In theaters today is Jane Campion’s new film, Bright Star, an account of John Keats’ young love affair with his neighbor and muse, Fanny Brawne. The title of the movie is taken from Keats’ poem, “Bright Star”, which was written for Fanny.

Here is one of the articles on this film, which received praise at the Cannes Film Festival. Below is a snippet from that article regarding the power of recitation:

At other stages of casting, Ms. Campion required every actor, including children, to deliver at least one poem, “Bright Star” or “Ode to a Nightingale,” by memory. What the director expected to be a dull series of recitations turned out to be the most revealing aspect of the auditions. As they got into the rhythms of the poem, “the person and the personality disappeared and the poem became present,” she says.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Poetry in the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.