Bright Star
Filmmaker: Jane Campion
UK/Australia/France / 2009 / 119 mins / English
Opening Weekend Date: 6 November 2009
Cinemas screening the film: Nationwide
London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23 year old English poet John Keats and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne, an outspoken student of fashion.
Drawn together when Keats is touched by Fanny's efforts when his younger brother becomes ill, their romance starts as Keats agrees to teach Fanny poetry. By the time her alarmed Mother and his best friend, Brown, realise their attachment, their relationship has become unstoppable. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers are swept into powerfully new sensations. Together they ride a wave of romantic obsession that only deepens as their troubles mount. Only Keats illness proves insurmountable.
Read our blog to catch some of Jane Campion's pearls of wisdom.
About the Director: Jane Campion
Born in Wellington, New Zealand into a theatrical family, Campion graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington then pursued a Diploma of Fine Arts at Chelsea School of Arts in London, completing her studies at Sydney College of Arts where she majored in painting but made films. Subsequently, Campion completed three short films at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney.
Campion's career owes much to Frenchman Pierre Rissient, a seasoned Cannes selector who discovered her three short films in the Australian Film Commission archives in 1986. He invited them along with her television feature Two Friends, to a special programme in Cannes and Peel, her first short film won the Palme D'Or.
In 1989 her first feature Sweetie, was selected by Rissient, this time for main competition. Rissient later connected Campion and Chapman to CIBY 2000 who fully financed her second feature The Piano (1993). This film also premiered at Cannes and won the Palme D'Or for best film and best actress. The Piano won more than thirty awards including nine Oscar nominations and three Oscars.
Other films include: An Angel At My Table, originally intended for television but screened as a feature in 1990 at the Venice Film Festival where it won seven prizes including The Silver Lion; A Portrait Of A Lady, Holy Smoke, and In The Cut.
"The director is back to her best"
The Times Online
"Immensely moving"
Screen International
"A film of pictorial beauty"
Total Film
