Jackie (2016) - Pablo Larraín

[Novecento]

This looks good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9pW3B8Ycc4

The only thing I have seen by Larraín is "No" which I really enjoyed.

[dave jenkins]

Somebody please hand Ms. Portman a sandwich.

[dave jenkins]

The only thing I have seen by Larraín is "No" which I really enjoyed.

I also liked "No". It was unusual, of course, because about 30% of it was made up of found footage from TV advertisements, and then the rest of the shot footage had to be degraded to match. A well-written film, certainly.

I too would be willing to take a chance on a new film by Sr. Larraín. That film is not Jackie, though, but Neruda (2016), playing now, as it happens, in NYC. It has almost the same cast as "No," so I have high hopes. I might get a chance to see it tomorrow.

[Novecento]

"Neruda" looks interesting. I hadn't realized Larraín has two movies out at the moment - he has been working hard! Let us know your thoughts if you get to see it. It seems to still be on "limited release".

[dave jenkins]

I did see it, but didn't like it. The filmmakers decided to do something different with the bio-pic approach--make almost everything up. So the historical Neruda is almost nowhere present in the film. This might have been OK if they'd put an interesting story in its place, but all the film amounts to is Neruda escaping from Chile to Argentina, and this goes on and on. There is a policeman chasing him, but the character is given no substance whatsoever (apparently on purpose). The camera moves a lot, but the images are often ugly and/or video-looking. The soundtrack draws from a lot of modern composers (lots of Ives in particular), and that helped a bit, but overall I'd say the film is not a success. I guess we're supposed to give it a pass, though, cause Neruda was a commie.

[Novecento]

I did see it, but didn't like it. The filmmakers decided to do something different with the bio-pic approach--make almost everything up. So the historical Neruda is almost nowhere present in the film. This might have been OK if they'd put an interesting story in its place, but all the film amounts to is Neruda escaping from Chile to Argentina, and this goes on and on. There is a policeman chasing him, but the character is given no substance whatsoever (apparently on purpose). The camera moves a lot, but the images are often ugly and/or video-looking. The soundtrack draws from a lot of modern composers (lots of Ives in particular), and that helped a bit, but overall I'd say the film is not a success. I guess we're supposed to give it a pass, though, cause Neruda was a commie.

Thanks for the comments. I'm still very interesting in seeing it - I'm kind of a sucker for stylish camera moves  . This might be something I need to wait to appear in my local RedBox (I don't really have much time to go out to the movies nowadays anyway  )

[dave jenkins]

This guy likes it: http://www.blu-ray.com/Jackie/620822/#Review

[Novecento]

Even though Michôd disappointed me with his latest offering "War Machine", Larraín most definitely did not with "Jackie". This was incredibly powerful simply because of how Larraín decided to film it (I actually watched it more out of interest in the director than the topic). The camera was often moving and often very intimate and up close - never did it seem overdone and at one point we even got a complete movement in followed by a 360 degree turn and then a movement out to create an incredibly evocative moment during what otherwise would have been a boring shot of people talking. I cannot wait to see "Neruda" now.

[Novecento]

Forgot to mention,..

Lovely cinematography shot on Super-16 film preserving its standard 1.66:1 aspect ratio.

[Novecento]

"Neruda" looks interesting.

I just watched this on Blu-ray. Larraín is rapidly becoming one of my very favorite directors - I finally have someone to challenge Tornatore for the top spot.

The camera moves a lot, but the images are often ugly and/or video-looking. The soundtrack draws from a lot of modern composers (lots of Ives in particular), and that helped a bit, but overall I'd say the film is not a success.

I actually thought the cinematography was stunning - there was an interesting theme of stretching bands of light out using the anamorphic lenses. It was a very different take on the biopic by blurring fantasy with reality which was really contingent on the atmospheric and agile camera work. It was shot digitally and was quite different from the 16mm film stock used for Jackie.

The filmmakers decided to do something different with the bio-pic approach--make almost everything up. So the historical Neruda is almost nowhere present in the film. This might have been OK if they'd put an interesting story in its place, but all the film amounts to is Neruda escaping from Chile to Argentina, and this goes on and on. There is a policeman chasing him, but the character is given no substance whatsoever (apparently on purpose).

Larraín says in the interview on the UK blu-ray that he felt he could not really make a film just about Neruda because he wouldn't know what to say.

I guess we're supposed to give it a pass, though, cause Neruda was a commie.

Yeh, it's weird no-one saw fit to give this a proper North American distribution - particularly given the success of "Jackie". Then again, communist or not, "Neruda" is hardly a household name outside of the Spanish speaking world. I suppose poetry isn't the easiest thing to translate...