Jane Campion's 'Bright Star' (2009)

In this episode, I'm talking about Jane Campion's 2009 film, "Bright Star." It's about the brief but beautiful love story between the poet John Keats and a young woman named Fanny Brawne. John Keats is considered one of the greatest poets who ever lived but he died young, before he and Fanny could create a life together. Their romance was marked by distance and the ever-present shadow of death but his passionate letters to her--which are featured throughout the film--reveal how deeply he was in love with Fanny and how much she meant to him. I talk about the relationship between Keats and Fanny, how the film shows the precarious life of a writer and explores the importance of poetry in our lives, and much more.

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Original logo by Dhiyanah Hassan

 

Full Show Notes:

• My episode on Jane Campion's The Piano
• My episode on Jane Campion's In the Cut
• Bright Star book
• Love Letters: Vita and Virginia
• Violet to Vita : The Letters of Violet Trefusis to Vita Sackville-West, 1910-1921
• Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson
• Kate Zambreno interview with The Millions

All My Sources

• Bright Star DVD
• John Keats biography (Poetry Foundation)