An extreme close up image of a needle filled the left third of the screen. The words “Bright Star” slowly and delicately weave their way onto the screen as violins swell and a white thread slips through the eye of the needle. The following images show several varying angles of a piece of simple white cloth being pierced and stitched by the needle, progressively moving farther away until we see a young woman. She sits at the left third of the screen, filling the space that was previously taken up by her needle. In the upper center section of the screen sits a window spilling available light onto the young woman and allowing her to perform her detailed work. Through the window we can see a tree with no leaves blowing in the wind.
The opening images of Bright Star (2009) are interesting, because they show that the film will not be told through the eyes of John Keats as one might expect, but through the eyes of his lover Fanny Brawne. It is her passion for sewing and designing that these first images capture. In showing the audience her art before we see the art of John Keats' poetry the audience is endeared to her character, who is much less well known historically.
In later scenes between Brawne and Keats the focal length is adjusted in such a way that Brawne and Keats are always in focus while all that surrounds them is blurred. This creates the feeling that they are the two most important objects in the world as the film as everything else slips away.
Between the opening shots and the focus on Keats and Brawne Greig Fraser (the cinematographer) was able to create a world in which the audience not only finds themselves aligned with Fanny Brawne, but falling in love with the gentle John Keats as she does, seeing him through her eyes.
