It’s probably impossible to tidily surmise Pablo Larraín’s filmography, but if there was a meme to do it, it’d be Saoirse Ronan’s Little Women quote: “women!” His most recent films have all centered on beleaguered ladies, with his latest, Spencer, the Kristen Stewart-starring Princess Diana biopic set across a tragic Christmas break, sitting right at the top of them. But in an interview with The Guardian, Larraín revealed that without his earlier biopic of Jackie Kennedy, Spencer probably wouldn’t exist.
In an interview over Zoom, the Chilean director — joined by Stewart — said:
“I don’t think I would have made Spencer without Jackie. One thing led to another. Both women that had to deal with the press and media in different ways, both women that were linked to very powerful families married to powerful men, and they were both women that find the way to create their own story and find their identity. But if Jackie’s a movie about grief and memory and legacy, I think Spencer is about identity and motherhood.”
As Larraín says, they’re sister narratives: beyond everything he articulates above, both women had to deal with terrible tragedy, which his films translate with formal deftness.
Spencer has been described as a psychodrama, and the film’s setting, the Queen’s Sandringham estate, compared to The Shining’s Overlook Hotel. Larraín speaks to this later in the interview: “It’s a cold space of repression,” he says, “a space that represents oppression and fear next to, and in crisis with, a character that is as fragile and warm as Diana.” It’s certainly a strong juxtaposition.
As well as Stewart’s title character, Spencer also features Jack Farthing as Prince Charles, Timothy Spall as Equerry Major Gregory, Sean Harris as Chef Darren, and Sally Hawkins as Maggie. The film is set for theaters on November 5.