Abbie Cornish as Fanny Brawne in Jane Campion's Bright Star.

Bright Star

Studio: Apparition
Written and directed by Jane Campion; Starring Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw and Paul Schneider

Sep 18, 2009 By Chris Tinkham Web Exclusive
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Writer-director Jane Campion's Bright Star is a sensory experience, an exquisitely photographed period romance that forsakes sweeping camera movements and swelling orchestral score for the quiet immediacy of the moments that occur when love takes root.

The film is a chronicle of the two-year romance between English Romantic poet John Keats and 18-year-old Fanny Brawne, his neighbor in Hampstead, a lush area of North London. Beleaguered by gossip and Keats' bout with tuberculosis, their unconsummated relationship lasted until his departure for the warmer climate of Rome, where he died in 1821 at age 25. With such visually arresting films as The Piano and The Portrait of a Lady on her resume, Campion was an able director to conjure the imagery of a poet whose Endymion begins: "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever." Yet, Bright Star would not be near the triumph that it is without Campion's engaging screenplay and an endearingly commanding lead performance by Abbie Cornish as Brawne.

www.brightstar-movie.com

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