Cannes set for contentious start with Grace Kelly biopic

Cannes, France - The Cannes Film Festival is set to have a contentious start Wednesday with the opening movie about the life of Grace Kelly having already faced the wrath of the Hollywood legend's family in Monaco.

Starring Australian-American actress Nicole Kidman in the title role, Grace of Monaco has been roundly criticised by the House of Grimaldi as not bearing any resemblance to the life of Princess Grace, who perished in a car crash in 1982.

As a result, the Monaco royals have announced they plan to boycott Cannes’ lavish opening night.

Their anger about the film follows a public row between the director, France’s Olivier Dahan and US producer Harvey Weinstein about how the movie’s story should be presented.

A total 18 films from about a dozen countries including from Europe, the US, Canada, Russia and Argentina have been selected for the race for the Palme d’Or, which is one of cinema’s most prestigious prizes.


-- The Nation 2014-05-14

She was reputed to have been rather promiscuous by the standards of her day but it is not clear what is the problem with the film, other than the fact that her children don't want a film about their mother, which is understandable. Nothing like this is going to be historically accurate and the children were either not yet born or too young to know in detail about much of what will be depicted in the film. Still not sure why Prince Rainier banned his wife's films in Monaco but his attitude must have had an impact on the children. She seems to have been a good mother to them and they only went off the rails after she died.

Anyway it is their right to protest and boycott the Cannes festival but that is probably the best promotion the distributors could hope for.

Edited May 14, 201412 yr by Dogmatix

This morning I read Peter Bradshaw's review in the Guardian. Funniest hatchet job ever!

Prince Rainier banned his wife's movies because he could! :-)

its not a comedy but the audience laughed their heads off for some reason