Film Pick of the Week: Brief Encounter - review by Yvette Huddleston
Brief Encounter BBC iPlayer, review by Yvette Huddleston
Director David Lean’s 1945 romantic drama about a doomed love affair between two strangers who meet on a railway platform is one of those classic films that has a timeless quality about it and is well worth revisiting from time to time.
Regularly listed as one of the best British movies of all time, Brief Encounter was based on the 1936 stage play Still Life by Noël Coward and was adapted for the big screen by Coward, Lean and screenwriters Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan. Filmed in the latter stages of the Second World War, it was released just after the end of the war in Europe and immediately garnered huge public and critical acclaim. It was nominated for three Oscars and won the Grand Prix at Cannes.
Suburban housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) travels into town on the train once a week to do the household shopping and go to a matinee screening at the cinema. On one such visit she meets doctor Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) as she is waiting on the station platform to board her train home. He helps her when a piece of grit flies her way (“I’ve got something in my eye…”) and he gently removes it. They sit in the station buffet and over a cup of tea get to know each other a little better. It turns out that Alec works at the local hospital every week on the same day, Thursday, that Laura comes to town.
The following week they bump into each other at the chemist. There is clearly a spark between the two of them, they enjoy each other’s company and they tentatively agree to meet the following week. Despite the fact that both are married, they are drawn to each other and continue to meet – they have lunch, go rowing on a boating lake, watch a film together. Their feelings for each other steadily grow and although their love is powerful and genuine, their relationship remains a model of restraint. But when they are spotted by Laura’s friends, which means they have to tell lies, guilt and shame begin to rear their ugly heads, and Alec and Laura have to face a heartbreaking dilemma.
Howard and Johnson play their roles with great sensitivity and subtlety, ensuring that the audience remains on their side, while their supremely moving love story is underscored by the exquisitely poignant recurring theme of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 2.