|
Post by topbilled on Nov 12, 2023 21:11:22 GMT
It's been awhile since I've seen this...I had forgotten how much she starts lying to her husband.
|
|
|
Post by Fading Fast on Nov 12, 2023 21:12:13 GMT
Don't you want to punch his friend? Some friend! Wanted the key back. I agree, but then again, maybe he doesn't want his apartment being used of "that." It's understandable, but he came off as a pompous *ss.
|
|
|
Post by topbilled on Nov 12, 2023 21:13:56 GMT
A sudden break now would be too cruel.
|
|
|
Post by Andrea Doria on Nov 12, 2023 21:14:02 GMT
Yes, and both times she put it just that way, women don't "smoke in the street." It wasn't the smoking itself but the rules that went with it for women, not when standing up walking, not in the street, never hold the cigarette in your mouth. etc.
|
|
|
Post by topbilled on Nov 12, 2023 21:17:34 GMT
Thursday. Always Thursday.
Friday through Wednesday is just so ordinary, so hard to endure.
|
|
|
Post by topbilled on Nov 12, 2023 21:21:08 GMT
Away. Out of my life forever.
|
|
|
Post by Fading Fast on Nov 12, 2023 21:23:21 GMT
I like the way they replayed the opening scene at the end, but now we see her go outside and what she was considering - it's very effective.
|
|
|
Post by Fading Fast on Nov 12, 2023 21:25:53 GMT
I love how distilled this story is. It's like so many of the movies we watch together, but stripped down to its essential elements.
|
|
|
Post by topbilled on Nov 12, 2023 21:27:42 GMT
I like the way they replayed the opening scene at the end, but now we see her go outside and what she was considering - it's very effective. I agree. It was well done.
Though the film was technically released in 1945 in Great Britain, it did not have a North American release until 1946.
Celia Johnson did earn an Oscar nomination in 1946. She was up against Jane Wyman for THE YEARLING; Rosalind Russell for SISTER KENNY; Jennifer Jones for DUEL IN THE SUN; and Olivia de Havilland for TO EACH HIS OWN. The winner was de Havilland, but I think Celia Johnson's performance was just as deserving.
|
|
|
Post by Andrea Doria on Nov 12, 2023 21:29:23 GMT
Fred for the win! What a lovely guy.
Great movie. Good pick for your British women gone wild month!
|
|
|
Post by topbilled on Nov 12, 2023 21:29:35 GMT
Excellent choice.
|
|
|
Post by Andrea Doria on Nov 12, 2023 21:50:22 GMT
I like the way they replayed the opening scene at the end, but now we see her go outside and what she was considering - it's very effective. I agree. It was well done.
Though the film was technically released in 1945 in Great Britain, it did not have a North American release until 1946.
Celia Johnson did earn an Oscar nomination in 1946. She was up against Jane Wyman for THE YEARLING; Rosalind Russell for SISTER KENNY; Jennifer Jones for DUEL IN THE SUN; and Olivia de Havilland for TO EACH HIS OWN. The winner was de Havilland, but I think Celia Johnson's performance was just as deserving. I haven't seen "To Each His Own," but I always think Olivia is great.
If Jennifer Jones won for "Duel In the sun," I would be upset.
I really can't imagine those others being better than this.
|
|
|
Post by topbilled on Nov 13, 2023 0:28:50 GMT
I agree. It was well done.
Though the film was technically released in 1945 in Great Britain, it did not have a North American release until 1946.
Celia Johnson did earn an Oscar nomination in 1946. She was up against Jane Wyman for THE YEARLING; Rosalind Russell for SISTER KENNY; Jennifer Jones for DUEL IN THE SUN; and Olivia de Havilland for TO EACH HIS OWN. The winner was de Havilland, but I think Celia Johnson's performance was just as deserving. I haven't seen "To Each His Own," but I always think Olivia is great.
If Jennifer Jones won for "Duel In the sun," I would be upset.
I really can't imagine those others being better than this. TO EACH HIS OWN would be a good melodrama to watch one Sunday afternoon.
|
|
|
Post by Fading Fast on Nov 13, 2023 1:54:36 GMT
I haven't seen "To Each His Own," but I always think Olivia is great.
If Jennifer Jones won for "Duel In the sun," I would be upset.
I really can't imagine those others being better than this. TO EACH HIS OWN would be a good melodrama to watch one Sunday afternoon. I agree, I really like "To Each His Own."
|
|
|
Post by Fading Fast on Nov 13, 2023 3:03:08 GMT
Brief Encounter from 1945 with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard
There is no reason why a short movie about a middle-class man and woman, both married, having a fleeting affair should be anything more than a mundane picture, yet Brief Encounter's poignant portrayal of a heartbreaking romance is a minor cinematic classic.
Based on a Noel Coward play, almost everything about it rings true and sad. Leads Celia Johnson, as the housewife, and Trevor Howard, as the general practitioner, who meet by chance in a small train station cafe, look like your neighbors, not movie stars.
While we learn more about Johnson's marriage than Howard's, both seem happily married; although, maybe a bit bored with their spouses after nearly two decades together raising kids and facing all the day-to-day challenges life throws at everyone.
When Johnson and Howard meet, neither is looking for an affair. Their initial time together - he has some hours free from his hospital work and she's in the city for a day of shopping - is spontaneous and almost English proper.
But after several of their half-day weekly rendezvous, both realize something more than a friendship is going on, which leads to the joy of new love and the guilt of cheating.
These are basically good people doing something very wrong. They want to be together, but they don't want to wreck their families, so they slow-walk their way forward knowing every path leads to some kind of heartbreak.
It all plays out amidst the palpable fear of exposure as being "respectable" meant so much in England at that time. And not just for the woman, as revealed by Howard's obnoxious friend's scathing disapproval of Howard’s behavior.
With Johnson's voiceover narration, we see how the affair preys on her. She knows she is fortunate to have a good and kind husband and two healthy young children. She also knows what she is doing is wrong, but the heart and libido have a powerful pull of their own.
Brief Encounter works because it gets the details right. The accidental train-station meeting, the afternoon escapes at the movies, walking arm in arm for the first time or waving goodbye as his train leaves are all perfectly captured by director David Lean's keen eye.
Early in his directorial career, Lean, who would go on to direct some of the great mid-century epic love stories, shows he already understood that it is those small details - a knowing glance, a gentle touch - that reveals the intimacy and affection of a romance.
Lean also understood the importance of atmosphere. The trains coming and going in the station, amidst clouds of steam and blasts of whistles, parallels the jarring passion of the affair. Similarly, the lovers' trip to the countryside, like their love, is only a redoubt from reality.
There is nothing special about two middle-class people having a brief extramarital affair, except that to them, it is earthshaking. Steered by Lean's thoughtful directing, Johnson and Howard, fully realizing Coward's script, make us all feel just how earthshaking it can be.
It is this ability of Brief Encounter, the ability to bring someone else's inner tragedy to life for the audience, that makes it a timeless classic.
|
|