Yet another "documentary" on death of Diana

[Steve Knight]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/07/unlawful-killing-film-you-wont-see

Being released everywhere in the world.....except for the UK >.<

Made by Keith Allen, a somewhat dubious actor and comedian. He's also made a "documentary" previously, on the Westboro Batist Church which was laughably bad. So don't hold your breath for this one being any good.

From reading his article, it's looking like a sop to Al-Fayed, the Egyptian millionaire that can't get a British Passport for love nor money. Used to own Harrod's (but sold it a year or three ago, IIRC). Coincidentally, his son was in the same car as Diana, and died, too.

Kind of raises a question : if he's not releasing it in the UK due to demands that some things be cut, why isn't he putting it online in a neutral country for all to download? Should they so want to watch something that's bound to be boring, farcical and full of errors?

[Pamela Brown]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/may/07/unlawful-killing-film-you-wont-see

Being released everywhere in the world.....except for the UK >.<

Made by Keith Allen, a somewhat dubious actor and comedian. He's also made a "documentary" previously, on the Westboro Batist Church which was laughably bad. So don't hold your breath for this one being any good.

From reading his article, it's looking like a sop to Al-Fayed, the Egyptian millionaire that can't get a British Passport for love nor money. Used to own Harrod's (but sold it a year or three ago, IIRC). Coincidentally, his son was in the same car as Diana, and died, too.

Kind of raises a question : if he's not releasing it in the UK due to demands that some things be cut, why isn't he putting it online in a neutral country for all to download? Should they so want to watch something that's bound to be boring, farcical and full of errors?

With all due respect, you seem to be begging the question that there are serious issues with the death of Diana that have not yet been resolved, and that what happened to her is important. The timing of the film could not have been worse, coming upon the heels of the royal wedding; just the same, Diana did pretty much predict her demise and the investigations were limited. This may be a JFK version of what happened to Diana; but it may also sear in the hearts of the next generation that something very wrong transpired in the fatal road accident that she predicted.

[Steve Knight]

The timing is on purpose - he even says so in the article

Are there issues with the official story and inquest into the deaths? Probably - given that it was incomplete, by design, and foreign action (or lack thereof). Will whinging and crying "Cover-up!!" ever do anything to resolve them? No. Nor will stirring the pot like this.

Is what happened to her important? Arguable, at best. Her family and children probably think so. Others, probably less so.

I never really liked Diana - always seemed too fake, forced and trying too hard to win public emotions. William's kind of the same, but I do think he'll make a good king. One day. Her family do have a somewhat limited claim to the throne, in their own right...as do probably hundreds of other families in this country.

As for her prediction of her demise, she was on medications, had attempted suicide, had a somewhat acrimonious divorce, and was now (then) linked to Dodi Fayed. A man whose father has been trying to gain a British Passport for decades by hook and by crook - at the centre of the "cash for questions!" scandals. That's dodgy all on its own, let alone with her in that family.

I just don't think Allen should be the one doing this...if it should be done at all is another matter entirely.

[Pamela Brown]

The timing is on purpose - he even says so in the article

Are there issues with the official story and inquest into the deaths? Probably - given that it was incomplete, by design, and foreign action (or lack thereof). Will whinging and crying "Cover-up!!" ever do anything to resolve them? No. Nor will stirring the pot like this.

Is what happened to her important? Arguable, at best. Her family and children probably think so. Others, probably less so.

I never really liked Diana - always seemed too fake, forced and trying too hard to win public emotions. William's kind of the same, but I do think he'll make a good king. One day. Her family do have a somewhat limited claim to the throne, in their own right...as do probably hundreds of other families in this country.

As for her prediction of her demise, she was on medications, had attempted suicide, had a somewhat acrimonious divorce, and was now (then) linked to Dodi Fayed. A man whose father has been trying to gain a British Passport for decades by hook and by crook - at the centre of the "cash for questions!" scandals. That's dodgy all on its own, let alone with her in that family.

I just don't think Allen should be the one doing this...if it should be done at all is another matter entirely.

I agree that the timing of the film is wrong.

You seem to be taking a blame-the-victim stance and attempting to marginalize Diana. Whatever failings she did have, she was still only a teen when she became involved with Charles and his family.

Diana's family is in fact more British than Charles, whose family changed their name to "Windsor" around the time of WWI. Diana correctly called them "the Germans".

Attempting to dismiss Diana's prediction of her own demise on the basis of her instability is ineffective. It has happened. She is gone. There are many questions left to be answered. She was up front with her issues. Just the same, she was able to maintain a level of scrutiny on the world stage for over 15 years despite the palace media campaign to paint her as an unstable loose cannon.

Perhaps this film will be the anti-myth to the myth of the British and French investigations, just as the movie JFK was the anti-myth to the WCR.

[Steve Knight]

And the reviews are in....

This one is the Daily Phail...so hardly a bastion of integrity and truth (but then what newspaper really is these days? )

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1386745/Princess-Diana-death-film-Unlawful-Killing-Just-unlawfully-dull.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/13/keith-allen-diana-film-cannes

"...A lot of films coming out of America are financed by the mafia – but they don't acknowledge that."

or even better!

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/diana-still-turning-heads-as-fayed-show-hits-town-2283867.html

Throughout the farce, reporters walked out of the screening, heckled Mr Allen, and were left bamboozled by the no-show of Mr Al Fayed himself.

This is definitely shaping up to be THE film to miss this year. Almost like Seth "Terminally Unfunny" Rogen's "Green Hornet". lol

[Michael Hogan]

From www.independent.co.uk

Diana: Gagged! The movie, the conspiracy, and why you are not allowed to make up your own mind

A controversial documentary on the death of Diana – who would have been 50 on Friday – will be launched in Ireland next week.

In Britain, it is banned and its director Keith Allen asks: What are they so afraid of?

26 June 2011

Excerpt:

Near the beginning of Unlawful Killing, I show a clip of Princess Diana (who would have been 50 on Friday) speaking less than two years before her untimely death. Well aware that sections of the British establishment had begun to despise her (following her separation from Prince Charles) and wanted her to disappear from public life, she summarised her plight in two pithy phrases: "She won't go quietly – that's the problem."

My film about the inquest into her death won't go quietly either, despite the best efforts of sections of the British press to stifle it at birth. That's not surprising, because journalists widely regarded the 2007-08 inquest as a complete waste of time and money, so it was inevitable that many of them would also dismiss my documentary, which was screened twice at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Yet what those screenings revealed was a yawning chasm between the perceptions of the press (several of whom did not actually see the film before writing about it) and those of the audiences who did attend. Because while the former were overwhelmingly hostile, the latter were overwhelmingly favourable, and were persuaded by the evidence that I and my production team have assembled that there was something extremely fishy about what happened in the Alma tunnel in 1997 and in the Royal Courts of Justice a decade later....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/tv-radio/diana-gagged-the-movie-the-conspiracy-and-why-you-are-not-allowed-to-make-up-your-own-mind-2302859.html

[Michael Hogan]

Mark Lane has written a 7700 word essay defending Allen's Unlawful Killing and is endeavouring to get it placed with Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair.

http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2011/06/28/2011-06-28_pioneering_lawyer_defends_keith_allens_controversial_princess_diana_documentary_.html?r=entertainment