Jackie. (15.)
Directed by Pablo Larraín.
Starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Greta Gerwig and John Carroll Lynch. 100 mins.
This is Jackie before the O, but right after the FK; America's premier first lady in mourning, at a lost and cast adrift, trying to hastily erect a myth around her late husband and give their tragedy some reason. This is her story; for most of its length her husband is an absence, just a body with a bloody hole in it.
This is not a warm film. I walked into the screening room on one of the coldest days of the year and the bitterly northwesterly that cut right through you outside, was nothing on the chill emanating from the screen inside. In the wrap around, journalist Crudup is interviewing a spiky Jackie (Portman) shortly after the funeral, in a large freezing country house. The interiors look icy enough, but they choose to sit outside on the porch all wrapped up, huddled around her cigarette for warmth. There is a flashback to her doing a televised tour of the White House, but the majority of the film is the week between the nightmare on Elm Street and the state funeral in a wet and wintry Washington. (Even the Dallas scenes seem grey, and it must've been sweltering on the day of the assassination.)
The film certainly doesn't leave you in any doubt about the mood it is trying to set. This is a sustained expression of grief, an hour and a half trapped inside that bubble of shock and anguish. The phenomenal music score by Mica Levi (Under the Skin) does a lot of the work here. It sets the tone of being bereft and detached and a step removed from the world around you right from the start and doesn't let up for a moment.
In his first English language feature, Chilean Larraín (The Club, No, Neruda) shoots in a tight, narrow ratio to allow his footage to mix more easily with the archive footage, and to keep us locked into their grief and bewilderment. Actors are often shot alone, facing the camera. Even when there are a group of people gathered together there is little connection between them. They are linked by the formalities of their office, their places in history. We see Jackie in her blood stained pink outfit, raw with grief, set against a group of black suited men, the establishment that is already busy trying to get back to business as normal.
As a mood piece, the film is very effective and remarkably sustained. Beyond that though the film doesn't offer much insight, or seem that interested in the politics or history of the situation. A flashback to Jackie giving a televised tour of the White House (her expensive renovations had been very controversial) gives some indication of how heavily history weighs upon the occupants, and how fleeting their influence on it is – “Lady Bird” Johnson is lining up how she is going to redo the place before Jackie is even out of the building. Besides that the film briefly explores her crisis of faith, in some fairly terrible scenes between her and priest John Hurt.
Which brings us to the central question of how Portman does as Jackie. And to be honest, who really knows? Jackie Bouvier /Kennedy/ Onnassis remains something of an enigma. Her legacy is largely seen and not heard. Watching Portman I was struck by how much her whispery, husky voice sounds like Marilyn; but after checking through Youtube clips I was struck by how much Jackie's voice sounded like Marilyn. Portman gets the voice quite well but she doesn't have the physical presence, she still looks like a child star. She gives you the fragility, maybe not the strength.
Directed by Pablo Larraín.
Starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Greta Gerwig and John Carroll Lynch. 100 mins.
This is Jackie before the O, but right after the FK; America's premier first lady in mourning, at a lost and cast adrift, trying to hastily erect a myth around her late husband and give their tragedy some reason. This is her story; for most of its length her husband is an absence, just a body with a bloody hole in it.
This is not a warm film. I walked into the screening room on one of the coldest days of the year and the bitterly northwesterly that cut right through you outside, was nothing on the chill emanating from the screen inside. In the wrap around, journalist Crudup is interviewing a spiky Jackie (Portman) shortly after the funeral, in a large freezing country house. The interiors look icy enough, but they choose to sit outside on the porch all wrapped up, huddled around her cigarette for warmth. There is a flashback to her doing a televised tour of the White House, but the majority of the film is the week between the nightmare on Elm Street and the state funeral in a wet and wintry Washington. (Even the Dallas scenes seem grey, and it must've been sweltering on the day of the assassination.)
The film certainly doesn't leave you in any doubt about the mood it is trying to set. This is a sustained expression of grief, an hour and a half trapped inside that bubble of shock and anguish. The phenomenal music score by Mica Levi (Under the Skin) does a lot of the work here. It sets the tone of being bereft and detached and a step removed from the world around you right from the start and doesn't let up for a moment.
In his first English language feature, Chilean Larraín (The Club, No, Neruda) shoots in a tight, narrow ratio to allow his footage to mix more easily with the archive footage, and to keep us locked into their grief and bewilderment. Actors are often shot alone, facing the camera. Even when there are a group of people gathered together there is little connection between them. They are linked by the formalities of their office, their places in history. We see Jackie in her blood stained pink outfit, raw with grief, set against a group of black suited men, the establishment that is already busy trying to get back to business as normal.
As a mood piece, the film is very effective and remarkably sustained. Beyond that though the film doesn't offer much insight, or seem that interested in the politics or history of the situation. A flashback to Jackie giving a televised tour of the White House (her expensive renovations had been very controversial) gives some indication of how heavily history weighs upon the occupants, and how fleeting their influence on it is – “Lady Bird” Johnson is lining up how she is going to redo the place before Jackie is even out of the building. Besides that the film briefly explores her crisis of faith, in some fairly terrible scenes between her and priest John Hurt.
Which brings us to the central question of how Portman does as Jackie. And to be honest, who really knows? Jackie Bouvier /Kennedy/ Onnassis remains something of an enigma. Her legacy is largely seen and not heard. Watching Portman I was struck by how much her whispery, husky voice sounds like Marilyn; but after checking through Youtube clips I was struck by how much Jackie's voice sounded like Marilyn. Portman gets the voice quite well but she doesn't have the physical presence, she still looks like a child star. She gives you the fragility, maybe not the strength.
