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Brief Encounter (1945)

Brief Encounter (1945)
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Based on Noël Coward's play "Still Life," Brief Encounter is a romantic, bittersweet drama about two married people who meet by chance in a London railway station and carry on an intense love affair. Sentimental yet down-to-earth and set in pre-World War II England, the film follows British housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), who is on her way home, but catches a cinder in her eye. By chance, she meets Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), who removes it for her. The two talk for a few minutes and strike immediate sparks, but they end up catching different trains. However, both return to the station once a week to meet and, as the film progresses, they grow closer, sharing stories, hopes, and fears about their lives, marriages, and children. One day, when Alec's train is late, both become frantic that they will miss each other. When they finally find each other, they realize that they are in love. But what should be a joyous realization is fraught with tragedy, since both care greatly for their families. Howard and Johnson give flawless performances as two practical, married people who find themselves in a situation in which they know they can never be happy. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

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Starring:
Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, (more)
Director(s):
David Lean
Format(s):
DVD
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Synopsis of Brief Encounter

Based on Noël Coward's play "Still Life," Brief Encounter is a romantic, bittersweet drama about two married people who meet by chance in a London railway station and carry on an intense love affair. Sentimental yet down-to-earth and set in pre-World War II England, the film follows British housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson), who is on her way home, but catches a cinder in her eye. By chance, she meets Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard), who removes it for her. The two talk for a few minutes and strike immediate sparks, but they end up catching different trains. However, both return to the station once a week to meet and, as the film progresses, they grow closer, sharing stories, hopes, and fears about their lives, marriages, and children. One day, when Alec's train is late, both become frantic that they will miss each other. When they finally find each other, they realize that they are in love. But what should be a joyous realization is fraught with tragedy, since both care greatly for their families. Howard and Johnson give flawless performances as two practical, married people who find themselves in a situation in which they know they can never be happy. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

Theatrical Feature Running Time:
86 mins

Complete Cast of Brief Encounter


Director(s):
David Lean
Writer(s):
Coward Lean, Ronald Neame, David Lean
Producer(s):
Ronald Neame, Noël Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan
Categories:
Romance
Brief Encounter Awards:
  • 1946 - Cannes Film Festival - Grand Prix
  • 1946 - New York Film Critics Circle - Best Actress
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    Robert R.

    Long before the sexual revolution of the 60's this is what a breach of moral standards looked like among everyday people. The characterizations show a mindset that was still happily engrained with Victorian attitutudes decades after the turn of the 20th century. It was a time when guilt and shame weighed heavily on those who wandered outside of the typical rigid framework of propriety, high virtues (and marriage in this case). This is an engaging, well acted English film noir. Trivia: The stationmaster is played by actor, Stanley Holloway, who is Eliza Doolittle's father in the film "My Fair Lady" twenty years after this film. (Think song: "I'm Gettin' Married in the Morning...")

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    James V.

    A deserved classic in so many ways, BRIEF ENCOUNTER--now 60 years old--tells a love story about an affair between two married-to-others (without sex, yet!) that is every bit the equal on any modern film of similar subject. Writer Noel Coward is most remembered for his witty comedies such as "Design for Living" and "Hay Fever." Yet his rich dramas such as this one, "In Which We Serve" and "This Happy Breed" are equally wonderful. With a sublime director like David Lean at the helm (toward the end, watch the camera angle tilt askew, as Celia Johnson waits nervously in the train station café), every moment is full and real. Besides giving splendid roles to the would-be adulterers, Coward is generous and true to the clueless husband at home. And his subsidiary train-station characters, played so well by Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey are delightful. I must be among the few senior citizens alive who had not seen this film until now; if there are any more of you out there like me, do cue.

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    Andy G.

    There were so many moments in this film that I felt that I was watching a modern day piece of cinema. The emotion behind the characters, the stages of their relationship, and even the background that represents their attraction to each other. Here we have two characters, both of which we know nothing about, and even one that we know less and less about. Celia Johnson does a beautiful job of playing the confused housewife. The woman that is comfortable with the life that she has, but somehow searches for more. She questions her life, wondering if there perhaps may not be something more behind an unexplored door. This door is Alec. She stumbles upon him randomly and opens the door to find that he is just as repressed as she is. In three weeks, meeting only three times, they are in love ... confessing it to each other. You see unbridled love. I was impressed with this film and I actually enjoyed it.

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