Replay: Natalie Portman is Jackie Kennedy

If you haven't seen it, hurry up! The film is still available on the Arte website until Saturday 1^st May. Jackie retraces the days following the assassination of President John Kennedy in 1963, in particular through the actions of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, his widow.

The story goes back and forth between the attack and the days after (funeral). It passes through the prism of a meeting between Jackie Kennedy and a journalist from Life, with whom she analyzes the way in which she experienced the events, the gap between what people think of her and what she feels, her fears for the future and that of her children. Together, they build the foundations of a myth in the making.

Far from the controversy over the assassination, the film examines the role played by this woman in preventing her husband from falling into oblivion. It also looks at the way she experiences this mourning and accompanies her children. An entry into the intimacy of this woman as famous as she is secret, magnificently interpreted by Natalie Portman. For example, in those scenes where the actress plays the desperate woman who is drowning in alcohol, changes outfits until she finds the right one or prepares to announce the death of their father to the children.

Discussions between Jackie and the priest

The discussions with the priest are particularly touching. Jackie Kennedy confesses to him that she would like to die, that she awaits this deliverance. She asks her about why she is undergoing so many hardships (miscarriages, murder of her husband): what has she done wrong? The answers of the priest (played by John Hurt) offer genuine moments of spiritual reflection on the meaning of life and death. Citing the miracle of the blind man of Siloam, the priest says to Jackie: "You have been chosen so that the works of God may be manifested in you." In response to his desire to die and his painful “why me?”, he encourages him to live from day to day without questioning himself: “So that’s just it! (…) But God, in his infinite wisdom, made sure that was enough for us”.

Did his dialogues really exist? Obviously, Pablo Larrain took some liberties with reality. He brought together in this single man of the church all the priests who accompanied Jackie Kennedy in his work of mourning.

It's hard to distinguish between reality and fiction as this Jackie mixes archive images and images shot in the studio. But the film consists of a very good acting performance for Natalie Portman and delivers some dialogues that are good and make sense in this period of doubt and questioning.

To see

The film can be seen or seen again on the Arte website until Saturday May 1, 2021.