I've seen these two delightful films this week and am still buzzing. Catch them if you can.

If you like Keats and you like Jane Campion then you will absolutely adore "Bright Star" - the story of his brief romance with Fanny Brawne, the girl next door, played by Abbie Cornish. She is indeed the Bright Star of the title, knocking into oblivion the impression I was always given of her (by my English teacher, I hasten to add) as being wet and standing in the way of Keats' poetry.

Campion sees Fanny as a true artist in her own right, although necessarily for her class and for the time it lay in the direction of needlework and dress design. I'm not going to say any more except it will bring out your inner romantic and send you rushing off to re-read Keats' poetry, all the more poignant when you remember he died at 25. Don't go if you like action movies though.

I loved "An Education" based on Lynn Barber's memoir about her affair with a much older man when she was in the sixth form trying to get to Oxford. It's witty - with a script by Nick Hornby - stylish and best of all has a young girl as heroine who is blessed with intelligence and ambition. Such a change from the ditsy bimbos Hollywood keeps churning out. Carey Mulligan is brilliant in it - I remember seeing her a bit since in "Blink", that brilliant Dr Who episode about the moving statues. Also Dominic Cooper, Alfred Molina and Rosamund Pike, who is very much not a dumb blonde, having read English at Oxford herself, playing a dumb blonde brilliantly!

Don't wait for the DVD's.

Thanks, Jem. I'm going to see Bright Star this evening and An Education tomorrow.

Thanks Jem,

Going to see Bright Star on Monday

Oh you're both in for a real treat. Wish I could come with yous!

My mum's been going on about An Education for *weeks*, so we're off to see it tomorrow. I like Rosmund Pike, too (commissioned an interview with her for The Cherwell, years ago - one of the eds at the time described her as "the thinking man's crumpet"...!)

Er, I think you'll find that's Joan Bakewell.

She may have been the original, Jem - but considering she's old enough to be said ed's grandmother...!

Well, as long as he wasn't claiming that line for his own, that's all.

I shouldn't have thought so (though the ed in question was the ultimate young fogey). As far as I know, it's a catchphrase that's been used to describe quite a few 'lucky' ladies over the years (have just checked reliable old Wiki and see that Nigella's one of the latest to win the honour), though I think Pike may well be among the youngest...

I believe Joan Bakewell, to whom it was first applied, was extremely disparaging of it. Mind you, she would say that, wouldn't she? Personally, I 'd have been delighted.

I can't wait to see Bright Star. I bloody love Jane Campion.

While we're on the subject of films, can I also recommend The Class and Fish Tank. Best two films I've seen this year (sorry if these have been mentioned elsewhere).

Cath

I think they have. I loved both, but someone did a pants review of Fish Tank, which I didn't agree with. Saw The Class twice, I loved it so much.

Just back from seeing An Education. We really enjoyed it, and thought the script and acting were great - although it did feel quite predictable, and occasionally utterly implausible (ie., even in the 60s, would the parents of a 16 year-old girl have been cool with her dating a guy who appeared to be in his thirties? And would the headmistress of an academic girls' school really have come out with a line such as "It was the Jews who killed Our Lord"??).

I also felt that a few of the characters were slightly underdeveloped (Jenny's mother, for instance) and would have liked to have learnt a bit more about the dodgy property management that was going on between whisthisname and the so-called 'negroes' - there was potential for some deeper exploration of race/class/gender tensions there that felt a bit like a missed opportunity to me. Still, it captured the feel of the times very well, indeed, and the actress who played Jenny was great (as was Ros Pike doing her dumb blonde act...and the rather scrummy Dominic Cooper doing his rogueish schtick...). I'd give it 4/5.

That was Peter Rachman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rachman

Agree about the headmistress's line and also about the parents. But you're looking at it from an educated, 21st century viewpoint. My parents would have been charmed by this guy too, as Lynn Barber's were.

That was Peter Rachman.

Yes, I know - which is why I thought it would have been interesting to have devoted a little more time to that part of David's story, which was only obliquely referred to in one scene and then not developed further.

My parents would have been charmed by him, too, I'm sure! But surely most girls who were being married off at 16, 17, were marrying chaps just a few years older - not twice their age?

(They also got the Oxford acceptance wrong - Jenny wouldn't have applied to the English department, she'd have applied to a college. But that's just a minor quibble!)