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Bright Star
RRP: $27.96Our Price: $12.99 (subject to change)Editorial
Description
From Jane Campion, Academy Award winner of The Piano, comes a sweeping love story that will carry you back through time to experience the passion and romance between acclaimed poet, John Keats and his beloved muse. London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23 year old English poet, John Keats, and the girl next door Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of high fashion. This unlikely pair began at odds, he thinking her a stylish minx, while she was unimpressed not only by his poetry but also by literature in general.
Editorial
Amazon.com
Add Jane Campion's rich, sensuous, quietly thrilling Bright Star to the very short list of admirable films about writers. In this case the writer is John Keats (Ben Whishaw), the Romantic poet who died at age 25 believing himself a failure. The movie, set during his last several years, focuses on his playful friendship with and evolving love for Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), the independent-minded young woman who lived next door in Hampstead Village and was, in her own fashion, an artistic spirit. Completing an ineffably fraught constellation--not exactly a romantic triangle--is Keats's host Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schneider), who loves, esteems, and regards Keats with both pride and envy, and engages in an unstated rivalry for Fanny. All three performances are superb, with Whishaw adding to his gallery of artist figures (the olfactorily obsessed murderer in Perfume, one of the Bob Dylans in I'm Not There), and Cornish and Schneider taking top acting honors for 2009. As in Campion's The Piano, others are party to the central story, and they have identities, personalities, and claims to intelligence and understanding that we appreciate without having it announced in dialogue. Kerry Fox (redheaded wild girl of Campion's An Angel at My Table nearly two decades ago) evokes Fanny's mother with a few brushstrokes, and Fanny's young sister and brother are watchful presences and de facto co-conspirators in the courtship. In addition, Bright Star is the rare period movie to convey--without being insistent--what it was like to be alive in another era, the nature of houses and rooms and how people occupied them, the way windows linked spaces and enlarged people's lives and experiences, how fires warmed as the milky English sunlight did not. And always there is an aliveness to place and weather, the creak of boardwalk underfoot and the wind rustling the reeds as lovers walk through a wetland. Poetry grows from such things; at least, Jane Campion's does. --Richard T. Jameson
Good period romance--better if you love poetry & KeatsReview date: 2010-07-31 Rating: 8 out of 10The period story drew my attention and in that this movie excels. Wonderful scenery and costuming. This historical significance of a beloved poet, Keats, gives it another aspect which will be enjoyed by yet other following. The romance is just a measure flat, but that has to do more with the attempt to make this story accurate to the life of Keats. Not a fault of the dialogue, and writing. Keats had only a short time to experience love, and his poetry falls short only in quantity of what could have been. Death stole him much too young. Abbie Cornish ("Outriders","Candy","Elizabeth: The Golden Age") and Ben Whishaw ("Brideshead Revisited") make it a believable love affair.
Jane Campion, dir/prod, states in bonus interviews that the movie was shot outside of London at the Hyde House, Ashridge Estate. Beautiful, perfection, and every wonderful facet of the grounds were used for the film. Other bonus include one 2-min. deleted scene (why delete?); and 3 featurettes (10 minute total): Becoming Keats & Fanny, Setting the Scene, An Inspiring romance.
Subtitles provided.
So watch this as a documentary, romantic drama, for Keats written words, for the period excellence, or just for entertainment. It was worth my purchase. Glad I own it. A re-watch, for sure.
ReviewsRe-reading Keats for the first time.Review date: 2010-07-30 Rating: 10 out of 10I find it hard to be objective here: I simply fell in love with this film. I fell under its enchantment from the opening bars of Mozart's Serenade No. 10, to Fanny's tragic recitation in the closing scene of "Ode to a Nightingale." It was as close to "catharsis" as I have felt in any movie or book this year. I have not felt this same yearning for the happiness of two frail beings, since, perhaps, my reading of Tess of the D'urbavilles. I have seldom had to pause and rewind so often, to notice the way the wind blew, or the flowers shivered, or the children played, or poetry sounded, or linen danced, or candle-wax spilled, or hands touched, or an emotion flickered across Fanny's face, or an octagon-shaped table with inkwells and quills looked like. I cannot wait to re-read Keats, for the first time. Great poetry must always be read again for the first time. (We keep getting ourselves in the way).
.TouchingReview date: 2010-07-08 Rating: 8 out of 10A touching romance about poet John Keats and his muse Fanny Brawne. Although some parts are a bit slow, there are also scenes of intense feeling and violent emotion. Has certainly made me want to learn more about this star-crossed couple.Why doesn't Keats die sooner?Review date: 2010-07-06 Rating: 2 out of 10BRIGHT STAR is so bloody dismal and silly I could barely finish watching it. Even if you like Keats, this film will leave you feeling empty and confused. It purports to tell the story of Keats (Ben Whishaw, managing as usual to be creepy and boring simultaneously) and his brief affair with fashion designer Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish giving a rather immature, operatic performance but I guess someone had to do it). The story is set in 1818.
Their whole plan was cut short by Keats' untimely death. I only wish I could state the same about this cinematically challenged offering. If you think this will be good just because it is about Keats or because Jane Austen was living at the same time, FORGET IT. This film, as I was so angry to learn, is no match for the caliber of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY or PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. It does not even manage to compete with ONEGIN.
While the direction sags, the cinematography is virtually unbearable; how many close-ups can an audience endure? The readings by the actors from Keats' work are bearable (but not if one hates Keats). Still, one does want to see some sign of life in a film. This poor and dreadful hash has no pulse.
I'm not at all sorry for writing this: Whishaw (known only because of his semi-comatose performance in PERFUME) is one of the worst, most pathetic actors I've ever been forced to suffer. From his twitchy, crooked face to his anorexic little build to his lousy, wooden acting--if you can call that "acting"--I DESPISE him. I'd have preferred Cillian Murphy, who is at least a competent and sometimes riveting player.
Don't waste your money. You'd do far better and feel really good if you spent a weekend curled up happily watching CRANFORD, PERSUASION or good old Colin making Mr. Darcy eat crow.A very stella Bright StarReview date: 2010-07-01 Rating: 10 out of 10An Ode to John Keats by Jane Campion. If you love the poetry of Keats then you'll love this film. Beautifully made and ought to have won an Oscar. What more is there to say except go out and buy one! There should be more films like this for intelligent film buyers but sadly it seems the only thing that matters to most film makers is the 29 year old male.
I enjoyed it so much it made me rush for my camcorder and recite 'Ode to Autumn' for YouTube! It certainly is the most beautiful ode ever.
Lastly keep a hankie handy as it is very sad at the end.
Product Details/SpecificationsActor(s):
Abbie Cornish
Ben Whishaw
Recording label: Sony Pictures Manufacturer: Sony PicturesEAN: 0043396334144Binding: DVDFormat: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Release date: 2010-01-26Universal product code (UPC): 043396334144Number of discs: 1Aspect ratio: 1.85:1Audience rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)Region code: 99Running time: 119 minutesTheatrical release date: 2009Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Brand: Sony
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