Sickly Poet + Chubby Seamstress
Here's an expanded, more particular rewrite of my brief Cannes reaction to Jane Campion's Bright Star (Apparition, 9.18). I'm running this as an accompaniment to the re-tooled trailer (i.e., the original narrator having been dumped) that recently posted.
Bright Star is about the subdued and conflicted passions that defined the brief love affair between poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and seamstress Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) from 1818 until Keats' death, at age 25 from tuberculosis, in 1821.
By Campion's particular scheme it's been done quite perfectly. I was especially taken with Greig Fraser's Vermeer-lit photography, which reminded me of John Alcott 's lensing of Barry Lyndon. It's part of the film's immaculate fealty for the textures and tones of early 19th Century London, and a devotion to capturing the kind of love that is achingly conveyed in hand-written notes that are hand delivered by proper young fellows in waistcoats. You know what I mean.
But it struck me nonetheless as too slow and restricted and damnably refined. I looked at my watch three times and decided around the two-thirds mark that it should have run 100 rather than 120 minutes. I know -- a typical guy reaction, right? The pacing is just right for the time period -- it would have felt appalling on some level if it had been shot and cut with haste for haste's sake -- but there's no getting around the feeling that it's a too-long sit.
This, I feel, is primarily because there's no discernible heat in the Keats/Brawne relationship. Their love affair is extremely earnest and soulful as far as it goes, but it seems way too too repressed. Yes, I know -- this is how love affairs more or less were in the early 19th Century. Notions of propriety and appearances were always paramount. But there's no shaking the feeling that neither Keats nor Brawne seem to know the first thing about carnal splendor. Not even in their imaginings, I mean.
There's a passage in Keat's Wikipedia bio claiming that the posthumous publication of love letters between Keats and Brawne "scandalize[d] Victorian society." There's also a reference to Brawne's "rather promiscuous reputation." There is nothing in Bright Star that even alludes to this alleged reputation, and there's certainly nothing in the depicted ardor between Keats and Brawne that is remotely hothouse. It's all hat, no cattle.
Whatever the truth of the nature of their real-life relationship, Campion chose to keep it all chaste and contained.
As Keats' friend and financial supporter Charles Armitage Brown, Paul Schneider quickly becomes infuriating. Brown is straight but he resents Fanny/Cornish with the emotional frenzy of a gay man fighting for the attentions of a sometime male lover, and he boorishly gets in her face each and every time she tries to speak to Keats. He's an obnoxious dog. After a half hour I wanted him killed.
I also began to dream about someone besides Cornish playing Brawne. She's a skilled actress who gives herself over to the life and mind of this 19th Century seamstress, but bit by bit and scene by scene I began to resent her somewhat chubby balloon face, and how her hair pulled tightly into that prudish bun only accentuates this. Cornish began to almost seem too big for Whishaw. Her head certainly seemed a bit heavier and thicker than his, and I began to wonder if she physically outweighed him. I began to imagine wrestling matches between the two, and the look of triumph on Cornish's face as she pins this little candy-ass to the floor.
Bright Star is basically a Masterpiece Theatre thing that my mother will love. I'm not putting it down on its own terms. I mostly felt admiration for Campion's careful arranging of the elements. But I finally found it a bit cold and remote, and a bit too long for what it delivers.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on August 27, 2009 at 5:36 AM
comment #1
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
Yeah, she's a real porker: http://static.thehollywoodgossip.com/images/gallery/abbie-cornish-ryan-phillippe.jpg
Seriously though, no wonder so many hot Hollywood starlets go on crash diets if Cornish is considered "chubby". They all look crap after losing the weight, like shrivelled prunes. She looks perfectly nice.
Whishaw, meanwhile, is one of the skinnier men you'll ever see, so of course she's going to look bigger than him. He makes Skeletor look like John Candy.
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at August 27, 2009 7:10 AM
comment #2
Brendan
says ...
Another one for Joanne Popcorn to love.
Wells, where do chick flicks and Brit Masterpiece Theaters fall into your Joe Popcorn/Sixpack and Eloi paradigm? Obliviously Joe Pop has a different appetite for Jen Aniston/Sandra Sandra Bullock then his female counterpart. Is there a difference in your breakdown of the masses?
Posted by Brendan
at August 27, 2009 7:11 AM
comment #3
byanyother
says ...
"I also began to dream about someone besides Cornish playing Brawne. She's a skilled actress who gives herself over to the life and mind of this 19th Century seamstress, but bit by bit and scene by scene I began to resent her somewhat chubby balloon face."
Seriously. Seriously? Good thing you're not the one in charge of making casting decisions, although I suppose you would have made a great sexist studio mogul back in the '40s.
Posted by byanyother
at August 27, 2009 7:43 AM
comment #4
Steven Kar
says ...
Her size isn't the problem. It's his size that's the problem.
Thank God she's "chubby." She looks like a real woman. A healthy woman.
I'll go for that look any day of the week over the emaciated heroine-chic anorexic binge and purge look.
Posted by Steven Kar
at August 27, 2009 7:44 AM
comment #5
Jeffrey Wells
says ...
I merely observed that Cornish seems more physically substantial than the frail, pale-faced Ben Whishaw. Her basic bones and general body mass seem more sustantial. She appears to be physically stronger than he. She probably could take him in a wrestling match.
There's obviously a significant difference between "somewhat chubby balloon face" and "porker." But what's the point? No matter what I say certain HE commenters are going to ignore the terms I've chosen to use and reduce the dialogue to the most primitive terms imaginable and address the substance of what I've written along the lines of a construction worker working under-the-table in western Massachusetts. There's no winning.
JFK: "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." HE commenter: "What kind of submissive socialist shit is this? He's gonna tell me about priorities with all the dicking around he's done, and all his family money? I'm not supposed to watch out for myself? I need to offer up my mind, my strength and my imagination to my country while my mortgage and ability to feed my family hangs by a thread? Fuck that. "
One way or another, certain HE commenters (not most but some) will drag you into the rhetorical & linguistic mudpit and/or hit back with some sort of conservative, I stand-alone attitude.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells
at August 27, 2009 7:54 AM
comment #6
Sabina E
says ...
Abbie Cornish looks way better than the majority of models and "actresses" in Hollywood. Megan Fox is beautiful, but she needs to eat a burger.
Anyway, don't get y'all knickers in a twist. Remember, Wells is the same guy who wrote that Taylor Lautner (the teen heartthrob from Twilight) needs a nose-job, when he looks perfectly fine and he has millions of screaming, drooling fangirls who would gladly throw their panties at him.
Posted by Sabina E
at August 27, 2009 7:56 AM
comment #7
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
One way or another, HE commenters will drag you into the rhetorical & linguistic mudpit and/or hit back with some sort of conservative, I stand-alone attitude.
What now?
The headline describes her as "chubby seamstress". It's clear what you meant. Either way, it's a bizarre thing to fixate on.
Whatever. I'll go see the film at a $6 morning show. It looks good and ThePlaylist have been hyping it.
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at August 27, 2009 7:57 AM
comment #8
Chase Kahn
says ...
I had very similar thoughts to yours, Jeff -- although slightly more appreciative.
The film is so well-polished aesthetically that I became swept up in it from time to time -- in this respect, it's a much better film than "The Duchess" and that ilk of comfort-food period drama about whoring out children for fame and fortune.
But by the end, it's hard to feel anything for the tragic romance between Whishaw and Cornish, despite both actors actually doing a nice job. It's just too distant, too slight.
Paul Schneider has the best performance in the movie, and I loved that scene as he's staring out the window at Fanny in the snow, contemplating what John ever saw in her and reevaluating his own opinion of her.
I'd recommend it though for its beauty and lived-in 19th century London aura, though.
Posted by Chase Kahn
at August 27, 2009 7:59 AM
comment #9
storymark
says ...
Come on, Jeff, you can't say you resent someone for their weight... and then play the "who, me? I just merely observed she's bigger than him" innocent game.
It's not like we're not well aware of your issues with weight on actors. no point hiding it now.
Posted by storymark
at August 27, 2009 8:35 AM
comment #10
anonymous2
says ...
There's still $6 morning shows? I went to see Baader Meinhof at 11am and they charged the full $12.50.
Anyway I have a hard time getting into period pieces these days. I'm sad to say the only one I find myself anticipating is Your Highness with the rest of the hoi polloi Eloi.
Posted by anonymous2
at August 27, 2009 8:45 AM
comment #11
BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
says ...
anonymous2: Yeah, AMC do a $6 deal before noon on weekends. I don't think any other chains do it.
Posted by BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey
at August 27, 2009 8:48 AM
comment #12
Steven Kar
says ...
And on holidays. I watched Hurt Locker for $6, 10 in the morning., but only at AMC in NYC. I don't know if the other cinema chains in NY do this as well.
Posted by Steven Kar
at August 27, 2009 8:50 AM
comment #13
byanyother
says ...
Exactly, storymark. "Chubby" is a word that means "fat" and that word to describe Abbie Cornish is ludicrous.
Posted by byanyother
at August 27, 2009 8:54 AM
comment #14
BurmaShave
says ...
Wellls if you were a high school girl writing the things you do about weight your parents would put you on Dr. Phil.
Posted by BurmaShave
at August 27, 2009 8:56 AM
comment #15
BurmaShave
says ...
And I hope she remembers this around Oscar time when you ask her for an interview.
Posted by BurmaShave
at August 27, 2009 8:56 AM
comment #16
Sabina E
says ...
movies are free on Wednesday mornings (10AM) at my local cinema, but sadly, I have work.
Posted by Sabina E
at August 27, 2009 9:10 AM
comment #17
Chase Kahn
says ...
Here in DFW, Cinemark runs early bird reduced price showings 7 days a week for $5. If 1:30 pm is the first showing of the day for that movie...5 bucks.
Posted by Chase Kahn
at August 27, 2009 9:54 AM
comment #18
Josh Tate
says ...
Well, Keats was only 5'2" so it's likely that the historical Fanny Brawne was at least as big, if not bigger than he was. I'm still bummed that the most interesting parts of Keats' life (his time as a surgeon, his letters and odes, his relationship with his mother, his ultimate death in Rome) have presumably been given short shrift in Bright Star.
Posted by Josh Tate
at August 27, 2009 10:28 AM
comment #19
bildeaux
says ...
Wells, thanks for pointing out The Playlist. Now I have 2 movie blogs to read every day.
b.
Posted by bildeaux
at August 27, 2009 11:55 AM
comment #20
baboo
says ...
Cornish gained weight to play the role, so her figure would be appropriate to the time period. Meanwhile, Keats is sickly most of the time so of course he is going to be more waifish. As for the hairstyle, it is era appropriate.
Posted by baboo
at August 27, 2009 3:36 PM
comment #21
NotImpressed1Yet
says ...
Wells, your actual post is more reasonable than some of the commenters give you credit for, but your title has the words "Chubby Seamstress" for chrissakes! You definitely get some of the blame here!
Posted by NotImpressed1Yet
at August 27, 2009 6:00 PM
comment #22
kamichojin
says ...
In Philadelphia, The arthouse Ritz Theatres (bought out by Landmark in 07-with no downturn in film quality thankfully) charge $6 for all weekday screenings until 4pm and $6 all day on Wednesdays. This Wednesday after work I'm catching Thirst or Big Fan (& maybe Ponyo if time permits).
Posted by kamichojin
at August 28, 2009 10:54 AM
comment #23
Noiresque
says ...
Abbie Cornish may have full cheeks, but so does Renee Zellweger, and she is no more cubby than her.
Posted by Noiresque
at August 29, 2009 6:21 PM
comment #24
free online games
says ...
Cool blogpost!!!
Posted by free online games
at March 18, 2010 10:25 AM
comment #25
dd
says ...
Anyway I have a hard time getting into period pieces these days. I'm sad to say the only one I find myself anticipating is Your Highness with the rest of the hoi polloi Eloi.
Designer Handbags
Posted by dd
at May 11, 2010 6:20 PM
comment #26
Cheap Sunglasses 2011
says ...
Life is a flower of which love is the honey.
Posted by Cheap Sunglasses 2011
at May 14, 2011 1:59 AM
comment #27
Natali Watson
says ...
Hello friends,this is a nice site and I wanted to post a note to let you know, good job! Thanks
Best regards, Natali, CEO of listen to free music
mp3 free download
Posted by Natali Watson
at June 24, 2011 4:30 AM