Just Like a Star...

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priest like task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death. 

 - John Keats 

Every great artist had a muse. Someone to inspire them. Shake their innermost core and find the creativity they have been searching high and low for. Artists and their muse(s) have been well documented, throughout history through word and film. One example would be Bright Star.

Written and Directed by Jane Campion, its the story about 18th century poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his three year love affair with Fanny Brawne, (Abbie Cornish) the girl next door and a student of fashion. She was known to design and sew her own clothes. Their admiration grows despite growing concern from Brawne's mother (Kerry Fox) and Keat's best friend Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schneider). Her mother believes that Keat's being a poet is not a reputable job in order to marry and support Fanny, while Charles tells Keat's that Fanny is a flirt and will break his heart. Defying their naysayers, John and Franny continue on with their love affair where Keats writes some of his most well known romantic poems. Unfortunately,  Keats falls into ill health and dies of tuberculosis in Italy (where he was ordered to move to by doctors) at the age of 25.

 

The film was beautifully written and directed by Campion. The movie never feels rushed. Instead it has this flow where you get wrapped up in Keat's and Brawne's relationship.  Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish both give good performances as the doomed young lovers. The chemistry was there so we could feel their jubilation and pain. I couldn't help but tear up when she learns of Keat's death. Also good in the movie was Paul Schneider. Playing Brown, a Scotsman who is so wrapped up in Keat's work that he sees Brawne as an interference, is a complete 180 from his current acting gig as Mark on Parks and Recreation. Also beautiful was the cinematography. England has always been on the countires I would love to visit and the lush countryside further cements that. Feel like you have been transported to another place and another era for that matter. 

Keats is still considered one of the most romantic poets of all time. 

The movie shows us why. 

image credits: here and here