his study guide to accompany tBright Star (2009), a feature film written and directed by Jane Campion, is recommended for secondary students from the middle to senior years. It provides information and suggestions for learning activities in English, Literature and Media.
This FILM curriculum for Bright Star is structured for use in conjunction with reading one or more of Keats’ poems and a selection of his letters to Fanny Brawne, his friends and family, and viewing the movie. The guide offers discussion topics, activities and service-project ideas for youth ages 12 and up. Exploring poetry as well as learning more about the early 19th century are key themes in this guide.
Poverty, talent and early death – Keats's story, with a doomed love affair at its heart, represents an ideal of passion and tragic loss. His biographer Andrew Motion is impressed by Jane Campion's attempt in the film Bright Star to bring the poet's life to the big screen.
State Library NSW Resources for Advanced English Modules A, B and C
The drama based on the three-year romance between 19th century poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, which was cut short by Keats' untimely death at age 25.
Actor Ben Whishaw discusses how he prepared for the role of John Keats in Jane Campion's new film Bright Star, and how the famous poet's words have affected his life both on and off the screen.
Over a black screen, birds chirp in the near distance. The dulcet chords of a cello begin to sound, embellished by a woman’s voice moving joyfully through a sequence of notes before harmonizing with another voice. A piece of thread slips through the eye of a needle and the words “Bright Star” appear as if written carefully by hand. The needle plunges upward in surprising close-up, pushing its way through the weave of fabric, before being thrust again downward.
A portrait of love and loss, Jane Campion's film Bright Star chronicles the tragic love affair between John Keats and his neighbor, Fanny Brawne, throughout the years in which Keats wrote several of the most celebrated poems of the Romantic period.
