Bright Star
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jane Campion
Written by	Jane Campion
Produced by	Jan Chapman Caroline Hewitt
Starring	Ben Whishaw Abbie Cornish Paul Schneider Kerry Fox Thomas Sangster Antonia Campbell-Hughes
Cinematography	Greig Fraser
Edited by	Alexandre de Franceschi
Music by	Mark Bradshaw
Production companies	BBC Films Screen Australia UK Film Council New South Wales Film and Television Office Hopscotch International Pathé
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Entertainment UK (United Kingdom) Pathé Distribution (France)[1] Hopscotch Films (Australia)[2]
Release dates	15 May 2009 (2009-05-15) (Cannes) 6 November 2009 (2009-11-06) (United Kingdom)
Running time	119 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom Australia France
Languages	English French
Budget	$8.5 million
Box office	$14.4 million[3]

Bright Star is a 2009biographicalromantic drama film, written and directed byJane Campion. It is based on the last three years of the life of poetJohn Keats (played byBen Whishaw) and his romantic relationship withFanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). Campion's screenplay was inspired by a 1997 biography of Keats byAndrew Motion, who served as a script consultant.

Bright Star was in the main competition at the2009 Cannes Film Festival, and was first shown to the public on 15 May 2009. The film's title is a reference to a sonnet by Keats titled "Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art", which he wrote while he was with Brawne.

In 1818Hampstead, the fashionable Fanny Brawne is introduced to poet John Keats through theDilke family. The Dilkes occupy one half of a double house, withCharles Brown occupying the other half. Brown is Keats' friend, housemate, and associate in writing.

Fanny's flirtatious personality contrasts with Keats' notably more aloof nature. She begins to pursue him after her siblings Samuel and Toots obtain his book of poetry, "Endymion". Her efforts to interact with the poet are fruitless until he witnesses her grief for the loss of his brother, Tom. Keats begins to open up to her advances while spending Christmas with the Brawne family. He begins giving her poetry lessons, and it becomes apparent that their attraction is mutual. Fanny is nevertheless troubled by his reluctance to pursue her, as to which her mother surmises, "Mr. Keats knows he cannot like you, he has no living and no income."

It is only after Fanny receives a valentine card from Brown that Keats passionately confronts them and asks if they are lovers. Brown sent the valentine in jest, but warns Keats that Fanny is a mere flirt playing a game. Fanny is hurt by Brown's accusations and Keats' lack of faith in her; she ends their lessons and leaves. The Dilkes move toWestminster in the spring, leaving the Brawne family their half of the house and six months rent. Fanny and Keats then resume their interaction and fall deeply in love. The relationship comes to an abrupt end when Brown departs with Keats for his summer holiday, where Keats may earn some money. Fanny is heartbroken, though she is comforted by Keats' love letters. When the men return in the autumn, Fanny's mother voices her concern that Fanny's attachment to the poet will hinder her from being courted by a more obviously eligible suitor. Fanny and Keats secretly become engaged.

Keats contractstuberculosis the following winter. He spends several weeks recovering until spring. His friends collect funds so that he may spend the following winter in Italy, where the climate is warmer. After Brown impregnates a maid and is unable to accompany him, Keats finds accommodation in London for the summer, and is later taken in by the Brawne family following an attack of his illness. When his book sells with moderate success, Fanny's mother gives him her blessing to marry Fanny once he returns from Italy. The night before he leaves, he and Fanny say their tearful goodbyes in privacy. Keats dies in Italy the following February of complications from his illness, as his brother Tom had done.

In the last moments of the film, Fanny cuts her hair in an act of mourning, dons black attire, and walks the snowy paths that Keats had walked many times. It is there that she recites the love sonnet that he had written for her, called "Bright Star", as she grieves the death of her lover.

• Ben Whishaw asJohn Keats.
  Keats was one of the key figures in the second generation of theRomantic movement despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death. During his lifetime his poems were not generally well received by critics, and at the age of 25 he died believing that he was a failure. However, his reputation grew and he had a significant posthumous influence on many later poets.
• Abbie Cornish asFanny Brawne.
  Like the real life Fanny Brawne, Fanny in the film is a fiery and fashionable eighteen-year-old who spends her time creating dresses, hats, and various other garments. She is also something of a flirt and enjoys attendingballs, inciting Keats' jealousy. Though the real life Fanny Brawne went on to marry and have children, she never sold Keats' love letters. They were sold after her death by her children.
• Paul Schneider asCharles Armitage Brown, Keats' best friend.
• Kerry Fox as Fanny's mother, a widow.
• Thomas Sangster as Samuel Brawne, Fanny's younger brother.
• Edie Martin as Toots, Fanny's younger sister.
• Antonia Campbell-Hughes as Abigail O'Donaghue Brown, housemaid and mother of Charles Brown's child.
• Claudie Blakley as Mrs Dilke
• Gerard Monaco asCharles Dilke
• Olly Alexander as Tom Keats, Keats' brother
• Samuel Roukin asJohn Hamilton Reynolds
• Amanda Hale as Reynolds' sister
• Jonathan Aris asLeigh Hunt
• Samuel Barnett asJoseph Severn

In addition to "Bright Star" several other poems are recited in the film, including "La Belle Dame sans Merci" and "Ode to a Nightingale". Both Campion and Whishaw completed extensive research in preparation for the film. Many of the lines in the script are taken directly from Keats' letters.^[4] Whishaw, as well, learned how to write with aquill and ink during filming. The letters that Fanny Brawne receives from Keats in the film were actually written by Whishaw in his own hand.

Janet Patterson, who has worked with Campion for over 20 years, served as both costume designer and production designer for the film.^[5]

The Hyde House and Estate inHyde, Bedfordshire, substituted for theKeats House inHampstead. Campion decided that the Keats House (also known as Wentworth Place) was too small and "a little bit fusty".^[6] Some filming also took place atElstree Studios.^[7]

ComposerMark Bradshaw can be seen in the film as the conductor while the male choir performs the trackHuman Orchestra, which Bradshaw arranged from the third movement of theserenade for twelve winds and string bass byWolfgang Amadeus Mozart.^[8]

The film garnered positive reviews from critics. Review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes reports that 83% out of 175 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 7.26/10. The website's critical consensus states, "Jane Campion's direction is as refined as her screenplay, and she gets the most out of her cast – especially Abbie Cornish – in this understated period drama."^[9] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[10]

Mary Colbert ofSBS awarded the film five stars out of five. "If Campion intended to inspire an appreciation and rediscovery of Keats' poetry," she writes, "she has not only succeeded but herself created an artistic monument to his life, love, poetry and soul." Craig Mathieson stated in the same review thatBright Star is Jane Campion's "best work sinceThe Piano, her epochal 1993 masterpiece."^[11]Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four.^[12]

Poet and scholarStanley Plumly, the author ofPosthumous Keats: A Personal Biography, wrote of the film's writing and direction: "Jane Campion has understood the richly figurative in Keats' life without sacrificing the literal wealth of its texture. She has evoked the mystery of his genius without giving up the reality of its dailiness."^[13] In 2019,The Guardian added the film in its 100 best films of the 21st century list.^[14] In 2019, the BBC polled 368 film experts from 84 countries to name the 100 greatest films directed by women;Bright Star was voted at No. 54.^[15]

Bright Star grossed $3,110,560 at the box office in Australia^[16] for a worldwide total of $14.4m.^[3]

Lakeshore Records released the soundtrack forBright Star digitally (iTunes andAmazon Digital) on 15 September 2009 and in stores on 13 October 2009. The film's soundtrack features original music byMark Bradshaw with dialogue from the film voiced by Cornish and Whishaw.^[36][37]

A collection of Keats's love letters and selected poems was published in 2009 as a companion to the motion picture, entitledBright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne. The 144-page book was published byPenguin and includes an introduction written by Campion.^[38]

• Official website
• Bright Star atIMDb
• Bright Star atRotten Tomatoes
• Bright Star atBox Office Mojo
• A chapter about John Keats, Fanny Brawne, and the poem "Bright Star" fromKeats, the 1997 biography byAndrew Motion that inspired the film.

• 2009 films
• 2009 independent films
• 2009 romantic drama films
• Films shot at Elstree Film Studios
• Pathé films
• BBC Film films
• Screen Australia films
• UK Film Council films
• Australian biographical drama films
• Films directed by Jane Campion
• Films set in London
• Films set in Rome
• Films shot in England
• British romantic drama films
• British biographical drama films
• Biographical films about poets
• Cultural depictions of poets
• Australian romantic drama films
• 2000s English-language films
• 2009 British films
• English-language biographical drama films
• English-language independent films
• English-language romantic drama films

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from October 2021
• Template film date with 2 release dates
• Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia
• Rotten Tomatoes ID same as Wikidata