Bright Star
I wanted to make my next post about my trip (I just got back Tuesday night). But whoa, something far more important has come up...
HOLYCRAP, they're releasing a John Keats movie. And it's coming out right in time for my birthday in a couple of weeks.
Keats is my absolute favorite poet. The timing of this movie could not be better, coming right on the heels of my renewed bardolatry*. One of the highlights of Rome for me was visiting the Keats-Shelley House, where I saw the room where he died, overlooking the Spanish Steps. I came away from that visit with a renewed interest in him, and even purchased another copy of his complete works, this time a Longman Cultural Edition (I'm a big fan of the notes and supplementary texts they provide).
I kid you not, one of my thoughts on going there and reading up a little more on his life was that I'd love to see a movie done about Keats. To my knowledge, it hasn't been done before. His life is pretty well-suited to it: you've got your period piece, a brilliant young writer, a doomed romance, and a devastating, terminal disease.
And then what do I see on the subway on my way home? A poster for a suspiciously period-looking film called "Bright Star." No way. I had to go home and look it up, just to be sure.
Here's the trailer. I remember liking The Piano, so I'm excited that Jane Campion's directing. I'm going to be nitpicky though, and complain that the guy they've chosen (who played Bob Dylan but was not Cate Blanchett or Heath Ledger or Christian Bale or that black kid or Richard Gere) looks nothing at all like Keats. And he's way too tall (Keats was only about 5'). Still, how many people besides me are going to know what he looked like?
* I know this word is usually only applied to Shakespeare, but the K-S people actually used it in reference to the poets in their supplementary guide to the house, so blame them, not me. And in my opinion, he does rank highly "among the English poets" anyway.
HOLYCRAP, they're releasing a John Keats movie. And it's coming out right in time for my birthday in a couple of weeks.
Keats is my absolute favorite poet. The timing of this movie could not be better, coming right on the heels of my renewed bardolatry*. One of the highlights of Rome for me was visiting the Keats-Shelley House, where I saw the room where he died, overlooking the Spanish Steps. I came away from that visit with a renewed interest in him, and even purchased another copy of his complete works, this time a Longman Cultural Edition (I'm a big fan of the notes and supplementary texts they provide).
I kid you not, one of my thoughts on going there and reading up a little more on his life was that I'd love to see a movie done about Keats. To my knowledge, it hasn't been done before. His life is pretty well-suited to it: you've got your period piece, a brilliant young writer, a doomed romance, and a devastating, terminal disease.
And then what do I see on the subway on my way home? A poster for a suspiciously period-looking film called "Bright Star." No way. I had to go home and look it up, just to be sure.
Here's the trailer. I remember liking The Piano, so I'm excited that Jane Campion's directing. I'm going to be nitpicky though, and complain that the guy they've chosen (who played Bob Dylan but was not Cate Blanchett or Heath Ledger or Christian Bale or that black kid or Richard Gere) looks nothing at all like Keats. And he's way too tall (Keats was only about 5'). Still, how many people besides me are going to know what he looked like?
* I know this word is usually only applied to Shakespeare, but the K-S people actually used it in reference to the poets in their supplementary guide to the house, so blame them, not me. And in my opinion, he does rank highly "among the English poets" anyway.