Brief Encounter (1945)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Spencer S

  
  This is one of the most gorgeous films of the forties, adapted from the play by the prolific Noel Coward; Brief Encounter is one of the more taboo films from that era. Other films that came after it were far more fastidious in their rendering of the sexual aspect to these clumsy… More
  This is one of the most gorgeous films of the forties, adapted from the play by the prolific Noel Coward; Brief Encounter is one of the more taboo films from that era. Other films that came after it were far more fastidious in their rendering of the sexual aspect to these clumsy affairs, but this film is far more psychological, directing much of the film's emphasis on the emotional toll of lying to yourself and your loved ones. This simple tale is a familiar one to us all: two married people meet and fall in love unexpectedly. The film covers the trials and rollercoaster of denial, adoration, and admonishment that comes with having an affair and not knowing it. The two leads (Broadway legends Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard) act as if they were still on the stage, their facial expressions, the way they hold one another, the way they carry themselves in these desperate times, really spoke volumes about the way the characters interacted with each other. None of the other minimal characters attributed to this film truly matter, not even their significant others. The reason this film works while retaining the same concept we've seen time and again is that there is a level of devotion and attraction not seen in other films. These two don't want to be unfaithful to their spouses. They were perfectly happy with their small lives, eating in the same tea rooms, watching films in crowded theaters, and going home on their respective evening trains, but just a flicker of hope rose between them over time. Laura (Johnson) right away feels the inert danger of seeing a man who isn't her husband, and even confesses to seeing this man the first time they meet, but her husband doesn't see anything the matter and so she is assured that she isnâ(TM)t doing anything wrong. Then over time they start wanting to not be seen together by friends, finding ways to be intimate in the ways they spend their time together, and eventually they can't contain their feelings for one another and express their passion by way of kissing. Director David Lean explores the fact that love is never wrong, while expressly stating that the characters believe the exact opposite. Eventually their small, compact world is torn away from them, and the loss that Laura goes through with his departure, the fact that they never truly get to say goodbye and will never again say hello, is such a bitter and hollow pill to swallow. With the interesting ways this is shot, the texture and feel of this beautiful film and the use of black and white to bring out Johnson and Howard's performances was perpetually brilliant. Just a classic love story unparalleled in this day and age.

• Cassandra M

  
  Steam ... cut-glass accents ... Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto ... the refreshment room at Milford Junction ... "the shame of the whole thing - the guiltiness, the fear ..." - it all adds up to David Lean's famous film treatment of the Noel Coward tale of love… More
  Steam ... cut-glass accents ... Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto ... the refreshment room at Milford Junction ... "the shame of the whole thing - the guiltiness, the fear ..." - it all adds up to David Lean's famous film treatment of the Noel Coward tale of love blossoming and withering at a suburban railway station. Laura Jesson is a complacent middle-class housewife who gets a piece of grit in her eye one day and is helped by Doctor Alec Harvey, and the romance begins. Coward's screenplay is characteristic of his oeuvre. There is the neat precision of the circular plot, beginning and ending with the brainless intrusion of Dolly Messiter, and the matching sub-plot of the Albert-Mrs. Bagot courtship. There are tongue-in-cheek self-references (on the cinema screen, "Flames Of Passion" coming shortly) and the trademark Cowardian grounding in exaggerated Englishness ("One has one's roots, after all"). Most typical of all is that overwrought cascade of middle-class vocabulary (" ...so utterly humiliated and defeated, and so dreadfully, dreadfully ashamed"). Coward patronises working-class people abominably. Albert and Mrs. Bagot amble effortlessly through their romance because, bless them, they are simple folk. Alec and Laura suffer torments, having so much more sensitivity, and, you see, they have reputations to lose ("the furtiveness and the lying outweigh the happiness"). Having made the transition from editor to director in 1942, Lean was at the helm for the fourth time for "Brief Encounter", all four films being Coward projects - and a highly creditable job he made of this one. The scene in which Alec explains coal-dust inhalation and Laura falls in love is a model of sensitive direction. Reflections of Laura's face in the train window and the make-up mirror suggest in visual terms the existence of her 'other self', the id to her ego. Thundering steam trains and Rachmaninov stand for the irrepressible sexual urge. Stephen Lynn's flat, with its bachelor urbanity, contrasts cleverly with Laura's safe, staid home and safe, staid husband Fred ("I don't understand!") Alec's silent hand on Laura's shoulder is wonderfully poignant, the suppressed emotion eclipsed by stupid Dolly Messiter, her face filling the screen and 'wiping out' the great moment. Sex has to be dealt with obliquely, but it is very much the driving-force of the film. "If we control ourselves, and behave like sensible human beings ..." offers Laura hopefully but hollowly. Neither man nor woman is capable of restraint, at least until after the climax in Stephen's flat. The boathouse and the little bridge hint furtively at sexual union. Other reviewers have declared the liaison to be 'unrequited' or 'unconsummated', but I am not so sure. In the grammar of 1940's cinema, the return to the love-nest of tousle-haired, hatless Laura is the equivalent, I would suggest, of our modern bedroom scene. Isn't that why Alec suddenly decides to take the job offer?

• AJ V

  
  Just because this movie has "Brief" in the title, doesn't mean it's short, it actually felt kind of long and boring. Plus the romance isn't very interesting. It's not bad, but I didn't care for it either.

• Lady D

  
  My first viewing of this 40?s classic and a pretty enjoyable watch. Forget the accents for a moment ( in the decades when we were all so terribly posh) the storyline of course of forbidden fruit and adultery in a time when I?m sure it would have been considered a very controversial… More
  My first viewing of this 40?s classic and a pretty enjoyable watch. Forget the accents for a moment ( in the decades when we were all so terribly posh) the storyline of course of forbidden fruit and adultery in a time when I?m sure it would have been considered a very controversial film topic. An enjoyable oldie.

• Cindy I

  
  Losing love is always awful, as most everyone knows, especially when the love hasn't gone, but circumstances demand it. So this film can hit home to a certain extent with most anybody. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard were both believable in their roles as the lovers, both married… More
  Losing love is always awful, as most everyone knows, especially when the love hasn't gone, but circumstances demand it. So this film can hit home to a certain extent with most anybody. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard were both believable in their roles as the lovers, both married to others. Johnson's scenes where she is thinking about her situation while sitting in her home with her husband nearby are particularly memorable for me. The couple's final moments together were painful and touching. I don't necessarily condone adultery, but I'm also adult enough to know that you can't always choose who you fall in love with. Life isn't always as simple as we would like it to be.

• Saskia D

  
  Intense acting by Celia Johnson who plays Laura Jesson. Beautiful movie... <div style="width:720px;"><a href="http://www.flixster.com/actor/celia-johnson-photos/i-meant-to-do-it-10107983"><img… More
  Intense acting by Celia Johnson who plays Laura Jesson. Beautiful movie... <div style="width:720px;"><a href="http://www.flixster.com/actor/celia-johnson-photos/i-meant-to-do-it-10107983"><img src="http://content9.flixster.com/photo/10/10/79/10107983_gal.jpg" border="0"/></a><div style="text-align:center;font-size:10px;"><a href="http://www.flixster.com">

• Randy T

  
  I find that I have to keep reminding myself that movies, like books and stage plays, are a form of escapism. They allow us to live other lives vicariously through characters that are usually fictional and always physically detached from ourselves. You see, the thing is this, I am… More
  I find that I have to keep reminding myself that movies, like books and stage plays, are a form of escapism. They allow us to live other lives vicariously through characters that are usually fictional and always physically detached from ourselves. You see, the thing is this, I am disturbed by infidelity. Not that I'm naive enough to deny its prevalence, I just despise the mass presentation of it as acceptable and often inevitable. I'm also fully aware that watching a film about such matters (i.e. <i>Casablanca</i>, <i>The Apartment</i>, <i>The Graduate</i>, etc.) isn't going to make adulterers out of us any more than <i>Goodfellas</i> is going to make us gangsters or <i>About Schmidt</i> is going to make us hot-tub at the Kathy Bates estate. Still, no matter how much I rationalize it all, affairs, fictional or otherwise, bother me. Why, you ask, am I telling you all this? Only to justify giving this marvelous film four stars instead of the five that it deserves. The missing star is an issue with me, not with David Lean's <i>Brief Encounter</i>.

• Pierluigi P

  
  Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson elicit candor and passion without the need of words, and yet Noel Coward's screenplay is very rich and arouses a huge deal of emotion. All that in the master hand of David Lean signifies a tender and intense romance, a battle inside a woman's… More
  Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson elicit candor and passion without the need of words, and yet Noel Coward's screenplay is very rich and arouses a huge deal of emotion. All that in the master hand of David Lean signifies a tender and intense romance, a battle inside a woman's heart, captured with the utmost capacity by all those genius and sensitive minds involved in it.

• Red L

  
  What people do about "Falling in Love" in the 1930's was quite different than what would be expected now. Laura and Dr. Harvey meet, fall passionately in love, and decide to end their love affair - all over a few Thursday afternoons. In prim and proper great Britain,… More
  What people do about "Falling in Love" in the 1930's was quite different than what would be expected now. Laura and Dr. Harvey meet, fall passionately in love, and decide to end their love affair - all over a few Thursday afternoons. In prim and proper great Britain, they did this even though they each had family and kids at home. It is amazing how this brief encounter is so watchable.

• Jeremy S

  
  Breif Encounter is a beautiful film. One of the great love stories of the everyday which as the title suggest can happen in a brief moment and last a lifetime. This film involves one of the most heart-brakingly sad and yet stringly up-lifting endings ever. A classic in every sense.

• jay n

  
  Beautifully simple story of an impossible love between two ordinary people. It's all done expertly with delicate performances, a wonderfully evocative score, a great script and assured direction

• Jennifer X

  
  I hate David Lean, but shockingly enough I did not hate this. He has a one-track mind but it didn't detract too much from the picture, so I am proud of him!

• Veronique K

  
  "brief encounter" is the very flick which presents the fairest side of britain with its smolderingly constraining aura of 40s bourgeois society which cherishes the holiness of marriage bond which contributes to a beauty of glorious forbidden love in cinematic history.… More
  "brief encounter" is the very flick which presents the fairest side of britain with its smolderingly constraining aura of 40s bourgeois society which cherishes the holiness of marriage bond which contributes to a beauty of glorious forbidden love in cinematic history. the storyline is simple, and it's about two seperately married male and female encountering at the railroad cafe then falling helplessly in love with each other by each burgeoning bloom of consensual smile and mutual appreciation. then inevitably their love must be hindered by their sacred duties of marriage that means they could never consummate with ecstatic spark relentlessly even the torch of passion is flaming feverishly. each single gaze demands another lingering of love despite being limited by the transiency of time and the geographical inconvience. perhaps the british sense of romance is doomed to be smouldered within perennially. there's no fulfillment of shameless intercourse, and each single caress feels like love-making to them that leads to the millions watts of electricity and the incidental sense of guilt. besides the whole flick is narrated in an austic atmosphere of female protagonist's narrations, and you could detect that she's in agony of fickle hesitations and outcry of yearnings. any self-gratifying desire must be oppressed before wanton outburst, and that trait is evidently on both leads. maybe love is at its best condition while being nurtured in one's secretive corner without the violation of social doctrines and carnal demystification. sensibly speaking, the protagonists spend more time rejoicing their extracted pieces of love by themselves than realistically living with their love that means they might enjoy more thinking of their love than actually loving by actions. so it's sheer idealistic motion without materialistic realization. in contemporary cinema, illicit affairs must go thru the process of sex to accelerate the purpose of momentary pleasure then moralistically delineate the whole negative picture of the remorseful consequence paid afterwards. but here man and woman abide their decency without selfishly abadoning their innocent spouse so everything is reserved tastefully. even at the last shot, the husband considerately pleas to the wife "thank you for coming back to me" without any moralistic preaching....(additionally she never really makes him a cuckold anyway) "brief encounter" also converges the lyrical hangarounds in london, such as the pastures alec drives along with laurie, and especially the quaint bridge they embrace to kiss. the aroma does resonate the nowaday chinese cinema "in the mood for love" but embellished with more of an authentic background of poetic idiosyncracy.

• Shauna R

  
  A wonderful British romance film of the 1940's. A timeless masterpiece with characters so real you sometimes forget they are acting. I'm not usually one for romance films but Brief Encounter is so incredibly poignant and well written. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard are… More
  A wonderful British romance film of the 1940's. A timeless masterpiece with characters so real you sometimes forget they are acting. I'm not usually one for romance films but Brief Encounter is so incredibly poignant and well written. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard are perfectly cast and give unforgettable performances. The train station and sound effects create a haunting atmosphere and have probably changed the way I look at train stations. It's a simple, honest story of love and longing, I could never tire of it.

• Tim S

  
  A brilliant melodrama. David Lean makes the mundane beautiful. Celia Johnson is great.

• William S

  
  I first saw Brief Encounter when I was very young - pre-teens probably. I remember being very moved by the story, I enjoyed the very Englishness of it and it's rich characterization. I didn't then see it again for many years and when I did I became quite disillusioned by it… More
  I first saw Brief Encounter when I was very young - pre-teens probably. I remember being very moved by the story, I enjoyed the very Englishness of it and it's rich characterization. I didn't then see it again for many years and when I did I became quite disillusioned by it - thinking it trite, corny and frightfully dated. But over the years I realized that that probably had more to do with how cynical and hard hearted I was at the time (my early 20s)and have now renewed my love of it. Time has been kind to Brief Encounter and the things I felt were trite and corny, now seem poignant, beautiful and deeply moving. It IS very English but that is what makes it all the more wonderful. The depiction of doomed and unrequited love stifled by the repressive attitudes and stiff upper lips of a cold middle England (Coward's homosexuality most certainly would have informed his writing) expertly conveyed by a mixture of restrained but intense acting, Noel Coward's rich characterization, the flawless cinematography of Robert Krasker and the cinematic genius of David Lean. Celia Johnson's performance is amazing and her voice-over is the best you will ever hear in any film ever Also her face is so cinematic (her eyes tell you all you need to know about how Laura is feeling - despite the voice-over!) that you just can't take your eyes off her for a second. Her big close-up when she makes a mad, impulsive attempt at suicide gives me goose-bumps every time. Truly one of the greatest moments in cinema and if you fail to be moved by it then you are quite clearly an emotional cripple and I pity you! haha!

• Ken S

  
  It's a romance flick...one of the best...but nothing more...the acting is great and the story is VERY British..the last few moments they have together are amazing. It's the kind of movie that is hard to watch now because so much has been borrowed from it. Still worth… More
  It's a romance flick...one of the best...but nothing more...the acting is great and the story is VERY British..the last few moments they have together are amazing. It's the kind of movie that is hard to watch now because so much has been borrowed from it. Still worth checking out though

• Sarah G

  
  <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/sarah88_uk/129.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a> On a cafe at a railway… More
  <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q202/sarah88_uk/129.jpg" border="0" alt="Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket"></a> On a cafe at a railway station, housewife Laura Jesson meets doctor Alec Harvey. Although they are already married, they gradually fall in love with each other. They continue to meet every Thursday on the small cafe, although they know that their love is impossible. Considered by many to be the greatest British love story ever to be told on screen and one of the greatest films ever made. I most certainly agree with that. Having watched it about a year ago, I was the only one in the film class to truely appreciate it. Half the class couldn't comprehend the Middle-Class attitude that the two leads have and why on earth didn't they end up in bed towards the end of the film. The answer is this, Working Class people were not protrayed well on film during the 1940s, and especially in England. As demonstrated in the film, the working class were laughed at and the Middle Class were considered to be surpiroer. Brief Encounter contains one of the greatest scripts ever written Noel Cowards writing, perfectly captures the heart of 1940's life in the UK, well. He also especially captures what women felt alone, at home, while their husbands/boyfriends were at war. No suprises that this film was a huge sucess and was the start of a long line of Romance films soon after. Lean's direction is oustanding and the score is one of the greatest I've seen in my lifetime. His trademark shots of Trains/locomotives playing a significant role in the film's plot (e.g., Brief Encounter (1945), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Summertime (1955), Doctor Zhivago (1965), etc.) perfectly depict the relationship betweel Laura and Alec. The film, shot in atmospheric black and white and many close-ups, is done beautifully. For sure on of the most heat-wrenching scenes in cinema history is towards the end of the movie, when Alec departs for South Africa. We see a shot of him grasping her shoulder-which perfectly depicts the extent of their relationship. Overall one outstanding piece of film-making that you'll see. One of the greatest British films ever made. <b>Highly Recomended to all</b>

• Michael G

  
  I love David Lean. His epics are amazing but this is just an amazing looking chick flick from the 40s. I had to force myself to finish it.

• Antony S

  
  Wonderful, wonderful picture. This early masterwork from David Lean is almost the complete inversion of his latter-day 'big-scope' epics, and in doing so created a marvellous intimate drama aching with poetry. Howard and Johnson are perfectly cast, and explemify the longing… More
  Wonderful, wonderful picture. This early masterwork from David Lean is almost the complete inversion of his latter-day 'big-scope' epics, and in doing so created a marvellous intimate drama aching with poetry. Howard and Johnson are perfectly cast, and explemify the longing between two perfect strangers amazingly well. This is even better than Casablanca in my estimation, and is often shamelessly ripped off sans credit! I try and show this to anyone I know who's up for subtle romance movies - they've got to see the original and best! Oh, and it improves with each viewing!

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