Rent Brief Encounter (1945)
4.0 of 5 from 323 ratings
1h 26min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Noel Coward's sensitive portrayal of what happens when two happily married strangers, played by Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, meet and their acquaintance deepens into affection and eventually into love. It is the story of two people, thrown together by the chance meeting of the title, helpless in the face of their emotions but redeemed by their moral courage. Over the years few films have equalled the compassion and the realism of Brief Encounter.
- Actors:
- Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg, Marjorie Mars, Margaret Barton, Wilfred Babbage, Alfie Bass, Wallace Bosco, Sydney Bromley, Nuna Davey, Valentine Dyall, Irene Handl, Dennis Harkin, Edward Hodge, Jack May, Avis Scott, George V. Sheldon
- Directors:
- David Lean
- Producers:
- Noël Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ronald Neame
- Writers:
- Noël Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Ronald Neame
- Others:
- Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan
- Studio:
- Carlton Video
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like The Magic Box, 10 Films to Watch if You Like: Raise the Red Lantern, A History of Cinemas in Films, Acting Up: British Actresses at the Oscars, Award Winners, Films to Watch If You Like..., Getting to Know..., Getting to Know: Kenneth Branagh, Getting to Know: Sophia Loren, Holidays Film Collection, A Brief History of Film..., The Instant Expert's Guide, The Instant Expert's Guide to François Ozon, The Instant Expert's Guide to Todd Haynes, The Instant Expert's Guide to: Robert Altman, The Third Man At 75, Top 10 Best Last Films: World Cinema, Top 10 British Actresses of the 1940s, Top 10 Cannes Palme d'Or Winners, Top 10 Films Set in Venice, Top 10 Guest Houses On Film, Top 10 Screen Kisses (1896-1979), Top 100 BFI Films, Top Films
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 02/02/2009
- Run Time:
- 86 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Digital 2.0
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.33:1 / 4:3
- Colour:
- B & W
- Bonus:
- A profile of Brief encounter
- Stills gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- Brief encounter restoration featurette
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Reviews (2) of Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter - Brief Encounter review by CP Customer
What a delight! I really didn't expect to laugh so much - all the 'working class' characters had razor-sharp humour through their dialogue. The lead parts highlighted the innocence of the age, the passion was a simmering undercurrent.. Even so I found there was a realism which is often lacking in modern cinema - for example the actors' teeth were as nature intended, not white and straight! As a snapshot of the constraints of middle-class post-war life, I found it fascinating.
4 out of 5 members found this review helpful.
Romantic Melodrama. - Brief Encounter review by Steve
What used to be a model of middle class Englishness now seems a very strange place indeed. Yet the film remains a widely loved tale of unrequited love. A heartbreaker. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard are married, but not to each other. They fall deeply in love after a chance meeting at a provincial railway station, but separate because it is the right thing to do...
It's a slight story given depth by the use of Rachmaninoff on the soundtrack and Robert Krasker's truly exceptional images of romance among the steam engines. It is beautifully edited too. But what we most remember the film for are the performances of the two stars as the reserved, scrupulous strangers. This was Howard's big break and he is haunting, but it's Celia Johnson who brings the tears.
It now feels like a remembrance of the bourgeois emotions- forbearance, shame, decency... The couple are paralysed by convention. It was loosely adapted from a play by Noël Coward and a popular analysis is that the gay playwright used a female character as a stand-in for a sexually conflicted man who is tempted from his marriage into an affair with another male... And that interpretation is a good fit.
So while orthodox, it is also ambiguous. After WWII the theme of sacrifice must have felt close to home. Especially when Celia's stolid husband (Cyril Raymond) famously, and kindly says, 'Thank you for coming back to me'. They will live until death with the unspoken trauma of her experience. But now it feels the message is the opposite; that life is short and happiness is fragile, so take love gladly, however it comes.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.