BRIGHT STAR
Australia/UK, 2009, 120 minutes, Colour.
Abby Cornish, Ben Wishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox.
Directed by Jane Campion.
John Keats' short 25 year life was not filled with excitement and adventure as those of his two Romantic contemporaries, Byron and Shelley (the two 1987 films about them, The Haunted Summer and Gothic, certainly illustrate this). Nor was he as long-lived and influential like the former generation of Romantics, Coleridge and Wordsworth (whose early career was dramatised in the 2001 Pandaemonium).
This background is by way of introducing Jane Campion's rather quiet and intimate portrait of Keats' last years and his love for and engagement to Fanny Brawne. Apart from a glimpse of Keats' coffin being carried across the Spanish Steps in Rome (where his room can be visited still), everything takes place on Hampstead Hill near the London of 1819, the woods at the back of the house in a pretty spring and a snow-clad winter but, mainly, interiors. Keats was a poet of interiors, of musings.
Which certainly does not make for a slambang action show for the perpetual-texters or the internet surfers. But, it would not be a bad thing for an audience to slow down if it could and simply be with people who lived at a slower pace and had time to feel and reflect. For those who do go, I hope they don't make that instant dash for exits as soon as final credits appear as throughout these credits, Ben Wishaw recites Keats' Ode to a Nightingale.
Texts of poems are used throughout and the title comes from the beginning of a sonnet Keats wrote for Fanny.
Jane Campion's films are varied but they all take on a female perspective. Fanny Brawne and her love for Keats are the principal focus here. Abbie Cornish gives a vigorously romantic performance, embodying the more liberating attitudes and behaviour in an immediate post-Jane Austen era. She is down-to-earth, a creative dressmaker who is attracted to the wispy Keats. He is played by that thinnest of actors, Ben Whishaw, with a melancholy, which Fanny almost drives out of him as he discovers love and affection.
To spark some drama, a great deal of attention is given to Keats' writing partner, Charles Brown (a vigorous performance from Paul Schneider) and Fanny not concealed dislike of and disdain for hm. Kerry Fox (once Campion's An Angel at my Table) plays Fanny's mother.
This is a very refined film, a picture of gentle passion for Keats and passion taking possession of her for Fanny. It is a tribute to the quiet genius of Keats' imagination and love of language.
1.The status of John Keats, the 19th century romantic poetry? His style? The beauty of his poetry and his concentration on the theme of beauty?
2.Audience knowledge of Keats, of his poetry? The film providing a portrait?
3.Jane Campion, her work, sensibilities, the female perspective?
4.Hampstead, 1819, the house, the woods, the seasons? The musical score?
5.The portrait as an intimate one of Fanny and Keats? The family, the household, Brown and his presence? The background of the Dilks, of the poets and writers of the time, reviews?
6.Keats dying at twenty-five, his sense of failure, not having a livelihood, unable to marry Fanny? His illness and exile? The pathos of his death?
7.The poetry, throughout the film, the quotations, the recitation, by Fanny, by Keats? The final credits and the Ode to a Nightingale? The discussions about poetry, Keats’ lesson about the experience of poetry, like diving into a pool without analysing it, feeling it?
8.The focus on Fanny, the title, his sonnet to her? Her reciting it at the end?
9.His writing, inspiration? Keats and his work with Brown? Musing, the love of language, the imagery? Brown and the process of writing? Publication, the Endymion not selling? The poems not selling, his gift to the family?
10.Fanny as a person, her age, strong personality? The opening and her sewing, the sewing motif throughout the film? Her skills? Bright, antagonistic towards Brown, wanting wit, the critique of Brown? Her being hurt, not speaking to him, her bluntness, her admiration of Keats? Her place in the family, her love for her mother, for Toots, for Samuel? Getting them to buy Endymion, her liking the first line: A thing of beauty is a joy forever?
11.Keats, small, consumptive? Seeing him write, his French with Brown? His care for his sick brother, the family visiting him, his fever, his death? Keats’s own frailty?
12.The time together with Fanny, the bonds between them, her love and passion, being with him for the lesson, Brown’s interruptions? The discussion about fashion and sewing? Giving the pillow slip for his brother? Their walking in the woods, talking, the drawing near the bed, knocking on the walls? Romantic and chaste? Walking in the woods with her brother and sister, the kissing, the tableau as Toots turned round?
13.Fanny and her sensitivity, Brown as protective of Keats? Their going to the Isle of Wight, Fanny’s five days in bed, her waiting for the letters, her tantrums?
14.The illness, Keats wet in the night coming from London, the doctor, the decision that he should go to Italy, the discussion amongst the friends, Brown and his not going, his confessing his failure and shouting it to Fanny? Seven going with Keats? The farewell to Fanny, their imagining what their life might have been? The quiet farewell?
15.Brown in himself, his being a secondary writer? Protecting Keats, insulting Fanny, intruding, the joke of the Valentine’s Day card and her being upset? Attacking Keats? Taking Keats to the Isle of Wight? His attraction towards Abigail, her pregnancy, birth? Abigail as the servant, her reaction to Brown, happiness at the end with the child?
16.Fanny’s mother, wise, her relationship with her children, sewing, encouraging the arts – the dancing class, Samuel and the violin? Comforting Fanny, the prudent aspect of engagement with Keats having no income? Her strong support?
17.Toots, a lively girl, playing, liking Keats, gathering flowers? Samuel, his following, as a chaperon, playing the violin?
18.The neighbours, their concern about Keats?
19.A poetic world of quiet, tranquillity, on the outskirts of a city, communing with nature, the lack of pressures?
20.A portrait of characters, of poetry, of a romantic love? The early 19th century in England, society, arts, poetry?
