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Brief Encounter

United Kingdom

1945

86 Min
Black and White
1.33:1
English
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
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DIR David Lean

PROD Noël Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan, Ronald Neame

SCR David Lean, Noël Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allan

DP Robert Krasker

CAST Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond

ED Jack Harris

PROD DES Lawrence P. Williams

MUSIC Muir Mathieson, Sergei Rachmaninoff

SOUND Harry Miller

Cannes (In Competition): Grand Prix, Berlinale (Retrospective)

Synopsis

From Noël Coward’s play Still Life, legendary filmmaker David Lean deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance in the dour, gray Britain of 1945. From a chance meeting on a train platform, a middle-aged married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) enter into a quietly passionate, ultimately doomed love affair, set to a swirling Rachmaninoff score.—The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

David Lean

Director, writer, and producer David Lean, grew up in a strict religious background in which movies were forbidden, to become one of the world’s most celebrated filmmakers. Beginning as a tea boy in the mid-‘20s, he was lucky enough to move into editing just as sound films were coming on the scene. By the mid-’30s, he was regarded as one of the top in his field. Lean turned down several chances to make low-budget films, and got his first directing opportunity (unofficially) on Major Barbara (1941), one of the most celebrated movies of the early ‘40s. Noel Coward hired Lean as his directorial collaborator on his war classic In Which We Serve (1943), and, after that, Lean’s career was made. For the next 15 years, he became known throughout the world for his close, intimate, serious film dramas. Some (This Happy Breed 1944, Blithe Spirit 1945, and Brief Encounter 1945) were based upon Coward’s… read more

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Howard Orr

1Jan12

A film that reminds me I was born at least six decades too late. Further proof in the wake of Leans' later, fancier films that repression of thematic feelings, and film style and budget often produces great things.

muleyhaven likes this

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pannonica

12Dec11

On the slate for tonight. I'm sure it will cheer me up.

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cinemasox

14Nov11

The film in which Noel Coward and David Lean have their female protagonist say, "You know, the British have always been nice to mad people."

MarcH

13Oct11

Makes me cry...every time. One of those movies you wallow in after you break up with your boyfriend.

Saloniste likes this

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Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
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The Forgotten: Suffer the Little ChIldren

By David Cairns on April 23, 2009

I've only seen two Berthold Viertel films and already I'm obsessed. The Passing of the Third Floor Back mesmerized me, and now 1934's Little

read article

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Reviews

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Brief Encounter

By milkand​honey on August 28, 2011

A lot of people think of Brief Encounter as a comment on stuffy middle-class suburban culture and its restrained attitudes towards love, and while I’d be a complete douche not to see this, I…  read review

An age of innocence

By H. Paul Moon on January 28, 2010

Well before Adrian Lyne’s morality tales about adultery came this David Lean non-epic that didn’t burst, early into the film, with sexual aggression. Rather, that subtle pain of nervous tension, between…  read review

Untitled

By Wayne Rockmor​e on November 6, 2009

This is what a great movie is! Simple story, simply and efficiently told, lean, quick. This is the kind of movie that makes a person rethink the claim that every story worth telling has been told and…  read review

Thank you for coming back to me

By McKittr​ick on December 28, 2008

I first saw Brief Encounter when I was very young – pre-teens probably. I remember being very moved by the story, I enjoyed the very Englishness of it and it’s rich characterization. I didn’t then…  read review

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DVD

Buy the DVD from The Criterion Collection.