Bright Star

'Bright Star', the 2009 film by Jane Campion, explores the relationship between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Having studied Keats in school, I wasn't sure whether the experience of his poetry was 'ruined' for me, but if it was, this film saved it. Not only are Keats' poems beautiful, but his love letters, some of which are used in this film, are also beautifully phrased. And of course there's the tragedy of his young death.

'Bright Star' is beautifully shot (see the pictures above) and it really stays with you after watching. I'm not sure if I've seen a film so inspired by art, which just adds another layer to the viewing experience. Usually I'm skeptical about films about writers; they can be terrible. But I felt like this film wasn't trying to be a truthful account of their relationship (it certainly wasn't realistic), but to portray something intrinsic about it in an artistic way, which makes sense considering the subject matter.

I particularly liked the soundtrack, which featured the actors reading some of Keats' poems. Heres Bright Star, the film's namesake.

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite
The moving waters at their priestlike
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.