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A
thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness....
-John Keats
Endymion
One
knows, of course, that Keats is tubercular, will die young.
That this love will burn brightly, but only for a while. In
every composed shot, the photography with a lovely blue filter
perfectly captures the restrained lyricism of the film. Jane
Campion's latest offering, the marvelous Bright
Star,
examines the subtleties of the relationship between John Keats (Ben
Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). There
are moments of poetic rhapsody -- a room full of butterflies,
delicate gestures and glances -- and scenes of such naturalism
where clothes and period settings never overpower but perfectly
position and propel an impossible love story along.
Andrew
Motion's Keats: A Biography
was the starting point. Campion says the book, and the
letters themselves (Keats's letters to Brawne, Keats ordered Brawne's letters
to be burned upon his death) inspired her to write the screenplay, which is
subtle and moving, and shifts the emphasis in many ways to Brawne;
in her reimagining Keats remains enigmatic. The
two are neighbors in Hampstead in 1818, with the wild heath, and
woods and fields of lovely flowers. He is the Romantic poet,
she is enamored with fashion and designing and sewing (if she were
alive today, she would probably be showing at Fashion
Week!). He is already established as a poet when they meet,
but penurious. She asks for poetry lessons, and Keats says
to her: "A
poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of
diving in a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore; it's to
be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You
do not work the lake out. It is an experience beyond
thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept mystery."
Fanny is initially taken only with fashion, but slowly becomes
enamored with Keats and his poetry. He is too poor to ask
for her hand. There is Charles Brown (Paul Schneider), the
poet's friend and mentor, who sees this love as distraction, and
attempts to thwart its progress, elements of jealousy and also a
skepticism about Fanny's flirtatious nature. The
interactions and actions are intimate, and surprisingly
modern. There is Brawne's family, her mother, brother and
sister (we thought Fanny's little sister, Toots (Edie Martin),
the most adorable little thing we have ever seen in the
movies). The
romance is chaste, there are kisses, poetry -- La belle dame
sans merci which they both recite in what might be the most
erotic scene of the movie, there are walks amidst flowers and
trees. Campion describes their relationship as
"entwined together." Where
Jane Campion's other brilliant film The
Piano
is wildly passionate and sexual, Bright
Star
is restrained and lyrical, a subtle examination of the shadows and
spaces in the heart. By
the time Keats, whose health is deteriorating, leaves for
Rome in 1820,
the two are engaged. He wrote to Charles Brown, "The
thought of leaving Miss Brawne is beyond every thing horrible --
the sense of darkness coming over me -- I eternally see her figure
eternally vanishing."
See:
Bright
Star Read:
Andrew
Motion's Keats: A Biography See:
The
Piano
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