A História de uma Mulher

Invariably this film is bound to be compared to "Brief Encounter" and I guess that's to be expected given they were both directed by David Lean, starred Trevor Howard and featured adultery. Frankly I think any comparison to be unfair because that's where their similarities end. I've seen both and I favor "Passionate Friends". I should add that Ann Todd is not one of my favorite performers. Her demeanor can be expressionless and somewhat off putting. But here she truly shines. In Lean's extensive close ups she reveals inner feelings without uttering a word. And her smiles are explosively radiant. She utterly owns this part. The male parts are equally excellent. All the performances wrap the viewer with their passion and involve him in the characters' fates. This is not light viewing. It's an emotional roller coaster and as the climactic finale unfolded I found myself talking to the screen trying to influence the outcome. Without a doubt this is a story by adults, for adults. Highly recommended.

This David Lean romance seems to have been swept under the carpet and yet it may be his most underrated masterpiece, (it's infinitely preferable to such elephantine fare as "Ryan's Daughter" and "Doctor Zhivago"). It marked the first time Lean would abandon the studio for more exotic locations, (in this case, the Swiss Alps), and seems designed as a vehicle for his wife, Ann Todd, who is outstanding as the respectable English wife who dallies with an old flame who happens to check into the room next door at the hotel she's staying in while on holiday. He's Trevor Howard and it's as if this is what might have happened in "Brief Encounter" had the lovers a bit more chutzpah.

Howard, too, is superb, (he always was; he remains one of the most underrated of all the great actors), and Todd's husband is the consistently excellent Claude Rains at his very best. As a tale of a genteel marriage threatened by genteel adultery it's beautifully done and why it isn't more highly appreciated is something of a mystery. If, like me, you believe Lean to be one of the great directors then this is essential viewing.

The Passionate Friends is the first of three films that director David Lean made with Ann Todd in and she gives a fine performance in this mannered British melodrama that evokes in ways two other popular British films of the era, Lean's Brief Encounter and the Todd starring The Seventh Veil.

Former lovers Mary Justin (Todd) and Steven Stratton (Trevor Howard) meet accidentally at a New year's party and rekindle lost feelings. Trouble is she is married to a wealthy banker Howard Justin (Claude Rains) and Stratton's in a committed relationship. Justin discovers the affair however and puts an end to it. Nine years pass and they meet again while vacationing. Stratton is now married with kids but Howard thinks otherwise and files for divorce. Mary becomes desperate and suicidal.

With quality performances (especially Rains) from all of the leads The Passionate Friends is credible melodrama that overachieves with Lean displaying his superb grasp of film language, employing jump cuts, montage and juxtaposition for maximum effect. With a few Hitchcock like flourishes along the way he does an excellent job of keeping the audience guessing right up until the final minutes. It is this subtle triumph of form that makes The Passionate Friends a superior example of its genre.

For The Passionate Friends David Lean treads similar ground as he does in his masterpiece, Brief Encounter, although here the source material is an HG Wells story as opposed to a Noel Coward play.

The post-war Lean, with his attention to psychology and emotions, handled these stories of problematic romance brilliantly, and The Passionate Friends is a great example. We open with clouds and snow-capped mountains, a holiday location that foreshadows Lean's Summertime (1955), straight away giving us a sense of dreaminess and soaring emotions.

This is Lean at his most psychological and expressionist. The sound and imagery is always calculated to mirror feelings – like the abruptness of the plane wheel touching the ground when Claude Rains returns from his trip abroad. The acting really supports this too. Considering it's a story about a love triangle, a large amount of the story is told through scenes in which one of the three principal characters is alone, or at least unobserved, and the actors convey inner thoughts through subtle expressions and gestures.

Also, like the bulk of Lean's pictures from this era there are references to the war and the impact it had on British society. It's probably no coincidence that the decision was made to set the flashbacks of the affair in 1939 (Wells' original story was decades older), the year that war broke out. The cold, bureaucratic Claude Rains seems to be in part symbolic of the necessity in wartime to be rational and emotionless, and the story is an allegory for the need to break away from that.

While it is a good story and very well-made, The Passionate Friends is unfortunately no Brief Encounter. On the acting side, Claude Rains is brilliant as always, but I'm less convinced by Ann Todd, who perhaps got the part more because she was Mrs Lean that for her talent. The plot can be a bit confusing with its flashbacks within flashbacks. Probably the biggest problem though is that we never get to totally empathise with the characters. While Brief Encounter's sheer ordinariness made it so universal, you don't get this to the same degree here, and that makes it by far the weaker of the two pictures. Still, it's by no means a disaster, and still one of the better films of David Lean's 1940s output.

H. G. Wells wrote his novel in 1913 and it was first filmed by Maurice Elvey in 1922. By all accounts David Lean was reluctant to take it on and did so only as a favour to Ronald Neame. Once he agreed to do it however nothing less that the very best would do. Although Eric Ambler is credited with the screenplay, he was aided considerably by Lean and Stanley Haynes. Ann Todd with whom Lean had initial 'temperament' problems and Trevor Howard are both superb as the lovers. Howard replaced Marius Goring who would not have suited. Lean had a habit in his films of sometimes making an actor in the cast feel 'left out'. In this case the victim was Howard. The film actually belongs to Claude Rains for whom Lean had the deepest admiration. His portrayal of the betrayed husband is consummate and a masterclass in great film acting. Lean's own verdict on the film? 'Very nearly very good but a little cold'. I feel he was being unduly harsh on himself as anyone who is left unmoved by the final scene has a heart of stone. The film was criticised at the time for its extensive use of flashbacks. Ones heart goes out to those poor souls in the audience who get so easily confused! Lean's mastery of the visual, his 'cutter's' instinct and the excellent performances make this an absorbing and immensely satisfying film.