Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter was written by Noel Coward and directed by David Lean.

The snobbish Coward was gay and Lean had married multiple times during his life. Here was a film made by contrasting personalities.

The movie is all about middle class restraint. It might be to do with the film censorship of the time or not to offend its audience. After all this is a romantic drama about nice people and middle class mores.

Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) meets Dr Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) in a cafe at a railway station. She has some grit in her eye and he removes it with his handkerchief.

They then sit and chat to each other. Both are seemingly happily married and have children. When Laura gets up to catch her train, Alec impulsively asks to meet again.

They do meet, have lunch, go to a cinema, walks in the country.

Told in flashback by Laura, her desire and longing for Alec only gets more intense. Enough for them to take risks. A discreet visit to an apartment owned by Alec's friend.

Brief Encounter is a simple movie that is rooted to its time. Lean disguises the simplicity. Laura's and Alec's increasing serious relationship is in contrast with the more comic tone of the station master Albert and the cafe manageress Myrtle. The latter are more working class and flirt rather openly. Laura and Alec try to keep everything discreet.

This is a genteel romantic drama. People talked in clipped tones. It hides a lot of passion underneath and this is highlighted in Laura's narration. There is desperation when their final goodbye is interrupted.

Brief Encounter would not work today. There have been attempts to do something similar. Falling in Love starring Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep had similar themes.

It is not the right word. but it defines a precious last impression about this little gem who seems perfect. for music, details. and, sure, for a great couple. the love story between Laura Jesson and Alec Harvey is so ordinary that it becomes special. for suggestion. and for the impecable performances. for atmosphere. and for the feelings of viewer about an imposible love affair. for delicacy and sensitivity and humor. and for the meet between David Lean and Noel Coward. sure, it is a familiar story between ordinary people. but the genius of this film is represented by chemistry between Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard and for the art to give a perfect story, mixing nostalgia, a meeting in station the portrait of Myrtle Bagot by Joyce Carey and the sensation to be a story about yourself. so, a magnificent gem trminding a sort of romanticism who, today, remains a so useful refuge.

I found this David Lean version of BRIEF ENCOUNTER to be a simply enchanting and entrancing film. Part of the enjoyment was the style of writing and acting that is purposely theatrical in order for the 1940s British subject matter to be handled in the fairly explicit way that it was. For those who 'don't get it' or find it boring well what can those who do 'get it' say? How sad perhaps that something so lovely and so humane and so complex in its dialogue and beautifully formal in its British tone cannot be enjoyed by a few who demand ..DEMAND.. it suit them in 2009. Hilarious! Maybe the multiplex mind thought BRIEF ENCOUNTER was about colliding underpants, which just might be right for them. CLASH OF THE TIGHT'UNS anyone? Maybe a remake with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore called HERE/NOW might be the right update. This gloriously stuffy and furtive Noel Coward play is transformed in this film to be the black and white smoky British damp equivalent of HUMORESQUE or NOW VOYAGER.. and if you love those films (so easy!) you will love this.

Filmmakers always yearn to make A Simple Love Story, and this was extravagantly praised in its day for being such a film (and itself pats itself on the back for it's understated, thoroughly British 'realism' when the guilty pair have a good laugh at the local pictures at a nonsensical piece of Hollywood hokum called 'Flames of Passion').

The accents sadly make it almost impossible for today's audiences to take seriously British films of the forties, but 'Brief Encounter' remains largely immune to the knee jerk ridicule most of its contemporaries are subject to; and people remain too polite to admit really it's 'just' a beautifully crafted weepie (with superb, sometimes stylised photography by Robert Krasker) which despite its much-vaunted lack of Hollywood schmaltz shamelessly tugs at the heartstrings with its crashing Rachmaninov score (which stays with you long after the film is over) and thoroughly enjoyable as such. (No 'just' about it!)

It functions equally well on whatever other level the viewer wishes it to. Knowing that Noel Coward played the male lead in the original 1936 West End production of his own play adds an obvious gay subtext to its tale of forbidden love; while despite being set before the war (the copyright date on 'Flames of Passion' is 1938) looks thoroughly wartime (especially Celia Johnson's chic, pre-New Look suit) and must have struck a chord with lonely wartime wives tempted to stray while their husbands were away on active service.

Now comes the moment where I must declare my own interest. I find Celia Johnson quite breathtakingly lovely and heartbreakingly moving at the core of the film, she looks terrific in that suit, and I could spend all day just looking into those big, sad, imploring eyes of hers...

The person who wrote the first review of this movie must be either a complete moron or has an acute lack of appreciation for what constitutes great moviemaking.

"Brief Encounter" is the perfect encapsulation of a very specific time in both women's and British history. The immediate post-WW 2 era in the UK was a period that saw Brits struggling with the disppearance of traditional social mores that had endured for over a century and the new world order that came about at the conclusion of the war. (For another, beautifully crafted cinematic example, see Neil Jordan's exquisite movie "The End of the Affair.")

Food rationing was still in place in postwar Britain. Women were having to deal with getting to know their menfolk again, after their years of absence at war. Like their American "Rosie the Riveter" counterparts, British women had enjoyed newfound and unfamiliar independence during wartime, working for the war effort. And, like their US "sisters", they were expected to relinquish those jobs to returning men.

"Brief Encounter" is, in many ways, a metaphor for the struggle that men and women were going through, stuck with having to conform to social expectations while bursting to escape to the greater independence glimpsed fleetingly and pleasurably during the war, when everything and everyone were turned upside down.

Being the work of Noel Coward, that master observer of and commentator on English manners, "Brief Encounter" frames this struggle as a torrid love story bubbling under the surface of British reserve, which demands maintaining appearances at all costs, regardless of the personal pain involved.

This passionate pair, who never even exchange a kiss, are constrained and ultimately kept apart by expectations--of their families, of their social positions, of Great Britain.

When Alec puts his hand on Laura's shoulder at their final, unexpectedly truncated meeting in the station snack bar/waiting room, it's as erotic and far more touching than just about every sex scene you'll see in movies.

The first reviewer completely missed the point and the relevance of this movie in film history and, especially, in British cinema history.