Princess of Wails - Interview with Oliver Hirschbiegel

I was approached for this film. I initially really did not want to do it,” director Oliver Hirschbiegel says cheerfully. “I had no interest in any Diana biopic. I thought she was rather naïve and not very interesting for me. That changed when I started reading Stephen Jeffrey’s script. I got hooked, because it turned out to be a very deep, intense and moving love story. Something I always wanted to do.”

Diana doesn’t merely delve into the personal life of the Princess of Wales (Naomi Watts). It’s just as interested in her lover Hasnat Khan, who, as the film acknowledges, never wanted to be in the public eye. Khan (played by Naveen Andrews) has always remained discreet about his relationship with Diana, and has denounced the film. How does the director feel about propelling a living person unwillingly into the spotlight?
“This story needed to be told,” he asserts. “I think that’s pretty obvious, no?”
Well, that’s debatable surely? Hirschbiegel is sticking to his guns.
“This love story could have been made up by a guy in a Hollywood studio. This is the most famous woman in the world, who falls for a doctor, a very private man. That ought to be told. He’s a very intelligent man, he knew that this story would be told sooner or later. And he was aware of us doing it.”
It’s not the first time Hirschbiegel has portrayed a real person. The Oscar-nominated film Downfall depicted Adolf Hitler during the last ten days of his reign.
“There’s so much more in the character of Diana than I ever found – even remotely – in Adolf Hitler. She stands for love, humanity, passion, all that. Hitler is very unpleasant. But there’s also just not a lot there, whereas there’s a lot inside Diana.”
While criticisms have already been levelled at Diana for portraying the Princess of Wales as a simpering, love-struck teenager, Hirschbiegel faced the exact opposite criticisms for his humanising depiction of Hitler.
“I didn’t understand the reactions,” he sighs. “What does that mean, ‘humanising’ a human being? All these people were terribly human. They were, to quite an extent, terribly mediocre human beings, who, for whatever reason, got into these situations where they executed these terrible crimes. What we see in Downfall is a depiction of evil, and what scares people is the idea that we all have that inside us. People recoil from that idea, they want to believe ‘those’ people are different; psychopaths or monsters. And what does that mean? Of course they’re human beings. So I never understood that argument.”
Hirschbiegel is well aware of the Downfall ‘Hitler Reacts’ internet memes, where a scene of the Nazi dictator’s spittle-flecked rant has been used to complain about everything from sub-prime mortgages and Man U defeats to the Oktoberfest line-up and the Cork GAA strike.
“I think they’re very funny, they make me really laugh. Just yesterday I was shown a version that has me in it which was hilarious!”