Saturday, March 6, 2010

"Bright Star"

"Bright Star" is a 2009 movie about the sad, secret love affair between the poet John Keats and seamstress Fanny Brawne. Keats died at only age 24, but their affair was doomed from the start since neither had the financial means to marry.
The settings and costumes were beautiful. Overall, it was a smart movie and the story was emotional, but not too maudlin. Most of the scenes take place near Hampstead Heath, where Fanny Brawne lived with her family, and Keats stayed in the house next door with his icky friend, Charles Brown.

In 1820, it was still a wild country spot a few miles from central London. Hampstead Heath still exists, and is the remains of an ancient forest called The Middlesex. Now the 790 acre park is the largest open space in London, and famous for its intellectual and bohemian associations. Not to mention some of the most expensive real estate in London.

The movie has that pretty BBC Masterpiece Theater look, and if you know some of Keat's poetry, there is an entrancing scene when he sits alone in an orchard composing "Ode to a Nightingale" while the bird sings.
And this little poppet steals every scene she's in. Where do they find these child actors who are so natural and composed? The girl's name is Edi Martin, and she played Fannie's young sister "Toots." She has one of the best lines in the movie when she and her brother go to the bookstore to buy Keat's poetry book for Fannie:

Samuel Brawne: Have you got John Keat's poem book?
"Toots" Brawne: My sister has met the author and she wants to read it for herself to see if he's an idiot or not.

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