Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter
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  • Currently 4/5} Stars.
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Synopsis

Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson play a doctor and a housewife in love with each other but married to other people. Based on Noel Coward's Still Life, this is a beautiful and sensitively understated British drama. With Stanley Holloway and Everly Gregg. "The most characteristic and perfect British film of all time" (International Dictionary of Films and David Lean---Great Britain---1945---86 mins.

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  • Currently 2/5 Stars.
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  | JohnH#1

Vanity project for Noel Coward? Actors rise above their material. Hard to tell when it was supposed to take place: was made in 1945 but no references to WW Ii or evidences of war damage, wife said clothes were from the Thirties, few glimpses of automobiles showed a Ford Anglia that resembled 1938 model. Rachmoninoff (Sp?) pounding away in the background a distraction. When final credits flashed, all I could think of was the old Bob and Ray sign off, "Eat plenty of starchy foods and keep a stiff upper lip".

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  • Currently 2/5 Stars.
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  | Jeff#18

The only reason I gave this movie even a 2 was that it is a historical record of rigid moral stiffness in 1945 England, a time when you'd think there would be a little celebration in the air. The two protagonists, especially the female of the "brief encounter", seem to make careers out of feeling guilt over the relatively innocent (certainly by today's standards) interactions they have during the film. Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, the only music used in the movie, was not always used to its best effect. Musical passages with a clear emotional mood footprint are used for scenes with completely non-corresponding moods. These two are literally awash in self-flagellation because they simply kissed one another and hugged a couple of times. One would think that the male protagonist had fathered her love child, given the levels of anguish that they experience, but nothing doing. They have barely gone beyond long, wishful gazes into one another's eyes. This movie is pure bathos. I am not familiar with other output by David Lean, who I'm told is a respectable director, but I would strongly suggest passing this film by.

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