Bright Star

I see from my list of things to do that I didn’t write a blog on the visuals of Bright Star. So here it is. The timing of the films showing here in Normal was impeccable as I was covering John Keats the following week and it made for a really good extra-credit opportunity for my students (had I known in advance it was going to be playing here, I would have made it required). However, I didn’t learn of it until I was skunking around on some British news sites looking for information on the horde of Anglo-Saxon treasure found recently.

Anyway, the film did not disappoint. I really don’t need much of a plot if the cinematography, costumes and such are up to snuff. While Jane Austen claims there is nothing so fine as a woman in white, Brawne was bright—no pale whites, dingy earth tones, and pastels for her. Try red (especially when she was walking through the mud). Even when she wasn’t wearing a bright color, she stood out. There was the iridescent blues of butterflies and cool blue of bluebells (a sea of flowers), pink of blossoms, and of course, the greenness that is so very English. Keats was suitably fragile looking—I was surprised to learn recently he wasn’t much bigger than I am physically, and I am a rather dainty person. Of course the architecture and furniture adds to the visuals (sorry, I read too many issues of Architectual Digest in my formative years).