movie review brief encounter

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Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, "brief encounter": a matter of the heart.

Marital infidelity is a favorite subject in films. It's one of many taboos which audiences can explore without having to live through its challenges nor worry about its consequences. The emotional and social tumult that comes with it always provides filmmakers and actors with complex and often fiery material to work with. But because it is a social ill, it tends to be viewed through an illicit lens.

The very way these kinds of love affairs are defined speak for themselves. Adultery. Infidelity. Cheating. Marriage is a sacrament, hence anything that goes against it is cast as  sinful and wanton; and so go its movie portrayals. But there are many people who don't seek to be unfaithful. A need may not be met; a mistake may have been made; a devoted partner may be far far away. The heart has its reasons.

I can think of only a handful of movies which thoughtfully look into these matters of the heart. Pictures like Bud Yorkin's Twice in a Lifetime, Clint Eastwood's "The Bridges of Madison County," Adrian Lyne's " Unfaithful ," and Sofia Coppola's "Lost In Translation" are some of the most recent. But one pioneer stands out as the archetype of the extramarital love affair: David Lean 's "Brief Encounter."

Warning: Spoilers follow. When one thinks of David Lean, small scale and simplicity are not what come to mind, but his vision here is as simple as its title implies. A housewife and a doctor, both married to their partners, meet at a train station by chance. And somehow, they meet again. And again. And again. Their relationship unfolds as a recollection by Laura (Celia Johnson), the housewife, as she narrates how she and Dr. Alec Harvey ( Trevor Howard of " The Third Man ") came to be, and came to an end.  Michael Mirasol's review:   

Though black and white was a standard filmmaking style during World War II, its importance here film cannot be overstated. The film's thematic simplicity, combined with its genius locale, and brave pioneering, requires it to be immortalized, which B&W readily provides. And to call the picture brave is an understatement, considering its conservative context. The film was controversial enough that it was initially banned in Ireland, since it portrayed adultery in a sympathetic light. Laura's final decision to stay with her family can seemed contrived or convenient for some, but it surely might have been a relief for those in its day.

With Celia Johnson anchoring the film we listen to her plight, seeing how ordinary occurrences impossible to protect against could lead to her to love a handsome doctor. Coinciding train schedules. A busy restaurant with one seat left. A bad musician. A love for the movies. Both tied to routine. Both with the responsibilities of parenthood. A grit in her eye. Right places. Right times.

Though Alec and Laura are the film's focus, Lean also shows his gift of presenting unforgettable characters, most notably the naughty but affectionate stationmaster Albert ( Stanley Holloway ), and genteel shop lady Myrtle (Joyce Carey). They counterbalance Alec and Laura's pair in two notable ways; as comic relief to the serious considerations that surround the main pair; and as a shift in class consciousness.

The author Frances Gray argues that the film shows this disparity in that the working class (Albert and Myrtle) is bereft of scrutiny when it comes to adultery as compared to the middle class (Alec and Laura), which in British society of the time, was considered to its moral backbone. It shows how Albert and Myrtle readily enjoy each other's company, and are more comfortable in their skins, whereas Alec and Laura have to find ways to explain themselves.

What I love about the film is that its "cheaters" aren't portrayed as malicious or salacious. Their feelings are real and important to them and they attempt to deal with its dilemmas. Marriage takes a lot of work, and works better when its principals are happy. Alec and Laura may have thought they were happy, but if they were, why are they seeking what is missing in each other? You have to admire a film daring to take that on, when common wisdom dictated being content with the status quo was healthy and enough.

There are however some aspects to the movie that can feel awkward for today's viewers. The acting is expertly done, but pre-Brando, which can feel mannered. Its narration can seem thick and over-explanatory, though this could be due to budget constraints in wartime. Kissing can be distracting (but cute) because of its build-up and sudden completion, but that's how sexual tension was released on film in those days. Its dialogue is brisk, making it easy to miss at times (you could say the same for " Casablanca ," but if you get into its rhythms, it works). Star-crossed conversations can sound quite unrealistic compared to today's writing. Yet, they are still serious, heartfelt, and never done for laughs, as if the words were written to reach out to the audience as a cry for help. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard deliver these lines without doubt nor hesitation, Johnson particularly (the role earned her an Oscar nomination) earning our sympathy and respect with every closeup.)

It's refreshing to find a classic romance without meet-cutes and pathetic attempts to be clever, with two adults who know what is happening to them, feeling passion which they may have thought was lost for good. Both know their undertaking is unwise and know, within their realities, what needs to be done. But that doesn't mean what they feel isn't shared, precious, and true. With "Brief Encounter," David Lean (who earned his first Oscar nomination for this picture) shows his growing directorial gifts on route to his epic mastery of the movies and bravely deals with love that is frowned upon. It is courageous, sincere, and incredibly romantic.

Michael Mirasol

Michael Mirasol is a Filipino independent film critic who has been writing about films for the past eleven years. He briefly served as film critic for the Manila Times and now writes occasionally for Uno Magazine and his blog The Flipcritic .

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Brief Encounter (1945)

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Brief encounter.

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Common Sense Media Review

Classic romance has adultery, smoking, suicide reference.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Brief Encounter is a classic British romantic drama set in 1940s England and centers on an extramarital affair, and the resulting feelings of shame, guilt, and fear. Having met by chance at a train station, housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and Dr. Alec Harvey's (Trevor Howard)…

Why Age 11+?

Characters smoke frequently. They also drink alcohol -- including, brandy, wine,

Reference is made to a kid being hit by a car and they are seen with a bandaged

Two characters are clearly attracted to each other and are in constant battle wi

There are scenes inside shops, and purchases made, including an expensive clock.

Any Positive Content?

Strength and courage are on display in resisting temptation and putting loved on

Though Laura and Alec lie and cheat on their partners, they are seen to suffer a

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters smoke frequently. They also drink alcohol -- including, brandy, wine, and champagne -- on a number of occasions. There is mention of administering a sedative within a medical context.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Reference is made to a kid being hit by a car and they are seen with a bandaged head. A character expresses a desire to commit suicide by jumping in front of a train but does not act on it. There is a passing joke about a doctor killing patients. A movie within the movie shows someone tied up with flames beneath them.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two characters are clearly attracted to each other and are in constant battle with themselves as to whether to embark on an affair with each other. Kissing and hugging are shown on numerous occasions, but never with the indication of further physical contact, and always fully clothed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

There are scenes inside shops, and purchases made, including an expensive clock. Money is referenced a few times, with characters choosing to splash out on expensive drinks and movie theater seats.

Positive Messages

Strength and courage are on display in resisting temptation and putting loved ones first. The movie suggests that acting in your own interests doesn't always bring happiness. It also shows that things are not always straightforward and good people sometimes act in ways they are not proud, yet can move on from that to do the right thing. A near extramarital affair is integral to the story.

Positive Role Models

Though Laura and Alec lie and cheat on their partners, they are seen to suffer and feel guilt and shame. They briefly give in to temptation, but ultimately put their own desires aside for the sake of others. Gender roles are a reflection of the time, though Laura is portrayed as independent and keen to pay her way.

Parents need to know that Brief Encounter is a classic British romantic drama set in 1940s England and centers on an extramarital affair, and the resulting feelings of shame, guilt, and fear. Having met by chance at a train station, housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and Dr. Alec Harvey's ( Trevor Howard ) relationship is more emotional than physical, though kissing and hugging are shown. Typical of the time period depicted, characters regularly smoke cigarettes. They are also seen drinking alcohol in a number of scenes. Suicide is referenced, with a character expressing a desire to jump in front of a train, but she stops herself. A kid is seen with a bandaged head following a car accident, but there is little violence beyond that. Rendered in black and white, the film is an old-fashioned romance that will appeal to adults and older children more than younger viewers, who may find its lack of action fails to hold their attention. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In BRIEF ENCOUNTER, suburban housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) has a chance encounter with a stranger at a train station, when Alec ( Trevor Howard ) comes to her rescue to remove something from her eye. The two part ways, but bump into each other again, setting in motion a series of dates and a blossoming love affair that they struggle to hold at arms length for the sake of their families back home.

Is It Any Good?

For a movie where it appears that very little happens, this classic 1940s British romantic drama packs an almighty emotional punch. At the center of Brief Encounter is a relatively chaste relationship that is never allowed to fully ignite, indicative of the moral restrictions of the time period. But the underlying tension between goodness, stability, and responsibility, and the unruly temptations of romance and passion are universal and timeless. If the film were remade today, no doubt more physical intimacy might be used to indicate the intensity of the affair. Yet director David Lean 's desire to express with longing looks and desperate swoons show just how easily an emotion can turn from a lightheaded flutter to a stab in the heart when the outside world comes crashing in. It's what makes this such an iconic film.

Both central performances are strong, but it is Johnson's Oscar-nominated turn as Laura that really keeps the story on track. The primness of her demeanor deftly at odds with the urgency in her eyes, and her conflicted and painful voiceover acting as the confession to her husband that she knows she will never really deliver, is captivating. It's a film where not a lot happens, yet so much is explored, and is an enduring love story that puts many less-nuanced modern romances to shame.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the relationship between Laura and Alec in Brief Encounter . Were they right not to act on their feelings? What might have happened if they had decided to embark on a relationship? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Were you surprised by the amount of smoking in the film? How has our view of smoking changed today compared to when the movie was set?

Discuss how the portrayal of the romance might be a reflection of society at the time. How might it be represented differently today?

Think about how voiceover is used in the movie. What other films use the technique and how do they compare?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 24, 1946
• On DVD or streaming : June 27, 2000
• Cast : Celia Johnson , Trevor Howard , Stanley Holloway
• Director : David Lean
• Studio : Universal Pictures
• Genre : Romance
• Topics : Trains
• Run time : 86 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : October 8, 2022

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Brief Encounter

David Lean's wondrous romance, adapted from Noel Coward's story, is one of the most emotionally devastating movies of all time

Time Out says

In this enlightened age of quickie divorces and Ashley Madison, it would be all too easy to sniff at ‘Brief Encounter’, director David Lean and author Noël Coward’s prim, oh-so-English tale of romance, respectability and repression. But those willing to give themselves over to the film’s mounting mood of swooning, tight-lipped desperation will be rewarded with one of the most vivid, impassioned and painfully believable love stories ever committed to celluloid. She is Laura (Celia Johnson): the good little housewife to a drab, inattentive middle-class worker bee, trudging through a repetitive, stultifying existence somewhere in suburbia. He is Alec (Trevor Howard): a doctor whose equally loveless union has driven him to find solace in work. Their chance meeting in a station café develops first into a casual friendship, then gradually, guiltily into something neither of them can fully understand or admit. Drenched in Lancashire drizzle and overshadowed both by the receding clamour of war and the spectre of impending social change – it was released in 1945 – ‘Brief Encounter’ is so much more than just a tale of two lovers. It’s also an affectionate but firm nudge-in-the ribs for the British bourgeoisie: are we really going to let our lives run on rails, never grabbing happiness where we find it? Have we learned nothing in these cruel years? As it turned out, Lean and Coward were on to something: just a few decades later, the selfless, stifled attitudes of ‘Brief Encounter’ would, for better or worse, be a distant memory.

Release Details

• Release date: Friday 6 November 2015
• Duration: 86 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: David Lean
• Screenwriter: Noël Coward
• Celia Johnson
• Trevor Howard
• Stanley Holloway

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Brief Encounter Review

25 Nov 1945

Brief Encounter

Skillfully set to Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, this account of a passionate yet unconsummated relationship between a married woman and a married doctor created a great impression both here and abroad.

Its value lies above all in its realistic description of provincial, middle class English life: the couple's cluttered suburban home; Saturday shopping in the small town; the tea room; the lock-keeper's home; and, especially, the railway buffet that's the centre of the affair. Under her silly hat, Celia Johnson is undeniably moving.

"We waste our money so you don't have to."

"We waste our money, so you don't have to."

Movie Review

Brief encounter.

United Kingdom Release Date: 11-26-1945

Directed by: David Lean

Starring ▸ ▾

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

Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard share a Brief Encounter .

Brief Encounter is a classic British film from 1945. It was based on a one act play by Noel Coward, and directed by David Lean. It consistently pops up on lists of the best British films ever made and has enjoyed a wide and enduring legacy in popular culture. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard play two middle-aged suburban types who, although married to other people, meet by chance at a train station and fall madly in love in late 1930s England.

They meet every Thursday but, alas, their relationship can never be. They part as suddenly as they met, taking with them only the memory of an all consuming love. Yes Brief Encounter is hopelessly old fashioned and romantic. It was shot in glorious black and white cinematography and features many scenes that have become staples in movie love stories. How many times have you seen any of the following scenes: a fog filled train station platform at night, a couple furtively seeking solace in the cinema, enjoying a rowboat on a picturesque lake, standing on a quaint bridge in the country?

This highly romantic setting is further enhanced by the inclusion of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, as played by Eileen Joyce. It is heard throughout the film and serves as a theme for the short-lived romance between these two people who can never really be together.

The affair is told from Laura's perspective and she narrates her story in voice-over. We first see the couple as they are seated in a tea-room at a train station. They are interrupted by a chatterbox acquaintance of Laura's who is oblivious to the tender scene she has invaded. It soon becomes apparent that we are witnessing the end of something. The movie returns to this scene later on but now we see it from a slightly different angle and with an entirely new understanding.

The morality of the story is a bit tricky. Here is a case of two people cheating on their spouses and yet they are portrayed as sympathetic. They may never consummate the affair but it is cheating nonetheless. Although Laura and Alec are meant to represent each others one true love, their perfect soul mate, the secret to the movie's enduring success is the fact that their romance is fleeting. They both come to their senses after one disastrous evening reveals the outwardly sordid appearance of their relationship.

The performances by the two leads are brilliant. Though the movie focuses much more on Laura, and Brief Encounter definitely falls under the chick flick category. Celia Johnson was a well known stage actress who made the occasional film. She is wonderful in this role and was deservedly nominated for an Academy Award. This movie put Trevor Howard on the map. Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey provide a few laughs in supporting roles, and Cyril Raymond is solid as Laura's husband (Alec's wife is never shown).

With a run time of less than 90 minutes, Brief Encounter lives up to its title. This tale of star crossed lovers is pure soap opera but when it is as beautifully crafted and acted as this movie is, soap opera becomes art.

Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter .

One of the things that makes this story so resonate with audiences is the normality of the couple involved. Celia Johnson was in her late 30s and while she was a fine looking woman, this is a very non-glamorous part and she looks every inch the dutiful British housewife. Trevor Howard was 5 years younger and while his looks have a certain appeal, they aren't matinee idol good looks. This is a story of a romance that could happen to anyone.

As Patrick wrote, there's a tricky balance to the story. The leading couple each have responsibilities to others in their married lives. Laura's husband is terribly nice, but a little boring. Alec's wife is described as delicate, which to me read as lacking in passion. And both are parents with the associated responsibilities having children brings. The two of them only share a handful of Thursdays together and that time is an escape for both of them. They can forget that they are a husband and a wife and a father and a mother with their whole life laid out in front of them in an inevitable sequence of events. During their time together they are free of duty and obligation and can be young again. Laura spends an evening's train ride home from one of their Thursdays daydreaming like a schoolgirl about the rich possibilities of what life with Alec would be like, but by the time her train arrives at her home station, the dream fades as she faces reality. The trick is to get audiences to remain on Laura's side even though she's cheating on her husband.

Although both Alec and Laura lament the brevity of their relationship, it's actually the briefness that makes it so powerful. Had it continued, it would only have ended tragically. Laura's reaction to the squalid nature of their one attempted sexual rendezvous is the signal to her that this can't go on. Divorce simply wasn't an option in a respectable middle class family of the time period. A mother and wife who divorced her husband would have faced society's contempt. A lasting relationship would have cheapened the romance of their situation.

I agree with Patrick's description of the story as a chick flick and as a soap opera, but he's also right when he describes it as art. This is soap opera done as tragedy, with flowery language and a sense of morality that is very dated. It would be easy to mock its earnestness, but it's also easy to be moved by it if watched in the right frame of mind.

Celia Johnson deservedly earned her Oscar nomination. She carries the movie. Howard's Alec is never as fully developed as Laura is. On the surface Laura is the prim and proper British housewife and Johnson maintains that facade, while at the same time revealing her inner feelings with her eyes. Although she narrates the story, many of her voice overs aren't needed. Johnson is able to convey the mood and her feelings so that we don't need to be told what she's feeling. Howard is good, but Johnson dominates the film.

Much of the film was shot at Carnforth train station at night. It was the filmmaker's original intention to shoot at a station in London, but the war was still going and blackout procedures prohibited it. Today the station remains a tourist attraction to fans of the film and the station even maintains a replica of the "Brief Encounter Refreshment room" where visitors can buy a cup of tea and cast repressed looks of longing at each other.

For those who like their romances tinged with sadness--and based on the number of movies adapted from books by Nicholas Sparks, there's plenty of people who do--this movie hits all the right buttons.

Photos © Copyright Cineguild (1945)

© 2000 - 2017 Three Movie Buffs. All Rights Reserved.

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The heartbreaking beauty of "Brief Encounter"

by Cláudio Alves

Ever since I listened to Robert Altman's commentary track on the Gosford Park DVD, I've bristled at the idea that someone needs to be a certain age to enjoy a film. In that bonus feature, Altman mentions that Gosford Park has nothing to offer to fourteen-year-old boys, and they shouldn't get to watch it. As a fourteen-year-old boy for whom Gosford Park was a favorite, I felt personally attacked. A bit more than a decade later, I've grown less annoyed at such blanket statements about age and movie appreciation. As it turns out, there are films that can gain something when the audience seeing them is more mature. You may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with Brief Encounter or our 1946 celebration? Apologies for my long-windedness.

I'm trying to introduce a personal realization I had. While I might have loved Brief Encounter when I was a teen, I knew not of its power. Now, I think it's one of the best and most devastating films ever made…

However, one meeting blossoms into many conversations, gleeful afternoons shared with much delight, friendship, perchance, much more. It's fascinating how perfectly platonic it all is, how the meeting of two lonesome souls can cause sparks even when neither party is keen on starting a fire. We get to know of this affair through Laura's confession, a stream-of-consciousness narration that manifests when she's at home, in the company of her harmlessly tedious husband. Earlier in the evening, a conversation with Alec had been cut short by the interruption of a gossipy friend, and Laura didn't get to say goodbye. The quasi-adulteress is still reeling from it. If not for the sorrow etched in Celia Johnson's features, we might have thought it a scene of no great importance. However, the actress makes it clear that Laura is dying inside.

In flashback, we discover the reasons for her sorry state, as she tells of forbidden love, how it hardly ever transgressed past the platonic and how it's now reached its end. Her description of day-to-day life verges on the ridiculous, her mind, her eyes, constantly sidetracked by inane details. Along with his protagonist, Lean indulges in the casual observation of commonplace middle-class routine, unearthing a peculiar sense of emotional authenticity from this accumulation of fatuities. It's silly to say so, but the screen positively vibrates with life whenever Johnson's Laura forgets about the cage of 1940s English society. Her day can be made more exciting by something as familiar as a cheerful tune ringing in the street or the giddy thrill of splurging on a gift for a loved one, savoring their future joy.

Apart from these variations, Laura's life is that of a zombie, numbly experienced with a visible lack of enthusiasm. She's not unlike most of us, allowing a carapace of outward indifference to cover the tender interior of her heart, her soul. In this portrait of an unexciting middle-aged woman, we can see that strange dichotomy of feeling most people come to suffer – we hide so much, and yet what we yearn most is to be seen by another. Furthermore, seeing can be just as thrilling. One may indeed pinpoint the moment when Laura becomes enthralled by Alec in the way Celia Johnson opens up with a jolt of recognition when noticing a boyish excitement as Alec speaks about his medical ambitions. It's not just that he sees her. She sees him too. Out of their shared look, love comes spewing forth. 

Do they truly know one another, though? What's perchance most tragic about Laura's fate is that not even Alec saw her. Not entirely, not in the end. That's more than most, but it still feels like it's not enough. The only ones who see her are us, the audience to which she confesses her innermost thoughts. It's both a burdensome responsibility and an incredible privilege to be the receptors of her truth. In some ways, it's the maximum miracle of cinema - to grant us this gift of peering into someone's bared soul, be it a character's heart or the artists' spirit. I'd go so far as saying that, despite its visual smallness, Laura's emotional storm is as vast and awe-inspiring as any of the widescreen vistas in Lean's later epics. In its particular fashion, Brief Encounter 's as majestic, if not more so.

There's much to say about this film, and yet I feel like no words will ever be enough to express its greatness. From a purely mechanical standpoint, it's remarkable how everything in it works so perfectly, from the negligible details of its editing rhythms to the Oscar-nominated performance of Celia Johnson. Re-watching the film this time around, I was especially amazed by how well she illustrates the cruel fear accompanying a triumphant lie. Realizing one can get away with it, that one's penchant for lying transcends the ability to self-delude, is a startling thing, and the actress embodies it all to perfection. The picture's overflowing with such miraculous bits of performance and gentle humanism, these beautiful moments lost between liminal spaces, lost memories and lost loves. Those impossible dreams that glisten for an ephemerous minute in the ever-shifting landscape of a train window. 

At one point, a character states, "You can never be dull." What Brief Encounter makes clear is that no one really can be, and isn't that wonderful and horrible at the same time? Entire universes exist inside all of us, every individual awesomely specific and unfathomably mysterious. Look at any given train station, and you'll find galaxies of memory inside each waiting passenger, epic loves falling apart silently in a corner, bottomless pits of despair forming invisibly inside a stranger's restless psyche. The mystery of each person is both glorious and heartbreaking, for it is forever unreachable, a train one can never embark. Maybe it's because I miss the train stations of the pre-pandemic world that the setting of Brief Encounter was so painfully evocative to me as I watched it today. Maybe, it's my age.

I'm still in my twenties but have gained much more life experience than I had when first seeing Brief Encounter as a teen. Over the years, I've started accumulating a small mountain of regrets and what-ifs, unanswered questions, and hauntings that go with me everywhere, chains dragging along. I often think of what I might have lost or gained if I'd made different choices. If I had taken another train or got off before my stop. Seeing Laura's despair, I can see my own reflected in silvery celluloid. I also see the memory of love and being loved, losing that along the way, and the ghostly pain it leaves behind. In that regard, the power of Brief Encounter has mutated with time. It's not the film that has changed. It's me. Such is the heartbreaking beauty of this perfect flick that I hope to revisit many more times over decades. In some years, I might be even more passionate about it. Altman had a point... sort of.

Brief Encounter 's streaming on HBO Max, the Criterion Channel, Shout Factory, and Flix Fling.

Reader Comments (10)

The beauty of revisiting movies over the course of our lives and changing perspectives is one of the great and under-appreciated joys of the film experience.

Very well written analysis of what is one of the masterpieces of cinema- a simple film which reveals so much

You are an incredible gifted writer. I always come away from your pieces with renewed insight. Age and life experiences do influence how we emotionally connect to art, but some works can charge our souls, and only later in years come to grasp why. At age 9, I felt exposed by the isolated angst of Anne Bancroft's Jo in "The Pumpkin Eater". The first time I viewed "Death in Venice" as a teen, I knew of the unrequited longing of Aschenbach. The layers of a character as deeply etched as Celia Johnson's were ,transcends the limits of an age.

I do love this film and man, it's such a devastating film to watch.

I can sort of agree with Robert Altman's assessment on what 14 year olds liked as I probably wouldn't have liked a film like Gosford Park nor Brief Encounter at that time. I was too immature to understand films like this though I was more into softcore porn films at that time (and a lot of them still hold up).

I was a 14 year old boy when I fell in love with Gone With The Wind...

This is a personal favourite of mine that improves each time I see it (and as I get older). I love that the leads are not beautiful movie stars. It makes the film more intimate and the characters more relatable. Not that it isn't relatable on its own. It is such a human story presented on that level. It's easy to understand how the relationship develops and the pain of its ending.

Much credit goes to Trevor Howard and especially Celia Johnson. Her performance is one of my all-time favourites. As much as I love Olivia de Havilland, the 1946 Oscar should have gone to Johnson.

But credit also goes to David Lean. I know his BIG epics are what he is most famous for, but my favourite films of his pre-date Bridge on the River Kwai . He knew how to capture emotion on camera in such subtle but profound ways and was able to expertly maintain pace and tension in the stories he told. He was a thinking person's director.

Brief Encounter is a timeless classic like the writer of this piece. May our encounters with his work be anything but brief.

I love your writing. And I love this movie. It's so touching and heartbreaking all at the same time. Celia Johnson ... just perfection.

I feel so much pity and sympathy for Laura

I absolutely adore Brief Encounter - and Gosford Park. And did so when I was a kid, and so I totally agree. It wasn't until I was much older that I realised that the husband basically knew what Celia Johnson had been up to all along. And similarly upon my first few watches I thought Alan Bates had committed the crime in GP.

Brief Encounter

• Blu-ray edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
• April 03 2016

See more details, packaging, or compare

After a chance meeting on a train platform, a married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) enter into a muted but passionate, and ultimately doomed, love affair. With its evocatively fog-enshrouded setting, swooning Rachmaninoff score, and pair of remarkable performances (Johnson was nominated for an Oscar for her role), this film, directed by David Lean and based on Noël Coward’s play Still Life deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance, and has influenced many a cinematic brief encounter since its release.

Picture 9/10

Extras 8/10

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“Brief Encounter” Movie Review: A Good Old Fashioned Love Affair

Brief Encounter (1945), a whimsical tale of extra-marital romance set in London in the ‘40’s, ambiguously threads the story of two people trying to hold tight to the joy they suddenly find in falling in love despite the kind and affectionate spouses waiting at home for them.

Written by Noël Coward ( Hay Fever , play) and directed by David Lean ( Lawrence of Arabia , Dr. Zhivago ), Brief Encounter watches Laura Jesson and Alec Harding, two middle-class British strangers, fall in love quickly and briefly. Laura, a housewife, narrates the film as an imagined confession of an affair to her husband. The movie’s story begins with Laura’s and Alec’s last moments together before he boards a train, never to return for he plans to help open a hospital in  South Africa, and her ensuing depression. The story is then told as an internal monologue when Laura gets home that night, at the end of her emotional and somewhat physical though never sexual affair.

Beginning the movie with the story’s end, the structure reassures the audience that the transgression they’re seeing is already over, everything has passed. The love affair is not a success. They do not tell their spouses. And they do not end their marriages over their love. The story came out during the Hays Code, but it was made in England, based on an English play with English writers and director, far from Hollywood and the America censors. But the movie still reads like a Hays Code film because of role moral implications play in the film. In the section on how movies treat sex and married life, it reads, “The sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld. … / ADULTERY, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly treated, or justified, or presented attractively.” This movie would not have passed the Hays Code not for what it outrightly says but for what might be between the lines. It is an ambiguous tale that either cautions the audience away from exploring chance encounters that make one feel as they’ve never felt before, or it condemns the institution of marriage as a cruel and unjust relic of a more repressed era that serves only to confine and torment those who only happened upon true love later in life.

Part of that ambiguity comes from the fact that there’s no malice or cruel intentions in the film. Consider that the play was released the same year as American writer James M. Cain’s serial novel Double Indemnity , in which a wife seduces an insurance agent into helping her murder her husband and stage it to look like an accident for the insurance money. Both stories were turned into movies within a year of each other. And how they depict extramarital relationships could not be more different. The relationship between Laura and Alec begins completely innocently. They are strangers who notice each other in a train station café but keep to themselves until Laura, while standing on the platform, gets a piece of ‘grit’ in her eye. It pains and irritates her right up until the moment Alec, a doctor, takes out his handkerchief, opens her eye and gently brushes it away. With the romantic and sexual tension in this scene alone, it’s a wonder Alec doesn’t sweep her off her feet right then and there. Instead, they smile and amiably part ways. Politely. Reservedly. Britishly. Later, they happen to run into each other and decide to get some lunch, which is fun and turns into a decision to go see a movie. The afternoon is so fun they decided to do it again the next Thursday. And the Thursday after that. Not because they want each other but because they feel so much joy at being with the other person. The whole love story is set up so as if to happen without their noticing. It’s set up so that when Alec says, “You know what’s happened, don’t you? I’ve fallen in love with you…” it comes almost as an inevitability. He didn’t mean to fall in love with her, nor she with him. They were only innocently spending time with a person whose company they enjoyed. But the brilliance of the story is as much in the words of Noël Coward, the playwright whose one-act Still Life (1936), as it is in the performances of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

Never has anyone in the world looked as much like they were seeing someone in a singularly alluring, new and wonderful light as Celia Johnson does while she listens to Trevor Howard’s character describe his ambitions as a doctor. And he plays her counterpart beautifully, swinging convincingly from exhibiting a childish joy and abandon when first feeling the joy of spending time with a new person, to falling back into a rigid professionalism and dignity when his friend catches him having an affair, not falling in love.

As an exploration of the morality of infidelity and the sanctity of marriage, the film’s final lines give it that final tint which leaves the reader scratching their head as to what David Lean’s (married six times, surely there must have been some extramarital feelings in there somewhere) film is trying to say about love and marriage. Upon reaching the end of Laura’s voice-over narrative, we find Laura staring blankly at her husband with a look of inarticulable grief and bewilderment while he calls her name. When she finally seems to see him, he walks over, kneels beside her, and says, “Whatever dream you were having, it didn’t seem to be a very happy one. Was it?” She says no and throws herself into his arms, which he wraps around her, pulling her close in an embrace that can only be described as loving, maybe even desperately loving.

By ending the movie here, with this shared feeling and embrace, Lean leaves the audience with an image of the marriage that taints the love which purportedly provides the basis for the affair. While we see joy, we do not see Laura and Alec fall in love so powerfully and connect so undeniably as to rally against the institution of marriage or the bonds of time and family, and root for the affair. Nor do we see a marriage so confining and dismal as to root against her husband. Sure, he’s not great. When she comes home after meeting with Alec, he says, “Good, you’re finally home, the children have been a nightmare.” He doesn’t express joy and relief at the chance to see her again, but he’s not terrible or even dim or mean. So, reducing the affair to a dream, a blip, a brief encounter, Lean’s tragedy also reduces love to the little piece of grit that gets stuck in the eye, little more than brief, painful and irritating.

No matter what the movie speaks to or says, it will break your heart before leaving you terribly, terribly alone.

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Brief Encounter Reviews

• 92   Metascore
• 1 hr 26 mins
• Drama, Comedy
• Watchlist Where to Watch

David Lean directed this beautifully acted, bittersweet adaptation of Noel Coward's play "Still Life," about two contentedly married English strangers, a doctor and a housewife, who meet by chance and then have weekly rendezvous in public places. The script, direction and Celia Johnson's performance as the woman were all Oscar-nominated.

A touching, exquisitely handled film dealing with two ordinary people who accidentally fall in love. BRIEF ENCOUNTER is a unique and sometimes misunderstood film whose very British restraint has not endeared it to all comers, but which if anything makes the film more passionate as a result. The famous use of Rachmaninoff for the musical score, which would seem ridiculous and cliched in later screen romances, is quite perfect here, as overpowering emotions threaten the reliable dullness the leading couple relies upon every day to get by. Krasker's gleaming black-and-white cinematography, at once delicately stylized and the peak of low-key realism, enhances the story of Alec (Howard) and Laura (Johnson), a doctor and housewife respectively, both happily married to others, who journey into town each Thursday on routine business. Alec's removing a cinder from Laura's eye at the train station one week initiates a casual friendship which rapidly grows into something far stronger than either could have expected. The couple share moments of tenderness, gentle confidences and even wry humor (e.g. while watching shlock cinema, surely writer Noel Coward's sly dig at pablum for the masses). Proof positive that director Lean was far better in his small-scale first half-dozen films than in his later overblown epics, BRIEF ENCOUNTER brings Coward's lovingly detailed and observant script to glowing life. The cast is uniformly faultless, from the sharp comic counterpont of Carey, Holloway, and Gregg to the wonderful gentility Raymond brings to the role of Laura's husband. Center stage, though, properly belongs to the leading couple. In two screen creations to cherish, dashing newcomer Howard gives a brilliantly nuanced, ardent and touching performance, while the ordinary-looking, carefully mannered Johnson achieves a heartbreaking performance whose beauty ranks with Garbo's CAMILLE.

The Criterion Collection

• My Collection

Brief Encounter

By Adrian Turner

Jun 26, 2000

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Brief Encounter was the fourth and final film that David Lean made in association with Noël Coward. Derived from Still   Life , a one-act play which Coward included in the portmanteau Tonight   8 : 30 , the story tells of a suburban housewife, Laura Jesson, who by chance meets a doctor, Alec Harvey, at the end of one of her weekly shopping trips to town. As she stands on the platform waiting for her train, an express roars past and throws a piece of grit into her eye, which Alec removes. They meet again the following week; they then go rowing on the lake, visit the cinema, and go driving in the country. They are obviously deeply in love, longing to consummate their relationship, but torn by guilt. Lean begins at the end and slowly introduces an intricate series of flashbacks, which are narrated by Laura. It is her story, but what sort of story is it? On its initial release, Brief   Encounter was hailed as a groundbreaking piece of realism and, to be sure, the performances by Trevor Howard (in his first starring role) and Celia Johnson are exquisitely judged, their actions entirely plausible. They are not “movie people,” and the world they live in is resolutely ordinary. The emphasis on the “realism” of Brief   Encounter caused it to go from success on release to an object of derision in the ’60s. Films such as Saturday   Night   and   Sunday   Morning regularly featured working-class adulterers, and a few years later, films such as Tom Jones , the 007 escapades, and The   Knack espoused sexual liberation and casual sexual encounters. One critic defined the message of Brief   Encounter as “Make tea, not love,” and recalled how an art-house audience in 1965 jeered at Alec and Laura’s middle-class torments. In more recent years, the emergence of a less promiscuous sexual climate, together with a critical rehabilitation of Lean, has turned Brief   Encounter into a much-loved classic. It is perhaps the British Casablanca , and has been similarly parodied. A long-running TV advertisement restaged the parting of Alec and Laura at the railway station; a film student made a short entitled Flames   of   Passion , the trailer of which Alec and Laura see at the cinema; and Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto can always be relied upon to evoke not only Lean’s film but an entire set of emotional values. In the northern town of Carnforth where the film was made (the wartime black-out made filming in Southern England impossible), there are even Brief   Encounter tours. In America, Brief   Encounter was the subject of a sketch by Mike Nichols and Elaine May, whilst Billy Wilder found Alec’s friend, who loans the flat, so interesting that he made an entire film about just such a character: The   Apartment . But perhaps a more fruitful approach is to assume that the film’s theme is not realism, but delirium—the word that fits with “romance” in Laura’s husband’s crossword. Laura’s house, the station buffet (where the manager and the guard indulge in an imagined affair of their own), and other interiors are oppressively dreary; the way Lean photographs meetings in the dark and shadowy station passageways, where Alec steals a furtive look, irresistibly conjures film noir and its associations with doomed love and characters trapped within a repressive social system. Brief Encounter is also the principal link between the small-scale films of Lean’s early career with the widescreen epics of his final phase. The   Bridge   on   the   River   Kwai , Lawrence   of   Arabia , Ryan’s   Daughter , and A   Passage   to   India each have central characters who are prone to a dreamy romanticism which borders on hysteria and hallucination. Look at Miss Quested (Judy Davis) at the end of A   Passage   to   India , after her fantasy of rape in the Marabar Caves, and look at Laura at the end of Brief   Encounter : they are the same person. As Laura’s husband does his crossword, Laura does her embroidery and conjures up this handsome doctor and overlays her fantasy with Rachmaninoff, the music coloring the inner life of this outwardly monochrome heroine. “You’ve been a long way away,” says Laura’s husband at the end. And she has. “I believe we should all behave quite differently in a warm climate,” she says to Alec after he announces his intended move to Africa. Condemning Laura to a life of conformity and emotional suppression, Lean sets his own course towards the far horizon, where the English go out in the midday sun. Brief   Encounter is not only Lean’s finest statement on the suffocating world into which he was born; it is also his train ticket out. Seen today, Brief   Encounter is perhaps, quite literally, a dream of England long ago. And if aspects of it have entered the mythology and cliché of the British cinema, more than enough remains in this complex film to move and fascinate us still. Indeed, one famous British columnist and wit, Cyril Connolly, suggested that Alec was not a doctor at all but a mental patient who, allowed out of hospital once a week, preyed on solitary women. Now, there’s a thought!

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Brief Encounter (1974) – Film Review

Director: Alan Bridges Cast: Sophia Loren, Richard Burton , Jack Hedley Certificate: PG

By Sarah Morgan

The first thing to consider when thinking about the 1974 version of Brief Encounter , is why anybody would bother making it in the first place. After all, the original was a classic, directed with skill and sensitivity by David Lean from a screenplay by the peerless Noel Coward and featured two of the most moving performances ever committed to celluloid.

“Bare bones”

Richard Burton was drafted in at the last minute to replace him, and to be fair, pairing the gravelly voiced Welshman with the still-sexy Sophia Loren seems like a good idea on paper. However, in reality, it’s a pretty lacklustre pairing – and whoever told Burton he’d look better if he dyed his hair must have been off his rocker. Presumably it was meant to make him appear younger or in better health, but it’s so obvious it’s distracting.

The bare bones of the original story remain – Alec and Anna (Loren) meet at a train station when he removes a piece of grit from her eye. They continue to bump into each other and gradually fall in love, despite being married to other people.

As with the original, it’s all done very politely, although we see more of the characters’ home lives this time. She’s bored but likes her husband, while he simply doesn’t love his wife. Sadly, it’s all so dull that nobody really cares.

“Strong pedigree”

Some of the lines are, however, unintentionally hilarious, including the moment Alec and Anna realise they’re in love – they both get misty-eyed as he describes various kinds of dust and the illnesses they can cause. Yes, really.

Director Alan Bridges had a strong pedigree in TV before tackling the project and went on to make the far superior The Shooting Party ; writer John Bowen’s career followed a similar path, so it’s hard to work out what went wrong. Perhaps the mix of Lean and Coward, alongside stars Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard was simply cinematic magic that couldn’t be repeated.

Beautiful Bridesmaids Dressed in Oranje by Gary ...

An interview with actor & writer, tonderai ..., related articles, an interview with author, rachel north, an interview with author, russ thomas, floating clouds (1955) – film review, santa sangre (1989) – film review.

A fabulous film,Burton a and Loren magnificent,classic locations,must see to all fans of 70.s films

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Brief Encounter (1974)

Brief encounter (1974) review.

By Christopher Null

Facts and Figures

Year : 1974

Contactmusic.com : 1.5 / 5

Cast & Crew

Director : Alan Bridges

Producer : Cecil Clarke , Carlo Ponti

Screenwriter : John Bowen , John Bowne

Also starring : Richard Burton , Sophia Loren , Gwen Cherrell , Jumoke Debayo , Benjamin Edney , Anne Firbank , Patricia Franklin , Christopher Hammond , Jack Harding , Jacki Harding , Jack Hedley , Madeleine Hinde , John Le Mesurier , Rosemary Leach , Norman Mitchell , Marco Orlandini , Maggie Walker , Cecil Clarke , Carlo Ponti , John Bowen , John Bowne

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A genuinely touching made-for-TV film that has been unfairly maligned by critics.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Nov 7, 2008