Bright Star review.
I’ve seen it! Oh where to start? It was as beautiful and moving as I had anticipated from seeing the clips. I think Abbie and Ben were remarkable in showing the flowering love between John and Fanny- very believable; it didn’t look and feel like acting but seemed real. These two have portrayed the most credible on screen lovers I’ve ever seen- every look, touch, gesture was so heartfelt. And Abbie’s portrayal of Fanny’s explosion of emotion when she is told John is dead was incredible in its raw intensity. As she crumpled at the foot of the stairs sobbing her heart out I don’t know how I didn’t break down myself! (I did shed some tears though...) It was painful to watch. I think it is entirely possible that Fanny had poured out her grief in this choking panicked way. (It was as though she had taken on one of her beloved’s sufferings- the difficulties in breathing- in her grief and love for him. As his life had been choked out of him her grief chokes out similarly. If they had included the line in one of his letters “I cannot breathe without you,” this could have had even more impact).
I loved the way their romance starts with him laughing at her playfully and calling her ”minx” as we know he did. We can see how their feelings grow by the expression in their eyes and the way they start to shyly and tentatively get to know each other- again the actors are faultless in showing this. I think we are being shown how Fanny grew as a person by knowing John- he introduced her to new ways of being and thinking, and she in turn brought out his playfulness.
I found John’s confession of his difficulties with women to Fanny to be admirable- honest, sweet and moving. It was also true to John’s character and instead of it revealing a flaw in him; it showed how he was so self aware and good hearted that he truly wanted to change in this respect. I wonder if he really did discuss this with her? The inclusion of her coming to him for “poetry lessons” was sweet and a nice way for them to grow closer and indicative of Fanny’s desire to learn to understand the man she was falling in love with... Perhaps she did spend time with him in this way.
The inclusion of the gathering of the gentleman’s music group and John’s “bassoon” was fun and again true to his character.
I loved the way Ben as John caresses the wall between the two of them, the way they move their beds against the dividing wall to be closer to each other at night and how they cuddle on the sofa with John’s head on Fanny’s breast and he laughs and asks her to stop teasing him and calls her a minx (again) affectionately.
I loved the way Fanny reads his letter and when she reads the words “moistened and bedewed with Pleasures,” whispers them out loud; I have often thought that such words must have stirred her by their sensuality and passion! Jane Campion has given us Fanny as I think she might well have been- one who had depth and was devoted to John once she had fallen deeply in love with him (which I think she did).
Their last day together is so heartbreaking and yet sensual when he tells her in effect, how he’d like to make love to her and how, and she whispers in response (and total acceptance of his desire) “everything.” Their desire for each other here is the most poignant.
On a slightly critical note: I think Charles Brown was portrayed rather worse a character than he actually was- yes we know he didn’t like Fanny at first (but that changed after John died) and he did stir up trouble writing her that silly Valentine card, but I don’t think (from what I’ve read anyway) that he was as mean to her as shown in the film. He had his faults- he wasn’t with John at the end and he used Abigail, but was he really this obnoxious? I found myself muttering, “Shut up! “ When John starts to tell Fanny about Negative Capability and Brown interrupts with sarcastic comments. I was really enjoying the explanation of it and bloody Brown ruins the moment!
I think Ben and Abbie portrayed John and Fanny with great respect to these tragic young people; this I noticed affected the audience. Everyone stayed to the end credits to quietly listen to Ben reciting Ode to a Nightingale (which sounded so wonderful read out loud- the impact of John’s poems read out loud is more than when one reads them silently in one’s head!). The mood in the cinema felt as though people were paying their respects- it was tangible. I can honestly say I’ve never felt this in any cinema at the end of a film before). As my mother and I got up to put our coats on I noticed a couple behind me (aged in their 40s) and the man was looking at her intently, respectfully and quietly as she was silently weeping. I looked at her and said gently, “You too eh?” and she nodded and got a tissue out of her bag and wiped her eyes. I wiped mine. I asked her if she liked John’s works and she nodded. “He was the best, “I said, and she nodded again. As she got up and started to leave I called to her to keep enjoying John’s poems. She smiled.
Even my mother, who doesn’t know much about John (though I had showed her his poems in the café we went to for a coffee beforehand, and his portrait which I have stuck inside my book), was a bit moved. She let out an “ah” when Toots says to John “I love you,” “Ah… she loves him,” my mother whispered to me. “Everyone loved him, “I whispered back tearfully.
I’ll finish this rather lengthy review on another slightly critical note, though it isn’t meant unkindly- Ben’s portrayal of John was as I’ve said very moving, sensitive and beautiful, (Ben is very attractive though of course he doesn’t look at all like John Keats) but from what I’ve read about him I get the impression he acted more passionately than Ben showed him to be. I mean I have imagined him kissing Fanny in a more passionate way, perhaps even caressing her more intimately than is shown in this film, telling her he loves her frequently, and using very ardent words. He certainly used them in his letters and I’ve read that people witnessed him sobbing a few times over his despair at knowing he couldn’t marry her due to his consumption and lack of income. I’ve imagined John speaking with passion to Fanny, overwrought at times in his despair and her saying calm and gentle things to him in response. In the film Fanny is shown as the one who is crying and at times impassioned, rather than him. His sexual torment isn’t shown much here, if at all.
Oh, and Joseph Severn is hardly given any time, considering he was the one who nursed John till the end and is shown spilling his tea and looking a bit wimpy, which we know he wasn’t. I’m glad they didn’t show John dying in Italy though (merely keeping to the funeral procession) - that really would have been too much to bear to see that. They even kept the effects of his consumption minimal in the film; I suppose because it was so harrowing. His collapse outside Wentworth Place was really enough to show how ill he was.
So- a beautiful, moving film, made with great respect to John Keats; it is bound to win some awards. I hope that as a result of Bright Star people will read his poems and be enriched, moved and inspired by his genius; as long as his words continue to be read and loved he’ll never be forgotten.
Bless you John Keats, wherever you may be now.