Bright Stars
AUSTRALIA/UK | 2009 | 119 MINS
inspired by Andrew Motion’s biography, written and directed by Jane Campion 
starring Ben Wishaw, Abbie Cornish & Kerry Fox
Jane Campion’s film is the story of the unconsummated romance between the poet John Keats (Wishaw) and his neighbour Fanny Brawne (Cornish). It’s poetic, too, though not in any precious way. Campion seems to understand that Keats’s poetry can take care of itself, and scatters it about in fragments though the story; the poetry of her film lies in visual rather than verbal beauty. Campion wrote Bright Star more or less in one draft after reading ‘Andrew Motion’s Keat’s biography’. “Halfway through, this love story appeared – I was dumbstruck.” It was his letters to Fanny that got under her skin: “I love what they did to me. It was like finding your heart.”
Adults £6 | Under 25s £4
See also:
The Lady Vanishes
A Room with a View


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