A love story without sex? 'Bright Star' does the impossible

Oscar winning writer-director Jane Campion certainly had her work cut out for her with Bright Star.

Not only is the main character long since dead Romantic poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) but his passionate romance with witty fashionista Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) is largely played out on paper and not, as is so often the case, in the bedroom. Try selling that to a "Girls Gone Wild"-reared society.

It's not just any director who could write a movie around the intense, though largely chaste, love affair between a poet and his muse and make it feel decidedly of-the-times, but after speaking with the disarmingly direct and funny woman, it’s clear she’s an original.

“We called the [poets] 'Romantic' later because they died early…and had lots of girlfriends,” she opined, letting out a loud laugh, while talking to Cineplex during the Toronto International Film Festival.

“I was surprised when I read [Keats’] biography. I guess I had accepted the clichés. You know Romantic poets, they’re very romantic. But what’s fabulous about poets is that they tell the truth, they find a way to be independent from the conventions of the time and say, ‘No, my job on this earth is to be authentic’. They keep us honest.”

And Campion herself stays true to the sexual mores of the early 19th century, as outdated and unpopular as they may be, though she doesn’t find the on-screen relationship lacking in affection.

“They were quite physically intimate, I thought. They kissed a lot. I mean, I think kisses are beautiful,” she said. “And I think that when it comes to love, it’s really the quality of the connection and the depth of it that really makes a difference, not the amount of sex you have, although, you know, it doesn’t hurt,” she laughed.

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Cornish, who delights as the acid-tongued girl-next-door, revealed that the lack of bedroom antics between Brawne and Keats didn’t really cross her mind, save for one scene, because it’s not what their story was about.

“[At one point] she offers herself to him. She says, ‘I’ll do whatever you want,” and he says, ‘No, I have a conscience, no I don’t want to do that right now’. He kind of says that’s not what we’re about, that’s not what this night is about,” she said.

“That’s the only time I had to consider the sexual relationship between them because everything else was so much about love and purity and them being connected on a much higher level.”

Though the two lovebirds didn’t consummate their relationship, Bright Star still feels thoroughly contemporary thanks to Fanny, an outspoken, whip-smart 18-year-old who deftly keeps up with Keats and his best mate Charles Brown (Paul Schneider).

And though she had initial concerns with casting an Aussie actress as the British Brawne, Campion admits that Cornish's nationality may have been an unlikely blessing.

“I think the thing Australia does well with women is makes rebels. You know, it’s kind of the way you bring girls up there. They like renegades. It’s supported," she said while revealing that she was inspired by her own 13-year-old daughter when writing the part of Fanny. "My observation is that American women are a lot more polite [than Australian girls]. They know to behave, shut up, be respectful. We don’t learn that in Australia.”

Though a period piece by definition, Bright Star feels more modern than floor-grazing gowns, petticoats and poetry readings would have you believe and explores the relatable, woozy euphoria and crushing heartbreak that is first love.

“They’re doing the thing that any good therapist would tell them not to do, which is get lost in each other and become entwined,” Campion said with a laugh. “They’re innocent about it. That’s what you do when you meet someone. You’re dying to throw yourself away and match hearts.”

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Bright Star opens in select Cineplex Theatres September 25.