Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter is British director David Lean before he turned his masterful hands to epics like Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence Of Arabia. Brief Encounter might lack the scale and ambition of his later films but it's a beautifully directed piece of cinema. Based on the Noel Coward play, Brief Encounter stars Celia Johnson as a seemingly happily married housewife whose normal Thursday routine of shopping in a nearby town is blown to pieces when she meets and falls in love with a doctor, played by Trevor Howard. In fact her whole life is turned upside down and this experience of passionate, unexpected love grates with her conscience and the reality of her married life. Even though both characters are married the viewer comes to sympathise with their situation. Adultery can never be condoned but the characters are so believable and their relationship is so natural that part of you wants them to have the freedom to express their love. Did they marry the wrong person, or marry for the wrong reasons? Ulitmately their brief encounter is too late. Noel Coward's screenplay and David Lean's direction are a dynamite combination. Add some measured performances, great cinematography and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.2, and you get a classic of British cinema. Challenging, intelligent and relevant. 9/10