Jackie (2016 film)



Jackie is a 2016 biographical drama film directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Noah Oppenheim. The film stars Natalie Portman as the titular character, following her life after the 1963 assassination of her husband John F. Kennedy. Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup and John Hurt also star.

The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival and was released in the United States on December 2, 2016, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Plot
The film follows Jackie Kennedy in the days when she was First Lady in the White House and her life following the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, in 1963. It focuses on Theodore H. White's Life magazine interview with the widow at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.

Cast

 * Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy
 * Peter Sarsgaard as Robert F. Kennedy
 * Greta Gerwig as Nancy Tuckerman
 * Billy Crudup as Theodore H. White
 * John Hurt as Father Richard McSorley
 * Max Casella as Jack Valenti
 * Beth Grant as Lady Bird Johnson
 * Richard E. Grant as William Walton
 * Caspar Phillipson as John F. Kennedy
 * John Carroll Lynch as President Lyndon B. Johnson
 * Julie Judd as Ethel Kennedy
 * Brody and Aiden Weinberg as John F. Kennedy Jr.
 * Mathilde Ripley as Jean Kennedy Smith
 * Barbara Foliot as Pat Kennedy
 * Albain Venzo as Peter Lawford
 * David DeBoy as John Metzler
 * Patrick Hamel as Sargent Shriver
 * Frédérique Adler as Eunice Kennedy
 * Stéphane Höhn as Charles Collingwood
 * Sunnie Pelant as Caroline Kennedy
 * Sara Verhagen as Mary Barelli Gallagher
 * Georgie Glen as Rose Kennedy
 * Roland Pidoux as Pablo Casals
 * William Beaux d'Albenas as Hugh Auchincloss
 * Nicolas Guigou as James Auchincloss
 * David Friszman as Jack Brooks
 * Eric Soubelet as Benjamin Bradlee
 * Craig Sechler as Governor Connally
 * Emmanuel Herault as Robert McNamara
 * Serge Onteniente as Charles de Gaulle
 * Rebecca Compton as Nellie Connally
 * Harry Kemp as Clint Hill

Development
The film's script, written by Noah Oppenheim, was originally conceived as an HBO miniseries and covers the "four days between John F. Kennedy's assassination and his burial, showing Jackie at both her most vulnerable and her most graceful" with Steven Spielberg set to produce the series. However, Spielberg later left the project.

Pablo Larraín, not typically inclined to directing biopics, was initially hesitant to direct one when he was offered the opportunity. He admitted that although he did not have any history or knowledge about John F. Kennedy's assassination, he connected with Jacqueline Kennedy. Prior to directing Jackie, he had only made films centering on male protagonists rather than women. Thus, Jackie is the first film that he could approach from a woman's perspective. He grew more interested in Kennedy after learning more about her. To him, her life after the assassination "had all the elements that you need for a movie: rage, curiosity, and love." Oppenheim said that the screenplay itself did not change much over the long development process, revealing, "When Pablo Larraín boarded the project, he had ideas. I wrote two or three more drafts with his guidance, but over a very condensed period of time. So while it took six years from first draft to completion, most of those six years were not active years."

Pre-production
In April 2010, it was announced that Rachel Weisz would star in the titular role, with Darren Aronofsky set to direct and produce the film from Oppenheim's script. However, both Weisz and Aronofsky dropped out after their split. The same year, Steven Spielberg showed interest in helming the film. Then in September 2012, without a director, Fox Searchlight Pictures started courting Natalie Portman to star in the film, as Jacqueline "Jackie" Kennedy, hoping that her participation would bring back Aronofsky, although Portman's involvement was contingent on which director signed on. At the 65th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2015, Pablo Larraín was approached by Aronofsky to direct the film after he was impressed by the former's The Club. Larraín was skeptical and asked Aronofsky why he wanted a Chilean man who was not fond of biopics to helm the film. In May 2015, Portman was confirmed to star in the film. That same month, Larraín was hired to direct the film with Aronofsky working as a producer. By the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, the film was officially a go. The rest of the cast – Greta Gerwig and Peter Sarsgaard – were announced between May and October of the same year.

Casting
Natalie Portman was approached to star in the film in September 2012 but her casting was not confirmed until May 2015. In preparation for the role, Portman studied Jackie Kennedy extensively by watching videos of her, repeatedly watching White House tour recordings, reading books, and listening to audiotapes of her interviews. She also read around twenty of her "pulpy" biographies, which she did not consider high literature. Her primary source was the seven-part eight-and-a-half-hour Life magazine interview conducted in the early part of 1964 by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. with Kennedy. One of three interviews she gave following her husband’s assassination, it was kept private throughout her life.

Portman said she was intimidated at first, and her initial knowledge of Kennedy was just a "superficial understanding of her as a fashion plate." But through playing her in the film, Portman gained a deeper understanding of the former first lady. While doing her research, she found out that Kennedy had two personas in front of different people – a debutante in public but feisty behind closed doors. "When she was doing interviews, [her voice] was a lot more girly and soft, and then when you hear her talking to Schlesinger at home, you hear the ice in the glass clinking and the voice is a little deeper and her wit comes out more, so you get this real sense of the two sides."

Mimicking Jackie's ranging vocals was pivotal for Portman, since Aronofsky said "conquering Kennedy's vocals was the key to the rest of the film." Portman trained with dialect coach Tanya Blumstein for this. In the beginning, Portman had difficulty with copying Kennedy's vocals especially on the first day of set when her initial delivery was too much. She also said that the costumes helped her to get into character.

Portman is one of many actresses that have portrayed Kennedy in cinema following Divine, Jaclyn Smith, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Roma Downey, Jill Hennessy, Joanne Whalley, Kat Steffens, Jacqueline Bisset, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Parker Posey, Blair Brown, and Katie Holmes.

Filming
Principal photography on the film began in December 2015 in a Paris-area studio where most of the interior scenes were shot. Production designer Rabasse and set decorator Melery oversaw replication of White House rooms needed for filming in the studio just outside Paris. In February 2016, production moved to downtown Washington, D.C. where JFK's funeral procession scenes were filmed.

Music
Mica Levi composed the film's accompanying score.

Release
The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 7, 2016. The film also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2016. Shortly after, Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired U.S distribution rights to the film, and set a December 9, 2016, release. It was later moved up a week to December 2.

Box office
Fox Searchlight opened Jackie in a limited release in five theaters across the United States on December 2, 2016. In Los Angeles, it screened at the Arclight Hollywood and the Landmark West L.A., while in New York City, it played at AMC Lincoln Square, Cinema 1,2,3 and the Landmark Sunshine. It grossed $275,000 in its opening weekend (a per-theater average of $55,000), finishing 20th at the box office. The film will slowly roll-out over the following four weeks and will be in 40–45 markets in 175–225 theaters by the Christmas holiday.

Critical response
Jackie received universal acclaim from critics, with Portman's performance being lauded. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88%, based on 171 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Jackie offers an alluring peek into a beloved American public figure's private world -- and an enthralling starring performance from Natalie Portman in the bargain." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film holds a score of 81 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review writing: "Extraordinary in its piercing intimacy and lacerating in its sorrow." Guy Lodge of Variety also gave the film a positive review writing : "Chilean helmer Pablo Larraín makes an extraordinary English-lingo debut with this daring, many-leveled portrait of history's favorite First Lady."

Historical accuracy
The Dallas Morning News commentator Anna Parks criticized the film's negative portrayal of Jackie's relationship with Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson and noted that letters, as well as a taped phone conversation between President Johnson and Jackie which occurred on December 2, 1963, showed that the former first lady and the Johnsons were cooperating well. .