It is the Daily Express’s dream, a film that tries to shed light on “possible” circumstances surrounding the death of Diana in 1997, funded by the businessman and purveyor of strange Michael Jackson statues, Mohamed Al Fayed.
But unsurprisingly, the Keith Allen film Unlawful Killing hasn’t had the warmest reception at the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend.
Reporters walked out of the screening, Allen was frequently heckled and one of the people who wanted the film to be out the most, Al Fayed, failed to even turn up at the premiere.
All the controversy comes down to this: whether the film actually has any evidence for its claims and whether the film is just too plainly sensational for its own good. For example, in the film Keith Allen has decided to include a paparazzi photograph of the Princess taken in her dying moments. Allen has defended himself by saying that the photo was not used to boost the film’s appeal or shock audiences, but to show that she could have survived if she had gone to the hospital sooner.
The documentary also takes another look at the evidence and conspiracies surrounding the crash, and to top it all off it will contain interviews with Howard Stern, Mohamed Al Fayed, the late Tony Curtis and Piers Morgan.
Wow… such names would probably continue to repel audiences if you’re not interested in the subject matter already (apart from Tony Curtis of course, who we are big fans of).
In fact, it might not be shown in the UK at all. Lawyers are recommending that the film would need to have at least 87 cuts for it to be certified within the UK. Cutting these scenes may be a relief or a controversy depending on who you are, but our judgement is that this would mainly be a relief.
So what do you think? Do you think it is a documentary that needs to be a made or is it just a simple cash-in?
