I have to say I really liked this movie but there was one thing that bothered me...the kissing scenes. Did anyone else notice that every time he went to kiss her she would not kiss back? She would not move her lips. It drove me crazy. The movie was beautiful don't get me wrong, I just thought it lacked passion physically. If you did not notice it the first time, watch it again, you will see.
shareFanny was a young 18 year old, (impoverished) upper class woman living in the Regency period of England. The significance of the first time Keats kisses her is that she had never been kissed by a man before. She returns his kisses like the sexually shy virgin she actually was.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
Ok so I agree with everything you're saying but I need you to explain how you can be impoverished and upper class at the same time! lol
I think she's the saddest girl ever to hold a martini.
The class system in Olde England was not linked to money. Think of most of Jane Austen's female characters, particularly the Dashwood sisters in "Sense and Sensibility." The younger sons did not inherit money but they retained their social status. Likewise the women offspring who didn't inherit and depended upon marrying someone with the means to provide a living.
Fanny is invited to the military balls and other social occasions of her community because she her social status is considered refined, despite the fact that the family was living on very little means. Keats on the other hand, inherited money from his father and his mother (which was withheld from him by the trustee of their estate who was as close to a real life villian as real life provides) but even if he had access to that money would have never been seen as anything but working class because of parents.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul."
I just thought the same thing that aGuiltySoul said. That being said, I also thought they could have taken a liberty there; they did with Keats's beard, at least.
shareMy God, watch the scene when she's kissing the letter she wrote to him when they were first separated. He had asked her to write him back, using the softest words and "kiss them so that I may at least touch my lips to where yours have been." If that's not sensual, and therefore, passionate, I don't know what is!!
shareI thought the entire movie was sensual, I agree. I am ONLY talking about the kissing. It lacked passion. Watching them kiss made me think tha he repulsed her sexually. I thought the movie was beautiful! I loved the characters and their relationship. I seriously just had a problem with the lack of involvement she portrayed in the kissing scenes.
shareI don't know what you saw or think you saw. I thought all the scenes were sensual and well done...kissing or hand holding...all of it.
I think she's the saddest girl ever to hold a martini.
I think Fanny was trying to show a bit of restraint in the beginning and be a proper lady, but after he got to know Keats a little better she let down her guard. I think Abbie Cornish did a great job of showing initial trepidation and then intense love without taking either emotion to too much of an extreme.
Decorate yourself from the inside out. -Andrei Turnhollow
I don't know...personally I saw it as an important aspect of the characterization-both Keats and Fanny were very interactive with beauty, this is a theme of the movie. I see their kissing as a kind of beautifully delicate exploration of each other's mouths-in that specific way- which is so in tune with their personalities.
ALSO it fits in well with Keats' metaphor for reading poetry; you don't rush it, you jump in and stay a while. These kisses were a prelude...
Every time you vote Republican God kills a kitten
Yeah, I was waiting for him to tell her that he is gay. lol
shareI think people are brainwashed by hollywood movies that the first kiss must be the most magical, sensual thing ever onscreen. Not the least bit awkward. lol.
"I'm f'ing busy-or vice versa" -Dorothy Parker
And remember that Fanny had probably witnessed very few kisses between adults. They had no TV or movies or internet and her experience of romantic kisses could only have come from poetry or novels, and these would have been very chaste descriptions.
We have sexuality rammed down our throats these days and nothing is left to the imagination.
Interesting, the first comment made on the kissing bit. I felt it was one of the most loveliest moments in the movie, that initial kiss. Tender not chaste, butterfly-esque, certainly not boring in the least. Electric, that reserve, not wanting. How have things changed for us to the degree that what we have seen in this film is not sensually charged with wonder? This time was 1820 or therabouts? Less than 200 years later and everything is exponentially different. Maybe one of the saddest things is life without love notes. Handwritten notes. Recall those lovely notes, and hold onto the ones you have because you won't see the likes of them again. Arcade Fire sings "we used to wait" (for communication) "...I used to sign my name." That's all gone. Remember.
shareI thought it was tender, and beautifully romantic.
"I've been turned down more times than the beds at the Holiday Inn; I still try"
I guess we were supposed to get long kissing with tongue and foreplay, instead of innocent romantic love.
Geez, why can't Fanny take her top off yet? :)
Yikes. I feel like reading more poetry so I can get away from the idea of Fanny's tongue all over Keats' face.
Everything's been said really well-I don't know what I can add!
Just that Fanny and Keat's first kiss is exquisite. I wish I didn't live in a world where sexuality is "rammed down our throats" as someone eloquently put it. I wish I had no idea what kissing should be like...then I could look forward to it properly.
I just yearn for the lost innocence of mankind, I truly do.
"A film is-or should be-more like music than like fiction..." Stanley Kubrick
The time period is a factor as well. People didn't try to swallow each other's heads back then.
It was innocent, young love for them. Having them administer tongue baths on each other would have been absurd.
Well said!!!
shareYeah, I noticed that too. There was no passion in kissing, but the movie was pathetic so I thought it fits well.
I thought it was tender, and beautifully romantic.
I wasn't expecting huge, passionate kisses but she could have at least moved her lips a little bit so that it looked like she was kissing him back!
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