RA Crossroads: Jane Campion's Bright Star
By Neal Wyatt Jul 28, 2010As Lewis Carroll's Alice so aptly points out, "What is the use of a book...without pictures or conversations?" Welcome to RA Crossroads, where books, movies, music, and other media converge, and whole-collection reader's advisory service goes where it may. In this column, Fanny Brawne and John Keats as portrayed in the 2009 movie Bright Star lead me down a winding path.
Begin:
Bright Star. Sony. 2010. $27.96.
Jane Campion's film, about the affair of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, offers many rewards. The costumes alone are worth the price of the DVD, as is the reading of "Ode to a Nightingale" during the closing credits. Scene after scene the patient viewer is rewarded with lushness that is both tactile and seductive, as if one were being drowned in velvet. The visual feel of the movie is matched with a pace that is equally overwhelming, intimate in its slow following of Brawne's tumble into love and Keats's muddled wonder at the event-bracketed by disapproval from his close friends and loving worry by her family. All of this takes place in settings that seem palpably real, combining the comforts of common life with the wonders of a natural world viewed through the tinted lens of besotted lovers. Brawne and Keats's story begins with its own tragedy in hand, as even the most causal readers of poetry know of Keats's sad end. That darkling cloud only serves to make the time Brawne spends with Keats more splendidly heightened, however, especially as much of the script is the recitation of Keats's poetry and letters, language that Campion wisely lets stand uninterrupted. Moody, sad, and beguiling, this movie is an exquisite gesture of romance, as it is both imagined in the minds of young women and as it is lived in the lives of doomed men.
Watch- and Read-Alikes:
Sense & Sensibility. Sony. 1999. $14.94.
Matching both the tactile feel and the emotional swirl of Bright Star, this brilliant Austen adaptation also shares the same attention to detail and lovingly framed shots of costume and landscape. The story follows two sisters with differing dispositions as they negotiate society, petty relations, schemers, and very rocky paths to love. While the dual romances play out a bit faster than Brawne and Keats's, director Ang Lee maintains a slow pace, creating a tone that will charm Bright Star fans and allows character and dialog to carry the movement of the film. In her screenplay, Emma Thompson honors Austen with the same grace Campion affords Keats, another reason why fans will find it a good next choice. But above the similar feel and attention to detail, character alone makes this a nice pairing, for Fanny enacts much of what some of the more overly emotional Austen characters daydream about, and in Marianne Dashwood she would have had a soul mate.
Out of Africa. Universal. 2010. $26.98.
While Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) and Denys Finch Hatton are less romantically overwrought than Brawne and Keats, Out of Africa is a good, quirky pairing for viewers wanting more movies that create alchemy out of a lush pace, gorgeous cinematography, and the brilliant evocation of time and place. This lyrical story recounts the unraveling of the life of a married woman who is unable to claim the man she most desires and needs. Director Sydney Pollack pays great attention to dialog, pulling the viewer into the story while Robert Redford and Meryl Streep manage to enhance the moody tone with a tension that evokes Brawne's most anguished moments. This is a movie that honors character creation above all else, so it is a good choice for viewers who want to follow the story of another writer and her doomed romance.
The Young Victoria. Sony. 2010. $27.96.
One of the most notable features of Bright Star is that Brawne, however overcome she is, is no dummy. Smart, questing, and determined, she is a heroine to cheer for (despite history's prevailing take thus far). The young Queen Victoria is a good match for Brawne fans, another woman who was supposed to be a cipher and turned out to be the woman who helped England face the 20th century. This movie shares with Bright Star the lush sensibility and muffled sensuality of the cinematography, each frame almost dripping with color, texture, and shape. While the stories are quite different, the movie also offers a leisurely pace, slow, building courtship, and the almost obsessive care with set and costume.
Morgan, Jude. Passion. Griffin: St. Martin's. 2009. 544p. ISBN 978-0-312-34369-9. pap. $14.95.
Watching Bright Star just makes you want to have more of the romance between Keats and Brawne, and Morgan's novel delivers in lovely, lush prose. This is the story of the many doomed loves of the Romantic poets, including Mary and Percy Shelley, Lady Caroline Lamb and Bryon, Augusta Leigh and Bryon, and Brawne and Keats. Each woman gets her turn as the focal point; all are portrayed as smart, strong women capable of matching the larger-than-life figures of their chosen loves. Morgan does an amazing job imagining the biographies and interconnected relations of the poets and the women who loved them, giving full voice to the women, creating scenes that are memorable, and offering readers another path into the tragic and fascinating lives of this most notable of poetic generations. Fans of Bright Star will be thrilled to have another place to immerse themselves in the Romantic aesthetic.
Read-Arounds:
Keats, John. Keats's Poetry and Prose. Norton. 2008. 640p. ed. by Jeffrey N. Cox. ISBN 978-0-393-92491-6. pap. $14.
It is hard to know what a viewer is going to want first, the letters Keats wrote to Brawne, or his poetry. This collection is notable for having 13 of the letters, but moreover for its arrangement by publication (or composition for unpublished work). Keats's letters (as well as reviews and other materials) are also interleaved in order. Thus, one can read the letters and around them read the poetry he composed. Reading the volume in order is akin to stepping into Keats's personal space, watching him compose and learn, react to reviews, and reach out to friends and family. Readers who want a complete collection of Keats's poetry can do no better than the edition edited by Jack Stillinger (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1991).
Keats, John. Selected Letters of John Keats. Harvard Univ. 2005. 576p. ed. by Grant F. Scott. ISBN 978-0-674-01841-9. pap. $25.
If it is the letters readers want, then the best source is currently this shortened edition of Hyder Edward Rollins's two-volume The Letters of John Keats, 1814-1821 (Harvard), which is very hard to find. While there are some of the Brawne letters here, readers ready to move beyond the relationship will find great joys in delving into the sheer brilliance of Keats's poetic and literary sensibility. In this collection are the letters that introduced the ideas of negative capability and the Mansion of Many Apartments as well as many others that reveal the poetic thinking of Keats. See also this solid online collection and an anthology of just the Keats/Brawne letters.
Plumly, Stanley. Posthumous Keats: A Personal Biography. Norton. 2009. 392p. ISBN 978-0-393-33772-3. pap. $17.95.
It is hard not to want to know more about Keats and Brawne, and poet Plumly's linked essays on the life and death of Keats offer a subtle take. In addition to the love affair, Plumly also examines the fate of Keats's last manuscripts, his friendship with Charles Brown, and Keats's own perception of himself as a poet. It is a fascinating book, as its structure (seven essays, of seven parts each) wraps and dips around itself, and this allows Plumly to revisit the same idea multiple times and create a more layered and nuanced view of Keats, poetry, and the meaning of biography.
Motion, Andrew. Keats. Univ. of Chicago. 1999. 656p. ISBN 978-0-226-54240-9. pap. $20.
As far as pure biography goes, Motion's is a good place to start. He considers the life and work of Keats from a political perspective. While Bright Star only hinted at the politics of the time, Keats and his poetic allies were in the thick of a political dogfight, the language of which can often make Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck seem measured. Two other outstanding biographies (each out of print but widely held) are Aileen Ward's John Keats: The Making of a Poet and Walter Jackson Bate's John Keats. Ward is notable for her focus on Keats's life, approached from a psychological focus, while Bate's is notable for his take on the poetry, weaving into his consideration of Keats's life his method of writing and poetic structure.
Listen-Alikes:
Realms of Gold. Naxos. 1999. ISBN 978-962-634-174-2. $17.98.
The Great Poets: John Keats. Naxos. 2007. ISBN 978-962-634-489-7. $14.98.
As Bright Star will attest, hearing poetry read aloud is a sublime treat. These two selections offer listeners a chance to sink into the language, hear the rhythm and play, and often find space to illuminate better understanding. Realms of Gold features letters and poems, all read by Samuel West in a voice that carries a lovely tone. Matthew Marsh provides sporadic commentary to help readers find context. The Great Poets: John Keats features West again, joined by several other narrators in a reading of a short selection of the poems, including "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and "Eve of St. Agnes."
Lives and Works of the English Romantic Poets. Teaching Company. ISBN 978-1-56585-296-9. $69.95.
If you have readers who want to learn more about the Romantic period and its poets, this course is a perfect place to turn. Taught by a noted professor, the class offers 24 lectures (three devoted just to Keats) that explore what Romanticism means, then dive into a close reading of works by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Bryon, Shelley, and Keats.
