‘Jackie’ Filmmakers Talk About Challenges of Re-Creating 1960s White House

“I’ve been obsessed and fascinated with her since was a little kid,” the screenwriter told TheWrap founder Sharon Waxman Monday after a screening of Pablo Larrain‘s Oscar contender.

The Chilean director’s film, starring Natalie Portman as the first lady, explores the seven days between the assassination on Nov. 22, 1963 and the funeral for John F. Kennedy, offering a look at a fiercely private life in its most public view.

“When I was thinking about stories to tell about them, I wanted to find a fresh way into what’s obviously a very familiar story,” said Oppenheim, whose credits include “The Maze Runner” and The Divergent Series:

“But like a lot of women in history, she’d never gotten her proper due for the really substantive role she played in how we think about shaping her husband’s time in office and his legacy,” Oppenheim said.

Costume designer Madeline Fontaine and production designer Jean Rabasse faced the challenge of capturing visual details of the era, and the tragic iconography of the clothes and sets of that slice in time.

“Producers decided to shoot the film in Paris, for many reasons, partly because Natalie Portman was living in Paris,” said Rabasse, the production designer.

Stephan Fontaine, the cinematographer (and no relation to Madeline), set up a “quite challenging” task: shooting images that could be blended with archival footage from the period.

The film has an 86 percent freshness rating at Rotten Tomatoes, places Portman in a strong position for best-actress consideration as awards season swings in.