What a breath of fresh air this film is!!
I watched this film as part of a David Lean double-header with "The Bridge on the River Kwai". You'd think you could hardly find two less similar films, but I was surprised exactly how much they had in common. I saw each of them as a kind lovesong to a mythologized past. "Kwai" romanticizes the war, the soldiers, the prison, the bridge, whereas the reality was far more brutal. "Brief Encounter" romanticizes pre-war Britain.
The performances in the film are case studies in understatement. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard do little to overtly establish the emotional turmoil their characters are experiencing, yet the message comes across very well indeed. Compare to "Casablanca", for instance. With no disrespect to that magnificent film, "Brief Encounter" manages to convey the same level of emotional intensity without resorting to the sort of grand dramatic scenes that Hollywood specialized in at this time.
"Brief Encounter" is a thoroughly English film. I love all things English, so I have complaint about that. But it is unusual to American audiences, which makes it a barrier especially to modern viewers. Some people call the film dated, and this is partly what they mean. I don't think it is dated at all, not really. The attitude of the characters toward their relationship is unusual. It's been very much en vogue for a long time now to treat adultery very casually in films. This film treats it very seriously. But there's nothing dated about that. It's not as though adultery used to be a moral issue and isn't now. It's that we're unaccustomed to seeing a film portray it so sensitively.
I've noticed a lot of people really digging into this film and throwing up all sorts of interesting conjectures. From the sexual orientation of Alec's friend to Alec's real agenda in all this, it's fascinating to speculate about what else might be going on. But I think it's important to remember that this story is told from Laura's point of view. This is deliberate, and it's important. The film is not so much about Alec and Laura as it is about Laura. If Alec is a womanizer, a psychotic, or a con man, it makes no difference to the film, because Laura believes him, and she believes that he loves her. This film is about how she responds to this sudden and unexpected tumult in her life.
I've heard others refer to Laura's husband as the villain of the piece. In a sense, I suppose he is. In a sense, he stands in conflict to the heroine's desire. But not really. The really troubling thing about Laura's "affair" (be it consumated or not... it doesn't matter in the least) is how utterly irrelevant her husband is. Her pangs of guilt seem to have less to do with her family than they do with simply obeying a pre-existing moral code. Adultery isn't wrong because of the pain it inflicts loved ones, it's wrong because society says it is. Laura is intellectually aware that thoughts of her family should make her feel guilty, and sometimes they do, but other times they don't. Her family is, in the grand scheme of things, only a very minor complication. The main complication, the real barrier to Laura's happiness, is society's mores. That's the villain.
But even that is too simple. That's the beauty of this picture. The idea isn't that society's rules are wrong, or repressive. It's that society's rules are simple, while life can get very complicated. It's about the conflict between those simple rules and this simple love, and the complicated web of guilt, self-loathing, confusion, and despair they create. What's the answer? Free love? Open marriages? No, that would create other problems, obviously.
But then, this film isn't about finding answers.
One last comment: for such a great director, I noticed that the directing was nothing very special in this film. I mean, the cinematography was gorgeous, but it was shot in a very simple, straightforward, unimpressively effective manner. Until the end, when Laura runs out on to the platform, after Alec leaves. That sequences... the angled shot of her face, the sense of claustrophobia, despair, and blind panic. It's an incredible moment.
I watched this film as part of a David Lean double-header with "The Bridge on the River Kwai". You'd think you could hardly find two less similar films, but I was surprised exactly how much they had in common. I saw each of them as a kind lovesong to a mythologized past. "Kwai" romanticizes the war, the soldiers, the prison, the bridge, whereas the reality was far more brutal. "Brief Encounter" romanticizes pre-war Britain.
The performances in the film are case studies in understatement. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard do little to overtly establish the emotional turmoil their characters are experiencing, yet the message comes across very well indeed. Compare to "Casablanca", for instance. With no disrespect to that magnificent film, "Brief Encounter" manages to convey the same level of emotional intensity without resorting to the sort of grand dramatic scenes that Hollywood specialized in at this time.
"Brief Encounter" is a thoroughly English film. I love all things English, so I have complaint about that. But it is unusual to American audiences, which makes it a barrier especially to modern viewers. Some people call the film dated, and this is partly what they mean. I don't think it is dated at all, not really. The attitude of the characters toward their relationship is unusual. It's been very much en vogue for a long time now to treat adultery very casually in films. This film treats it very seriously. But there's nothing dated about that. It's not as though adultery used to be a moral issue and isn't now. It's that we're unaccustomed to seeing a film portray it so sensitively.
I've noticed a lot of people really digging into this film and throwing up all sorts of interesting conjectures. From the sexual orientation of Alec's friend to Alec's real agenda in all this, it's fascinating to speculate about what else might be going on. But I think it's important to remember that this story is told from Laura's point of view. This is deliberate, and it's important. The film is not so much about Alec and Laura as it is about Laura. If Alec is a womanizer, a psychotic, or a con man, it makes no difference to the film, because Laura believes him, and she believes that he loves her. This film is about how she responds to this sudden and unexpected tumult in her life.
I've heard others refer to Laura's husband as the villain of the piece. In a sense, I suppose he is. In a sense, he stands in conflict to the heroine's desire. But not really. The really troubling thing about Laura's "affair" (be it consumated or not... it doesn't matter in the least) is how utterly irrelevant her husband is. Her pangs of guilt seem to have less to do with her family than they do with simply obeying a pre-existing moral code. Adultery isn't wrong because of the pain it inflicts loved ones, it's wrong because society says it is. Laura is intellectually aware that thoughts of her family should make her feel guilty, and sometimes they do, but other times they don't. Her family is, in the grand scheme of things, only a very minor complication. The main complication, the real barrier to Laura's happiness, is society's mores. That's the villain.
But even that is too simple. That's the beauty of this picture. The idea isn't that society's rules are wrong, or repressive. It's that society's rules are simple, while life can get very complicated. It's about the conflict between those simple rules and this simple love, and the complicated web of guilt, self-loathing, confusion, and despair they create. What's the answer? Free love? Open marriages? No, that would create other problems, obviously.
But then, this film isn't about finding answers.
One last comment: for such a great director, I noticed that the directing was nothing very special in this film. I mean, the cinematography was gorgeous, but it was shot in a very simple, straightforward, unimpressively effective manner. Until the end, when Laura runs out on to the platform, after Alec leaves. That sequences... the angled shot of her face, the sense of claustrophobia, despair, and blind panic. It's an incredible moment.