Controversial Princess Diana documentary slammed at Cannes... for being an unlawfully bad film

Diana, Princess of Wales, at the 1987 Cannes film festival. © Georges Biard

Although it wasn't even in competition, the film has been one of the most anticipated by media ahead of the festival largely due to its promise that it would leak shocking and gruesome details about the death of the beloved princess.

It has been banned from screening in UK cinemas, and suffered another major set-back last week after critics staged a walkout, slamming the film as a ‘total flop’.

Unlawful killing promises to expose a royal conspiracy to cover up the facts of Princess Diana's 1997 fatal car crash. Earlier this month, the documentary caused outrage in Britain after Allen, father of pop starlet Lilly, announced that he would include graphic photo of Diana just moments after the crash.

The existence of the distressing image has been well known for some time but it was reportedly so graphic that it was pixilated during the inquest into Diana’s crash and no British media outlets, including any of the red tops, dared to show it, as they consider it too offensive. Allen, however, was willing to take the plunge.

He was able to show at Cannes, as any filmmaker can rent a screening room in the town during the festival and show movies in the marketplace; that's how pornographic movies were shown there in the 1970s.

However, despite the cloak and dagger approach and the hype that came with it, Unlawful Killing failed to live up to its controversial tag.

The documentary was criticised for going into tiresome details on every conspiracy, even the nutty ones. It was barely investigative and the supposed 'expert' commentary came from the likes of Piers Morgan, Lauren Booth and Simone Simons, Princess Diana’s fortune teller.

It was also reported that the film makes numerous slanderous accusations including claims that Dodi Fayed and Diana were the victims of a racially motivated attack by the Palace because Fayed was a Muslim. At one point it even labels the royals 'gangsters in tiaras'.

Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life

Another movie that appears to have failed to live up to expectations is Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.

The movie, which stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, was the most eagerly anticipated of the films in competition, largely because the famously reclusive Malick leaves long gaps of many years between his directorial features.

Despite his strong following among serious film aficionados, this film has surprisingly failed to impress the movie insiders and critics in Cannes, who have so far responded to the offering with a chorus of boos.

Debuting tomorrow in French theaters, The Tree of Life is only Malick’s fifth film in a nearly 40-year career, and his first at Cannes since 1979’s Days of Heaven, which earned him the festival’s directing prize.

The film points up on how little what we do on Earth really matters in an eternal universe, yet simultaneously stresses that our finite lives matter all the more against that unknowable infinity.

Many of those present at the viewing said Malick went over the top as some cosmic sequences play on for 15 minutes or more without a human face to be seen.

Cannes organisers had hoped to debut the film a year ago, but it was not ready.

Malick’s producers said the form of the film did not change dramatically in the last year. Then maybe its flop in Cannes meant the genius director just needed more time.

AA