In London 1818 in a Hampstead Heath cottage lives a feisty
and creative girl named Fanny Brawne: a talented and creative seamstress on the
cusp of womanhood and the girl next door to penniless romantic poet John Keats.
When the two first meet it sparks an intense infatuation, which then gradually
blooms into an unbridled and unrelenting joyous love, resilient to the
restrictions of society, class, and finance that attempts to threaten it.
I’m
going to say right off the rank that my potential wholehearted enjoyment of
this film was somewhat quenched and squashed by the fact that I had to keep
pausing the DVD to make notes on it for a uni presentation. To be honest, I’ve
only ever had lukewarm fascination to see this movie from when it was released,
the real reason I hired it was because I’m doing a little presentation on it
and I thought I’d get a head start, what with being on mid-semester break and
everything. I can say in all honesty that this really is an inspiring piece of
modern cinema that brings new, some would argue foreign, electricity to the
otherwise predictable period setting. Inspired by the actual love letters
between Brawne and Keats, Bright Star
reveals a compelling and surprisingly modern love story that stands amongst
those of Romeo and Juliet, Jack and Rose, and Andie and Blaine.
In London 1818
in a Hampstead Heath cottage lives a feisty and creative girl named Fanny
Brawne: a talented and creative seamstress on the cusp of womanhood and the
girl next door to penniless romantic poet John Keats. When the two first meet
it sparks an intense infatuation, which then gradually blooms into an unbridled
and unrelenting joyous love, resilient to the restrictions of society, class,
and finance that attempts to threaten it.
There are so many motifs and visual
representations of the romanticism associated with poetry, and Keats’ poetry in
particular, in this film that it’s hard to know where to begin. The use of
colour and light is particularly striking, although rather predictable. The
film’s beginning features little colour and light, reflective of the bleak
English weather, and then when the romance begins to blossom there is almost
excessive colour and brightness, which is then snuffed out when reality
threatens the lovebirds’ amour.
The costumes were a particular point of
interest for me as they not only paid close attention to detail of the period,
Fanny’s character and identity is defined by the different and striking clothes
that she wears. I think this particularly makes this period drama highly modern
as it immediately puts us in mind of the much-loved heroine of the 80s classic,
Pretty in Pink, a film that
ironically has a remarkable amount in common with Bright Star. Campion’s subtle intertextual characteristics such as
these make the film fresh and modern and not some predictable revisitation of a
Jane Austen novel. I enjoyed this particularly.
Abbie Cornish stars as Fanny
and she’s lovely. There is a strange feistiness and magnetic quality in her
that she plays with very subtly without being over-flamboyant and flirting or
promiscuous.
Ben Whishaw as John Keats is charming and strikingly fragile,
making him all the more irresistible. He really stands out even when he’s
hiding in the corner of the room.
Starring Paul Schneider, Kerry Foxm Edie
Martin, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Claudie Blakely, and Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Bright Star is a refreshingly modern
period piece that’s filled with romance, drama, tenderness, and the odd bit of
charming wit. I quite enjoyed it as a film, the story itself isn’t anything
remarkable to me, but as a movie there is something compelling and romantic
about this from start to finish.
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