Bright Star reviews, ratings etc. *SPOILERS*

[AsphodelElysium]

Whoa, I'm behind. Let me also add my welcome to the new folks! Glad to hear from you!

I think the movie may improve on second viewing, but I'll have to wait until the DVD release. In the meantime, Malia, could you recommend a Fanny Brawne biography or let me know which edition of her letters you have? I'd like to give her a fair shake, and if I can look at her letters, get a better sense of who she is, I'll be better equipped to follow through with my idea. Thanks in advance!

Isn't it great how Keats is bringing us all out of the woodwork?!

[Malia]

Hi AE To get a little insight into Fanny Brawne, I recommend getting a copy of the Letters of Fanny Brawne to Fanny Keats, which was published in 1937 by the Oxford University Press, New York, Inc. edited by Fred Edgcumbe. Of course it is now out of print, but you can obtain a copy through Amazon.com or Abebooks.com, I'm pretty sure. The letters give you Fanny's actual "voice," and a good idea about the kind of woman she was. Here, she speaks for herself.

Regarding other works, there is an interesting thesis out there about Fanny Brawne written by Gale Vance Flament entitled: Fanny Brawne Reconsidered: A Study of a Fashion-Conscious Woman of the British Middle Class 1800-1865. You can find a copy of it online as a pdf file. It is an interesting study not only of Fanny, but of women of her class and situation. It is interesting in that we often don't get a direct idea of the life of middle class women from that time; women's "histories" weren't kept or considered as carefully as those of men. So, just from a social and historical standpoint, it is an interesting read.

[Raphael]

Thanks for the welcomes and post folks- I haven't the web at home, that's why my post is late! I think the film will be out here in a couple of weeks. I can't wait to see it. John Keats was one of the most amazing poets (total genius) to have ever lived and a beautiful human being ; he deserves at long last to be celebrated in a film. I love reading his poems under the duvet at night with a cup of coffee and some nice classical music playing. I am paying attention to Isabella at the moment as it is the subject of a Millais painting I'm studying for my art gallery tour ( I'm volunteering in a gallery to interpret paintings on short tours and I chose the pre Raphaelites- who incidentally brought our lovely John Keats to the wider public)
I'm glad the film treats his consumption sensitvely- what a horrible disease that is. From what I have read about him he was so brave when he knew he would die.
It's so nice to have a forum devoted to John Keats- I love him dearly. Have a lovely weekend folks. x

[Malia]

Here's an interesting article written about Bright Star by Andrew Motion, Keats scholar and biographer.
Enjoy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct ... right-star

[Saturn]

Excellent find as ever Malia.

Well now I'm bursting even more to see this! if Motion thinks so highly of it, that is high praise indeed.

[BrokenLyre]

Thanks Malia! What would we do without your ever clever eye?

[Raphael]

Thanks for the review- can't wait til it's out! Though I don't think Ben looks anything like John Keats; however from the clips he does have the Regency look.

[Malia]

SPOILER ALERT--In the following interview, there is discussion of the movie's final scene.

Here's an interesting interview with Abbie Cornish. I like Cornish's desire to do justice to Keats's poetry.

http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/abbie ... ching-9245

[Aquarius]

Malia,

thanks for the awesome interview. I completely agree with Cornish about the ending. I love that Tarantino loved the film.

[Raphael]

I like Abbie- she looks really good as Fanny Brawne. Jane Campion looks like she has made a good film, only she made two errors in an interview I read in a newspaper this weekend:
one that John Keats was blond- he wasn't, he had russet coloured hair
That he didn't keep Fanny's letters- he did , he had them buried with him
Still, despite the mistakes it should be good! I like Ben as an actor from what I've seen of him , I only wish he looked like John- that would make this much more involving for me.

[Aquarius]

I too thought that Keats had destroyed all of Fanny's letters to him, but that he did keep those few that she sent to him while he was in Italy. Those few were buried with him, but all the rest were destroyed. That's what I remember, anyways. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Malia]

I'm pretty sure you're right about the letters, Aquarius. It seems that Keats was in the habit of burning letters--I know there is a quote out there somewhere. . .actually, I found it quoted in an article in the Cambridge Companion to Keats that I've been reading. Let me see if I can find it.

Yes, here it is. . .this is from an essay entitled "Keats's Letters" by John Barnard. He speaks of the fact that Keats's letters are really one side of an ongoing conversation with those with whom he is writing. He says that " . . .the relative paucity of surviving letters *to* Keats is due partly to Keats himself, who, on at least one occasion (in May 1819) made 'a general conflagaration of all old Letters and Memorandums, which had become of no interest to me.' "

That, of course, could be why most of Keats's letters from others don't exist today--it seems to be his habit to destroy old letters. However, I think he willfully destroyed his letters from Fanny before he left for Italy not because they were of no interest to him, but as a kind of symbolic gesture of "cutting the ties." Knowing he would die there, it would be too painful to bring her letters with him and torture himself by reading them over again. He couldn't even bear to write her directly on the journey or by the time he reached Italy. So, in the case of Fanny's letters, he might have had a slightly different reason to do a purge, but I expect he did burn those that he received before he went to Italy.

[Raphael]

However, I think he willfully destroyed his letters from Fanny before he left for Italy not because they were of no interest to him, but as a kind of symbolic gesture of "cutting the ties." Knowing he would die there, it would be too painful to bring her letters with him and torture himself by reading them over again. He couldn't even bear to write her directly on the journey or by the time he reached Italy. So, in the case of Fanny's letters, he might have had a slightly different reason to do a purge, but I expect he did burn those that he received before he went to Italy.

Oh how sad...I thought he had all her letters buried with him, my Cootes biography doesn't say that he only took the ones he got from her when he was in Italy.I was reading the last chapets again about his last few weeks of life- made me feel so sad for him. Poor John- he was such a lovely person; he ddin't deserve to suffer like that.

[Malia]

A few stills of the movie that I haven't seen before. These were released in anticipation of the film's British release next week

http://www.empireonline.com/images/imag ... /37302.jpg

http://www.empireonline.com/images/imag ... /37306.jpg

If those image links don't work, here's where they came from online:

http://www.empireonline.com/futurefilms ... fid=136609

[Aquarius]

I have also read somewhere that Keats may have destroyed her letters to him before Italy to protect her reputation. I don't know if I believe that, because I think having her letters to him most likely would have resulted in the opposite effect. Sometimes his letters to her made her out to be inconstant, when really he was just being paranoid and jealous. Her letters to him would have cleared up her reputation, I think, like how her letters to Fanny Keats redeemed her in British society.

I love those photos, Malia! Especially the image of them listening in on each other on opposite sides of their wall.