Nicole Kidman to play Princess Grace in new film

We learnt today from Ben Child’s film column in the Guardian that Nicole Kidman will be playing Grace Kelly in a new Hollywood blockbuster. The film will be directed by Olivier Dahan whose biopic of Edith Piaf was received well by the critics and saw that Marion Cottilard won Best Actress at the Oscars in 2008.

The British Pathe archive has a wealth of great Grace Kelly newsreels and archive video footage, including some quite intimate ones when Pathe were given access to her private family life in Monaco.

You can see some of the best Grace Kelly reels here:

GRACE KELLY VIDEO ARCHIVE

Also, on our YouTube channel VintageFashions you can watch this great clip of Grace Kelly modelling as a student in this video 1940s Evening Fashions:

 

Do you think Nicole Kidman will be good in the role as Grace? The Australian actress certainly knows how to flick between between partygirl and austere – as we saw in Moulin Rouge, and Nicole Kidman has strawberry blonde hair like Grace.

Finally – we wonder if the new film will make use of some archive footage? We hope so!

Grace Kelly: Archive Icon

Grace Kelly with her children in 1969

The V&A’s indulgently stylish exhibition Grace Kelly: Style Icon opens tomorrow and naturally several British Pathé clips will feature. After all, Grace was a popular focus for the British Pathé lens for several decades, from her glamorous silver screen presence of the 1950s all the way through to her notorious marriage to the Prince Rainer III of Monaco.

Dozens of Hollywood actresses have tried in vain to convey the elegance and effortless stardom of Kelly, a gift from God that the V&A’s site refer to as “her cool beauty, subtle sex appeal and professionalism”.

The photo above is taken from a rare holiday video of Grace Kelly in which the star tours a zoo with her children in Monte Carlo. Grace spends some fun time with her children, feeding seals and driving along the beautiful beaches of Monaco.

See another dozen rare pieces of Grace Kelly footage in the British Pathé Film Archive here.

Learn more about the exhibition here on the V&A’s site here

Grace Kelly: Style Icon is at the Victoria and Albert Museum from 17 April to 26 September