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Bright Star
Oct. 4th, 2009 06:13 pmI went to see Bright Star on Friday, by myself, since I am aware not everyone is up for what promised to be both costume-y and drama-y without the comfort of a happy ending. John Keats died of tuberculosis in Italy and if this functions as a spoiler for the film, it also serves as the films warning. No matter how it begins we all know that it ends with this terrible loss and longing.
That being said, the beginning is so effervescent that I almost believed Ms. Campion could pull off a valediction without mourning. She at least had the wisdom to spare us (Sono andati) the inevitable and pathetic deathbed scene with operatic foreswearing of eternal love in duet with consumptive hemorrhaging. The simple facts of the matter are thus: Keats died many miles away from his beloved Fanny. She not learning of her loss until after he was long gone. The movie really centers on Fanny, rather than Keats. It is her experience Campion cares about and attempts to capture, not the poet who died-too-young, but the lives of those who loved him.
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That being said, the beginning is so effervescent that I almost believed Ms. Campion could pull off a valediction without mourning. She at least had the wisdom to spare us (Sono andati) the inevitable and pathetic deathbed scene with operatic foreswearing of eternal love in duet with consumptive hemorrhaging. The simple facts of the matter are thus: Keats died many miles away from his beloved Fanny. She not learning of her loss until after he was long gone. The movie really centers on Fanny, rather than Keats. It is her experience Campion cares about and attempts to capture, not the poet who died-too-young, but the lives of those who loved him.
( Read more... )
