When I Have Fears . . .

When I have Fears that I may Cease to Be

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high piled books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love!—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

________

Bright Star: Official Trailer: Written and directed by Academy Award winner Jane Campion, Bright Star is a riveting 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. Ben Whishaw (The International, Im Not There) and Abbie Cornish (Stop-Loss, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) star as Keats and Brawne, respectively. The film is co-produced by Campion, Jan Chapman, and Caroline Hewitt.



________

My observations as posted a few days ago, reposted here for housekeeping:

10.10.09

When I walked out of the theatre, I felt other than before. Autumn cool, ground wet but not raining, and overcast, there was a certain lightness of mind, of decluttering, a scrubbing. Each step seemed a thing in and of itself, like the riding of a horse, a palpable sense of separation between the walking and the walker. Also the looking, as if through different eyes; occasioned of an equanimity tinged in fear, of something good, right, justified yet fleeting. Breath, too, the breath of morning in midday, a gentle rising and falling to match the gait.

How does one describe the indescribable. To be changed and to know of the changing, a realignment, a tectonic shifting of soul and mind and even body--a lightness such as the unshouldering of a heavy coat, where everything, every step, lifts again in peaceful joy, neither frown nor smile burdened. And above all, a calm, the kind after a long, hard cry, when resistance gives way, is released into the wind, carried somewhere, away.

I could write of the movie, the score, the acting, the cinematography. But everything I would say would pale the art as words always dilute their object. But I will say this, there are moments, devastating moments, when what is real and what is affected become confused, where one loses the sense of stage and in its place, a witnessing. Of what, I'm not sure. Yet, one knows upon the moment, of something other.

This movie is not like other movies. I can think of no higher praise.

______

Update: 10.14.09

Watched Bright Star again. On the first view, there were two facets flawed I thought: a bit slow at times and a bit blocky. As I sat before the second viewing, I anticipated an exaggeration such that the movie would seem interminably long and blocky and that I risked everything I had experienced on the first view, including the tears still not unfelt.

Two hours later, walking again into a gray afternoon, the feelings of before were as they were, only deeper. Where before there was the slowness, on second viewing, a sense that everything was moving too fast; and where before there was the gap between scenes, on second viewing I discovered a fading, a melting, an emotional thread weaved such to make one flower within a field blend to color the entire landscape whole. And the tears I feared would fall not upon the artifice of actor viewed not quite thrice, I found instead the well contained more water than the eye could bear.

And here is what is insane. I would gladly go again, tonight, to pay and to watch, again.

________

Update: 10.17.09

Viewed the movie a third time. Here are a few observations:

-Paul Schneider is simply superb
-Ben Whishaw's performance must be seen more than once to be appreciated. He does more with less than any actor in recent memory
-with sound and a sparse soundtrack, the movie has a texture, as if of time past and there is with this texture the sense of a different pace, movement, of the different time it was. The movie, as such, will frustrate many modern viewers
-the more you know of the history, and the poetry/letters, the more depth in the viewing; and admiration for Jane's script--this is fine historical filmmaking
-even with a third viewing, there were still tears
-even in the third viewing, the two hours slipped by too quickly
-even still, on pain of divorce, I'd pay to see the movie a fourth time