“Brief Encounter” (1945)
Directed by David Lean, Written by Noël Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean & Ronald Neame, Based on “Still Life” the 1936 play by Noël Coward, Produced by
Noël Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan & Ronald Neame, Music by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Cinematography by Robert Krasker, Edited by Jack Harris, Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg & Margaret Barton.
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey.. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either party expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.
My thoughts on this film may not be universally popular due to the genuine moral ambiguity of the film. I respect that if you are a person who has been in a committed relationship or marriage and your partner has met someone else and left you or someone has cheated on you this film may not be your cup of tea. I get that!
In modern UK society, 42% of Marriages end in divorce and back in the 1940's married couples separating and getting divorced was not unheard of but It was difficult and loaded with social stigma. So many people were unfortunately trapped in loveless marriages and I cant help but feel stories of this nature would be more common than you would think.
I am beating around the bush… but I find this film charming, moving, romantic and incredibly well-crafted.
The story is based around a respectable middle-class Englishwoman named Laura Jesson played by the charming and talented actress Celia Johnson. The character Laura is in a traditional respectable middle-class not unaffectionate but dull marriage with her husband and the couple have a young son.
Suburban middle-class homemakers in post-war England would visit a nearby town once a week for shopping, lunch in a tearoom and a matinée film at the cinema, Laura was no different travelling to Milford every Thursday.
Travelling home one Thursday while waiting in the railway station's refreshment room, she is helped by a fellow passenger when he removes a piece of grit from her eye.
The fellow passenger is Dr Alec Harvey, an idealistic handsome general practitioner, who also travels to Milford on Thursdays to work as a consultant at the local hospital. He is also married and has children.
After this chance meeting, they bump into each other again outside Boots the Chemist, and then on a third chance meeting they end up sharing a table at lunch. Then, both having free time, they go to the Cinema together. They are soon both aware their innocent and casual relationship is developing into something deeper, approaching infidelity.
The film is narrated by Laura as if she dictating a confession letter to her husband.
The film also has a humorous sub-plot regarding the ticket inspector at the Milford railway station pursuing a relationship with the woman who runs the station’s Cafe/Bar.
The charm of this film is just how chaste the relationship is and how powerfully the lead actors convey their repressed feelings. The story is beautifully told using this non-linear approach where we see the pair having a cup of tea together and are interrupted by one of Laura’s casual acquaintances and then the film takes us back to Laura and Alec’s first meeting and when we revisit that scene it hits like a gut punch! Wonderful writing and beautiful filmmaking.
Legendary film director Robert Altman's wife Kathryn Altman said,
"One day, years and years ago, just after the war, Robert had nothing to do and he went to a theatre in the middle of the afternoon to see a movie. Not a Hollywood movie: a British movie. He said the main character was not glamorous, not a babe and at first, he wondered why he was even watching it. But twenty minutes later he was in tears and had fallen in love with her. And it made him feel that it wasn't just a movie."
That film was “Brief Encounter” and that story sums up the power of the film better than I could.
Production took place in early 1945 before World War II had ended so the film was shot at Carnforth railway station in Lancashire It was still a busy station but it was far enough away from any major city so they could avoid “the blackout” and allow them to film.
Carnforth Station has retained many of its period features from the time of filming and remains a place of pilgrimage for fans of the film.
Noel Coward is heard in the film making the station announcements.
The station refreshment room was a studio recreation in Denham Studios, Buckinghamshire. Some of the street scenes were shot in London, Denham, and Beaconsfield.
The film was acclaimed on its release, although there were doubts that it would be "generally popular" and would struggle in America due to its overt "Englishness" and risque subject matter but the film was a big success in the UK and such a big hit in the US that Celia Johnson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Being Lean's third solo directed film "Brief Encounter" cemented Lean's reputation as a formidable filmmaker.
In 1999 the film was given the #2 slot on the British Film Institute's Top 100 British films of all time.
"Brief Encounter" (1945) is a must see film for any cinephile. It is a beautiful story beautifully told. The black and white photography is just stunning.
The story is almost framed by this love letter to the age of steam trains. It's also easy to forget how funny moments of this film are which beautifully set you up for the dramatic low blows.
The film is currently streaming on Britbox with a subscription.
You can rent the film via Prime Video or Apple TV for £3.49.
You can buy the Blu-Ray from HMV for £5.99 at the time of writing this.
