In 1962, Hitchcock offered Grace Kelly the prized lead role in Marnie. At 33, Kelly, now a princess, had already been retired from acting for seven years and since her marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco, all screenings of her films had been banned in the principality. Olivier Dahan’s (La Vie en Rose) film takes this proposition as the starting point in his examination of the actress’ remarkable decision to renounce her own thriving career in order to establish and maintain stability both personally, for her family and, politically, for Monaco, an immensely wealthy but nevertheless somewhat vulnerable sovereign state, struggling at the time to retain its independence from France.

With all the glamour you would expect from a film set in Monaco and starring Nicole Kidman as Princess Grace, Dahan’s film also stands up as an intriguing character study of an extraordinarily talented and complex figure. (Notes by Alice Butler.)

Don’t forget we now schedule weekly.

Throughout June, our Archive at Lunchtime strand from the IFI Irish Film Archive will screen FREE films marking Princess Grace’s visits to Ireland.