Antipodean partnership

Director Jane Campion’s Bright Star is “almost certain to be among this year’s leading Oscar contenders” and, according to The Times’ Tom Charity, “one of Campion’s best films, on a par with The Piano, The Portrait of a Lady and An Angel at My Table.” The film’s star, Australian actress Abbie Cornish, who plays John Keats’ muse Fanny Brawne, says of Campion: “When we started rehearsals, [she] said to me, ‘Abbie, this script is my baby and I’m handing my baby over to you to hold for a little while.’ That’s how precious it was to her.” Fellow director Quentin Tarentino has said of Bright Star that “Never has heartache been so realistically and movingly portrayed…”