BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard – d: David Lean
Brief Encounter (1945)
Direction: David Lean
Screenplay: David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan; from Noel Coward’s play Still Life
Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond
Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter
Synopsis:
- A married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a housewife (Celia Johnson) have an adulterous (platonic) affair.
The Pros:
- Shadow-bathed, smoke-enshrouded railway stations (cinematography by Robert Krasker) to the strains of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
- David Lean’s delicate direction, and Lean, Ronald Neame, and Anthony Havelock-Allan’s sensitive adaptation of Noel Coward’s play Still Life. No Hollywood ending here, and no syrupy, cutesy moments, either.
- Best actress Oscar nominee and New York Film Critics winner Celia Johnson’s über-British performance as the sympathetic, adulterous, stiff-upper-lipped, and most sad-eyed housewife in all of England, and Cyril Raymond’s excellent supporting turn as her husband.
- Historical curiosity: The friend’s apartment scene — in which the adulterous couple’s love affair almost gets physical — inspired Billy Wilder’s The Apartment.
- And last but definitely not least, the film’s final moment: "Thank you for coming back to me."
The Cons:
- No actual cons, really. That said, the humorous bits featuring Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey wouldn’t be missed if they disappeared, while Trevor Howard doesn’t fully convey his character’s passion or inner turmoil. That’s why Brief Encounter rests squarely on the eyelashes of its female star.
The Question Mark:
- Did the husband know? I’d say he did. In fact, I’m sure he did. Others are just as sure he didn’t. According to a friend who knows Brief Encounter co-screenwriter Ronald Neame, the future director of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and The Poseidon Adventure said that no, the husband didn’t know. I say he did.
In Sum:
- Brief Encounter is a masterful, deeply moving love story for adults.
3 Academy Award Nominations
Best Director: David Lean
Best Actress: Celia Johnson
Best Screenplay: David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan
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Tags: Anthony Havelock-Allan, Brief Encounter, Celia Johnson, Classic Movies, Cyril Raymond, David Lean, Film Reviews, Noel Coward, Oscar 1946, Oscar Movies, Rachmaninov, Ronald Neame, Trevor Howard
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