Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

ratari My first thought was "Oh just another B/W film from the 40's" But it is much more than that. You have to keep In mind this was a different time. The end of WW2, a country had just survived a traumatic 4 yrs.of war. A country reawakening to a new life. A Spring. People were searching for a new and better reality. 4 yrs of having to keep calm and carrying on. People wanted more in life. This story shows that longing in the two main characters. They find a brief connection to a fantasy that they know in the end is just that and that they, in the end have to do the honorable and right thing and carry on. I will not give the ending away. It is well worth waiting for.

JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: A married woman falls in love with a doctor. NOTES: Nominated for the following prestigious Hollywood awards: Best Actress, Celia Johnson (lost to Olivia de Havilland in To Each His Own), Best Screenplay (Adapted) (lost to The Best Years of Our Lives), Best Directing (won by William Wyler for The Best Years of Our Lives). Celia Johnson in Brief Encounter, Best Feminine Performance of 1946. – New York Film Critics Award. Brief Encounter, number four on the National Board of Review's Ten Best of 1946. Third to The Wicked Lady and Piccadilly Incident as the U.K.'s top box office attraction for 1946. COMMENT: Frankly, Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson are not my idea of romantic lovers. But then of course that is what Brief Encounter is all about. They are not supposed to be. That is why the film was so popular. Not only did it break with tradition but it presented a pair of lovers devoid of Hollywood glamour. Average people with whom many cinema-goers could identify. This of course is what is wrong with the remake with Richard Burton and Sophia Loren. Which is why said remake was not popular. But for my money "Brief Encounter" is just a bit too homely on the one hand, too upper-class on the other, too defiant of convention yet too conventional (which can be seen in the ending and the fact that the affair is not an affair, legally at any rate). I also find the low- life scenes in the railway refreshment room (which is the scene of the original play incidentally) obtrusive. A pity. I like Stanley Holloway, but I don't think he belongs in this film. To my mind, Coward has got the ingredients for his dramatic formula not only wrong but has mixed them incorrectly. But I am a lone voice. Most everyone thinks Brief Encounter is wonderful. Certainly there can be no disputing the wonderful effectiveness of the music score (cleverly drawn from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto, which popularized this work and catapulted Rachmaninoff into the big league of popularly acclaimed composers), or the atmospheric brilliance and absolute attractiveness of Robert Krasker's superlative cinematography. Some deft examples of effective film editing too reveal Lean's former skill as film editor. My 2017 VIEW: This expansion of Coward's one-act play was hailed as one of the all-time great masterpieces of the English cinema when first released. A contemporary viewing is apt to disappoint. True, Johnson and Howard play with great charm and sincerity. Their dialogue is restrained and realistic, and there is a wistful, poignant mood (reinforced by the choice of Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto for background music) in their scenes. Unfortunately, a great deal of this mood is dissipated by the low-life scenes of laboriously stilted comedy relief involving Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey — which both play in an extremely stagey, heavy-handed manner. They seem even more theatrical because Lean has filmed their scenes in exactly the same manner as he uses for the tender, romantic scenes between Johnson and Howard, viz. large close-ups.

avik-basu1889 'Brief Encounter' is a film from the initial part of David Lean's career as a filmmaker when he was majorly known for being the most skilled director at interpreting Noel Coward's plays on celluloid. The screenplay of 'Brief Encounter' written by Lean himself along with Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan is based on Coward's play 'Still Life'. The film spreads out the play and expands on it. Unlike Lean's more popular works like 'Lawrence of Arabia' or 'The Bridge on the River Kwai', 'Brief Encounter' is a much more contained film with a smaller scope. But for me the film is as special as Lean's more grander works due to its intimate storytelling and mature depiction of an extra-marital affair.I think there are a few hints in the film about how suffocating the uptight nature of British middle/upper class society could be at the time. But to be honest, the social commentary is very nuanced and the major aspect that Lean is interested in is the exploration of the characters, especially Laura. The film is interested in focusing on the struggle that Laura goes through while balancing a sense of guilt along with desire. Most generic films that deal with extra- marital affairs resort a little too much to steamy sexual scenes for depicting the passion between the participants which invariably ends up being nothing but a source of the audience's titillation without saying anything about the characters. 'Brief Encounter' on the other hand is based solely on the characters' inner struggles. David Lean never judges them for their actions. There is a humane sense with which Laura and Alec get treated. These characters know that what they are getting into has no future, but the circumstances and tender nature in which they treat each other makes it impossible for them to resist each other's company.Lean also beautifully shows the difference between the grander scheme of things and the individual problems and struggles. A person can be going through the most traumatic experience, but it might not be of any significance in the bigger picture. This theme is brilliantly depicted in the first scene. We enter the railway station tea stall. We see the ancillary characters in the story talking to each other. Suddenly the camera pans away from them and moves to a table where Laura and Alec are sitting. We don't know them yet. We don't even hear what they are saying to each other, their conversation gets drowned by the other conversations being held in the room. It's only when we enter the psyche of Laura which happens later in the film that we truly get to understand the gravity of that first scene. Lean's direction from a basic technical standpoint has to be admired too along with the way he handles the theme of the story and his actors. He remains nuanced in his way of using the camera. Whenever Lean wants us to know what Laura is thinking, he approaches Laura ever so gently with the camera along with the dimming of the lights in the shot. There is a scene where a sudden change in mood makes the camera tilt to the right, as the tension settles, the camera tilts back to its normal straight position. Lean also does something that I love, he stages one particular scene twice, but from different perspectives. It always impresses me when a director is able to pull this storytelling technique off properly and Lean does so with flying colours.From an acting sense, the film has good performances all round, but the only actor that deserves a special mention is Celia Johnson. She is the one who drives this film forward. She is very subtle, very expressive and brilliantly portrays the struggle of Laura. She makes it impossible for the audience to not feel for Laura. Her voice-over is also brilliant.If I have to nit-pick, I'll say that maybe the voice-over in some scenes could have been more discreetly used. In certain scenes I thought, the emotional effect would have been more powerful if what Laura is thinking wasn't completely told to the audience, but it really is a very minor complaint.I'll end this review by reaffirming my appreciation for 'Brief Encounter'. This is an example of a mature piece of filmmaking where the director fleshes out the central character completely in front of you. Highly recommended.

Python Hyena Brief Encounter (1945): Dir: David Lean / Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg, Valentine Dyall: Dark romance that regards that peak moment when sin emerges and the gradual path to its growth. Celia Johnson plays Laura Jesson, a house wife who is dissatisfied with her marriage. Trevor Howard plays doctor Alec Harvey whom she encounters at a coffee shop while awaiting her train. She is transfixed by his charms after he assists her in dealing with a speck in her eye, and soon they are off to the movies. A romance blossoms and she soon becomes paranoid to the thoughts of those around her and the fear of being found out. Cyril Howard plays her husband who is supportive in his role as husband and father but his routines of cross-word puzzles and such lead Laura to boredom. There is a host of colourful supporting characters including Everley Gregg as Laura's very talkative friend. Valentine Dyall plays a doctor acquaintance of Alec's who learns of the forbidden romance and makes his opinion known. Directed by David Lean with a clever screenplay that is insightful despite being, at times, corny. It contains the so-called innocence and passion of sin that eventually catches up with us and turns our brief encounter into a lifetime mistake. That is, unless those whom can be damaged most reverse the pain with understanding. Score: 9 / 10