I was really excited about the prospect of Natalie working on a French film, particularly one directed by Rebecca Zlotowski whose Grand Central is fantastic. Unfortunately, this is one of my least favourite Natalie films. The story has a strong connection to the dead, but its the film that is D.O.A. It certainly looks handsome, and the performances (particularly Natalie and Emmanual Salinger) are solid at the very least.
A couple months back I finally caught Natalie Portman’s feature directorial (and writing) debut, A Tale of Love and Darkness. The fact that it’s taken me this long to post anything says that a) I’ve been busy and b) I don’t have much to say.
It’s a sincere and accomplished film that, to me at least, didn’t feel like it came from a first-time filmmaker. But like Natalie’s character, it feels somewhat removed and distant. I felt like an observer the whole time, never drawn into the story or characters.
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Deadline has the first review of "Eating Animals", the documentary narrated and produced by Natalie, that chronicles the massive industrial production of food these days. The article includes an…
I came to Song to Song from a bit of a strange place. I adore a lot of Terrence Malick’s earlier films – sure, they will often frustrate, but they are also capable of moments of beauty that transcend the form.
But Malick’s last two films, To the Wonder and Knight of Cups (with Natalie), left me mostly frustrated and cold. What used to feel poetic now felt unfocused and forced. What used to leave a deep impression now felt shallow.
Song to Song doesn’t quite get back to making me feel how I did about his earlier work, but there are moments that reminded me of those films. Don’t get me wrong, I still wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone. It’s going to be maddening for anyone looking for a narrative to hold onto. But in the music, tragedy and striking images, there was enough for me to remain engaged throughout. (more…)
I finally had the opportunity to see Jackie and thought I’d quickly weigh in with some thoughts.
I’m not a big fan of biopics in general but was optimistic after hearing that Jackie would be taking an unconventional approach. The film definitely does that, with a structure that hops forward and back along the film’s timeline.
Personally, there were few instances where this approach elevated the material for me. The ending moments, cutting to different scenes while building on an emotional state, are sublime but I mainly found the experience to be quite passive. I never really felt the stakes of what Jackie wanted to achieve.
After months waiting, Jackie opened in Spain the last Friday, and finally I had the chance to see it. After all this time, and all the good reviews, I was afraid that the film might not fulfilled my expectations… nothing further of reality.
It´s a GREAT film. It´s probably the more accessible and conventional Larrain´s film to date, but still it´s one of the most interesting biopics that have been made in recent years on an American figure… precisely because there is not a typical biopic.
Watching the film, I understand perfectly why it had so weak commercial success in the US: this is not a detailed story of what happened those sad days on November, it´s a deep study of a character for the four days more stressful and critical of her life. Yes, I say well the word “character” because, as Larraín said in one of the many interviews for the promotion of the film, this is a “fiction told from the intimacy of the private”. We’ll never know for sure what Jackie really was, but the film shows us a person full of nuances, contradictory, selfish, self-centered, but also intelligent, determined and emotional, which helped build, almost without intending, the legend of her husband.
There are also another reason why the movie is not conventional: who goes to a movie theater to see this waiting learn the ins and outs of all that happened these critical days for American history, will feel probably disappointed. the film part of the premise that everyone knows the story, and yes, gives very accurate brushstrokes here and there of what happened behind the scenes … but this is about Jackie and her vital experience during these days, and the film introduces you fully in her personal experience in those hard times.
And here is where Natalie comes into scene: simply she’s superb. the best perfomance of her career, certainly. She cries, laughs, despairs, she confesses in front of the camera. An amalgam of emotions that she shows perfectly in every scene. All of them filmed a few inches of her face by Larrain, always attentive to each gesture and each word.
I’ll admit that I was not excited about Jackie when the project was first announced back in 2012 (was it really that long ago?). I was picturing a forgettable, paint by numbers biopic, and didn’t feel like Natalie looked the part of Jacqueline Kennedy. But when it was announced that Darren Aronofsky was involved in the production and Pablo Larraín was directing, I became more hopeful that Jackie could be something special. After the all the glowing reviews started pouring in earlier this year, I was impatient to see the finished film. Now that I have, I don’t feel like there’s much to say that hasn’t already been said. The hype is real, guys.
The film directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Natalie continues to generate news every week. Here are a few as Tidbits.
-First, a photo of “Jackie team”, taken during the screening of the movie for BAFTA members, a few days ago: