I recently saw several trailers for the movie Bright Star, based on the romance between John Keats -- the poet -- and Fanny Brawne. I instantly decided I must see the movie! I absolutely adored it. It made me smile, and laugh, and cry tears of happiness and sadness all mingled in together. It is a story of love, and even jealousy (but not in the normal sense of jealousy you would expect), as well as sorrow.

During his life, Keats poems were not very well received, but, as with most artists, they became very well known after his death at the young age of 25. He is now known as one of the most brilliant poets of the Romantic Period.

I loved the colors used in this movie. Both the opening and closing scenes were done with a blue coloring that really spoke to the whole feeling of the movie.

Fanny seemed to have a very forward personality for women in that time in history, and Keats enjoyed a sense of humor. One of my favorite clips of the movie is when they are at a Ball and Fanny (who is a fashionista and avid seamstress) is saying that no one else has such as neckline as she has created but Keats tells her he just saw someone behind her with the same one. She quickly turns to find her own reflection in the mirror and smiles as she catches his humor.

Much of the movies scenery is centered around nature: butterflies, blossoms, and the like. Even a small gift of a branch in bloom becomes an excuse for Fanny to speak to Keats as she gives it as a gift.

The lighting used to show how they feel when they are thinking of each other is superb. Scenes prior to this one are drab and rainy feeling while Fanny awaits a letter from Keats. The scenes become bright and airy once the letter arrives, especially as Keats describes the view he has from his window.

As a military wife, who has tucked numerous lockets of hair into my husbands pouches as he has deployed, the following scene really caught my emotions deeply and may very well be one of my most favorite scenes in the movie for that reason alone. Keats friends have paid his way to go to Rome so that he may try and regain his health. You almost feel as he places the hair in the pouch and says they must say their good-byes that he knows he will not see Fanny again. I cried.

The movie closes with Fanny walking in the woods, after Keats death,  reciting the poem from which the title of the movie comes, Bright Star.

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

~ John Keats

In case you are interested, the Keats House in Hampstead, London, where Keats met Fanny Brawne has been restored and is now open as a museum and for tours: http://www.keatshouse.cityoflondon.gov.uk/ If I ever make it to London, it will most definitely be on my list of places to see!

Have you seen any good movies lately? Feel free to share in the comments...

In Christ,

Sallie