8X WHY YOU WANT TO SEE JACKIE (AND HIM)

Normally, I skip press screenings. Because: no time. But when the request came to be the first in the Netherlands to see ‘Jackie’, I cleared my schedule. There I was, on Tuesday morning in a room full of film journalists. That's quite a special breed. Their attire is usually something with All Stars, a bit too heavy (understandable, try doing a 7-minute workout while sitting in a packed room with colleagues, that's impossible) and with a hint of coffee and cigarette smoke around them. Voilà, the quintessential film journalist.

With perhaps a touch of too much clothing, I still sat there nicely on Tuesday morning in the dark with my phone on airplane mode. Ready to watch one of the most stylish women ever. You could barely hear me purring. ‘Jackie’, that is. You have to see it. Or you're reading this, then you're already in.

The accent

Not that I necessarily liked it, but it did make the perception of the person more complete. Jackie had an incredibly American accent. Although she was born in the state of New York, it sounded very southern. And hoarse. Anyway, that did something to me. It made her more human.

Her vision on image formation

The framework of the film is an interview that Jackie gives to a journalist after the murder of her husband John F. Kennedy. The interview ultimately lasts about a day during which Jackie scrutinizes the journalist's profession. “Is something true because it’s on paper? Because someone wrote it down, does that make something true? We now have TV. And that’s what people see. People create their own truth.”

Her idea about the White House

Jackie went all out in the presidential palace. But not that she hired the Eric Kusters of that time, she wanted the legacy of previous presidents to resonate in the house. So that it would inspire every president thereafter to serve his country even better.

Jackie smokes a cigarette or 259 throughout the film. You immediately understand why she was so incredibly size zero avant la lettre

The outfits

Say Jackie, and you say class. Of course, it’s about her life story, but I was mesmerized by all her looks. The pink bouclé wool Chanel suit with matching pillbox hat that she wore when her husband was murdered on November 22, 1963. And how powerful it was that she kept her blood-stained suit on when the new president Lyndon Johnson was inaugurated. “Let the people see what has been done to us.” And her funeral attire. Perhaps theatrical, but Jackie knew what the people needed. A funeral ceremony with all the trimmings. Carriages, horses (everything just like Abraham Lincoln's funeral had been) and thus also the added widow wear.

This sentence

Jackie smokes a cigarette or 259 throughout the film. You immediately understand why she was so incredibly size zero avant la lettre. Meanwhile, she tells the journalist what he can and especially cannot use from what she has revealed to him. She takes a strong drag, looks at him for a long time, and says: “And I don’t smoke.” Even the film journalists in All Stars laughed at that.

Living well

Just imagine: you were the most important woman in the country. Perhaps in the world. You were decked out in Chanel and Dior (and in a lot of specially made American versions of them) and could do anything you wished. Suddenly your husband is murdered and you are left destitute. His successor is sworn in while you are still in your blood-stained suit (then even Chanel is no comfort) and before your husband is buried, the new First Lady is already walking around with curtain rods in the house that until yesterday was still yours. And what did Jackie do? She says as often as she can: “The Johnsons have been wonderful. They have been so good to me.” Now that’s class. Jackie didn’t need a designer label for that.

You understand the choice for Onassis

Jackie had nothing. Absolutely nothing. No money, no status. She wanted to ensure a good education for her children. By the way, that didn’t end well either. How was she supposed to pay for that? I can understand that you open up when a bulging rich billionaire knocks on your door.

The music

If you’re looking for cheerfulness, don’t go to Jackie. But for a different perspective on a life we all know, do. And for the music. In the category of goosebumps. Go see it.