"Brief Encounter" on 11/12/2023 at 3pm ET / 1pm MT
Nov 13, 2023 15:26:55 GMT
Andrea Doria, Fading Fast, and 1 more like this
Post by topbilled on Nov 13, 2023 15:26:55 GMT
Derailed then back on track
The relationship that develops between a British housewife (Celia Johnson) and a doctor (Trevor Howard) happens quickly and lasts briefly. Writer Noel Coward and director David Lean present two people who are needy at the same point in their lives, falling into something sudden and deep. The story takes place over the course of four Thursdays.
They meet casually on the first Thursday, when Laura Jesson gets grit in her eye on a train platform. Dr. Alec Harvey, a man she just met in the refreshment room, helps clean it out. Initially their interaction is quite minimal. Hardly romantic. Later they end up seeing each other again outside a store. It’s another platonic run-in. He takes the afternoon off from his medical practice, and they go to the cinema together.
Laura and Alec have such an enjoyable time, they decide to do it again the following Thursday. During the six and a half days that follow, Laura considers not seeing Alec again but does end up going. He has a medical emergency and doesn’t make it to the restaurant where they planned to dine. However, he finds her later at the train station when she’s heading home. He explains what happened and they agree to try again the following week.
The third Thursday it become more serious. They take in another movie then enjoy a lovely drive together. Alec kisses Laura at the station before they go their separate ways. The fourth Thursday they want more. Alec’s staying at a friend’s apartment downtown and asks Laura to head over there with him.
She declines, then changes her mind at the last moment. Alone in the apartment, it seems as if they will consummate the relationship. But all of a sudden Alec’s friend returns, so Laura has to hurry out a back door. She feels ashamed. Yet all they’ve done is kissed, nothing else.
Laura phones her husband and fibs about why she’s spending so much time downtown and why she can’t get home to fix dinner. She is not owning up to what’s been happening with Alec. Though, ultimately, Laura realizes it has to end. This is when Alec says he’s been offered a job in South Africa which he will take to make things easier on both of them. Neither one will leave their spouses or children to be with each other.
It can’t be anything more than friendship, because BRIEF ENCOUNTER is restrained by the production code. The characters are bound by a strong sense of morality. Laura and Alec’s story, which is quite simple, allows us to feel powerful emotions. There is light comic relief with minor characters in the refreshment room of the train station to offset the heavier moments. And there are also scenes set in the present, where she’s at home with her husband and children, remembering the events of the past four Thursdays.
Perhaps the most engaging part is Laura’s continual voice-over narration. We are privy to her innermost thoughts and feelings. She is telling her husband everything in her mind, but we are the ones she’s really telling. She’s a lonely soul, trying to maintain propriety but needing to reach out and connect with someone in a meaningful way. She decides a lot of the people she meets are idiots; she even calls herself an idiot at one point. But she doesn’t consider Alec idiotic at all.
In an interesting sequence, Laura’s on the train home and looks out the window. She glimpses herself dancing with Alec, driving with him in the countryside again and traveling abroad with him. It’s presented as a montage, but a fantasy montage.
At one point the camera switches to the reverse angle of the fantasy figures dancing. Suddenly from their vantage point we see Laura on the other side of the train window. It’s a skillfully made, imaginatively conceived film. The primary setting is the train station. But it really takes place in another realm. Two hearts have been derailed but are now back on track.
The relationship that develops between a British housewife (Celia Johnson) and a doctor (Trevor Howard) happens quickly and lasts briefly. Writer Noel Coward and director David Lean present two people who are needy at the same point in their lives, falling into something sudden and deep. The story takes place over the course of four Thursdays.
They meet casually on the first Thursday, when Laura Jesson gets grit in her eye on a train platform. Dr. Alec Harvey, a man she just met in the refreshment room, helps clean it out. Initially their interaction is quite minimal. Hardly romantic. Later they end up seeing each other again outside a store. It’s another platonic run-in. He takes the afternoon off from his medical practice, and they go to the cinema together.
Laura and Alec have such an enjoyable time, they decide to do it again the following Thursday. During the six and a half days that follow, Laura considers not seeing Alec again but does end up going. He has a medical emergency and doesn’t make it to the restaurant where they planned to dine. However, he finds her later at the train station when she’s heading home. He explains what happened and they agree to try again the following week.
The third Thursday it become more serious. They take in another movie then enjoy a lovely drive together. Alec kisses Laura at the station before they go their separate ways. The fourth Thursday they want more. Alec’s staying at a friend’s apartment downtown and asks Laura to head over there with him.
She declines, then changes her mind at the last moment. Alone in the apartment, it seems as if they will consummate the relationship. But all of a sudden Alec’s friend returns, so Laura has to hurry out a back door. She feels ashamed. Yet all they’ve done is kissed, nothing else.
Laura phones her husband and fibs about why she’s spending so much time downtown and why she can’t get home to fix dinner. She is not owning up to what’s been happening with Alec. Though, ultimately, Laura realizes it has to end. This is when Alec says he’s been offered a job in South Africa which he will take to make things easier on both of them. Neither one will leave their spouses or children to be with each other.
It can’t be anything more than friendship, because BRIEF ENCOUNTER is restrained by the production code. The characters are bound by a strong sense of morality. Laura and Alec’s story, which is quite simple, allows us to feel powerful emotions. There is light comic relief with minor characters in the refreshment room of the train station to offset the heavier moments. And there are also scenes set in the present, where she’s at home with her husband and children, remembering the events of the past four Thursdays.
Perhaps the most engaging part is Laura’s continual voice-over narration. We are privy to her innermost thoughts and feelings. She is telling her husband everything in her mind, but we are the ones she’s really telling. She’s a lonely soul, trying to maintain propriety but needing to reach out and connect with someone in a meaningful way. She decides a lot of the people she meets are idiots; she even calls herself an idiot at one point. But she doesn’t consider Alec idiotic at all.
In an interesting sequence, Laura’s on the train home and looks out the window. She glimpses herself dancing with Alec, driving with him in the countryside again and traveling abroad with him. It’s presented as a montage, but a fantasy montage.
At one point the camera switches to the reverse angle of the fantasy figures dancing. Suddenly from their vantage point we see Laura on the other side of the train window. It’s a skillfully made, imaginatively conceived film. The primary setting is the train station. But it really takes place in another realm. Two hearts have been derailed but are now back on track.
