about all of us? And so that's the whole approach here, to kind of immerse audiences in this present tense unfolding, to never let you escape from the archive, to take you back into these moments in all our lives."

Diana had just turned 20 when she married Charles in 1981 and became the subject of global admiration and scrutiny. The collapse of their marriage, which she blamed on Charles' lover and future wife, Camilla Parker Bowles, only fueled media and public interest in Diana, who died when a limousine in which she was riding crashed in a Parisian tunnel as she fled the paparazzi.

"The Princess" will be released in theaters in Britain on June 30.

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

Netflix’s ‘Missing You’ Lands in Time for New Year Binge Watch

In this photo illustration a computer screen displays the Netflix logo on March 31, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP)
In this photo illustration a computer screen displays the Netflix logo on March 31, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP)
TT
TT

Netflix’s ‘Missing You’ Lands in Time for New Year Binge Watch

In this photo illustration a computer screen displays the Netflix logo on March 31, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP)
In this photo illustration a computer screen displays the Netflix logo on March 31, 2020 in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP)

It’s Netflix’s resolution every new year to give viewers a headscratcher in January.

Since 2020, the streamer has released a UK miniseries based on thriller book by Harlan Coben over the holidays. It seems to have paid off: “Fool Me Once,” starring Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar and Joanna Lumley, launched this past January and became what Netflix says was one of their most watched shows of the year, amassing 108 million views.

2025’s seasonal suspense series is “Missing You,” based on Coben’s 2014 New York Times bestseller. It stars Rosalind Eleazar (“Slow Horses”) as Detective Inspector Kat Donovan, a police officer who specializes in finding missing people — apart from the fiance that vanished 11 years earlier.

“They know Jan. 1 is the sweet spot for them,” says actor Richard Armitage, who has appeared in each winter Coben adaptation, which relocates the stories from the books' America to the north of England. “People have ownership over the show now, so like, ‘I want my Harlan Coben show on New Year’s Day. Give me my Harlan Coben fix.’”

“It’s perfect timing for the release, to be honest,” says co-star Ashley Walters. “Most people are going to be hung over or, you know, just not have anything to do with the day.”

The show opens with the shock of Donovan's ex-fiance (Walters) popping up on a dating app, over a decade after she came home one day to find him gone.

“I’ve ghosted people before,” laughs Armitage. “Just people you don’t want to talk to anymore. Not digitally though.”

Another star, Jessica Plummer, isn’t a fan of those who disappear without saying goodbye, though.

“I’d just feel too guilty,” she admits, calling it “cowardly and lazy — sorry Richard!”

Eleazar promises twists and turns along the way, adding that the actors weren’t initially given the final two scripts and had to turn to the book to find out what happens.

Coben “really is a genius at taking you up the wrong track,” says Eleazar. “You’re so sure that this time you’ve got it right and it’s this person or this thing, but you are inevitably always wrong.”

“I would love to know, actually, how he starts a book, you know? Does it start with an idea or does he think of the most inconceivable idea and go, ‘That’s how it’s going to end’?” she adds.

Armitage agrees that “Missing You” does justice to the “hair-raising” shock ending of the book; “It’s like the rug is pulled away at the last minute.”

And while audiences at home can binge-watch the whole five-part series as 2025 is still finding its feet, the cast will be busy with a variety of pastimes.

Lenny Henry, who portrays Kat’s father, jokes that he usually wakes up to a new year surrounded by roast potatoes, while wearing pajamas.

Armitage likes to be outside and start fresh by skiing down a mountain, while Eleazar has plans to celebrate in style: She and a group of friends have a tradition where they rent a castle and dress up in themed costumes.

Past New Year's Eve parties have included donning 18th century garb in France and last year’s Versace-themed fete.

“I will be celebrating and really hoping that everyone loves this show on the 1st,” she says.