BRIEF ENCOUNTER
UK, 1945, 86 minutes, Black and White.
Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey.
Directed by David Lean.
Brief Encounter was a very successful play by Noel Coward. Coward and director David Lean had collaborated on several film versions of Coward's plays, for instance This Happy Breed and Blithe Spirit. During the war they had worked together on In Which We Serve.
Brief Encounter was made just after the war. It is still an excellent film, somehow or other combining a very ordinary theme of a chance encounter and the beginnings of an affair with ordinary life in Britain after the war. There is a sureness and deft approach in the characterisation of the main characters and as portrayed by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard; they are excellent.
The plausibility and reality of the situation is enhanced by the railway station setting and the excellent performances by Joyce Cary and Stanley Holloway as personnel at the station.
Music, pacing, photography are all superb and the film is very moving. It was remade by Alan Bridges in the 70's with Sophia Loren and Richard Burton in the central role. A lot of the technique of the voice overlap by the character of Laura was omitted from the second film.
However, Sophia Loren was excellent and moving in the role of Laura. Brief Encounter is a classic.
1. The quality of this film? Its reputation as a cinema masterpiece of post war Britain? Its insight, sensitivity, cinematic qualities?
2. British film-making in the 40s ? black and white photography, locations, studio work? Portrait of a family, of people and their ordinary lives, shopping, meals, going to the pictures, the streets of the city, the railway refreshment room, the countryside, a bridge and a stream? An atmosphere of authentic detail? The understated nature of the emotional conflicts, of love? The particular skills of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in the central roles? The quality of David Lean's direction?
3. The contribution of the musical score, the playing of Rachmaninoff's music by Eileen Joyce? The atmosphere of music, at the cinema, the band in the restaurant, the cellist, her work at the organ in the theatre?
4. Noel Coward's screenplay, insight, quality of observation of human manners and behaviour, the attention to detail? The psychology of the relationship between men and women, marriage, an affair? The significance of the title and its tone? The presentation of manners, small talk, the flow of conversation, the depth of communication?
5. Laura's confession, its framework for the structure of the film, the fact that it was addressed to her husband, the tone of a confession, self revelation, explaining and atoning, understanding her husband and his reactions, articulating her experience of Alec for her husband? The worries and anxieties throughout her confession? The return to the scene at home and her being distant? The build up of remorse, shame, fear, yet the deep experience of love and an important part of her life? The return to him at the end?
6. The importance of the structure: the railway station, the trains and their passing by, the trains as a symbol of brief encounters at the station? The focus on the railway refreshment room, the talk of Albert and the lady at the counter, her assistant? The introduction to the chatter and then noticing Alec and Laura in the background, Dolly and her arrival and chattering, the creating of tension and her misreading the situation, the train leaving, the departure, Laura and her going out (and the later realisation that suicide was close) the trip home and Dolly's chatter, feeling faint, the presentation of Fred, home and children and their settling down for the evening and the leading into her confession? The return to Fred in the middle, their bond at the end? The dramatic effects of flashbacks, of seeing the opening sequence at the end with all the tensions and the underlying meaning?
7. The film's presuppositions about marriage, mutual love, tenderness, the overwhelming nature of love, passion, the strange eruption of mutual love even for middle-aged people, the initiatives taken, the reality and ease of the beginning of an adulterous affair, feelings, the move towards consummation, sense of right and wrong, guilt, the relationship of thinking and feeling, the betrayal of trusts? How well did the film illustrate these themes? The stances of Laura, of Alec?
8. The subplot of the lady behind the counter and Albert, humour and a balance of moods, her way of talking, the soldiers and their insulting her, echoing the deeper themes of Laura and Alec?
9. The background of Fred and his home and career, the children, Laura as happily married and not realising any difference or possible different life? The fact that she never knew anything different? Her seeing Fred and the children in the light of her experience of Alec's departure? The talk of Alec's family and their going to Africa?
10. The build-up of the encounter into love - so natural, as Laura described it: the experience with the soot in her eye, the chance meeting, the chance encounters and reminding her of Alec, the importance of her comments trying to analyse when the affair began, what she should have done and not? The lunch and their being together, their joy together, laughter at the cellist in the orchestra, paying? Their going to the pictures? The importance of their not meeting and Alec's run to the station in the evening, Laura aware of her anxiety and wanting to see him? Subsequent outings, the comedy film with laughter at Donald Duck, flames of passion and going out? The beginning of Laura's lies and the telephone call to Mary? The irony of her being caught at the festive dinner with the champagne and Mary and her friend gossiping, the car ride and its being spoilt, the return to the flat, Laura's going to the train and her sudden getting off, more lies, especially about Miss Lewis? Her comments on sitting in the park and her smoking and Fred's disapproval, the station and the three hours passing thinking over things, the re-meeting of Alec? The build-up to the last day, her comment that only this morning he had gone, going to the bridge again, our seeing the final sequence with Dolly's arrival, hearing the situation and the words with a different viewpoint, Laura's suicidal feelings and the tilting of the camera to indicate this? How convincing the psychological development and presentation of the affair?
11. The background of the tender talk, the expression of the genuine love between the two, love and honesty, the details of the places they went, the meals, the pictures, the importance of Laura's fantasies in the train and the glamorising of her experience with Alec, the ways that they said goodbye and asking to help each other?
12. Comment on the background to the affair and the rhythm of moods and feelings and conscience; chance beginnings, slow development, peaking of the affair, the risks, the move to sordidness and shame, strain of relationship, their saying that it was the beginning of the end, the price to pay for the love, the taking of initiatives for breaking the affair, especially Alec's plans for Africa, the mutual forgiveness, the last time and the ending, his touch on her shoulder and leaving without looking back?
13. How well portrayed was the gallery of supporting characters, the talkers at the station, Laura's friends, the policeman, the people in the refreshment room, Steven and his encounter with Alec and catching Laura, his anger and disappointment, the return of the keys? The girl behind the bar and Laura's need for a brandy, the pad and the girl's insistence that it was closing time and Alec's arrival?
14. How well delineated were the characters of Laura and Alec, the strengths of characterisations of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, knowing them as people with their strengths and weaknesses?
15. How satisfying the resolution? The cathartic effect of Laura's confession, the fact that she had been a long way and Fred's thanking her for coming back to him?
16. A film of truth and insight, the quality of audience emotional response?
