Keats casts spell on Cannes star

Whishaw, who was plucked from obscurity to play Hamlet for Trevor Nunn and has since appeared in the Brideshead Revisited remake, said portraying the flamboyant Romantic in Bright Star had transformed his views of the poet's work.

"I really didn't know very much about him before actually. I think I had a prejudiced view of the Romantic poets generally," Whishaw said, hours before the film premieres in competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

"I didn't think it was really my cup of tea. I thought I liked modern stuff — short lines and blunt. But I've grown to love the luxury of his writing and the sensuality of it."

The film, directed by New Zealander Jane Campion, uses some of Keats's most famous poems to tell the story of his love for Fanny Brawne who lived next door to him in Hampstead.

Whishaw, 28, said: "When you investigate a person that deeply you fall in love with them a bit. Reading about his life, reading his letters, learning about the love affair, he became irresistible and inspirational."

Campion, the only woman to have won the Palme d'Or — for The Piano in 1993 — came to the story of the poet's doomed love for his girl next door by reading a biography of Keats written by former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.

She hopes Bright Star will inspire filmgoers to read works by the poet, who died of tuberculosis in Italy in 1821 aged 25. "We would love to bring people back to the poetry because it's such a beautiful way to plant a garden in your own soul and mind," she said.