Brief Encounter
June 26th 2009 12:34
Dir: David Lean
Genre: Romance, Drama
Running Time: 86 mins
I'm a sucker for British wartime B and W films. This is one of my all time favourites. It stars the very lovely Celia Johnson, and Trevor Howard as the Doctor with whom she is tempted to have an affair. The character's solid, British morality wins through in the end, as it must, given its time and place. The film was released in the UK in November 1945. The war was over, the nation was in shock, rationing was still in place and life was dreary and a slog with many privations and sadness that we can only imagine today.
For the war weary Brits this was a daring escapist film, hinting at very repressed, never mentioned inner sexuality. Celia Johnson in this film is an archetypal British housewife settled into a mundane marriage, she meets quite by chance, a handsome doctor in the waiting room of a railway station in the town she goes to every week to 'change her library book at Boots' - for any non Brits reading, that's Boots the Chemist. (Apparently that was where library books were found during the war, according to my Gran.)
Anyway, the film is a wonderful 'look see' at a world long disappeared, and very much about who the British thought they were. Superficially its a chicks film, from way before such films were invented, At a deeper level it offers an opportunity to observe a social mythology about feelings, sexuality and social rules and behaviour. It is a film about innocence, and 'old fashioned social values' that I for one have never believed really existed.
It is full of implied social cohesion - crtically needed during the war, and it still manages to display a veneer of social snobbery and class, while pretending that alls right with the world, So we can now carry on and get back to how things used to be, before those nasty Germans upset us so. Yes, it's terribly, terribly British.
I love this film, it is escapist nonsense, ideal for winter evenings curled up in front of the fire with a mug of home made soup and someone you love to bits.
Rating: 4/5
Genre: Romance, Drama
Running Time: 86 mins
Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard
I'm a sucker for British wartime B and W films. This is one of my all time favourites. It stars the very lovely Celia Johnson, and Trevor Howard as the Doctor with whom she is tempted to have an affair. The character's solid, British morality wins through in the end, as it must, given its time and place. The film was released in the UK in November 1945. The war was over, the nation was in shock, rationing was still in place and life was dreary and a slog with many privations and sadness that we can only imagine today.
For the war weary Brits this was a daring escapist film, hinting at very repressed, never mentioned inner sexuality. Celia Johnson in this film is an archetypal British housewife settled into a mundane marriage, she meets quite by chance, a handsome doctor in the waiting room of a railway station in the town she goes to every week to 'change her library book at Boots' - for any non Brits reading, that's Boots the Chemist. (Apparently that was where library books were found during the war, according to my Gran.)
Anyway, the film is a wonderful 'look see' at a world long disappeared, and very much about who the British thought they were. Superficially its a chicks film, from way before such films were invented, At a deeper level it offers an opportunity to observe a social mythology about feelings, sexuality and social rules and behaviour. It is a film about innocence, and 'old fashioned social values' that I for one have never believed really existed.
It is full of implied social cohesion - crtically needed during the war, and it still manages to display a veneer of social snobbery and class, while pretending that alls right with the world, So we can now carry on and get back to how things used to be, before those nasty Germans upset us so. Yes, it's terribly, terribly British.
I love this film, it is escapist nonsense, ideal for winter evenings curled up in front of the fire with a mug of home made soup and someone you love to bits.
Rating: 4/5
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Comment by Elisabeth Fraser
Paper Cover
Australian Take
I find Celia Johnson's performance outstanding, enhanced by her expressive eyes.
Compare her acting in "Brief Encounter" to her acting Noel Coward's "In Which We Serve."
I think David Lean brought out the best of Johnson in this. Trevor Howard played a beautifully crafted character which complemented Johnson's part.
This film always brings out a few tissues for me.
Thank you for reviewing it.
Lis.