Bright Star

By Gautaman Bhaskaran
South Asia Correspondent

Jane Campion's period piece
"Bright Star"

Amid the economic depression and cinematic
disappointments with most masters ending up with minor pieces, the Cannes Film Festival offered a few gems to take back home. Maybe my tastes are old world, but I enormously seemed to like Jane Campion's period piece, "Bright Star" the best. True to the era it was set in, 19th century England, the movie ran at a delightfully leisurely pace from one picture postcard image to another of poet John Keats' meandering countryside, magnificent balls, yards of shimmering gowns and warm handwritten letters that pumped the adrenal into young hearts.

Indeed a treat for romantics and poetry lovers, "Bright Star" may well be a joy forever marking Campion's return to Cannes after her 1993 Palm d'Or winner, "The Piano" Tracing the love story between a young Keats and his Hamstead neighbour, Fanny Brawne, Campion never losses sight of period details. Scenes of Brawne with a fine needle and thread, Keats with his pen and paper creating poetic pleasure that much after his death helped the world realise his genius and the passion between the two only restrained by the rigid social mores of the day have been frozen on frame with a classic touch.

Critics may argue that "Bright Star"is nothing more than a Merchant-Ivory production with its alluring locales and marvellous costumes, but the film goes beyond captivating colours, and scripts a story with extraordinary feeling that the two main actors, Abbie Cornish (Brawne) and Ben Whishaw (Keats), help bring to the screen.