“Brief Encounter” (1945) is considered one of the best British films ever by those of a certain age. It is based on the play “Still Life” (1936) by Noel Coward and is directed by his protege David Lean, who would go on to direct stuff like “Doctor Zhivago” (1965) and “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962).
Theme: The film pushes an unrelieved heterosexual monogamy that was practised by neither Coward nor Lean, but which the target demographic (middle-class, mid-century Brits) struggled with, as in the film:
Our story: Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) has a brief encounter at a railway station with a handsome doctor, Dr Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard). One thing leads to another and, in the fashion of compulsive gamblers or Zeiler’s pecking pigeons, they are soon falling in love. It does not end happily ever after – because both are already contentedly married with children. Their love pulls them together but it also pulls them towards their destruction, towards “the precipice”.
Setting: Milford and Milford Junction are fictional. Going by the accents and lack of rationing, it seems to be suburban London in the 1930s, but it was filmed in part during the war in early 1945 in the north of England: London and the south were still subject to Nazi bombing and the blackout rules in force made filming there difficult. The railway station where it was filmed is still in operation: Carnforth station in Lancashire, 100 km north of Liverpool.
Compared to the play: Noel Coward wrote the screenplay (and did the station announcements), but made the film more clear-cut than the play. Filmgoers are not left in doubt whether the heroine had sex with the doctor or wanted to kill herself. The play left those to hang as open questions.
Music: Like Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” (1975), most of the music comes from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #2.
Accents: The ill-starred lovers conduct their affair in the classic Received Pronunciation (RP) of the time. You know, where “really” is not “ree-lee” but “rillih”.
Best lines:
Alec:
“The stars can change in their courses, the universe go up in flames, and the world crash around us, but there will always be Donald Duck.”
“All good doctors must primarily be enthusiasts. They must, like writers and painters and priests, have a sense of vocation, a deep-rooted, unsentimental desire to do good.”
Laura:
“It’s awfully easy to lie when you know that you’re trusted implicitly. So very easy, and so very degrading.”
“I believe we would all behave quite differently if we lived in a warm, sunny climate all the time. We wouldn’t be so withdrawn and shy and difficult.”
“This can’t last. This misery can’t last. I must remember that and try to control myself. Nothing lasts really. Neither happiness nor despair. Not even life lasts very long. There’ll come a time in the future when I shan’t mind about this anymore, when I can look back and say quite peacefully and cheerfully how silly I was.”
– Abagond, 2021.
See also:
- films
- Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto #2
- Received Pronunciation
- Orwell: Why I Write
- English love stories from the 1900s:
- Vera Lynn: We’ll Meet Again
- Zeiler’s pigeons
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Abagond 
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