Different Film Reviews

Objectifs visés Objectif principal visé Lire et comprendre une critique de film

Repérer les éléments d’une critique. Emettre un avis et donner des conseils

Objectif socio-pragmatique Articulation d’une critique de film. Percevoir le ton et style de la critique Coopérer au sein d’un groupe

Ojectifs linguistiques Vocabulaire journalistique et cinématographique : headlines, kickers, edit, underscore, sharp, tone, condoling, reporter, composer, filmamers, to inform, Center frame, to command a scene, to provide the framework needed, supporting players, to cast, to blur the line between documentar and fiction, behind the scenes, to involve the director, it’s no wonder that, the final fade,

Activités langagières dominantes Compréhension écrite vers production orale.

Film Reviews Enjeu : Quelles critiques sur ce film ? Comment le

film a t-il été reçu ?

Project : Recreating Camelot LESSON7

PROJECT : RECREATING CAMELOT

DEROULÉ

Etape 1: Anticipation: Faire réfléchir les élèves sur ce qui pousse les lecteurs à choisir un article.(travail sur la mise en page).

Flash articles on board. Production orale; Which one would you choose and why ? What could be improved to make it more attractive ? (Ind) (Formatting: Change the font, size, photos, indented, too dense, too many columns, the text is justified)

Etape 2 : Emettre des hypothèses sur le ton de l’article et des critiques possibles. ( in groups : give choice : difficulty of articles) Production orale :

Give the headlines and subtitles only. Read and discuss the tone of this article. (Catchy titles, tone given).- positive, sinister, mocking, ironic, light, negative, aggressive, straightforward, to make brutal remarks, derogatory.

Based on the title, what points are likely to be analysed? – Jackie’s emotional condition, state of mind, her private life, her political views, involvement, her marital life, (to cauterize: violently treated), trauma, inner feelings.

Share with the class: on board/write their ideas.

Let’s read to find out the various perspectives. (Travail autonome en groupe de 4, article coupé en quatre ( numéroté) pour permettre à chacun d’informer les autres membres du groupe/ Pour renforcer le travail en groupe, ne pas donner l’article en entier)

Etape 3 : Compréhension écrite :

Supports : articles de difficultés différentes ( stars)

Lecture du document afin de vérifier les hypothèses et de s’informer sur la réception du film.

Read your part and share with your partners. Read the questions and share the work according to the part of the text you have and

answer the questions. Put your answers and ideas together in order to give a brief summary of your article to the

rest of the class. Suggest another title.

Etape 4: Production orale: Présentation des articles par chaque équipe. Autres élèves en prise de note et au tableau pour remplir critiques positives et négatives.

Bilan:PO: React to the various articles. What is the overall opinion on the film and what is your opinion?

In 'Jackie,' Natalie Portman pulls the veil off American icon Jacqueline Kennedy

This realistic portrait follows the struggles of JFK's widow in the days after his

harrowing death. By Colin Covert Star Tribune DECEMBER 22, 2016 — 11:15AM

5

Our collective minds have been permanently etched by iconic imagery that reveals

little below her cool, mannequin surface. She is remembered as the demure 33-

year-old hostess of 1962's televised "Tour of the White House," the blood-spattered

widow in news photos of John Kennedy's assassination the following year and the

veiled widow in mourning dress at his solemn state funeral. 10

We have seen her again and again without knowing her. Now Natalie Portman, director Pablo Larrain and writer Noah

Oppenheim portray the mystery woman's measure with a novelist's sense of psychological nuance in "Jackie."

They have accomplished a minor miracle, rendering an uncompromised artistic vision that puts documented and

imagined history believably on the screen. It presents the well-established story of the days before and after the

assassination with singularity of vision, mature mastery of the medium and near-reckless courage in exploring issues still 15

too painful for some to confront. Hauntingly scored by composer Mica Levi, it is a dark, deeply sad, nearly perfect

communing with her spirit.

The film is framed around an interview Jackie gives a journalist (Billy Crudup) at the Kennedy family's Hyannis Port,

Mass., compound a week after the assassination. She has agreed to the conversation to begin shaping the late

president's public mythology. The writer probes her guarded remarks, trying to dig deeper into her head. 20

From there the film flashes back to memories. We see her formal Washington life. Her seven-minute drive to the Dallas

hospital with her husband's shattered head on her lap. The political power struggles occurring around her as she

oversaw her family's belongings packed in shipping containers to move to their homestead. Her tender explanation to

her children what has become of Daddy.

"Nothing's ever mine," she says, "not to keep." Jackie is savaged by fate before our eyes. We not only see it, we see what 25

it means to experience it. Seeking guidance from her priest, played with suitable wisdom by John Hurt, she confesses

that she considered suicide.

This is a movie about power, and its spectacle is that of a woman almost losing all of it. Larrain portrays all of this with

the appropriate degree of horror and sorrow. He's too compassionate to milk it for sensationalism.When making a

movie set in the recent past, you're doomed if it lacks realism. And "Jackie" is remarkably credible. Danish actor Caspar 30

Phillipson as JFK and John Carroll Lynch as Lyndon Johnson capture their characters' images and body language with

relative precision. As Robert Kennedy and Jackie's aide and friend Nancy Tuckerman, Peter Sarsgaard and Greta Gerwig

are deeply committed.

Portman's performance and appearance are almost flawless. Both her mouth and the nose are a trifle too large, but she

burrows into Jackie's emotional life flawlessly. She perfectly echoes Jackie's lithe body, wide eyes, pale ivory skin, the 35

polite laugh she seems to deliver from her front teeth and a gaze that seems to come from some private world too

secret to be spoken of.

Larrain films her in tight close-ups that reveal everything about the character's unspoken interior struggles. The role

demands a lot of Portman: youthful composure, its instant disintegration in crisis, and her masterful control as a

mythmaker for her husband's historic legacy. 40

It is not the sort of comforting biographical sketch that we are conditioned to expect in movies about recent history. The

filmmakers have created a view of the past informing us not through its characters but with them — in visceral

sensations of anguish, personal struggle, grace, restraint and eruptions of uncontrolled, passionate anger.

Much of the credit belongs to Larrain, a Chilean native whose homeland has experienced its share of political bloodshed

and upheaval. Detailed, magnetic and disturbing, "Jackie" is an austere epic, but an epic it surely is.45

Questions

Star Tribune Article

1. What does the title immediately reveal? Why?

2. Pick out at least 5 adverbs used in this review.

3. Pick out at least 3 positive elements with examples and two negative if any.

4. Identify the various parts of the article:

5. What elements are part of the introduction?

a. Iconic elements about Jackie: general statement

b. Quick presentation of cast

c. Quick summary of the plot

6. What elements are included in the conlusion:

7. Find two or three phrases which, through their style, wording or use of imagery, have a

particularly strong effect in your opinion as a reader

8. Explain in your own words why Portman’s performance is brilliant. Then pick out words in the text that

underline Portman’s brilliant performance:

9. Why is this film a masterpiece according to the writer? Explain in your own words

10. Pick out 3 words that beautifully sum up the film.

11. Give a brief summary of this article to the class in your own words

NBR Film Review 1. Read your part of the text and tell your partners what you understand. 2. Identify the introduction and the conclusion. 3. Pick out at least 5 adverbs used in this review.

4. Find two or three phrases which, through their style, wording or use of imagery, have a particularly strong effect in your opinion as a reader

5. Pick out words that underline some positive aspects and words that underline negative aspects. 6. Highlight the positive aspects that are mentioned in the text then explain them in your own words. 7. Highlight the negative aspects mentioned in the text, if any, then explain in your own words. 8. According to this critic explain the role played by the music. 9. Find elements in this article that you agree with and elements you disagree and justify. 10. Give a brief summary of this article to the class in your own words

NBR Film Review - Peoples

Don’t expect “Jackie” to be a biopic of Jacqueline Kennedy, her days of Camelot through

to her marriage to Onasis and her tragic end in 1994. This slightly unusual film by director

Pablo Larrain (The Club, Neruda) is mainly set in the days after President John F.

Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and follows First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (Natalie

Portman) as she deals with her grief, confronting the protocols around the funeral of JFK, 5

leaving the White House and explaining their father’s death to the children as well as her

efforts to ensure her husband’s legacy. There are also scenes with her Catholic confessor (John Hurt) who tries

to comfort her with meaningless religious claptrap.

While the film mainly focusses on those few days after JFK’s death there are flash backs to earlier days in the 10

White House including a recreation of the 1962 CBS tour of the White House hosted by Jackie. All the interiors

for the film were created with remarkable exactitude in Paris studios, the furniture, decorations and even the

wallpaper researched and reproduced.

In re-creating events, director Pablo Larraín begins with the interview Theodore White (played by Billy Crudup) 15

had with Jackie for Life Magazine which was conducted at her house shortly after the assassination. The

narrative then moves backwards and forwards looking at various elements of the political and personal events

surrounding her life. The notion of the JFK years being some sort of Camelot is briefly alluded to when, in a

semi-fantasy sequence Jackie plays a track from the Camelot record.

20

She also reflects on what her life has been and at one point in her interview says “I never wanted fame. I just

became a Kennedy”.

The interview is used to link to the other events with the reporter asking the insensitive question “What did the

bullet sound like?” We then hear the gunshot and then follow the motorcade racing to the hospital with Jackie 25

holding the Presidents bloody head. This leads on to an intense emotional sequence where she wipes the blood

off her face and removes her bloodied clothing.

The film deals with wrench both physically and emotionally she had to go through in dealing with the funeral,

making arrangements for his burial and the conflicting demands of the state and the Kennedy family. There is 30

also her preoccupation on seeing parallels with Lincoln’s assassination and burial. – insisting on a huge cortege

to walk through the streets of Washington.

There is also the shock at having to leave the White House. In a pre-assassination sequence, we see her with

her interior designer speaking about decorations. Then, just as she leaves The White House for the last time 35

she sees the same designer holding swatches of material talking to Lady Bird Johnson, the incoming new First

Lady. Her loss of power, status and influence gone.

The music by composer Mica Levi initially feels over emphatic and aggressive but it suits the slightly disjointed

and dreamlike nature of the film which often feels like a psychological investigation. 40

Natalie Portman gives a remarkable performance reflecting both her strong public persona as well as her often

brittle private personality, creating a densely layered emotional character. Even though she may not be a look-

a-like, the combination of clothing, voice, body language and general demeanour she gives a real sense of

Jacqueline Kennedy. The clothes are easy to recreate, her movements and deportment easily copied from 45

existing film and television but the voice has to be more than copied with Portman imbuing her character with

all the nuances and subtly needed to paint a true psychological portrait, not just of the First Lady but an

individual

Jackie: Pablo Larraín directs Natalie Portman as the First Widow.

The emotional wallop of Jackie

Natalie Portman takes us through a cauterized grieving process By Scott Marks, Dec. 14, 2016 (Reader)

Individuals who have history thrust upon them frequently make the best movie subjects.

Lawrence of Arabia, Melvin and Howard, The Last Emperor, Vera Drake, and many other

cinematic profiles have done wonders with a passive character in the lead. Add Jackie to the

list.

Were it not for the giant blood stain on the lower-half of her fabled pink dress — an image

that director Pablo Larraín takes his sweet time revealing in a startling pullback — and her

constant juxtaposition next to her husband’s casket, Jackie Kennedy could have been

mistaken for a stewardess aboard Air Force One. True, she dressed like Hepburn and spoke in

the same breathy whispers as Monroe, but Jackie gave out about as much warmth and

emotion as a sparkling-bright, frost-free Frigidaire.

Imagine a documentary portrait of the four most intensely intolerable days of your life and

you’ll get an idea of the kind of emotional wallop Jackie packs. Larraín places his subject

center frame — she’s present in just about every shot in the film — while his star, Natalie

Portman, takes us through a cauterized grieving process unlike anything we’ve witnessed.

Together they trap the character on film, like a rose frozen in a block of ice.

Billy Crudup plays “The Journalist,” presumably based on Theodore H. White, the condoling

Life magazine reporter sent to speak with Kennedy one week after the assassination. The

interview provides the framework needed to take us through the four days in November 1963

that forever changed the face of the world. Mrs. Kennedy seized the opportunity to plant a

seed that eventually blossomed into the myth of Camelot. (A zombified Mrs. Kennedy

strolling from room to room accompanied by Richard Burton talk-singing the play’s titular

theme song marks a high point in the film.)

To further blur the line between documentary and fiction:

Larraín shot his fourth feature, entirely on three-quarter-inch

video cassettes. So it’s no wonder that some of the most

fascinating-to-watch moments in Jackie involve the director

taking us behind-the-scenes of her tour of the White House for

CBS. Larraín can’t resist intercutting fictionalized moments that

took place out of public view. It goes without saying that the re-

creation is flawless.

Larraín cast his supporting players with an eye toward talent, not physical resemblance. The

results range from the ridiculous — the superb Peter Sarsgaard would probably admit that

Steve Buscemi looks more like Bobby Kennedy than he does — to the sublime: John Carroll

Lynch as LBJ and a particularly weasley Max Casela as White House media liaison (and

future architect of the MPAA film rating system) Jack Valenti.

As Jackie’s assistant, Greta Gerwig once again finds the

quiet force needed to command a scene, in this case giving

her employer and friend sound advice on how to break the

news to the children. And it was great to see an old favorite,

the frequently ungodly John Hurt, called into service as the

priest to whom Jackie first questions her faith.

What does the director truly think of his subject? Was there

greatness in her soul or did she simply dress well? Given the

circumstances — government insiders basically call the

shots when it comes to making funeral arrangements — it’s

hard not to feel sympathy for the suffering First Lady. But

there’s a moment just before the final fade where he briefly

let his guard down. How else is one supposed to read a

curtain shot from the backseat point-of-view out her limo

wherein Jackie spots a window dresser styling a mannequin?

The Emotional wallop of Jackie 1. How do you understand the title?

2. Pick out words that underline some positive aspects and words that underline negative aspects with regards to the film.

3. Pick out images used by the journalist in his portrayal of the characters. Quote from the text.

4. Who do you think the journalist refers to in this line? but Jackie gave out about as much warmth and

emotion as a sparkling-bright, frost-free Frigidaire.

5. What effect does this sentence have on you? Together they trap the character on film, like a rose frozen

in a block of ice.

6. Find stylistic devices that are repeatedly used by the journalist. Why?

7. What is the tone of this review? Ironic? Aggressive? Positive? Derogatory?

8. Stylistic devices: Find two or three phrases which, through their style, wording or use of imagery, have a

particularly strong effect in your opinion as a reader. For example: the emotional wallop ( make the sound,

and parallel to the sound of the bullet)

9. React to the review and Give a brief summary of this article to the class in your own words

Teacher’s sheet

Star Tribune Article

1. What does the title immediately reveal? Why?

2. Pick out at least 5 adverbs used in this review.

3. Identify the various parts of the article:

4. What elements are part of the introduction?

a. Iconic elements about Jackie: general statement

b. Quick presentation of cast

c. Quick summary of the plot

5. What elements are included in the conlusion: Clear opinion about the movie and what the filmmakers have

created. Not just a good or bad movie but what it is not. A final sentence stating the positive aspect of the

movie.

6. Find two or three phrases which, through their style, wording or use of imagery, have a particularly strong

effect in your opinion as a reader

7. Explain in your own words why Portman’s performance is brilliant. Then pick out words in the text that

underline Portman’s brilliant performance: Portman successfully portrays Jackie because she has managed

to master not only her voice but her style and movement. The costumes she wears are extremely well

designed and researched adding to her credibility as Jackie. Physically, Portman also has some of the

elegance and beauty Jackie had.

8. Why is this film a masterpiece according to the writer? Explain in your own words

9. Pick out 3 words that beautifully sum up the film. Because it is an unusual perspective on Jackie who has

mainly existed through JFK. In this movie, the focus is on Jackie as a woman of power who is shaping her

husband’s legacy and her place in American history. Unlike most films, this one focuses only on the following

days after the assassination and is an attempt to penetrate Jackie’s inner world and her struggle to overcome

her grief, her loss. The audience experience jackie’s emotions with her, as she voices the unspeakable to the

journalist.

10. Give a brief summary of this article to the class in your own words

The Emotional wallop of Jackie 1. How do you understand the title?

2. Pick out words that underline some positive aspects and words that underline negative aspects with regards to the film.

3. Pick out images used by the journalist in his portrayal of the characters. Quote from the text.

4. Who do you think the journalist refers to in this line? but Jackie gave out about as much warmth and

emotion as a sparkling-bright, frost-free Frigidaire.

5. What effect does this sentence have on you? Together they trap the character on film, like a rose frozen

in a block of ice.significance of the rose- austere beauty to a rose- frigid character, often centerscreen,

four days, four sides to a square, yellow roses= friendship, unapproachable beauty, thorns,

6. Find stylistic devices that are repeatedly used by the journalist. Why? Rhetorical questions, rhetorical device,

a way of drawing your attention, a way of focusing the attention of the reader on what you want them to

see.

7. What is the tone of this review? Ironic? Aggressive? Derogatory?

8. Stylistic devices: Find two or three phrases which, through their style, wording or use of

imagery, have a particularly strong effect in your opinion as a reader. For example: the

emotional wallop ( make the sound, and parallel to the sound of the bullet)

10.React to the review and Give a brief summary of this article to the class in your own words