I recently rewatched it, and I was completely fascinated by the atmosphere inside. I watched it over and over again for more than a month. It's a very solid film, with clarity, precision, detail, simplicity and restraint in how love happens, all while being tender. This is a very quiet and intense film. Every moment in the film is alive, flowing and full of magic. Every time I look at it, I have a feeling of being illuminated by the truth, as well as being healed by tenderness.
The point of view of the film is very special, which is basically the same as the ingrained male point of view in the previous romantic film and television dramas, and the subjectivity is on the heroine's side. Finney's focus on Keats, an intense, focused, fine-tuned and persistent attention, dominates the film. Actor Abby somehow managed to live in this attention with every microexpression, every moment of her entire being. This attention is attractive because of its purity, and is based on pure sobriety. The Keats in Finney's eyes is 100% Keats, without any other projections. Purity is so hard that love myths often need to declare the purity of love, "I love you" "I don't care about the rest". But this kind of claim is quickly sewn into the obscenity of the audience (especially the female audience), imagining themselves as the claimed object; once the passive becomes the active, the gaze immediately becomes complicated, just like in "Pride and Prejudice" When Elizabeth looked at Darcy, what she saw at first was an arrogant symbol, and then she saw Darcy's manor, a symbol of a rich and handsome man.
Watching this film, I still have a feeling that the director wants to give Keats all the tenderness and kindness from all over the world. This man was born in a stable, his parents died early, and his relatives continue to die around him. A poet who suffers from poverty and illness. Finney in the film is a girl with a strong personality, but she will be soft to the point of being cautious when facing Keats, and she will hold her breath as she leans forward and sticks to her. Finney's brother and little sister are silent god assists. Finney's mother, though worried, is a considerate mother after all. And servants, relatives, friends, whoever appeared on the screen, all loved and cared for the hard-pressed poet (although we know Keats was viciously attacked by critics during his lifetime).
Campion once said that in her eyes, Keats was an angel, a diving being. One of the funny things about the film is how Campion uses the actor Ben Whishaw. Speaking of Ben Whishaw, many directors love to use this godlike actor and assign him a godlike role, and they can't help but treat his extremely thin body with heavy taste (there is one who does gender study). The 47-year-old female professor wrote a long article on visual analysis, the picture is high-energy and careful ( http://professorfangirl.tumblr.com/post/42957325953/on-ben-whishaws-body-a-visual-essay ). Campion, who has always had a strong taste (the psychological shadow of watching "Piano Lesson" as a child), is uncharacteristically in handling the role of Keats, she makes him lie lightly on a flower branch, or be caught by the Finney family. Lift it up gently... Ben Whishaw has played so many roles, Keats seems to be the only one who has been treated with kindness physically, like an angel.
I also found something funny when I checked the data, whether Keats, Ben Whishaw, or Campion all scoffed at the concept of romance. Keats, who was later named a representative poet of romanticism, actually despised the so-called love of Qingqingwumei. He did not expect that he would fall into love completely and left 36 letters to Finney to later generations. It was these letters that touched Campion and sparked her interest in Keats. Campion was deeply moved by Keats' philosophy of Negative Capability, and let it dictate the film's approach to a certain extent. Simply put, Negative Capability is allowing oneself to remain in mystery without appealing to reason. Fall in, don't rush ashore, no matter what's hidden underwater. It takes 100% courage and sincerity, and Keats is such a 100% person. Such a person is not an angel.
During the three months of "Bright Star", Campion used various methods to keep her actors in this Negative Capability. She said, all I have to do is to ensure that this actor is his character, live in the moment, as for how he handles his lines and body parts, it's none of my business. She always said to Ben Whishaw, don't push too hard. (Ben: "I think it's Jane's design that when you are not trying to achieve sth, that's when the most exciting things happen and arrive on you. This idea is being receptive rather than forcing sth to happen.") Ben recalls years later , the filming process is also a healing process for him. Campion is the director who has the greatest influence on him, and he has learned to relax since then.
Jane said that she just wanted a "gentle, tender, delicate" feeling, to be as concise as Bresson. The film "Bright Star" refreshed my view of her. I've always felt that "Piano Lesson" was overrated, the symbols and metaphors were too much for theorists to make a fuss about, and too dark. "Bright Star" removes these cleanly, and then makes people feel the gentle and capable of the female director in her fifties. Campion's film is not for analysis, but to open up all the senses to feel. There are all kinds of lively natural sounds in it, but it makes you feel very quiet in your heart. You can feel the flow of life and the intensity of emotions in the quietness, feel the mutual attraction and approach of two sensitive and sincere people, and feel the feeling of fullness. overflowing emotions.
PS I like the Christmas scene the most. The fire crackled and Keats sat cross-legged on the rug with a cat in his arms (listen carefully to hear the purr), and Finney came in with a plate. The two looked at each other, a little stunned and forgetful. Finney wiped his glass and said, "I was wondering this morning if you were sleeping in my bed?" Keats was still stunned. Finney "I believe you are." (The sound of "are" is a close-up shot of a cup being handled lightly. The editing is great!) The two of them said inexplicable words, and then the little sister, the bear child, held the bread silently broke in. Well, very quiet, very intense.
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