New Zealand-born, Australian-based filmmaker Jane Campion does not work often but she usually works well, giving international cinema a grace, elegance and intelligence that is often lacking in films.
Her latest, Bright Star, is her first full-length feature in six years. Given that the last one -- the controversial romantic crime thriller In the Cut (2003) -- was not successful, we had to wait a long time for this quiet triumph to be realized and for her reputation to be fully restored.
Bright Star, named for a work by famed romantic poet John Keats of England, tells the story of the last great love in Keats short, tragic life. We see how he falls for a feisty neighbour named Fanny Brawne, and how she returns his ardour in kind, despite the disapproval of Keats' crusty best friend and writing partner (Paul Schneider).
The civilities and moral codes of the day, along with his penurious existence, also conspire against the relationship flourishing.
Yet flourish it does, albeit within difficult circumstances and toward his untimely death. And that, essentially, is the plot in Bright Star. But, of course, writer-director Campion is less concerned about plot than creating a milieu and developing her characters.
Perhaps that is why In the Cut did not succeed: Campion is not cut out to just tell quick-and-dirty stories.
In Bright Star, she soulfully roots around in the interior thoughts of her primary characters, carefully re-enacts the early 19th century in England and Italy, and yet also makes everything seem as fresh as if it was happening today. There is nothing musty or old about this period piece.
As usual, Campion also cast and directs with a sure hand. She was inspired in selecting Ben Whishaw as Keats. He plays him with a beautiful fragility, which is appropriate to the poet's moody demeanour and his often frail physical condition. Whishaw seems to inhabit Keats with a naturalness and a conviction that brings the poet into the human realm as a real-life figure.
The same is true with Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne, a true-life character who is a lot less well known than Keats, although she inspired his greatest poetry. One sad truth is that Brawne herself destroyed her collection of correspondence with Keats, before her death, leaving the record less full than it might have been.
Yet that also means that the fertile Campion-Cornish collaboration could create a personalized Fanny Brawne out of what they researched and what they imagined. The Fanny here becomes a modern woman, an outspoken pre-feminist who was trying to break out of the rigid expectations of a young, middle-class woman who was supposed to search for a well-off man to marry. Fanny had other ideas -- about fashion, about love and about her future.
There are exquisite scenes in Bright Star that seem to show, with few if any words, the very essence of the creative process. We see Whishaw's Keats wandering in the garden, alive to the natural sounds around him, electric in his moments of awareness. That would soon show up in his verse. Hence, we witness creation.
And it is beautiful.
Bright Star, for obvious reasons if you know Keats' history, is a romantic tragedy.
And yet it is suffused with joy. It is a great film about a great love.
(This film is rated PG)
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