Brief Encounter (1945)

Director:

David Lean

Writers:

Release Date:

24 August 1946 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Drama

Tagline:

A story of the most precious moments in woman's life!

Plot:

Meeting a stranger in a railway station, a woman is tempted to cheat on her husband.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Railway Station | Railway | Doctor | Housewife

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins

Cast

Celia Johnson	...	Laura Jesson
Trevor Howard	...	Dr. Alec Harvey
Stanley Holloway	...	Albert Godby
Joyce Carey	...	Myrtle Bagot
Cyril Raymond	...	Fred Jesson
Everley Gregg	...	Dolly Messiter
Marjorie Mars	...	Mary Norton
Margaret Barton	...	Beryl Walters, Tea Room Assistant

Also Known As:

Noel Coward's Brief Encounter (UK) (complete title)
Begegnung (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Brève rencontre (France) [fr]
Breu encontre (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Breve Encontro (Portugal) [pt]
Breve encuentro (Spain) [es]
Breve incontro (Italy) [it]
Desencanto (Brazil) [pt]
Det korte møde (Denmark) [da]
Kisa tesadüfler (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Kort möte (Sweden) [sv]
Lyhyt onni (Finland) [fi]
Spotkanie (Poland) [pl]
Syntomi synantisi (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
Syntomi synantisis (Greece) [el]

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Spain:13 (DVD rating) | Australia:G | South Korea:15 | Netherlands:AL | Finland:K-16 | Hong Kong:I | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #11819, Adult Audience) | Ireland:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Cineguild

Trivia:

The screenplay was adapted and based on Noel Coward's 1935 short one-act (half-hour) stage play "Still Life". It was expanded from five short scenes in a train station (the refreshment tea room of Milford Junction Station) to include action in other settings (Laura's house, the apartment of the Dr.Harvey's friend, restaurants, parks, train compartments, shops, a car, a boating lake and at the cinema),

Goofs:

Continuity: Laura runs through a downpour but is dry when she walks into the refreshment room.

Quotes:

Fred Jesson: [playing the crossword puzzle] You're a poetry addict. See if you can help me over this. It's Keats. 'When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face / Huge cloudy symbols of a high _______.' Something that's seven letters.
Laura Jesson: Romance, I think. I'm almost sure it is. 'Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance.' It will be in the Oxford Book of English Verse.
Fred Jesson: No, it's right I'm sure. It fits in with 'delirium' and 'Baluchistan.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966)

Soundtrack:

Piano Concerto No. 2

Briefly, a great film

There's not a lot to say. Like many classics this film is simply constructed with all the elements in balance so that none stands out. Everything in it contributes something essential; the lighting, the unromantic railway station sets, the minor characters and of course the music, the ultra-romantic Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no 2. The emotional rollercoaster of the illicit affair has seldom been better portrayed. Perhaps it is a little understated for transatlantic tastes but no-one viewing this movie would not appreciate that the English can be as passionate as the rest of us.

Celia Johnson as Laura and Trevor Howard as Alec are perfect together. It being 1945, they do not get to bed – that would have ruined the audience's sympathy for them in those rather more censorious times. It's all in their minds but their faces give the game away – to each other and to the bystanders. Nothing happens to drag anyone near the awful divorce courts, but you are left wondering whether Celia will ever feel quite the same about her dull, comfortable, patronising and boring husband. As for Alec, he professes he will love her forever but then, he's a man.

Noel Coward produced this film from a short play of his from 1935 (the war and post-war shortages are absent), and his dulcet tones may be recognised in the railway station announcements. David Lean directed, and it is a remarkable collaboration. The action is opened out a little – a row on the lake, a drive in the country - but the scenes from the play set entirely in the railway refreshment rooms still remain the centre of the story. The parallel relationship between Albert the station guard (Stanley Holloway), and Myrtle the refreshment room attendant (Joyce Carey), is an interesting counterpoint to the angst-ridden middle class would-be adulterers. Surely Noel old boy you weren't suggesting that the working class handles this sort of thing better? We see things largely from Laura's point of view and perhaps Alec didn't feel quite so guilty, but their consciences are going to make them pay. A gem of a movie.