In a few days, eternally-sad-seeming Nicole Kidman's new film is to open the Cannes film festival. In Grace of Monaco, she plays the sad-seeming-in-retrospect Grace Kelly, the movie star and eventual princess of Monaco. And the sadness is still contagious, apparently, now extending to the film's backers because it's been denounced by the Monégasque (it's a great word) royal family as a "farce."

People reports:

"On the occasion of the upcoming screening of the film Grace of Monaco at the opening of the Cannes Festival on May 14 2014 and its release in theaters, the Prince's Palace would like to reiterate that this feature cannot under any circumstances be classified as a biopic," a press release sent from the palace early Friday said.

The film's trailer, the statement continues, "appears to be a farce and confirms the totally fictional nature of this film. It reinforces the certainty, left after reading the script, that this production, a page of the Principality's history, is based on erroneous and dubious historical references. The director and producers refused to take into consideration the many observations made by the Palace because these called into question the entire script and the characters of the film.

"The Princely family does not in any way wish to be associated with this film which reflects no reality and regrets that its history has been misappropriated for purely commercial purposes," the statement concludes.

It is not clear that the palace's displeasure will make things that much worse business-wise for a film that was already, reportedly, running into serious problems with its distributor. Reports are that the delicate and gentle soul known as Harvey Weinstein was "unhappy" with the final cut delivered by the film's director. His concerns about what he reportedly calls a "pile of shit" seem likely to go beyond its historical verisimilitude, however.