What is brief encounter on BBC One about?
'Brief Encounter' grabs you from the start, with a chatterbox interrupting a man and a woman who are silently sitting together in the café of a train station, but were clearly in the middle of a conversation before she arrived.
Who are the actors in Brief Encounter?
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. Brief Encounter serves as a plot device in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, a 2005 US-produced comedy-drama film based on the 1971 novel by Elizabeth Taylor.
What is the soundtrack to brief encounter?
The screenplay is by Noël Coward, based on his 1936 one-act play Still Life. The soundtrack prominently features the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, played by Eileen Joyce . Brief Encounter was met with wide praise from critics upon its release, and is today considered to be among Lean's finest works.
Is brief encounter a poet's film?
This is a poet's film, harsh, cruel and lovely. There have been few better British films than Brief Encounter even at a time when our studios are taking their place in the vanguard of this great contemporary art. January 23, 2018 | Full Review…
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Storyline
On one of their usual weekly commutes into the city, two perfect strangers--Dr Alec Harvey, an esteemed suburban doctor, and Anna Jesson, a middle-class housewife--will inadvertently find love, when a bit of dirt enters Anna's eye and the good doctor comes to her rescue.
Did you know
Alec Harvey: It's one thing to close a window. It's another thing to slam it on my fingers.
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By what name was Brief Encounter (1974) officially released in Canada in English?
What to know
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 performance. Read critic reviews
Movie Info
Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard).
Critic Reviews for Brief Encounter
Lean's sad, buttoned-up account of unconsummated love is about all of us and our cautious natures.
Audience Reviews for Brief Encounter
'Brief Encounter' grabs you from the start, with a chatterbox interrupting a man and a woman who are silently sitting together in the café of a train station, but were clearly in the middle of a conversation before she arrived.
Movie & TV guides
The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review.
What is the brief encounter?
Brief Encounter is a 1974 British-Italian television film starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, adapted from the play Still Life by Noël Coward. The plot of the film is about two strangers, each married to another, who meet in a railway station and find themselves in a brief but intense affair.
What is the plot of the film Brief Encounter?
The plot of the film is about two strangers, each married to another, who meet in a railway station and find themselves in a brief but intense affair.
When did the Burton film begin?
Burton was cast at the last moment, after Robert Shaw dropped out. The film had its premiere on U.S. television on 12 November 1974 as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame series on NBC.
Movie Info
When doctor Alec Harvey (Richard Burton) helps Anna Jesson (Sophia Loren) get something out of her eye on a train platform, neither suspects they are initiating an affair. Both are married with children and believe their impulse to meet again is completely innocent.
Critic Reviews for Brief Encounter
A genuinely touching made-for-TV film that has been unfairly maligned by critics.
Audience Reviews for Brief Encounter
There are no featured reviews for Brief Encounter because the movie has not released yet ().
Kids say
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A lot or a little?
Strength and courage are on display in resisting temptation and putting loved ones first. The movie suggests that acting in your own interests doesn't always bring happiness. It also shows that things are not always straightforward and good people sometimes act in ways they are not proud, yet can move on from that to do the right thing.
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that Brief Encounter is a classic British romantic drama set in 1940s England and centers on an extramarital affair, and the resulting feelings of shame, guilt, and fear. Having met by chance at a train station, housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and Dr.
What's the story?
In BRIEF ENCOUNTER, suburban housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) has a chance encounter with a stranger at a train station, when Alec ( Trevor Howard) comes to her rescue to remove something from her eye.
Is it any good?
For a movie where it appears that very little happens, this classic 1940s British romantic drama packs an almighty emotional punch. At the center of Brief Encounter is a relatively chaste relationship that is never allowed to fully ignite, indicative of the moral restrictions of the time period.
Overview
Brief Encounter is a 1945 British romantic drama film directed by David Lean from a screenplay written by Noël Coward, based on his 1936 one-act play Still Life.
It stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, and Joyce Carey. The film follows a passionate extramarital affair in England shortly before WWII. The protagonist is Laura, a married woman with children, whose conventional life b…
Plot
Laura Jesson, a respectable middle-class British woman in an affectionate but rather dull marriage, tells her story while sitting at home with her husband, imagining that she is confessing her affair to him.
Laura, like many women of her class at the time, goes to a nearby town every Thursday for shopping and to the cinema for a matinée. Returning from one such excursion to Milford, whil…
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
Adaptation
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 referred to in the play: Dr. Lynn's flat, Laura's home, a cinema, a restaurant and …
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 referred to in the play: Dr. Lynn's flat, Laura's home, a cinema, a restaurant and a branch of Boots the Chemist. In addition, a number of scenes have be…
Production
Much of the film version was shot at Carnforth railway station in Lancashire, then a junction on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. As well as a busy station being necessary for the plot, it was located far enough away from major cities to avoid the blackout for film purposes, shooting taking place in early 1945 before the Second World War had finished. At two points in the film, the station location is indicated by platform signs referring to local destinations including, Leeds, Bradford, Morecambe and Lancaster. Coward m…
Much of the film version was shot at Carnforth railway station in Lancashire, then a junction on the London, Midland and Scottish Railway. As well as a busy station being necessary for the plot, it was located far enough away from major cities to avoid the blackout for film purposes, shooting taking place in early 1945 before the Second World War had finished. At two points in the film, the station location is indicated by platform signs referring to local destinations including, Leeds, Bradford, Morecambe and Lancaster. Coward makes the station announcements in t…
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 tea room where a salon orchestra plays the Spanish Dance No. 5 (Bolero) by Moritz Moszkowski.
Release
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 Her to Heaven, Gilda, Caravan, Mildred Pierce, Blue Dahlia, Years Between, O.S.S., Spellboun…
Legacy
In her 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 his lovers in check because he cannot handle the energies of a less inhibited love in a setting shorn of the wit and exotic flav…