Jane Campion
Bright Star

This film, which DOES NOT WANT to be a biopic of John Keats, which ONLY APPEARS to be a costume drama and which ALMOST CERTAINLY will seem to you an endless tedium, is probably the most romantic (in a literal-cultural-philosophical sense, not hovogliadite-mocciastyle), fascinating, and successful film about poetry that (at least I) have ever seen.

The New Zealander Jane Campion has already directed "The Piano" and "In The Cut," both films characterized by a certain rawness of language (the severed finger, the scabrous environment) and especially with complex female protagonists (Holly Hunter, Meg Ryan).

Set in the Victorian English countryside, "Bright Star" does tell the story of John Keats (unknown, penniless, and sickly romantic poet, isolated and shunned by the critics of the time, forced to be supported by friends and acquaintances), but from the standpoint of his beloved Fanny, an unconventional fashion student.

The "romantic" part of the film is shy, hidden, discreet; don't expect tear-jerking romantic movie scenes. There are no great lines from the annals of cinema as one might expect from a romantic poet. The falling in love happens through details and glances. Spontaneous like Keats's poetry, which he claims in the film "If poetry does not come naturally as leaves to a tree, it is better that it does not come at all."

Keats's portrayal (Ben Whishaw, already Rimbaud in "I'm Not There") is not rhetorical and crafted to make horny teenage girls go wild. He is a meek character, not at all rebellious or heroic, cultured and, let's say it, quite unlucky. Aware of his limitations, he lets himself be passively cradled by circumstances. He contains every emotion and condenses it into art.

Fanny, on the other hand, is determined, expresses herself freely, she is a dynamic character in short. Friends and family (even John) try to shield her from the certain pain of a relationship without prospects, impossible.

The rhythm is never yawn-inducing, the sequences alternate the tranquility of the English moorland and the bourgeois daily life of Fanny's family with the acute suffering of her relationship.

The acting, however exceptional, pales in comparison with the film's aesthetics: the director seems more interested in the flowers around the two lovers lying in the English moor than in the lovers themselves. The entire film revolves around the two of them, without ever BEING just the two of them. Every action of the two lovers is always contained, but it's only the tip of an iceberg of deep passion and desire.

The attention to details (bows, lace, hats, cutlery) surpasses those of a typical costume drama. Never anything excessive, the balance of the film is absolute. The time is that of seasons and leaves, there are no plot twists. Only the illness of the poet, who died at 25 in total poverty, breaks the idyll.

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art...