Such a Beautiful Truth

Jane Campion’s “Bright Star,” released in the U.S. by Apparition
by Michael Orton, all rights reserved

Throughout his brief life, the British poet John Keats was in pursuit of his own restless, creative soul. He abandoned his studies and a promising career in medicine to devote what would become of the rest of his days to creating and publishing poetry which would reach far past his mere twenty-five years. In Jane Campion’s filmed version of his inspiring affection (aptly portrayed by Ben Wishaw) for Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish, of “Stop-Loss” and her Australian repertoire) Keats has been afforded a place in the annals of cinema to compliment his significant, though posthumous, literary acclaim.

Ben Wishaw and Abbie Cornich in Jane Campion's "Bright Star"

With a nomination for the Palm d’Or at Cannes, the year’s Oscar nominations should also include Ms. Campion, (as writer and/or director) Ms. Cornich (actress in a leading role) and perhaps the lenswork of young Greg Fraser, a native of Melbourne who has illuminated and recorded the talent like a twenty-first century Vermeer. The film's score by Mark Bradshaw is appropriately spartan and a compliment, beginning with the opening strains of a cello combined with Mr. Fraser's detailed photography, welcoming us into 19th century life. Not since the lush textures of Merchant-Ivory have period audiences been given such high art. There will even be some audience acclaim for a housecat whose onscreen performance nearly upstages the human talent in more than one scene, becoming props in more than one sense of that word.

Indisputable Comeback

What Ms. Campion’s screenwriting and directing has achieved, using the Andrew Motion biography and Keats’ own letters as her foundation, is the indisputable comeback of her career. Since her Academy Award for 1993’s “The Piano,” her feature work has been largely underwhelming and often difficult to find. Now with her dialogue framing the poetic essence of love and transcendent creativity, New Zealand’s premiere writer/director accurately shows her audience how Keats discovered, defended and profoundly understood that there is a “holiness to the heart’s affection.” Even beyond that, she has offered and defended Keats’ own confusion about love and its yearnings before discovering inspiration from the intelligent affections of Fanny Brawne. (Keats’ letters have recently been re-published in the U.S. by Penguin Books in a co-marketing effort with BBC Films and Screen Australia).

This story also has ample creative tension, deftly illustrated in the relationship of Keats with his patron and collaborator Charles Armitage Brown (Paul Schneider). In Campion’s cinematic construct, the literature may unfold over “Ode to a Nightingale” but the love existing between the two men is eventually eclipsed by the poet’s burgeoning enchantment with Fanny Brawne and Keats' consumptive disease. For these reasons and more, the richness and scope of “Bright Star” shouldn’t be the province of poetry lovers only. Even though period costume dramas such as this lack luster at the box office, the brilliance of this “Bright Star” may yet be appreciated by young audiences attracted to stars like Wishaw and Cornich. Since the film is devoid of prurient or sensuous detail and will undoubtedly carry a PG-13 MPAA rating, it allows the simple elegance and charm of this love story amidst regency life to prevail. Those drawn to the tragic mortality that's found in the Twilight series of vampire romance can now truly understand that “a thing of beauty is a joy forever…”

ed note: Mr. Orton found it necessary to confront another projectionist when the screening sponsors began their poetry discussion and the credit sequence's soundtrack was muted. Appealing to the good manners of the contemporary poets thus assembled (which included the state's poet laureate), audiences like this one are pleased to discover that in addition to the remaining music track, they are favored by Mr. Wisham's reading of "Ode to a Nightingale," one of Keats' most enduring works.