Kurt here from Your Movie Buddy, ready to spread a little love on Valentine's Day.
The dreamy feeling one gets while watching Jane Campion's Bright Star is encapsulated in two successive images in the film, both of which are included at the end of this post. But Wait!! Don't scroll down yet!! There's still plenty to say about this gorgeous telling of the romance between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and poet's muse Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). It's by far 2009's finest love story and by leaps its most beautiful movie.
I haven't exactly chosen a Valentine's Day love scene – as per Nathaniel's instructions to his contributors – though I could've easily devoted a few hundred words to the tender, sexless sex scene that caps the lovers' fleeting fling (just as I could have devoted a few thousand to the absurdity of Cornish's near-universal snubbing in the '09 awards race...
The dreamy feeling one gets while watching Jane Campion's Bright Star is encapsulated in two successive images in the film, both of which are included at the end of this post. But Wait!! Don't scroll down yet!! There's still plenty to say about this gorgeous telling of the romance between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and poet's muse Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). It's by far 2009's finest love story and by leaps its most beautiful movie.
I haven't exactly chosen a Valentine's Day love scene – as per Nathaniel's instructions to his contributors – though I could've easily devoted a few hundred words to the tender, sexless sex scene that caps the lovers' fleeting fling (just as I could have devoted a few thousand to the absurdity of Cornish's near-universal snubbing in the '09 awards race...
- 2/14/2011
- by Kurtis O
- FilmExperience
I am shocked to report that my new membership did not singlehandedly or significantly increase their taste levels, he said sarcastically. A few of the following nominations are hard to justify qualitatively speaking but you can't always get what you want. Again Oscar punditry combined with 'I just unwrapped this gift' excitement seem to have replaced careful consideration of what the year had to offer. But then it does appear as if only about 15 movies truly existed this year. In fact six movies Inglourious Basterds, Nine, Avatar, Up in the Air, The Hurt Locker, Precious and The Lovely Bones account for 48% of all the nominations. Crazy.
Am I just grumpy because they think The Lovely Bones (6 nominations) is better looking and The Blind Side (2 nominations) better acted than the exquisite Bright Star (1 nomination only)? I find those two judgment calls totally unsupportable. The abundant nominations for the garish and messy...
Am I just grumpy because they think The Lovely Bones (6 nominations) is better looking and The Blind Side (2 nominations) better acted than the exquisite Bright Star (1 nomination only)? I find those two judgment calls totally unsupportable. The abundant nominations for the garish and messy...
- 12/15/2009
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
A favorite buzzword of actors is "simplicity." But to see its paragon, observe Ben Whishaw in his current project, Jane Campion's "Bright Star." In it he plays 19th-century poet John Keats. Or rather, he is Keats. Whishaw has not a moment onscreen that looks actorly. And aside from the utter seriousness that seems to mark his roles to date, each is crisply distinct—whether he is playing the bizarrely talented title role of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille in "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer," rocker Keith Richards in "Stoned," the tortured Sebastian in "Brideshead Revisited," or one of the Bob Dylans in "I'm Not There." Whishaw seems a likely, and much-needed, heir to Daniel Day-Lewis.How does he do it? "I read a lot," says Whishaw. He also started early, in a youth theater near London, U.K. "We were a very ambitious little troupe and did some amazing plays," says Whishaw.
- 12/11/2009
- backstage.com
"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."Poetry: one of the unique albeit unorthodox tools that award-winning casting director Nina Gold used to cast writer-director Jane Campion's homage to 19th-century poetic love cut short, "Bright Star."Named for a poem originally thought to be British poet John Keats' last, "Bright Star" depicts the tragically brief and heartbreaking love affair between the penniless poet and the beautiful Fanny Brawne, the daughter of a Hampstead widow who is principally obsessed with marrying Fanny off to the right man of the right social status. "The really different casting thing that we had everyone do," says Gold, "was to read a poem. All these actors that were so accomplished, it...
- 12/9/2009
- backstage.com
High-necked dresses and corsets characterize many period films, as does a matching, buttoned-up sensibility in terms of sensuality and relationships. But Jane Campion’s 19th- century set Bright Star is a warm, witty film that isn’t shy about demonstrating the love of Romantic poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer) and Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish, Stop-Loss). Though sex is never part of the equation for the pair, a single touch or clasped hand radiates heat and affection.
Though Keats is obviously the more famous of the couple, Bright Star arrives from the perspective of his love. Fanny is a fashion-driven young woman who spends much of her time with her widowed mother (Kerry Fox, Shallow Grave) and her two younger siblings (Love Actually’s Thomas Sangster and delightful newcomer Edie Martin). When she meets John Keats, there is an immediate attraction between them, much to...
Though Keats is obviously the more famous of the couple, Bright Star arrives from the perspective of his love. Fanny is a fashion-driven young woman who spends much of her time with her widowed mother (Kerry Fox, Shallow Grave) and her two younger siblings (Love Actually’s Thomas Sangster and delightful newcomer Edie Martin). When she meets John Keats, there is an immediate attraction between them, much to...
- 9/23/2009
- CinemaSpy
Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish in Bright Star
Photo: Apparition Why do Fanny Brawne and John Keats love each other? They don't know and don't worry, Bright Star writer/director Jane Campion isn't interested in exploring the whys of their relationship as much as she is concerned with boring you stiff with a lifeless melodrama adapted from the private writings of Keats, his poems and Andrew Motion's biography on the poet. This is a love story beholden to exaggeration and so sappy you can't get out from underneath it. Of course, being a hit at the Cannes Film Festival and finding fans around the world already, I seem to be relatively alone in this opinion, but it's my opinion nonetheless. The film starts off perfectly fine by introducing us to Brawne, played by Abbie Cornish just as I would suspect Charlize Theron would have played the role at that age.
Photo: Apparition Why do Fanny Brawne and John Keats love each other? They don't know and don't worry, Bright Star writer/director Jane Campion isn't interested in exploring the whys of their relationship as much as she is concerned with boring you stiff with a lifeless melodrama adapted from the private writings of Keats, his poems and Andrew Motion's biography on the poet. This is a love story beholden to exaggeration and so sappy you can't get out from underneath it. Of course, being a hit at the Cannes Film Festival and finding fans around the world already, I seem to be relatively alone in this opinion, but it's my opinion nonetheless. The film starts off perfectly fine by introducing us to Brawne, played by Abbie Cornish just as I would suspect Charlize Theron would have played the role at that age.
- 9/18/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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