Saturn wrote:I read thisFinally, Oscar-winning director Jane Campion is at work on a script for Bright Star, a film about the womanising Romantic poet John Keats.
in one article and realized just how ignorant people are generally of Keats and how this film, if successful could re-ignite interest in him.
This is an exciting time for Keatsians.
Weelll, I don't know. Although I would not go so far as to just label Keats a "womaizer"--he was less of a mysogynist than many of his friends--he didn't always treat Fanny very well--that's just a given. Granted, illness and his past might have fueled his bitterness, he still acted bitterly and meanly toward Fanny on more than one occasion. I wonder (and have been wondering since I first heard about this movie) whether Jane Campion is planning to cast Keats in a negative light and really highlight Fanny Brawne in this movie. I've read she's a staunch feminist and really likes to create strong women who have to deal with real jerky guys, I wonder in what light she will cast our man Keats.
and I would argue had a tendency to put Fanny on a pedestal of imagined perfection which no woman in reality could live up to). After all, he is the main character, so I can hardly see Ms. Campion, as feminist as she may be, making us not want to like him. I mean, he has to die in the end, right? If she wants to express her feminism by making Keats look like he's being a jerk to Fanny, then send him off to Rome to die a tragic and lonely death. . . it just doesn't make good sense. These early descriptions are also billing the subject of this film as the "romance" between Keats and Fanny, so I think the focus is going to be more on the tragedy of their youth and separation, as well as the loss of Keats's spectacular talent cut off from the world, rather than anything else. Of course, every good romance has its rocky elements, so no doubt Keats's frustrations over Fanny's supposed insensitive behavior, as well as Fanny's own problems with being the object of affection of a man with such tumultuous emotions and a known hot temper, will certainly factor in quite strongly. But I think for this film to work, the only logical thing is that in spite of the troubles of both the main characters, they're both going to have to end up winning the sympathy of the audience in the end: Keats because of his death, and Fanny because she lost him. Hence, "womanizing Keats" would certainly be detrimental not just to the true nature of the man, but to the general success of the film's plot and character development.
) girl she was--how much she'll showcase those traits is what remains to be seen--these qualities in Fanny are exactly what both attracted and repelled (and vexed) Keats all at the same time. 
