Jimmy P
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''Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian'' is a 2013 French
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Arnaud Desplechin Arnaud Desplechin (; born 31 October 1960) is a French film director and screenwriter. In 2016, he won the César Award for Best Director for ''My Golden Days'' (2015). He has also written and directed the films ''The Sentinel (1992 film), The Sen ...
. ''Jimmy P.'' stars
Benicio del Toro Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (; born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican actor. List of awards and nominations received by Benicio del Toro, His accolades include an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy ...
as title character Jimmy Picard, a
Blackfoot The Blackfoot Confederacy, ''Niitsitapi'', or ''Siksikaitsitapi'' (ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ, meaning "the people" or " Blackfoot-speaking real people"), is a historic collective name for linguistically related groups that make up the Blackfoot or Bl ...
Native American who has returned to Montana from
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
and suffers debilitating symptoms.
Mathieu Amalric Mathieu Amalric (; born 25 October 1965) is a French actor and filmmaker. He has won several César Awards and the Lumière Awards. He is best known internationally for his roles in the James Bond film '' Quantum of Solace'', in which he pla ...
, who has appeared in most of
Arnaud Desplechin Arnaud Desplechin (; born 31 October 1960) is a French film director and screenwriter. In 2016, he won the César Award for Best Director for ''My Golden Days'' (2015). He has also written and directed the films ''The Sentinel (1992 film), The Sen ...
’s films, plays
George Devereux Georges Devereux (; born György Dobó, ; 13 September 1908 – 28 May 1985) was a Hungarian-French ethnologist and psychoanalyst, often considered the founder of ethnopsychiatry.
, a French doctor of Hungarian-Jewish background. He is called in as a specialist in
ethnology Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Sci ...
and
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
. ''Jimmy P.'' is primarily based on Devereux's book, ''Reality and Dream: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian'' (1951). The film is set at a veterans' hospital in
Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeastern Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2020 cen ...
, during the pioneering days of psychoanalysis in the United States. ''Jimmy P.'' was released commercially in Europe in September 2013, and was released in the US and Canada in early 2014. It received a nomination for the
Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...
at
2013 Cannes Film Festival The 66th Cannes Film Festival took place from 15 to 26 May 2013. American filmmaker Steven Spielberg was the Jury President for the main competition. French actress Audrey Tautou hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. The French film ''Blu ...
, and in January 2014, three nominations at the
39th César Awards The 39th Annual César Awards ceremony, presented by the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques (Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma), was held on 28 February 2014, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. '' Me, Myself and Mum'' r ...
, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.


Cast


Production

Desplechin, Kent Jones, and Julie Peyr wrote the screenplay, adapted from Devereux's 1951 book. The film is set primarily at a veterans' hospital in
Topeka, Kansas Topeka ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Shawnee County. It is along the Kansas River in the central part of Shawnee County, in northeastern Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2020 cen ...
, where
Karl Menninger Karl Augustus Menninger (July 22, 1893 – July 18, 1990) was an American psychiatrist, author, and activist. He was a member of the Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, ...
was among the staff treating men after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. With flashbacks to Jimmy Picard's life on the reservation and in Montana, the film was shot in Michigan and Montana.


Critical reception

''Jimmy P.'' received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film has an approval rating of 52% based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Jimmy P.'' has interesting ideas and talented stars, but director Arnaud Desplechin can't seem to figure out how to bring them together." On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 58 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The film was praised for its sensitive portrayal of Blackfoot Jimmy Picard.
Matt Zoller Seitz Matt Zoller Seitz (born December 26, 1968) is an American film and television critic, author and filmmaker. Career Matt Zoller Seitz is editor-at-large at RogerEbert.com, and the television critic for ''New York'' magazine and Vulture.com, as w ...
awarded the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, commenting, "the movie offers the most psychologically complex screen portrait of a Native American character in at least twenty years, probably more" and "those who have undergone such treatment will appreciate how accurately the film portrays the process, never simplifying anything, never going for the easy dramatic epiphany, always respecting how analyst and patient circle around and around the edges of meaning."
Ty Burr Ty Burr (born August 17, 1957) is an American film critic, columnist, and author who reviews films for ''The Washington Post'' and writes the film and popular culture newsletter "Ty Burr's Watchlist". Burr worked as a film critic at ''The Boston ...
of the ''
Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' wrote, "Avoiding the usual therapy-drama story beats, Desplechin has made a densely satisfying drama about
Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...
, racism, and sympathy in its largest sense."
A. O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic, known for his film and literary criticism. After starting his career at ''The New York Review of Books'', '' Variety'', and ''Slate'', he began writing film ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote:
"a reservoir of intensity in the two central performances, in particular Mr. Del Toro’s. He presents the spectacle of a man figuring himself out, using whatever tools are available: his ancestral culture, European science and his own intelligence. It is moving to witness, partly because, even when the film and the treatment have ended, so much remains to be done."
The film was nominated for the
Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...
at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival The 66th Cannes Film Festival took place from 15 to 26 May 2013. American filmmaker Steven Spielberg was the Jury President for the main competition. French actress Audrey Tautou hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. The French film ''Blu ...
. In January 2014, it received three nominations at the
39th César Awards The 39th Annual César Awards ceremony, presented by the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques (Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma), was held on 28 February 2014, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. '' Me, Myself and Mum'' r ...
, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.


References


External links

* * {{Arnaud Desplechin , state=collapsed 2013 films 2013 drama films French drama films English-language French films Films directed by Arnaud Desplechin Films with screenplays by Arnaud Desplechin Films scored by Howard Shore Worldview Entertainment films Films set in 1948 Films set in Kansas 2010s English-language films 2010s French films Films with screenplays by Kent Jones Why Not Productions films Wild Bunch (company) films Orange Studio films France 2 Cinéma films Le Pacte films