183. Brief Encounter (1946)

Directed By David Lean

Synopsis

A middle-class, middle-aged couple have an affair. He eventually goes away to South Africa, and she stays behind, hurt.

Review

This is a pretty nifty film, there are so many layers of interpretation to it which make it particularly interesting. I should get what I dislike about it out of the way first however... I cannot bear Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, it is the most schmalty crappy melodramatic piece in the whole classical repertoire, and it unfortunately plays a major part in the film.

That out of the way there are many interesting film, rarely are films at this time shown from the point of view of a woman, much less films about adultery portraying the view point of the cuckolding wife, this by itself makes the film unique. But then there is the fact that the main characters are not particularly attractive or young, that they are mostly tortured by the fact that they might hurt others while at the same time having no regrets about what they are doing, and the fact that they are not ultimately punished for their acts. This would never have happened in a US film because of the castrating Production Code.

Then there is the whole different level of interpretation when you know who wrote the film, Noel Coward, and you start thinking: 'Is this semi-autobiographical?' Can the point of view of the woman in love with a man in a secret and forbidden relationship be a mirror to what gay men were going through at a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK? There is clearly a sensitivity for the woman's predicament and love for a man that reflects a painful experience by the part of the writer, the inner monologue of the main character is so utterly convincing and devoid of filmesque sentimentality that it is hard not to think of it as real.

An excellent film.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film was released amid the social and cultural context of the Second World War when 'brief encounters' were commonplace and women had far greater sexual and economic freedom than previously. In British National Cinema (1997), Sarah Street argues that "Brief Encounter thus articulated a range of feelings about infidelity which invited easy identification, whether it involved one's husband, lover children or country" (p. 55). In this context, feminist critics read the film as an attempt at stabilising relationships to return to the status quo. Meanwhile, in his 1993 BFI book on the film, Richard Dyer notes that owing to the rise of homosexual law reform, gay men also viewed the plight of the characters as comparable to their own social constraint in the formation and maintenance of relationships. Sean O'Connor considers the film to be an 'allegorical representation of forbidden love' informed by Noel Coward's experiences as a closeted homosexual (p. 157).

A made-for-TV version starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren was made in 1974, and is - as noted above - generally considered inferior.

Brief Encounter Parody: