Keats' romance doomed from the start
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Posted 2 months ago
Northumberland Films' fifth presentation of the fall season screens this Sunday, Nov. 29 at 4 p. m. at Northumberland Mall Cinemas.
Bright Star chronicles the three-year love affair between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw, Brideshead Revisited) and his neighbour Fanny Brawne (Abby Cornish, Elizabeth: The Golden Age), a relationship that came to an untimely end when Keats tragically died at the tender age of 25.
Keats is one of the best-known Romantic poets of the 19th century, though during his short lifetime, his poetry received much unfavourable criticism. It was only after death that the extent of his influence was truly felt and understood, as evidenced in the poetry of artists like Alfred Tennyson. In addition to Keats's poems, his aesthetic theories, especially those dealing with the artistic value of uncertainty -- and hence the need for open-endedness and openmindedness in life and work -- are among his greatest legacies.
Bright Star is not a traditional biopic of a great artist. It tells the story of Keats' love affair with Fanny from Fanny's perspective and is inspired heavily by found materials like love letters.
Director Jane Campion has said she's very interested in the small, intricate details that contribute to our understanding of these two people, and the film is more about love and art than it is about turning Keats' life into the stuff of myth. Sometimes beauty really is in the details, and Campion demonstrates this vividly in her heart-rending, gorgeous film about a love doomed from the start, whose fate hovers over every lush scene of the film. Given equal status to the main characters, the English countryside serves as a monumental backdrop to this intensely intimate, character-driven film.
Northumberland Film Sundays wishes to thank The Circuit, a division of the Toronto Film Festival and Via Rail, a major sponsor.
Tickets can be purchased at The Human Bean, 80 King St. W., Cobourg, and at the theatre after 3 p. m. Sunday, Nov. 29.
