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In Bright Star, I personally think that Jane Campion was in full command of the medium. She was able to construct and imagine the world of Fanny Brawne using only the words of John Keats. People may criticize this film as basically Twilight with costumes and high falutin’ words, but at least, Campion made it compelling!

I know this is cliche to say but I thought Bright Star was just pure poetry on-screen. I remember the first time I saw this, I was one of those Cornish skeptics (OMG she stole Ryan whatzisface from Reese Peanut Butter!). But wow, mah girl Abbie sold that performance. At least for me. And that breakdown (“unravelling”) scene of hers was completely genuine and a mark that Campion directed Cornish to a tour-de-force. If that one was a fake, I guess people who break down are just faking it as well!

Cornish aside, it was interesting how restrained (and thus, contemplative) this film was shot. I loved how Campion just observed instead of intruding. And that is the way it was supposed to be done. Okay, there were lots of money shots and beautiful vistas to cater to the cinephile’s hunger for visual composition. But this film was more than that. Jane Campion explored the “space” of love and romance in Bright Star. An example would be the famous (or infamous?) bedroom wall scene. That was almost L’Atalante-esque in its romanticism.

And speaking of observation, Campion chose to shoot most scenes as obscured by foregrounds (flowers, butterflies, branches,…) to evoke that certain voyeuristic sense. There were also shots through doors, windows and other openings as poetry is the window to the soul. We, as the audience, were taking a peek into the lives of these real personalities – people who touched the life of one of the world’s most celebrated poets. Nonetheless, since there is no official biography of Fanny Brawne and the film is basically Campion’s re-imagination, Campion also uses her visual eye (the OMG foregrounds) in alluding to the artifice of cinema. With careful composition, Campion invites us, no, seduces us into the world of Bright Star.

Title: Bright Star
Year: 2009
Country: UK, Australia, France
Language: English, French
Genre: Biography
Director: Jane Campion
Writers: Jane Campion, Andrew Motion
Cast:
Abbie Cornish
Ben Whishaw
Paul Schneider
Kerry Fox
Thomas Sangster
Edie Martin
Claudie Blakley
Antonia Campbell-Hughes
Rating: 9/10

Like the protagonist in VINCERE is not Mussolini, but his lover Ida Dalser, BRIGHT STAR’s backbone is Fanny Brawne instead of John Keats, the most amazing credit of this film BRIGHT STAR is that it [re]lights my passion towards poems (maybe RELIGHT is not accurate, as in this era, it is so difficult to sit peaceful and quiet while completely saving some time for poems). Neither Fanny or Keats are saints, it is Keats’ poems purifies their freckled characteristics, and successfully exerts an immense pathos on their love story.

Jane Campion finally recollects her most skillful talent to create an non-contemporary (please forget IN THE CUT 2003), 19th century scroll of a heart-wrenching story with a slow but poignant pace, gracefully shows us a romantic yet sentimental natural settings with costumes filled with relishes of that time (received an Oscar costume nomination this year).

The performance is definitely Oscar-worthy, especially for ABBIE CORNISH, here in BRIGHT STAR her portrayal of the Keats-addicted Fanny which reflects an analogue of CANDY (2005), in which she co-stars with late HEATH LEDGER, they play a contemporary drug-addicted young couple entrapped in a plight. These two roles are paralleling in different times. BEN WHISHAW is also giving a solid performance, owing to the fact that in I’M NOT HERE (2007), he has already interpreted the same role (even thought he is a 1/6 embodiment of BOB DYLAN in that film), so strictly speaking, not too much excitement from he re-acted performance. Supporting casts including KERRY FOX and PAUL SCHNEIDER, both shine in their limited screentime.

Call me sentimental, I have a huge empathy towards the story of Fanny and Keats, when love clashes with an irreversible tragedy, the powerlessness is powerful enough to destroy all other things.

Finally an ending statement, poet is a truly self-destruction profession, it’s not easy to be a poet, or his other half.

Bagi para mereka penggemar karya-karya kesusasteraan Inggris, nama John Keats mungkin bukanlah sebuah nama yang akan terdengar asing. Keats terkenal sebagai seorang penyair yang banyak menuliskan puisi-puisinya dengan nada yang romantis. Tragisnya, kehidupan percintaan Keats sendiri tidak seindah dengan apa yang ia gambarkan. Keats gagal menikah dengan wanita yang sangat ia cintai karena ia meninggal dunia di usia yang sangat muda.

Sekelumit kisah percintaan John Keats inilah yang coba diceritakan oleh Jane Campion, salah satu dari empat orang sutradara wanita yang pernah dinominasikan di kategori Best Director di ajang Academy Awards, lewat film teranyarnya, Bright Star. Judul Bright Star sendiri diperoleh dari judul salah satu puisi yang dituliskan Keats untuk kekasihnya Fanny Brawne.

Bersetting di tahun 1818, John Keats (Ben Whishaw) adalah seorang penyair miskin yang karya-karyanya sering tidak diterima oleh kebanyakan kritikus seni yang ada saat itu. Pertemuannya dengan Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), gadis tetangganya, merubah kehidupan John seketika. Kisah mereka sendiri dimulai dengan awal yang aneh: John menganggap Fanny sebagai seorang yang dangkal karena hanya peduli atas penampilannya, sementara Fanny sama sekali tidak tertarik dengan puisi dan romantisme yang ditawarkan oleh John.

Kedekatan mereka berdua tumbuh akibat rasa simpati Fanny terhadap Tom Keats (Olly Alexander), saudara John yang sedang menderita sakit parah. Kedekatan ini membuat John menyetujui permintaan Fanny untuk mengajarkannya mengenai dunia sastra dan puisi yang selama ini digeluti oleh John.

Rasa cinta kepada Fanny sebenarnya telah tumbuh di diri John dan semakin menguat. Namun, John yang merasa dirinya tidak memiliki apa-apa akhirnya memilih untuk menahan diri untuk meminang Fanny. Walau begitu, hubungan John dan Fanny terus menguat. Sayang, nasib berkata lain. John yang sedang menderita sakit harus menerima ajakan temannya untuk berangkat ke Italia untuk mencari penghasilan disana. Cinta John, yang sebelum pergi bertunangan dengan Fanny, akhirnya kandas setelah ajal datang menjemputnya semasa ia masih berada di Italia.

Naskah Bright Star sendiri ditulis oleh Jane Campion, berdasarkan inspirasi yang ia dapat atas biografi mengenai John Keats yang ditulis oleh Andrew Motion. Seperti halnya puisi-puisi yang dituliskan oleh Keats, Campion juga sepertinya ingin menuliskan sisi romantisme dari kedua pasangan ini di dalam naskah filmnya. Sayangnya, Campion melakukannya dalam sebuah porsi yang sangat berlebihan dan cenderung bertele-tele.

Bayangkan saja bagaimana bertele-telenya cara penyampaian yang dilakukan oleh Campion ketika Bright Star yang telah berjalan selama 30 menit masih berputar di sekitar perkenalan antara Fanny dan John. 30 menit dan hal itu semakin memburuk dengan gambaran beberapa karakternya — John Keats yang tidak memiliki karisma, Fanny Browne yang terlihat ‘terlalu’ jatuh cinta dan Charles Brown (Paul Schneider), sahabat John, dengan tingkahnya yang sangat mengesalkan dan perlahan-lahan mulai mengganggu — yang gagal menarik perhatian para penontonnya. Apa yang ditampilkan Campion pada masing-masing karakter di film ini diberikan secara berlebihan dan terlalu melodramatik, sehingga sekalipun Anda berharap untuk dapat menyukai pada kisah yang dihadirkan, atau menyukai salah satu karakter yang ada di film ini, Anda akan merasa ada sesuatu yang menghalangi Anda untuk menyukai mereka.

Dari sisi akting juga tidak ada satupun yang mampu mencuri perhatian, kecuali, mungkin, Abbie Cornish, yang berperan sebagai Fanny Brawne. Perhatian terbesar mungkin akan dicurahkan pada kurang berkharisma-nya Ben Whishaw yang memerankan John Keats. Whishaw, entah bagaimana, seperti terkesan malas-malasan dalam menghidupkan karakter John Keats. Mungkin memang karakter John Keats digambarkan sebagai seseorang yang dingin dan minus ekspresi kehidupan, namun pada beberapa adegan dimana John Keats digambarkan sedang berbahagia sekalipun, Whishaw gagal menarik perhatian dan terlihat semakin mengesalkan ketika Bright Star terus berjalan.

Hal-hal standar yang biasa Anda dapatkan di sebuah film drama period, seperti kostum dan sinematografi, mungkin adalah satu-satunya yang dapat dikatakan tampil cukup memuaskan di film ini.

Dengan durasi 119 menit, Bright Star secara perlahan menceritakan bagaimana kisah percintaan antara John Keats dengan Fanny Brawne secara (terlalu) melodramatis, bahkan berlebihan di beberapa bagian. Sebaliknya, para karakter yang ditampilkan malah mendapatkan kurang penggalian dari naskah cerita, dan diperburuk dengan salahnya pemilihan Ben Whishaw yang sepertinya sama sekali tidak memiliki kharisma untuk ditampilkan sebagai seorang aktor utama. Hasilnya, Bright Star gagal memenuhi harapan para penontonnya. Film ini tidak jatuh di kategori sebuah film buruk, namun sangat disayangkan film ini sama sekali tidak bergerak untuk berusaha menghibur maupun menyentuh hati para penontonnya.

Rating: 3 / 5

I find it hard to talk about this one without it bringing a lump to my throat.
This kind of achingly beautiful and unashamedly romantic tale is deeply unfashionable now and it’s such a crying shame. Campion has surely bested herself here with this subtle and divinely lyrical love poem – so making ‘The Piano’ feel almost like galumphing over-ripe melodrama in comparison.
I’m sure that much of today’s impatient audience will be snoring into their popcorn at Campion’s leisurely and smoldering drip drip pace. And the long scene’s of poetry reading (it’s no mean feat to read poetry with emotional conviction so Whishaw and Cornish should be cherished for sure), the quiet and often silent moments heavy with bated breath and the melancholy longueurs of love unrequited will sorely test the patience of many.
But us hopeless romantics will (quietly) cheer and find rich rewards. Bright Star has a precious, almost nameless, quality that will linger in your heart and consciousness long after it’s utterly sublime credit sequence has faded and I really do pity those that don’t fall under its mesmerising spell.
Exquisite.

Smart. Quiet. Beautiful.

The framing is particularly striking – always slightly pushed in, never an opening on the frame’s edge – completely filled. The camera quietly witnesses, yet not from the outside, from within. Music is used with such subtlety and wit. When it arrives, it breathes new unpredictable life into the picture. And then it goes away and we rest back into the quiet world. The story is told steadily. Never overbearing. Never over-telling. Never explaining.

The trailer for the film makes it out to be a typical 19th century period piece. This is not the case. It is a piece of cinema that quietly meanders and meditates on love and class and art. It seeks to understand what it is to be an artist, to live as an artist – what it is to love an artist – all from the perspective of the protagonist, Fanny Brawne.

Described as “sweet” and “romantic,” Jane Campion’s long awaited “Bright Star” is underwhelming at best and to be honest, disappointing to those expecting the kind of substance Campion is known to create. I’ve been following her other brilliant work for a long time—watching and re-watching her films, admiring her courage to present unconventional, masterful stories with strong female characters…

With this, I am left feeling like she’s become lazy, dull, and maybe even a bit corny.

One of few woman filmmakers in the spotlight, a feminist icon, and with a multitude of options for story ideas, why would she decide to create such a generic, cliché film? Yes, there are moments of beauty and the film is overall captured in a sophisticated way, but what is this worth if the content is as banal as that in most other sappy love stories?

A tempered and restrained exploration of love and impossibility, Jane Campion masterfully weaves visual and narrative together in Bright Star to create a moody filmic sanctuary, blemished only perhaps by an element of lassitude. Campion’s Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) is strong willed, opinionated and determined, yet seemingly so self absorbed that it is hard to really like her. You still feel for her, but not faithfully. You start out getting lost in Campion’s Keatsian world but you fall back to the cinema you are sitting in long before you walk out the doors.

I loved the film and I had been looking forward to it ever since I first heard about it months ago. Ben Whishaw is one of my favorite British actors and he is immensely talented! (Definitely must watch the film “Brideshead Revisited”, if you haven’t already!)

I loved the scenes in the fields, the silences when the two main characters were blissfully together and the amazing poetry/quotes of John Keats!

Two of my favorite quotes from the film are: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness…” (John Keats’ poetry) and “There is a holiness to the heart’s affections, you know nothing about”.

There were some slow parts in the film but overall, a very lovely and magical story/film about first-&-true love! I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it!

Jane Campion, a poet of the screen, has the capacity to make my teeth chatter all the while being the cause of the discovery of feelings I never felt forgotten. The dance threaded between Keats, Brawn, Brown, and fate (it seems) whirls and fades like an ordinary sunset. However, Campion allowed me to see that repetition can still reveal romance through delicate words and careful glances. At the end we’ve longed and Keats is whisked away by death like a diseased cat; pushed to the brink of a heart’s ardor. Bright Star.