Year Released: 1945
Directed by: David Lean
Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard
(87 min. Not Rated)
Genre: Romance, Drama

“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Go back in time three quarters of a century for what may be the most romantic movie ever – and the most heartbreaking.

Step back from our “If it feels good, do it,” hook-up culture where fidelity inside or outside of marriage seems passee and uncool. Not to mention the other recent upheavals in what seems to be our current culture.

Yet even it our couple lived right here and now in 2024, I think they would make the make same shattering choice. And I also suspect that more of our contemporaries than we might suspect would as well.

Laura (Celia Johnson) and Alec (Trevor Howard) are married with families of their own, and they meet quite by accident at a rather shabby train station outside of London. She has a piece of grit in her eye; he is the kindly doctor who rids her of it. But even if they do not sing about it like Giorgio Tozzi who dubbed it for Rossano Brazzi, in 1958’s South Pacific …

…it comes as suddenly and without explanation for them, too:

And somehow you know,
You know even then
That somewhere you'll see her
Again and again.

Who can explain it?
Who can tell you why?
Fools give you reasons,
Wise men never try.

***

But the film teases us. We first see the end of that “brief encounter” before we even know its depths. Instead, Laura and Alec sip tea at a small table in the train station cafeteria. Swooping down like a malignant mockingbird is her annoying acquaintance, Dolly, chattering on and on about inanities.

This same scene is repeated right near the film’s end, but now we know its deeper meaning, and how a squeeze on her shoulder is the only comfort Alec can give Laura.

Several things stand out. One is the lack of melodrama. Everything is understated. The dark train station is always in shadows and soot. Not necessarily, however, the brassy counter girl at its café, flirting with a railroad worker in her strangely pretentious plummy English accent, perhaps the foil for Laura.

Some say this other couple, which is presented first of all, indicate the relative freedom of the lower middle class versus the stricter norms the upper middle class (Laura and Alec) must observe. Others see it merely as some comic relief.

We see the events of Brief Encounter through the eyes of Laura, quiet, and understated – on the outside at least. She conveys almost everything with her facial expressions, and the director rightly focuses on that, masking it in dark shadows, just as is the whole film.

Several critics, wrongly I believe, see this as a criticism of social conventional morality at the time (1945 release, 1939 setting). Noel Coward, who was gay, wrote the short play Still Life (1926) upon which Brief Encounter is based. Many speculate that Coward’s depiction of Laura and Alec is really about the moral vice imposed upon homosexuals at the time. Perhaps, but as Aristotle said of poets, sometimes the authors were the worst interpreters of their own work.

Or as Different Drummer thinks, a work of art exists in its own right, not just as the writer’s child.

Here, I agree with several other critics:

Brief Encounter carries not just a justifiably swooned-over depiction of love that cannot be, but a depiction of decency that cannot be undone. We never see Alec’s other half, but Laura’s husband Fred (Cyril Raymond) is shown to be unflappable and kindly. –Sophie Monks Kaufman

This is raw passion – English-style, suppressed and controlled, but instilled with extreme yearning. Though love can last a lifetime, Coward and Lean clearly suggest that there can never be anything quite like the moment of discovery and its immediate aftermath. Hence, while the encounter might be exceedingly brief, it packs the emotional wallop associated with a time-proven association. The tragedy when this soul-mate realization is unconsummated is that both will surely never again experience the transporting feeling in this once-in-a-lifetime connection. –Sam Juliana

Great camera work enhances the tragic tale. Just as Hitchcock used black and white photography to great effect, as did Carol Reed four years later in The Third Man, David Lean does so as well.

(Incidentally Brief Encounter is ranked the second greatest British film of all time, just after The Third Man.)

Finally is the exquisite choice of the Rachmaninov's heart-stirring Piano Concerto No 2., its foreboding minor key setting the tragic tone that infuses the entire film.. This was David Lean’s choice, and it is perfect. It sets

…a dramatic atmosphere of passions that are doomed. To state the obvious, the minor key stimulates different emotions than the major. But Rachmaninoff also conveys a sense of movement, of building crescendos that are mirrored by the express trains rushing through the railway station that is the site of so much of the drama. –Jonathan Fryer

A classic in every sense. One that will leave a lasting impression, perhaps a life changing one, for every viewer. See it now and weep as our current cinema continues to denigrate love and romance on a daily basis.

A must see for all. Even the guys

–Kathy Borich
🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

Alec and Laura have their tea at the railway café, munching on some pastry, too. In the first meeting, perhaps the crumpets tasted delicious, especially with the fresh jam atop them.

In that final meeting, probably they had little appetite for such frivolity. But that doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of this simple yet delicious English fare.

Our recipe comes from Different Drummer’s own Appetite for Murder: A Mystery Lover’s Cookbook, which takes readers on a culinary tour of classic crime fiction with the likes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, and even Tony Hillerman.

Also fitting for tomorrow, Mother’s Day, it is

A book dedicated to my mother,

who instilled in me a love

for the art of cooking

and the beauty of literature.

Orange and Walnut Café Crumpets

Sometimes called piketlets, these griddle-fried cakes are similar to but somewhat softer than “English muffins.”

Ingredients

2 cups water and milk, mixed

1 tbsp active dry yeast

4 1/2 cups bread flour

1 tsp salt

3 tablespoons grated orange rind

1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

Heat the water and milk mixture until just tepid and remove from heat. Dissolve the yeast in a little of the warm liquid. Put the flour and salt into a large bowl, make a well in the center, and pour in the yeast and remaining liquid, mixing well with a wooden spoon. Add the grated rind and chopped walnuts and mix them well, but don't overbeat. Cover the bowls with plastic wrap, and keep in a warm place until the mixture rises.

Heat a lightly greased cast iron griddle and place the greased, metal crumpet or flan rings on top. Tuna cans with tops and bottoms removed are an excellent substitute. Spoon in some of the mixture, to about half way up the rings, and cook until bubbles form on the top, then remove the rings and cook for another couple of minutes, until the underside is lightly browned. Serve with butter and homemade jam.

Appetite for Murder: A Mystery Lover’s Cookbook