Brief Encounter

David Lean, UK, 1945, 85 minutes

Adapted from the Noel Coward one-act play, Brief Encounter tells the achingly poignant tale of the special, but short-lived, romance between housewife Laura Jessop (Celia johnson) and Dr Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard).

One day they meet by chance at a railway station (Alec tenderly removes a piece of grit from Laura's eye) and so begins a series of clandestine meetings at various suburban locations. They soon begin to fall in love for each other, yet are held back from consumating their relationship by their innate middle-class repression.

Director David Lean was a master of intimate drama and Brief Encounter is arguably his finest work. Above all, the sympathetic portrayal of private tensions marks it out as a definitive work of the man known as the "gentle dictator". The acting of the two leads is perfect. Celia Johnson never looked more alluring. Fine comic support is provided by Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey as railway station employees.

Brief Encounter is the archetypal cinematic tearjerker. The final railway scene has to go down as the most poignant in British cinematic history, beautifully complemented by a soundtrack resonating with Rachrnaninoffs second Piano Concerto.

Review by Stephen Townsend
Taken from EUFS Programme 1993-94