Bright Star

It is a pleasure to start the New Year talking about a wonderful and inspiring movie: Bright Star by New-Zealander director Jane Campion.

Bright Star recounts the sad (and true) love story between English romantic poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, who was Keat’s neighbour in Hampstead during 1818. The two are very different: John is thinking about poetry while Fanny is more interested in her dresses, he’s dreamy, she’s very concrete, but this will not stop them falling (madly) in love with each other. The real problem is that Keats is poor, without any income, and completely dependent from the generosity of some friends and his talent as a poet to earn a living (talent that will be recognised just after his premature death). Therefore, he is not in a position to make any marriage proposal. The couple is dying to love each other, to live together, but they can’t, and this causes a desperate and painful situation. When Keats, very ill (with tuberculosis), leaves England for Italy in search of a temperate climate to spend the winter, they both know that they have few chances to see each other again (Keats, 25 years old, will die in Rome some months later). Fanny is left with the poem Keats wrote in her honour: Bright Star.

Visually enchanting, this movie teaches us that THERE is a way to film a period drama avoiding all the risks of stiffness and boredom that very often are the mark of this kind of movies. This is an old story narrated in an absolutely modern way. Images are vibrant, lively, full of colours, the perfect counterbalance to the increasing passion between John and Fanny. Seasons pass and we can enjoy the beauty of them. Some images are absolutely splendid: Fanny’s lovely silhouette dressed in white and bringing in her hands the first springtime blossoms, the glorious bluebells field in Summertime, and little Toots (Fanny’s sister) throwing away a leaf saying: “Go away leaf, there’s no space for Autumn here…”.

A word about the actors: Ben Whishaw IS the perfect John Keats. He’s got the right body and face to play the emaciated and feverish romantic poet, but with a modern touch, so that he could look like a contemporary maudit rock star. In real life, he is considered one of the most promising British actors (he’s been the youngest actor of theatre history to have played Hamlet, back in 2004). Australian actress and newcomer Abbie Cornish is perfect as well as the recipient of Keat’s affection: she’s fresh, witty, passionate and innocent in a very convincing way. In secondary roles, further excellent actors: Kerry Fox (who was unforgettable in Campion’s masterpiece An Angle at my Table) as Fanny’s lovely mother, Paul Schneider (a very good American actor recently seen in Away we go and Lars and the Real Girl) as John’s controversial friend, Mr. Brown. I personally think that the most beautiful character of the whole movie, a real gem, is Toots, Fanny’s little sister: she’s absolutely to die for. 

 

 This movie also reminds us how romantic we used to be a couple of hundred years ago, when a simple hand touching or a chaste kiss could resonate into lovers’ minds for months, for years, sometimes for ever. “Touch has memory”, says Keats to Fanny during their very last embracing.

Good movies too.