Diana’s Wedding: Review

5th August 2021

DIANA’S WEDDING (Dianas Bryllup) Norway, 2020, 87 mins)

Marriages are secret gardens, jungles, and sometimes prisons full of disdain and despair. Or occasionally a mixture of it all. Director Charlotte Blom has managed to capture this by depicting two families, neighbours with differing socio-economic backgrounds and societal conformity. The story follows their lives over a period of forty years, running in a chronological parallel to Princess Diana’s life, from her wedding to her death.

The main protagonists are Terje (Pal Sverre Hagen), Liv (Marie Blokhus) and their daughter Diana, who later asks, “Why would I want to get married when I look at your rubbish relationship?”. Viewed through Diana’s eyes, parents present a confusing mix of ambiguity, hypocrisy and incomprehension, while her grandmother and great aunt, as they scoff their green liquor, say it like it is: “Your parents are nitwits”.

Is it better to have parents who disagree passionately and insult each other constantly, or are callously indifferent? Possibly neither. They could all do better if they could be bothered. Mette Bølstad and Blom’s script depicts relationship microcosms in a sometimes amusing, mostly painful web of incomprehension, while providing good reason to destroy the classic nuclear family.

It’s July 29, 1981. In the majestic St Paul’s Cathedral in London, Lady Diana Spencer marries Prince Charles. The same day, another celebration takes place in the canteen of a Norwegian small-town factory. It’s the newly-weds LIV and TERJE’S wedding party. In the pram lies their new-born daughter, DIANA, who, like her famous namesake, will be facing a lot of chaos in the years to come thanks to her parents. The wedding, and following years, are less glamorous than the royal counterpart, but indisputably much more fun. Through the eyes of Diana, we witness the rollercoaster of her parent’s marriage. To her, they are the worst parents in the world. Miles away from doing a decent job, constantly fighting yet still in love by the time Diana is preparing for her own marriage 30 years later.

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