Chick Flick from the Past: ‘Brief Encounter’ (1945)

Director: David Lean

Writer: Based on the play “Still Life† by Noel Coward

Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, and Joyce Carey.

Run time: 86 minutes (black and white)

Rating: None

Awards: Nominated for 3 Oscars, won Grand Prize at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival

DVD features: Audio commentary from film historian Bruce Eder, original trailer (which I found quite amusing).

Plot: Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) is a lonely housewife who makes weekly trips to town every Thursday. During these trips Laura shops and usually catches a matinee at the local theater before taking the train home. One particular Thursday, Laura is standing by the train tracks and an express train speeds by causing dirt to fly into her eye. Laura walks into the train station’s cafà © to ask for some water to help clean her eye. Dr. Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard) hears of Laura’s distress and offers to help thus marks the beginning of an ill-fated love affair.

Is it worth watching?: Absolutely. This film is considered one of the best ever by the English public. In a 2004 Sunday Telegraph newspaper pole, Brief Encounter was voted as the 2^nd Best British Film Ever. The first spot went to Lawrence of Arabia which was also directed by David Lean.

The film is wonderfully acted by the main cast. Johnson and Howard have unique chemistry without having to say or do much. I could feel and see their struggles between desire and social morals. Every time I watch Stanley Holloway (My Fair Lady) on the screen I just have to smile. There is a sweetness about him that I love. His teasing of the female cafà © owner is cute and endearing.

Usually I find voice-overs annoying and lazy such as its excessive use in Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), but here it fits in perfectly. The voice-overs allow the viewer to know what Laura is really thinking, but unable to publically verbalize in her morally uptight 1940’s English society. In a film about love, morality, and sex it was refreshing to not have these values thrown in my face just for shock or attention.

This film left me feeling sad, but it’s a good sadness. The couple had their several Thursdays together even though their relationship was not meant to be. At least they had that small stretch of time to share their love and the opportunity to cherish its memory forever. Reader, would you stick to your morals and family while knowingly giving up the love of your life? I not sure I would be able to.

(4 stars out of 5)