Bright Star

Plot synopsis:
In 1818 Hampstead, the fashionable Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) is introduced to poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) through the Dilke family. The Dilkes occupy one half of a double house, with Charles Brown (Paul Schneider)—Keats' friend, roommate, and associate in writing—occupying the other half.
Though Fanny's flirtatious personality contrasts with Keats' notably more aloof nature, she begins to pursue him after she has her siblings, Samuel and Toots, obtain his book of poetry "Endymion". Her efforts to interact with the poet are fruitless until he witnesses her grief for the loss of his brother, Tom. While spending Christmas with the Brawne family, Keats begins to open up to Fanny's advances. Keats begins to give poetry lessons to Fanny, and it becomes apparent that their attraction is mutual. Fanny is nevertheless troubled by Keats' reluctance to pursue her, for which her mother (Kerry Fox) surmises, "Mr Keats knows he cannot like you, he has no living and no income."
It is only after Fanny receives a valentine from Brown that Keats passionately confronts them and asks if they are lovers. Brown, who sent the valentine in jest, warns Keats that Fanny is a mere flirt playing a game. Fanny, hurt by Brown's accusations and by Keats' lack of faith in her, ends their lessons and leaves. It is not until after the Dilkes move to Westminster that spring, leaving the Brawne family their half of the house and six months rent, that Fanny and Keats resume their interaction and fall deeply in love. The relationship comes to an abrupt end when Brown departs with Keats for his summer rental, where Keats may earn some money. Though Fanny is heartbroken, she is comforted by Keats' love letters. When the men return in the autumn, Fanny's mother voices her concern that Fanny's attachment to the poet will hinder her from being courted. Fanny and Keats secretly become engaged.
Keats contracts tuberculosis the following winter. He spends several weeks recovering until spring. His friends collect funds so that he may spend the next winter in Italy, where the climate is warmer. After impregnating a maid, Brown is unable to accompany Keats. Keats manages to find residence in London for the summer, but he is taken in by the Brawne family following an attack of his illness. When his book sells with moderate success, Fanny's mother gives Keats her blessing to marry Fanny once he returns from Italy. The night before he leaves, he and Fanny say their tearful goodbyes in privacy. Keats dies in Italy the following February of complications from his illness, just as his brother Tom did earlier in the film.
In the last moments of the film Fanny cuts her hair in an act of mourning, dons black attire, and walks the snowy paths outside that Keats had walked many times in life. It is there that she recites the love sonnet he had written for her, "Bright Star", as she grieves the death of her lover.

Tags: tragedy, romantic, sentimental

Review:
Using many of the Romantic John Keats' own words--captured for posterity in his poems and love letters to Fanny Brawne, his 'sweet Girl'--Campion has weaved together one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.
Bright Star is a *true story* depicting the love affair of two exceptional souls who lived a life (however brief for Keats) of happiness *in this world*.
But this sadness does not--it cannot-- abide if one recalls Keats' own poetic words to Brawne (from an early love letter), which encapsulate the film's essence: passionate love for this wondrous world and one's 'Bright Star' in it...
Keats's romance with Fanny Brawne and final days are brought to lovely life in Jane Campion's new film, Bright Star.
The house where Keats lived in Hampstead for two years and was in love with Fanny Brawne and wrote some of his has just been restored.Campion's film may not be a deep investigation of poetical genius, but it's delicate and alive and infinitely touching.
You have to love a film over whose final credits the wispy, winsome Whishaw is heard softly reading the whole of the Ode to a Nightingale, right to the end, and you have to respect an audience in an American cineplex when many of its members sit still to hear Keats's masterpiece down to the final words, "Was it a vision, or a waking dream?/ Fled is that music: – Do I wake or sleep?" Can you imagine having known a person with such extravagant gifts?
She just lets it happen, lets the cats wander in and out, and thus captures the sine curve of romantic experience, its extremes of joy and despair that are so poignantly focused in the life of this penniless English boy who died at twenty-five, thinking himself a failure, and left behind some of the finest poetry in the language.Abbie Cornish plays Fanny, Ben Wishaw John Keats, Paul Schneider plays Charles Brown.
She may be considered a feminist, but not the obviously preachy type, because her work flows like good cinema, and not as a heavy-handed gender discussion."Bright Star" is a tragic love story, beautifully directed, acted, photographed and written.
Campion centers on the three-year romance between Keats (a discreet and charming Ben Whishaw) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish, magnificent); their passion and the issues that prevented them from being together.
"Bright Star" tells the story of poor poet John Keats and the passionate love he shared with his muse, Fanny Brawne.
Nothing new there.At the end of the day, the facts of Keats' desperate life and love for Fanny Brawne were just not interesting enough to hang a two hour movie..
More specifically, we examine the relationship between Fanny Brawne and John Keats, one of the major poets of the Romantic movement.Keats, played by Ben Whishaw, is residing with his good friend Charles Brown (Paul Schneider).
Compared to "Sense and Sensibility," for instance, it is missing any interesting/quirky/humorous secondary characters that make you chuckle or saying "Right on." By reducing the story to the minimal number of characters and telling you the minimal amount about each one of them, there simply isn't enough going on.Just because we like to see dramas set in Victorian times with great costumes, etc., doesn't mean we don't want to become engrossed in the movie and to forget about all the stuff going on in the real world.
Now, I enjoy Romantic poetry as much as the next guy (some of Keats' poems are among my favorites), and I don't want to be unkind in my assessment of this film, but I must say that "Bright Star" is by far the dullest and most inert movie that I've seen in quite some time.
Although I have a strong feeling for this kind of movies, in a way that whenever a shot on some English countryside appears, I could lose my sense of reality, I can objectively say that the fore-mentioned risk is totally and thankfully absent in "Bright Star", which on the contrary stands out for its sober and delicate handling of the short life of John Keats and of his deep love for Fanny Brown.
It's through Fanny's eyes we get to know Keats' inner world and poetry, the verbal beauty of his poems, full of pathos, inner longing for life and death, passionate, whereas their love story remains almost platonic, fixed on a perfect level, where nothing can contaminate their deep communion.
Bright Star, well received by critics and audiences - but ignored by the jury - at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, is a welcome return to what the director does best.The film revolves around the last three-four years in the life of Romantic poet John Keats (played in the film by Ben Whishaw), author of such masterpieces as Ode on a Grecian Urn, who met a premature demise at the age of 25, due to tuberculosis.
Like the passion that linked Keats and Brawne, Campion's direction is understated but always present, focusing on small details, both in the love story (the short, casual conversations between the two) and elsewhere (as always in her films, the period rendition is flawless).The only times the movie drags is when Campion resorts to formula, requiring an antagonistic presence in the picture, like Harvey Keitel in The Piano: in this case, it is Keats' friend and colleague Charles Brown (Paul Schneider, with an intermittent Scottish accent), whose constant criticisms towards Fanny and her feelings for the poet are no doubt amusing, but severely devoid of real dramatic meat.
Fortunately, the rest of the supporting cast delivers, with familiar British faces like Kerry Fox and Thomas Sangster (playing Fanny's mother and younger brother respectively) contributing sparingly but effectively.Bright Star is a beautiful film about a beautiful story, wonderfully shot, written and acted.
Certainly, the Romantic poets understood this - and so, too, does Jane Campion, the acclaimed director of "Sweetie" and "The Piano," whose exquisitely understated film "Bright Star" has as its subject one of the giants of Romantic poetry, John Keats.The movie begins in 1818, when Keats, a young and virtually penniless - though already published - writer meets and falls in love with Fanny Brawne, a woman of some means and family background who prides herself on her way with a needle and her willingness to speak her mind in matters of importance in life.
Fanny, we are told, became the inspiration for some of Keats' most beloved works - including "Bright star, would I as steadfast as thou art," a sonnet from which the movie takes its title - and they, along with the letters the lovers wrote to one another over the course of their three-year courtship, provide the main primary sources for Campion's screenplay (a key secondary source is the biography of Keats by Andrew Motion).
In terms of emotional power alone, she clearly knew what she had with this story.Ironically, the most overtly passionate relationship in the film is not the one between the two lovers but the one between Fanny and Charles Armitage Brown, Keats' devoted friend and fellow writer, who jealously guards the poet and his work, and who sees Fanny as a potentially fatal distraction to both the man and his work.
But fear not, for despite its being set in the genteel world of the 19th Century British countryside, this is no tea-and-crumpets, lace-and-doily affair, but rather a profoundly moving glimpse into the intricacies and complexities of the human heart - one where human passions roil just beneath the surface of the drama and where star-crossed lovers cannot be separated even by death itself.Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw are heartbreaking as the two ill-fated lovers, while Paul Schneider, as Brown, fulfils his role of carping naysayer without ever overplaying his hand.The true beauty of "Bright Star" lies in how splendidly Campion matches the lyricism of the subject matter with the lyricism of her film-making.
I thought The Piano by Campion was a much stronger film and am a bit disappointed by her latest drama.The film is based on the romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' death from tuberculosis at age 25.
It is very sad that Keats dies almost unrecognized, poor and indebted, knowing that he then went on to become one of the most beloved and celebrated of Romantic poets.Fanny lives with her family at home and since it is impossible for her to get more involved with John I found it hard to grasp the depth of their passion to the extent that Campion wants us to feel it.
Bright Star depicts the true life 3 year relationship / love story between the now famous 19th Century English poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) with Francis "Fanny" Brawne (Abbie Cornish)  The film was ably written and beautifully directed by Jane Campion (treble Oscar winner for "The Piano")  This is a very moving story straddling a whole roller-coaster of emotions, with pressures of society, hardships, successes  it is really quite a moving film Jane Campion has done a splendid job here of capturing the ambiance of 19th Century Hampstead, and the direction, location sets, costumes, acting, photography and music  are all terrific in their own rights  but ...
what really soars above these  and moves the film onto a higher plain are the spoken words from the poetry of John Keats himself  Apart from the great performances by the two main lead actors  a mention should also be made of the fine roles played by the supporting cast, especially those in the roles of Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schneider) and Mrs. Brawne (Kerry Fox).There was a very good atmosphere in the cinema, and I would say that most, if not of the audience enjoyed the movie very much  I think that this film was very well received by all This is a film that is very likely to kindle a greater public interest in poetry  I would expect the poetry of John Keats to hit the best sellers lists quite soon!
From writer/director Jane Campion (The Piano), this is beautiful and touching story of unrequited love between the incredible poet John Keats and designer/seamstress Fanny Brawne.Ben Whishaw (Perfume) does a fine job capturing the frailty, sensitivity and many moods of the poet, and give us a peek at his thoughts regarding his own death.
almost to the point of obsession.The real Bright Star of the film is Abbie Cornish (Elizabeth, A Good Year) as Fanny Brawne.
One of only a small number of films that have dealt with the lives of poets, Bright Star, Jane Campion's first film since 2003, revolves around the final years of John Keats (Ben Whishaw) who died of tuberculosis at the age of 25 and his love affair with eighteen-year-old seamstress Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish).Set in 1818 in Hempstead Village in North London, the twenty-three year old Keats and his friend and writing partner Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schneider) live next door to Fanny, her widowed mother (Kerry Fox), younger brother Samuel (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), and adorable sister Toots (Edie Martin) who always accompanies Fanny on her walks.
When Fanny Brawne and John Keats express their love and devotion, they do so delicately and beautifully, with poetry (exquisite lines written by the great poet and delivered so hauntingly by Whishaw), surreptitious kisses, notes and subtle gestures.
With her poetic period drama Jane Campion makes two hours feel like fifteen minutes in heaven in this story about a secret romance that begins in London 1818 between struggling poet John Keats and the girl next door Fanny Brawne.
Her newest film is based on English author Andrew Motion's "KEATS: A Biography" from 1987 and is a hearty ovation to English romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821), which depicts the last three years in his life and focuses on the relationship between him and 19-year-old Fanny Brawne who would become the love of his life.With sophisticated camera movements Jane Campion visualizes the romance within the characters and nature as she attempts to drag out the essence of Keats' poems.
Neither Fanny or Keats are saints, it is Keats' poems purifies their freckled characteristics, and successfully exerts an immense pathos on their love story.Jane Campion finally recollects her most skillful talent to create an non-contemporary (please forget IN THE CUT 2003), 19th century scroll of a heart-wrenching story with a slow but poignant pace, gracefully shows us a romantic yet sentimental natural settings with costumes filled with relishes of that time (received an Oscar costume nomination this year).
The title is the same as that of perhaps the most famous composition by the English Romantic poet John Keats and it is commonly assumed that the final version of the poem was inspired by his great love Fanny Brawne.
Here the young British actor Ben Wishaw gives a convincing portrait of the aspiring but sick poet, while the beguiling Australian actress Abbie Cornish effects a fine English accent as his muse.The real credit for this unusual and difficult choice of movie subject has to go to New Zealander Jane Campion who - as with the superb "The Piano" - is both writer and director.
We can also say that the movie itself is a beautiful poem, as the real "Bright Star" that Keats wrote to Fanny in the 19th century.
Like a real poem, Bright Star from Campion, shows wonderful landscapes, the natural environment of a deeply love story, and the delicate words which make up the dialogs.
But the thing is nothing about it is really interesting and feels dull at times, and the thing about John Keats not choosing to be without Fanny Brawne cause he doesn't want to take away her happiness thus tearing the relationship apart is touching, but even when the movie ends and the credit starts rolling it just doesn't leave an impact.
Jane Campion directs very competently, with each scene and season moving pretty much seamlessly to the next.Bright Star has a beautiful, moving story, beautifully told and tells the story of Keats, his love and his beautiful poetry lovingly.
But alas, we come to Bright Star (2009) which centers around two lovers Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), the muse to poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) who's love affair lasted for three years, starting in 1818.
These Romantic poets are mentioned in Bright Star, and it is this love of poetry that Campion shows as something beautiful in the words of Keats."Bright star, would I were steadfast as thous" was the poem that the title comes from, which is used so effectively to drive the films romantic and undying love themes.
This should appeal to fans of the poet in watching a film regarding his romantic episode with Fanny Brawne, but for the casual movie goer (ahem like myself), Bright Star was anything like the brightness it got touted, and is pretty much an acquired taste.For a film that proclaims to be that of a romance, and what more one would have thought Keats was a romantic at heart to have churned out some of the greatest poems, Jane Campion somehow sucked the romanticism completely out of her film, and the performance by Ben Whishaw as Keats can be summed up in one word - dry.
It didn't help that his character spends a lot of time brooding, while best friend Charles Brown (Paul Schneider) spends a lot of time behaving as the opposite, loud mouthed braggart who thinks the world of himself.It's a period piece, but one which had its plus points drawn from its locales (the Spanish Steps at the end had a lot of significance, and to be filmed on site void of people is simply amazing), and costumes thanks to the plot device of Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) being her own strong-headed fashion designer of sorts who sews and modifies her own clothes.
In fact, I almost felt that the point from this film is not exactly the love between the two main characters, but the methodology of the ancient romance, whose emphasis was on the value from the words to express feelings on an elegant and subtle way, which say very much without betraying the good customs from that time.Anyway, I liked Bright Star pretty much, but I do not think it is a film for every taste.
Bright Star takes place in early 19th century England and focuses on the true love story of poet John Keats and a local woman named Fanny Brawne.
Only really it's a film about a young woman called Fanny Brawn, set during the Regency in England, who fell in love with John Keats and we know this because they wrote a lot of letters, which have survived, to each other, and he wrote an ode to her.
Keats' love for Fanny Brawne is the poetry of this film, a tortured romance never consummated and filled with longing, as appropriate for a young Nature poet whose very breath exudes ultra sensibility.
"Bright Star" is the latest film from director Australian director Jane Campion and is about the final years in the life of Romantic poet John Keats.
The film tells the story of the brief romance shared between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne.
"Bright Star" is a filmed biography of the poet John Keats, concentrating on his romantic relationship with Fanny Brawne during the last three years of his life.
The film is based on the last three years of the life of poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw), and charts his romantic relationship with a young woman, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish).Like many of Campion's pictures ("Holy Smoke", "The Piano", "In The Cut"), "Bright Star" is both gorgeously directed and erotically charged.
In 1818, a young woman named Frances 'Fanny' Brawne (Abbie Cornish), designed clothes, while living next door to one of the most celebrated poets of all time, John Keats (Ben Whishaw).