Bright Star (2009)
When I was in college I had not one, but two, English professors who were in love with Keats. And they quickly inspired me to fall under his spell, too. His poetry is fantastic (my favorite poem is probably "Ode to a Nightingale") and his letters are even better. He's one of the few really famous authors who seems like a genuinely great guy. Funny, brilliant, and kind - you just wish you could hang out with him - but in a way you can by reading his letters which are so wonderful. I often think if I had a religion it might be some combination of William Blake's grandiose and Keats' quieter philosophy. Wordsworth was a bit of a prick. Shelley was a bit of a prick. But Keats actually lived his beliefs.
Last night I went to see Bright Star, Jane Campion's telling of the love story between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. I was a little worried because I have an idea in my head of what Keats was like and I thought for sure the film would disappoint. Well, it was fantastic. Ben Whishaw, who plays Keats, of course played him differently than I imagined him, but still portrayed a man who is funny and sweet and brilliant even though he's surrounded by death. And Abbie Cornish who played Fanny Brawne was just as good, if not better. For me, Fanny Brawne was always kind of a shadowy figure - I haven't read her letters and a lot of scholars over the years portrayed her as a woman who never loved Keats as much as he loved her (when in reality - who could know that?) But in this film, Fanny is every bit as smart as the writers she meets (often smarter), has her own point of view on the world, and loves Keats from the moment she meets him.
The genius of this movie is that it's told almost entirely from Fanny's perspective. We see her world. Her home with her mother and younger sister and brother. Her passion for designing clothes. Her determination in loving a man who has absolutely no money and very little prospects. Her efforts to be taken seriously by his friends. And her grief as Keats becomes sick and dies of tuberculosis. There are so, so few movies or tv shows these days that have a women as protagonists - it's wonderful to see this story told from a point of view I hadn't considered.
And it feels real. So many period films seem so removed - like a doll house version of reality - it's refreshing to watch a movie where stepping into a different time period is like traveling to a foreign country - the people are still recognizable as people - they just live a little differently.
Bright Star is, like the real-life love story, beautiful and heartbreaking. I didn't cry only because I don't seem to be able to cry at movies anymore - but I could hear quite a few people sniffling around me. The movie, like the actual love story, ends tragically but not hopelessly. I'm glad that Jane Campion made this film.
Photo I took of Keats' house in Hampstead on my wonderful UK trip earlier this year.