‘Bright Star’: A Beautiful Rendering of a Brief and Powerful Life

Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw appear as Fanny Brawne and John Keats in “Bright Star.” Warner Bros./MovieStillsDb

Jane Campion’s critically-acclaimed 2009 biopic of Romantic poet John Keats, “Bright Star,” captures the tragic figure of the young poet Keats through the story of his turbulent romance with Frances Brawne.

Keats met Fanny Brawne in the autumn of 1818 when her family visited the family he was staying with. Their encounters lead to a deepening romance. During this time, Keats cared for his sick brother, Tom, who died of tuberculosis not long after Keats met Brawne. Eventually, Brawne and her family moved into one half of the estate, and Keats and Brawne were able to see each other every day. After the passing of his brother, Keats’s attention turned fully to two objects: his poetry and his growing love for Brawne.

In both the film and the history it’s based on, Keats suffered immensely because of his brother’s death and because he did not have the financial means to be able to marry Brawne.

A Film That Captures History and Poetry

The film closely follows actual historical events. While locked in the crucible of love and grief, during these final troubled years, Keats (Ben Winthraw) produced most of his greatest poems; they came forth from him in clear, lovely forms, as though purified of all imperfections by the furnace of Keats’s inner struggles.

Works composed in the autumn of 1919 alone include a stunning collection of masterpieces, penned in quick succession: “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode on Indolence,” “Ode on Melancholy, “ “Ode to a Nightingale,” “Ode to Psyche,” and “To Autumn.”

Although his poems of this time are profoundly melancholic, some might say “morose,” they possess a certain resignation and peace, a kind of calm that defies their origin in so much emotional turmoil.

The composition of “Ode to a Nightingale” is beautifully portrayed in the film, drawing from the historical testimony of Keats’s friend Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schneider), who also figures prominently in the film:

“In the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built her nest near my house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he took his chair from breakfast-table to the grass-plot under a plum-tree, where he sat for two or three hours. When he came into the house, I perceived he had some scraps of paper in his hand, and these he was quietly thrusting behind the books. On inquiry, I found those scraps, four or five in number, contained his poetic feeling on the song of our nightingale.”

In Campion’s depiction, we see Keats sitting peacefully under the tree, and we hear verses of the poem through voiceover.

All of this provides excellent drama for cinematic adaption, and Campion makes great use of the material. The film was well-researched, with many lines pulled directly from Keats’s letters to Brawne (Abbie Cornish).

Keats scholar Stanley Plumly described the film in these terms: “Jane Campion has understood the richly figurative in Keats’ life without sacrificing the literal wealth of its texture. She has evoked the mystery of his genius without giving up the reality of its dailiness.”

Indeed, the film beautifully weaves together the extraordinary moments of inspiration that come to the poet with the everyday meals, conversations, and periods of creative draught. The film focuses on the romance between Keats and Brawne more than Keats’s creative work, but frequently the two intersect; Brawn was in some ways Keats’s muse. The title of the film, for example, derives from a sonnet Keats wrote to Brawne: “Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art.”

The Characterizations

Cornish plays the teenage Brawne, a lively young woman with a love for fashion and frivolity that slowly deepens into a more mature appreciation for art and ideas as the film progresses. Brawne is strong-willed, independent-minded, and passionate. Her attachment to Keats comes swiftly and completely, and Cornish’s portrayal is completely convincing.

Her most impressive moments on screen occur near the film’s end, during and after she learns of Keats’s death, where intense emotions play over her face and voice in a powerful display.

Ben Winthraw, who plays John Keats, inhabits the role with grace and ease. He’s thoughtful, pensive, but also warmhearted. Above all, he comes across on screen with a certain vulnerability, while still maintaining an inner strength. This vulnerability characterizes the real Keats well, a man who was haunted by death and tragedy all his life, which itself ended early and tragically.

His tender heart was to be easily wounded by all that it had to endure; yet from that wounded heart flowed poetic works of extraordinary beauty. The film captures this, too. It includes scenes of Keats composing as well as snatches from at least three different poems.

The film is itself a beautiful piece of art. The camera lingers on rich imagery of everyday beauty. The sparse soundtrack creates evocative atmospheres. The camera has the poet’s eye, noticing small details and their mystery, observing the beauty of children playing, bees floating above a sea of flowers, fabric billowing in the wind.

Appropriately for a movie about a poet, the film proceeds slowly, reflectively. It’s a loving homage to a great poet.

‘Bright Star’ Director: Jane Campion Starring: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider MPAA Rating: PG Running Time: 1 hour, 59 minutes Release Date: Oct. 9, 2009 Rated: 4 1/2 stars out of 5

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