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Clip description
Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) and her mother (Kerry Fox) visit Mr and Mrs Dilke (Gerard Monaco, Claudie Blakley). Fanny is frosty toward Charles Brown (Paul Schneider), a poet who rents one half of the Dilke house. Fanny brings a cup of tea to John Keats (Ben Whishaw), a poet sharing Mr Brown’s lodgings.
Curator’s notes
This early sequence is the first time Fanny and Keats are seen together. The verbal sparring between Fanny and Brown sparkles with wit and shows Fanny to be a young woman of substance who is not afraid to speak her mind. She has no time for the flippant Mr Brown or his poetry.
Fanny’s exchange with Keats is a very different matter. She is intrigued by his conversation and the raising of her hand to her hair – hair was often used as a metaphor for sexual attraction by metaphysical poets of the 17th century – is a portent of the passion that will blossom.
