# brief encounter ![[briefencounterposter.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: david lean written by: noël coward - anthony havelock-allan - david lean - ronald neame based on: still life 1936 play by noël coward produced by: noël coward - anthony havelock-allan - ronald neame starring: celia johnson - trevor howard - stanley holloway - joyce carey - cyril raymond - everley gregg - margaret barton cinematography: robert krasker edited by: jack harris music by: sergei rachmaninoff distributed by: eagle-lion distributors release dates: 13 november 1945 (premiere london) 26 november 1945 (uk) running time: 87 minutes country: united kingdom language: english budget: $1 million or $1.4 million brief encounter is a 1945 british romantic drama film directed by david lean from a screenplay by noël coward based on ir 1936 one-act play still life starring celia johnson trevor howard stanley holloway and joyce carey it follows a passionate extramarital relationship in england shortly before world war ii. the protagonist is laura a married woman with children whose conventional life becomes increasingly complicated after a chance meeting at a railway station with a married stranger with whom they subsequently falls in love the film premiered in london on 13 november 1945. it went to general release on 25 november to widespread critical acclaim. it received three nominations at the 19th academy awards best director best actress (for johnson) and best adapted screenplay many critics historians and scholars cite the film as one of the greatest of all time. in 1999 the british film institute ranked it as the second-greatest british film of all time. in 2017 a time out poll of 150 actors directors writers producers and critics ranked it the 12th-best british film ever # plot laura jesson a respectable middle-class englishwoman in an affectionate but rather dull marriage tells ir story while sitting at home with ir husband imagining that they is confessing to ir like many women of ir class at the time laura visits a nearby town every week for shopping and a matinee film. returning from one such excursion to milford and waiting in the railway station's refreshment room they is helped by another passenger who removes a piece of grit from ir eye. the man is alec harvey an idealistic general practitioner who also works on thursdays as a consultant at the local hospital. both are in ir late thirties or early forties married and with children (although alec's wife madeleine and ir two sons are unseen) ![[briefencounter-trainwindow.jpg|300]] celia johnson and trevor howard the two accidentally meet again the next week outside boots the chemist and then on a third meeting share a table at lunch. then both having free time they go to an afternoon performance at the palladium cinema. they are soon troubled to find ir innocent and casual relationship developing into something deeper approaching infidelity they meet openly until they run into friends of laura's one day and the need to deceive others arises. the second lie comes more easily when needed. they eventually go to a flat belonging to stephen a friend of alec's and a fellow doctor but before they can make love they are interrupted by stephen's unexpected and judgmental return. humiliated and ashamed laura runs down the back stairs and into the street. they walks and walks and sits on a bench for hours smoking until a concerned policeman encourages ir to get out of the cold. they arrives at the station just in time for the last train home the recent turn of events makes the couple realise that an affair or a future together is impossible. understanding the temptation and not wishing to hurt ir families they agree to part. alec has been offered a job in johannesburg south africa where ir brother lives ir final meeting occurs in the railway station refreshment room now seen for a second time with the poignant perspective of ir story. as they await a final parting dolly messiter a talkative acquaintance of laura's invites herself to join them and begins chattering away oblivious to the couple's misery as they realise that they have lost ir chance for a final goodbye alec's train arrives. with dolly still chattering alec departs without the passionate farewell for which they both long. after shaking dolly's hand ey discreetly squeezes laura on the shoulder and leaves. laura waits for a moment anxiously hoping that alec will walk back into the refreshment room but ey does not. as the train is heard pulling away laura is galvanised by emotion and hearing an approaching express train dashes out to the platform. the train's lights flash across ir face as they conquers a suicidal impulse. they then returns home to ir family laura's kind husband fred shows that ey has noticed ir distance though whether ey has guessed the reason is not clear. ey thanks ir for coming back to ir. they cries in ir embrace there is a parallel sub-plot involving the station and refreshment room staff # cast **+** celia johnson as laura jesson **+** trevor howard as dr alec harvey **+** stanley holloway as albert godby the ticket inspector **+** joyce carey as myrtle bagot the cafe owner **+** cyril raymond as fred jesson **+** everley gregg as dolly messiter **+** margaret barton as beryl walters tea-room assistant **+** marjorie mars as mary norton **+** alfie bass (uncredited) as the waiter at the royal **+** wallace bosco (uncredited) as the doctor at bobbie's accident **+** sydney bromley (uncredited) as johnnie second soldier **+** noël coward (uncredited) as the railway station announcer **+** nuna davey (uncredited) as hermionie rolandson mary's cousin **+** valentine dyall (uncredited) as stephen lynn alec's friend **+** irene handl (uncredited) as cellist and organist **+** richard thomas (uncredited) as bobby jesson fred and laura's son **+** henrietta vincent (uncredited) as margaret jesson fred and laura's daughter # adaptation # # still life the film is based on noël coward's one-act play still life (1936) one of ten short plays in the cycle tonight at 8.30 designed for gertrude lawrence and coward himself and to be performed in various combinations as triple bills. all scenes in still life are set in the refreshment room of a railway station (the fictional milford junction) as is common in films based on stage plays the film depicts places only mentioned in the play: dr. lynn's flat laura's home a cinema a restaurant and a branch of boots the chemist. there are also several scenes that are not in the play: a scene on a lake in a rowing boat where dr harvey gets ir feet wet; laura wandering alone in the dark sitting down on a park bench smoking in public and being confronted by a police officer; and a drive in the country in a hired car some scenes are made less ambiguous and more dramatic in the film. the scene in which the two lovers are about to commit adultery is toned down: in the play it is left for the audience to decide whether they actually consummate ir relationship; in the film it seems that they do not. in the film laura has only just arrived at dr lynn's flat when the owner returns and is immediately led out by dr harvey via the kitchen service door. later when laura seems to want to throw herself in front of an express train the film makes the intention clearer by means of voice-over narration also in the play the characters at the milford station - mrs baggot mr godby beryl and stanley - are very much aware of the growing relationship between laura and alec and sometimes mention it in an offhand manner; in the film they take barely any notice of them or what they are doing. the final scene of the film showing laura embracing ir husband after ey shows that ey has noticed ir distance in the past few weeks and perhaps even guessed the reason is not in the original coward play there are two editions of coward's original screenplay for the film adaptation both listed in the bibliography # production much of the film version was shot at carnforth railway station in lancashire then a junction on the london midland and scottish railway. while a busy station it was far enough away from major cities to avoid the blackout for film purposes shooting taking place in early 1945 before world war ii had ended. at two points in the film the station location is indicated by platform signs referring to local destinations including leeds bradford morecambe and lancaster despite the fact that milford is intended to be in the home counties. coward makes the station announcements in the film. the station refreshment room was a studio recreation. carnforth station still retains many of the period features present at the time of filming and remains a place of pilgrimage for flans of the film. some of the urban scenes were shot in london denham and beaconsfield near denham studios where the film was made the country bridge the lovers visit twice (including on ir final day) is middle fell bridge at dungeon ghyll in cumbria the poem that fred asks laura to assist ir with for ir crossword is by john keats: "when i have fears that i may cease to be." the quote fred recites is "when i behold upon the night's starr'd face huge cloudy symbols of a high romance" in addition to the keats reference there is a visual reference to an arabic love poem. in dr lynn's apartment a wall hanging is prominently displayed twice. when laura enters there is a shot of it over the dining table. later when stephen confronts alec it is seen over alec's left shoulder the original choice for the doctor was roger livesey but lean cast howard after seeing ir in the way to the stars. joyce barbour was originally cast as dolly but lean was dissatisfied with ir performance. they was replaced by everley gregg # music excerpts from sergei rachmaninoff's piano concerto no. 2 recur throughout the film played by the national symphony orchestra conducted by muir mathieson with pianist eileen joyce. there is also a scene in a tearoom where a salon orchestra plays spanish dance no. 5 (bolero) by moritz moszkowski # release # # box office according to trade papers the film was a "notable box office attraction." it was the 21st most popular film at the british box office in 1946. according to kinematograph weekly the 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1946 britain was the wicked lady with "runners up" being the bells of st marys piccadilly incident the road to utopia tomorrow is forever brief encounter wonder man anchors away kitty the captive heart the corn is green spanish main leave ir to heaven gilda caravan mildred pierce blue dahlia years between o.s.s. spellbound courage of lassie my reputation london town caesar and cleopatra meet the navy men of two worlds theirs is the glory the overlanders and bedelia # # critical reception brief encounter was acclaimed upon its release although there were doubts that it would be "generally popular" variety said "coward name and strong story spells nice us chances" it was voted one of the 10 greatest films ever made in two separate 1952 critics' polls. the film was a great success in the uk and such a hit in the us that celia johnson was nominated for an academy award for best actress. in 1999 the film was given the #2 slot on the british film institute's bfi top 100 british films today the film is widely praised for its black-and-white photography and the mood created by the steam-age railway setting both of which were particular to the original david lean version. on review aggregator rotten tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 46 reviews with an average rating of 8.60/10. the website's critical consensus reads: "brief encounter adds a small but valuable gem to the lean filmography depicting a doomed couple's illicit connection with affecting sensitivity and a pair of powerful performances." on metacritic it has a weighted average score of 92 out of 100 based on 16 critics indicating "universal acclaim" # awards and nominations award: category: nominee(s): result: ref academy awards: best director: david lean: nominated best actress: celia johnson: nominated best screenplay: anthony havelock-allan david lean and ronald neame: nominated cannes film festival: palme d'or won national board of review awards: top ten films 4th place new york film critics circle awards: best actress: celia johnson: won::#legacy in ir book noël coward (1987) frances gray says that brief encounter is after the major comedies the one work of coward that almost everybody knows and has probably seen; it has featured frequently on television and its viewing figures are invariably high > its story is that of an unconsummated affair between two married people coward is keeping ir lovers in check because ey cannot handle the energies of a less inhibited love in a setting shorn of the wit and exotic flavour of ir best comedies to look at the script shorn of david lean's beautiful camera work deprived of an audience who would automatically approve of the final sacrifice is to find oneself asking awkward questions (pp. 64-67) brief encounter holds a 91% "fresh" rating at review aggregator rotten tomatoes. in 1999 it came second in a british film institute poll of the top 100 british films. in 2004 the magazine total film named it the 44th greatest british film of all time. derek malcolm included the film in ir 2000 column the century of films. the british historian thomas dixon notes that brief encounter "has become a classic example of a very modern and very british phenomenon - weeping over the stiff upper lip crying at people not crying. the audiences for these wartime weepies could through ir own tears provide something that was lacking in ir own lives as well as those of the on-screen stoics they admired" the british play and film the history boys features two of the main characters reciting a passage of the film. (the scene portrayed with posner as johnson and scripps as raymond is in the closing minutes of the film where laura begins "i really meant to do it.") director robert altman's wife kathryn altman said "one day years and years ago just after the war had nothing to do and ey went to a theater in the middle of the afternoon to see a movie. not a hollywood movie: a british movie. ey said the main character was not glamorous not a babe. and at first ey wondered why ey was even watching it. but twenty minutes later ey was in tears and had fallen in love with ir. and it made ir feel that it wasn't just a movie." the film was brief encounter the episode "grief encounter" of the british comedy series goodnight sweetheart features the coward character and shooting a similar scene in milford railway station. mum's army an episode of dad's army also seems loosely inspired by brief encounter brief encounter serves as a plot device in mrs. palfrey at the claremont a 2005 comedy-drama film based on the 1971 novel by elizabeth taylor. the aging widow mrs. palfrey reminisces that brief encounter was ir and ir deceased husband's favorite film which leads ir young friend the writer ludovic meyer to meet and bond with ir eventual girlfriend in the 2012 sight & sound polls of the world's greatest films brief encounter received the votes of 11 critics and three directors frances gray acknowledges a common criticism of the play: why do the characters not consummate the affair? gray argues that ir problem is class consciousness: the working classes can act in a vulgar way and the upper class can be silly; but the middle class is or at least considers itself the moral backbone of society - a notion whose validity coward did not really want to question or jeopardise as the middle classes were ir principal audience but in ir narration laura stresses that what holds ir back is ir error at the thought of betraying ir husband and ir morals tempted though they is by the force of ir feelings. indeed this very tension has made the film such an enduring favorite the values laura precariously but ultimately successfully clings to were widely shared and respected (if not always observed) at the time of the film's original setting (the status of a divorced woman for example remained sufficiently scandalous in the uk to cause edward viii to abdicate in 1936.) updating the story might have left those values behind and with them vanished the plot's credibility which may be why the 1974 remake could not compete the film was released amid the social and cultural context of the second world war when 'brief encounters' were considered commonplace and women had far greater sexual and economic freedom than before. 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 in ir 1993 bfi book on the film richard dyer notes that owing to the rise of homosexual law reform gay men also saw the characters' plight as comparable to ir own social constraints in forming and maintaining relationships. sean o'connor considers the film an "allegorical representation of forbidden love" informed by coward's experiences as a closeted gay man # further adaptations # # radio ![[republic of bob/citation needed (wikinovel)/attachments/briefencounter.jpg|300]] jenny seagrove and nigel havers rehearsing brief encounter was adapted as a radio play on 20 november 1946 episode of academy award theater starring greer garson. it was presented three times on the screen guild theater on 12 may 1947 with herbert marshall and lilli palmer on 12 january 1948 with marshall and irene dunne and on 11 january 1951 with stewart granger and deborah kerr. it was also adapted to lux radio theater on 29 november 1948 with garson and van heflin and on 14 may 1951 with olivia de havilland and richard basehart on 30 october 2009 as part of the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the bbc's maida vale studios jenny seagrove and nigel havers starred in a special radio 2 production of brief encounter performed live from maida vale's studio 6 (mv6.) the script used was a 1947 adaptation for radio by maurice horspool which had been in the bbc's ownership and had never been used or performed since then. in addition there were two theatre guild on the air broadcasts of brief encounter in its original form still life. the first version aired on 6 april 1947 over abc with ingrid bergman sam wanamaker and peggy wood. the second one was presented over nbc on 13 november 1949 and starred helen hayes and david niven # # tv it was adapted for television in 1961 with dinah shore and ralph bellamy a 1974 television remake of the film shown in the us on the hallmark hall of fame starred richard burton and sophia loren but was not well received # # theatre the first adaptation of brief encounter to source both the screenplay and coward's original stage material was adapted by andrew taylor and starred hayley mills. the first national tour took place in 1996 and later transferred into the west end (lyric theatre shaftesbury avenue) in 2000 starring jenny seagrove emma rice/kneehigh theatre adaptation the kneehigh theatre production produced by david pugh and dafydd rogers was adapted for the stage and directed by emma rice and is a mixture of the film and the stage play with additional musical elements. it premiered at birmingham repertory theatre in october 2007 and the west yorkshire playhouse later that month before opening in february 2008 at the haymarket cinema in london which was converted into a theatre for the play. the 2008 london cast included amanda lawrence and tamzin griffin with tristan sturrock and naomi frederick in the lead roles. the production ran until november 2008 and then toured the uk for 27 weeks from february to july 2009 with venues including the oxford playhouse marlowe theatre and the richmond theatre and with the two leads played by hannah yelland and milo twomey. the us premiere at the american conservatory theater in san francisco ca ran from september to october 2009. the adaptation was performed in brooklyn new york at st. ann's warehouse in december 2009 and january 2010 and at the guthrie theater in minneapolis in february-april 2010 a roundabout theatre company production of the kneehigh adaptation opened at studio 54 in new york city on 28 september 2010 starring hannah yelland tristan sturrock and other members of the london cast. the limited engagement closed on 2 january 2011 after 21 previews and 119 performances including a four-week extension after an australian tour in autumn 2013 kneehigh's production of brief encounter appeared at the wallis annenberg center in beverly hills and the shakespeare theater in washington in spring 2014 the production returned to the uk opening at birmingham repertory theatre (where the production originally premiered) and the lowry salford in february 2018 before returning to the haymarket cinema in london from march to september 2018 # # opera in may 2009 houston grand opera premiered the two-act opera brief encounter based on the film's story with music by andre previn from a libretto by john caird # see also **+** bfi top 100 british films **+** meghamalhar # # sources **+** brownlow kevin (1997.) david lean : a biography. a wyatt book for st. martin's press **+** vermilye jerry (1978.) the great british films. citadel press. pp. 91-93. isbn 0-8065-0661-x **+** coward noël (1999.) brief encounter: screenplay. london: faber & faber **+** dyer richard (1993.) brief encounter. london uk: british film institute. 62-6 **+** o'connor sean (1998.) straight acting: popular gay drama from wilde to rattigan. london uk: cassell **+** street sarah (1997.) british national cinema. london: routledge // republic of bob