Bright Star. Reinventing romantic poetry for the screen

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to inquire into the way John Keats’s poetry is used in Jane Campion’s film Bright Star, in order to infuse the narrative of John Keats and Fanny Brawne’s love story with a sense of the romantic that transcends contemporary notions of it. Taking into account Campion’s confessed difficulty in reading Keats’s poetry, the paper focuses on the way the film, up to a certain point, reinvents Romantic poetry for the contemporary screen, by making extensive use of the poems and letters of John Keats. It argues that the use of poetry, combined with a romantic visual depiction of the English countryside and with a simple and quiet musical score, reinforces the sense of romantic love that drives this story. At the same time, the essay briefly discusses the film Bright Star in the context of Jane Campion’s filmography, with particular attention to the centrality of the female perspective in her work.