Bright Star - best movie of the year (no spoilers)
I saw Bright Star today, Jane Campion's newest movie about the love between John Keats and Fanny Brawne.
I adore Keats and have loved him for years, since I first read him in translation in Russian and I got really fixated on him in college (When we were in London some time ago, we walked where Fanny and Keats used to live, and when we were in Rome, we were by the house by the Spanish Steps where he died). I have been anticipating this movie ever since I heard they were making it.
It lived up to everything I could have ever wanted. It might be the most gorgeous movie I have ever seen - there is one shot of Fanny lying on her bed and the summer wind ruffling her dress in a wave, like a caress, which is the most perfect shot I have ever seen.
It is also the most romantic movie I have ever seen - it feels like a cinematic swoon, like being inside a poem, it makes me relive how intoxicating it is to fall in love. Sometimes I wanted to look away because I felt I was intruding.
It works even more so because it feels so real - all these people are people not characters - it is full of small events, small gestures, approacheable people, relatable joy and grief. And yet the movie manages the magic alchemy where I can believe that Keats is a genius and the Fanny is someone who can inspire such amazing poetry.
If you like Keats or poetry in general, or romantic movies, or period movies, or even plain well-made movies, you cannot miss seeing this.
Trailer:
They also had a number of trailers for movies I wanted to see and the only which caught my attention the most was one for Young Victoria. It was shocking to see Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in flagrante delicto. They would have died :)
But seriously - I am so intensely in love with Bright Star. And more than happy that one of my favorite poets got such a gorgeous tribute. That is how you do a movie about a writer's life-changing love affair - a pity those who made that silly Jane Austen in love movie last year did not learn that. Oh, and I have never seen either Abbie Cornish or Ben Whitshaw in anything before - but they were amazing. Everyone was. I really hope the movie, Jane Campion, and Cornish and Whitshaw get Oscar noms.
I adore Keats and have loved him for years, since I first read him in translation in Russian and I got really fixated on him in college (When we were in London some time ago, we walked where Fanny and Keats used to live, and when we were in Rome, we were by the house by the Spanish Steps where he died). I have been anticipating this movie ever since I heard they were making it.
It lived up to everything I could have ever wanted. It might be the most gorgeous movie I have ever seen - there is one shot of Fanny lying on her bed and the summer wind ruffling her dress in a wave, like a caress, which is the most perfect shot I have ever seen.
It is also the most romantic movie I have ever seen - it feels like a cinematic swoon, like being inside a poem, it makes me relive how intoxicating it is to fall in love. Sometimes I wanted to look away because I felt I was intruding.
It works even more so because it feels so real - all these people are people not characters - it is full of small events, small gestures, approacheable people, relatable joy and grief. And yet the movie manages the magic alchemy where I can believe that Keats is a genius and the Fanny is someone who can inspire such amazing poetry.
If you like Keats or poetry in general, or romantic movies, or period movies, or even plain well-made movies, you cannot miss seeing this.
Trailer:
Click to viewThey also had a number of trailers for movies I wanted to see and the only which caught my attention the most was one for Young Victoria. It was shocking to see Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in flagrante delicto. They would have died :)
But seriously - I am so intensely in love with Bright Star. And more than happy that one of my favorite poets got such a gorgeous tribute. That is how you do a movie about a writer's life-changing love affair - a pity those who made that silly Jane Austen in love movie last year did not learn that. Oh, and I have never seen either Abbie Cornish or Ben Whitshaw in anything before - but they were amazing. Everyone was. I really hope the movie, Jane Campion, and Cornish and Whitshaw get Oscar noms.