Jacqueline Kennedy.
Jackie.
The movie. Based on a true story.
But what does that really mean? Everyone will react to her – to her life, to the choices that she made – from a point of view that may or may not be in accord to whatever the facts actually were.
And then we will pass judgment on all of that based on what we insist [or wish] that the facts had been instead. And what [in a perfect world] they ought to have been.
Jackie was the queen of Camelot. In fact some go so far as to call her its inventor: thedailybeast.com/articles/2 … death.html
Those were the days. Back then everything was said to be possible. The dawn of a new age. The New Frontier.
Or, in other words, blah, blah, blah. If, of course, that is how you are inclined to look at it.
Jackie was a beautiful woman. Natalie Portman beautiful. How important then is that in understanding her, in understanding her options, in understanding the reaction of others to her?
And her celebrity of course was second to none. Which prompts us to consider again that gap between how the famous are perceived and how they really are. Or, as Jackie herself put it: I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us.
And, in this day and age, being a woman doesn’t change that.
And then, as she reminds us right from the start, this will only be her own version of what happened.
And then, finally [as some never tire of reminding us], the rich really are different.
Look for God throughout. Just no less mysterious.
IMDb
[b]Actress Natalie Portman’s skill took actor Billy Crudup aback. “The proficiency of her artistry is very unusual,” he said. “When somebody is so possessed by their character and their work is so refined that you are literally transported and taken away by it, that is something unusual. As deep as I was in character in the scenes with her, I couldn’t help but also have a part of me watching her with the deepest admiration.”
One challenge that loomed for Natalie Portman as she prepared was Jacqueline Kennedy’s highly distinctive dialect, impeccable diction and whispery voice. “She had such an amazing voice,” Portman mused. “It was truly from another era. She had a finishing school sort of way of presenting yourself - very demure, where you bat your eyelashes and speak in a breathy voice. Her accent was posh but also mixed with a real New York accent and also a little British. Her dialect is an unusual combination of sounds that were completely unique to her. The first time I did it on set, I think Pablo [director Pablo Larraín] was terrified,” Portman recalled. [/b]
IMDb trivia: imdb.com/title/tt1619029/tri … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_(2016_film
trailer: youtu.be/g9pW3B8Ycc4
JACKIE [2016]
Directed by Pablo Larraín
[b]Journalist: Mrs. Kennedy? They told me to come up. And I’m so sorry for your loss.
Jackie: Have you read what they’ve been writing? Krock and Merriman and all the rest?
Journalist: Yes, I have.
Jackie: Merriman’s such a bitter man. It’s been just one week. Already they’re treating him like some dusty old artifact to be shelved away. That’s no way to be remembered.
Journalist: And how would you like him remembered, Mrs. Kennedy?
Jackie: You understand that I will be editing this conversation just in case I don’t say exactly what I mean?
Journalist: With all due respect, that seems very unlikely, Mrs. Kennedy.
[pause]
Journalist: Right. Okay. Uh, so this will be your own version of what happened?
Jackie: Exactly. Come in.
…
Jackie: Do you know what I think of history?
Journalist: Of history?
Jackie: I’ve read a great deal. More than people realize. The more I read, the more I wonder: When something is written down, does that make it true?
Journalist: It’s all that we have.
Jackie: Had. We have television now. Now people can see with their own eyes.
…
Collingswood: Mrs. Kennedy, this administration has shown a particular affinity for artists, musicians, writers, and poets. Is this because you and your husband just feel that way. Or do you think there’s a relationship between the government and the arts?
Jackie: That’s so complicated. I—I don’t know. I just think that everything in the White House should be the best.
…
Journalist: Is your faith helping you?
Jackie: I’d prefer to discuss my faith with a priest. You’re not a man of the cloth, are you?
Journalist: No, I’m not. I’m just trying to get to the truth. That’s what reporters do.
Jackie: The truth? Well I’ve grown accustomed to a great divide between what people believe and what I know to be real.
Journalist: Fine, I will settle for a story that’s believable.
Jackie: That’s more like it.
…
Jackie: There’d been the biggest motorcade from the airport. Hot, wild like in Mexico or Vienna. The sun was strong in our faces but I couldn’t wear my sunglasses. Jack has his hand out and I see a piece of his skull come off. It wasn’t flesh colored, it wasn’t white. He slumps in my lap. His blood, his brains in my lap. And I’m saying Jack, Jack can you hear me, Jack, I love you Jack! And his head was so beautiful, and his mouth was beautiful and his eyes were open. I was trying to keep the top of his head down. Keep it all in. He had the most wonderful expression on his face, you know? Just before they’d ask him a question, just before he’d answer. He looked puzzled. I knew he was dead.
Journalist: Mrs. Kennedy…
Jackie: Don’t think for one second I’m going to let you publish that.
…
Lady Bird: Can I send someone back to help you change? Before we land? All those cameras… People will be watching.
Jackie: There were wanted posters. Everywhere. For Jack. With Jack’s face on them…Let them see what they’ve done.
…
Jackie [to Bobby]: It had to be some silly little Communist…If he’d been killed for civil rights…At least then it would have meant something. You know?..Jack warned me. Said we were going to ‘nut country.’
…
Bobby [to Jackie riding in the ambulance with the coffin]: Lyndon’s people are claiming I told him to take the oath in Dallas. Asshole couldn’t wait and now they’re blaming me for it.
…
Bill Walton: The next day it returned to the White House, and then they walked all the way to St. Matthew’s in a long, grand procession. It was a sunny spring day. Only six hundred tickets were allotted, but thousands lined the streets and rooftops. Citizens, Senators, Congressman, Diplomats and Officers – all in their full dress uniforms. Walton picks up a photograph. Lincoln’s mount, ‘Old Bob’ was draped in a black blanket with white trim and tassels. Hooded, he was led riderless at the head of a miles-long procession by the Reverend Henry Brown.
Jackie: I can feel Jack getting angry with us. ‘There you go, spending all that money on those silly little knick-nacks… The man would spend whatever it took for votes, but balked at buying a beautiful painting. I guess we don’t have to worry about that anymore…We must get this right. It has to be beautiful. Did you tell them we’ll need a horse-drawn carriage? We have to march with Jack. Everyone. A big beautiful procession that people will remember.
Bill Walton: Mrs. Kennedy… You don’t have to do this. In fact, I don’t think they’ll let you parade through the streets. The world’s gone mad. You should take the children and disappear. Build a fortress in Boston and never look back.
…
Caroline: Mommy… Why are you dressed so funny?
Jackie: Something very sad has happened. And this is how we dress when something sad happens.
John Jr.: Mommy, where’s Daddy?
Jackie: Daddy won’t be coming home.
Caroline: Why not?
Jackie [struggling]: Daddy had to go see your baby brother Patrick. In heaven.
Caroline: Why?
Jackie: Because I’m here with you. And we don’t want Patrick to get lonely, do we?
Caroline: But what about us?
Jackie: Caroline, I need you to be a big girl. You can be brave, right? You can be a soldier? A very bad man hurt Daddy. Daddy would come home if he could. But he can’t. He has to go to heaven.[/b]
What else really is there to say?
[b]Jack Valenti: We need to discuss the funeral. We all want to follow her lead. But, we still don’t know much about this Oswald. There may be coconspirators.
Bobby: I’ll talk to her, but she makes the call.
Valenti: There’s also the matter of the Oval.
Bobby: What do you want me to do first – plan the funeral or pack the furniture?
Valenti: I know this is all delicate. That’s why I’m approaching you. But a procession is insane. I just can’t have my President walking. Given what’s happened.
Bobby: Your President?
Valenti: My President.
Bobby: Well, regardless of what happens, my brother is going to be carried in a box.
Valenti: And I am sorry sir…
Bobby: Fuck off, Jack.
…
Bobby: Jackie… They’re worried about an outdoor procession. They think it’s a security risk. Everyone’s spooked. Apparently even State’s discouraging foreign dignitaries from attending. It’s eight city blocks to Saint Matthews. That’s a long way to be strolling through crowds. All those rooftops. All those windows…
Jackie [firm]: Bobby it’s our last chance. We have to march with him.
…
Bobby [right after Lee Harvey Oswald’s murder on TV]: You’ll not speak a word of this! Understood? I’ll tell Jackie when the time is right. Sit down.
LBJ: Excuse me?
Bobby: Sit down.
…
Jackie: I think God is cruel.
Priest: Well now you’re getting into trouble. God is love. And God is everywhere.
Jackie: Was he in the bullet that killed Jack?
Priest [firmly]: Absolutely.
Jackie: Is he inside me right now?
Priest: Yes. Of course he is.
Jackie [wearily]: Well that’s a funny game he plays – hiding all the time.
Priest: The fact that we don’t understand him isn’t funny at all.
Jackie [angrily] If there’s a heaven, there’s your God – with all his empty promises. What kind of God takes a father from his two little children?!
Priest: Thy Lord sacrificed his only son…
Jackie: And my two babies. Arabella in the womb. And Patrick. Thirty-nine hours on this earth. Just long enough to fall in love with him. What did I do to deserve that?
Priest: Nothing. [/b]
What else really is there to say?
[b]Jackie [to the priest]: There are two kinds of women, those who want power in the world and those who want power in bed.
…
Jackie: …he was a great father. I picture him in that rocking chair in his office. Caroline and John at his feet…How could I hate him?
Priest: Take comfort in those memories.
Jackie: I can’t. They’re mixed up with all the others.
…
Nancy: The children are ready. Shall I take them downstairs to ride with Maud?
Jackie: I’d like them to come with me.
Nancy: The press is out front. I thought you’d prefer…
Jackie: Their father is leaving this house for the last time. They should be there to say goodbye to him.
Nancy: But the cameras? Those pictures are being broadcast to every corner of the world. Jackie: Those pictures should record the truth. Two heartbroken, fatherless children are a part of that.
…
Journalist: I’m only wondering if you considered doing more to shield the children. I think most people would have…
Jackie: We aren’t ‘most people’. Most people don’t have to make those kinds of decisions, hours after watching their husband get murdered next to them.
…
Jackie: Mr. Valenti. Would you mind getting a message to all the funeral guests when they land? Not sure where this is going
Jack: Of course.
Jackie: Inform them that I will walk with Jack tomorrow. Alone if necessary. And tell General De Gaulle – if he wishes to ride in an armored car – or in a tank for that matter – I won’t blame him. And I’m sure the tens of millions of people watching won’t either.
…
Jackie: I wrote him a letter. That night, before we moved the casket to the Capitol. Do you know what I wrote? That I wanted to die. I wanted to die.
Priest: I understand.
Jackie: Do you?
Priest: I do. Unless you are asking permission.
Jackie: No, only crass, self-indulgent people kill themselves. No, I was just hoping… if I walked down the street next to Jack’s body then someone would be kind enough to do it for me.
Priest: In front of the whole world…A famous life, a famous death.
Kennedy: I never wanted fame. I just became a Kennedy.
…
Priest: You say you pray every night to die. That your children have no use for you. That you wish only to be with your husband. And yet – I’m not burying you today. There comes a time in man’s search for meaning when one realises that there are no answers. And when you come to that horrible, unavoidable realization, you accept it or you kill yourself. Or you simply stop searching…I have lived a blessed life. And yet every night, when I climb into bed, turn off the lights, and stare in to the dark, I wonder…Is this all there is?
Jackie: You wonder?
Priest: Every soul on this planet does. But then, when morning comes, we all wake up and make a pot of coffee.
Jackie: Why do we bother?
Priest: Because we do. You did this morning, you will again tomorrow. But God, in his infinite wisdom, has made sure it is just enough for us. [/b]
You know, it that’s true.
Jackie: Maybe that’s what they’ll all believe now. Camelot. People like to believe in fairy tales. Priest: And you? Do you believe you’ve done him justice?
Jackie: I believe the characters we read on the page become more real than the men who stand beside us.