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Dir: Jane Campion/UK/2009/119 minutes/Cert: PG Starring: Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox Language: English

The romantic poet John Keats' love for Fanny Brawne inspired some of the most beautiful love letters ever written, and coincided with a remarkable period of creativity. While living next door to her in Hampstead between 1819 and 1820, he produced several of his most notable poems.
 
When the impecunious writer first met Fanny, an outspoken devotee of fashion, he described her as a minx; she in turn thought poems 'a strain to work out'. But an intense love affair flourished between the two, curtailed by Keats' death at the age of 25.
 
Director Jane Campion tells this tragic and tender story through the eyes of Fanny, superbly played with a combination of strength and fragility by Abbie Cornish. Paired with Ben Whishaw, equally impressive as the sensualist Keats, they bring chemistry and a modernity to a passion which, although expressed with restraint, is palpable. Campion's film is antithesis to any notion of musty costume drama, and her use of Keats' poetry and her referencing of his appreciation of nature is as sensitive as it is inspired.
 
The changing seasons, gorgeously photographed by Greig Fraser, are integral to the story, and as the lovers' relationship deepens, the film's visual style echoes their changing emotions. Campion, who brings intelligence and a distinctive perspective to all her films, is quite simply one of the world's finest filmmakers. And with Bright Star she has given us a film to cherish. - Sandra Hebron, The Times BFI London Film Festival, 2009

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