Brief Encounter (1946)

Laura (Celia Johnson) and Alec (Trevor Howard) meet by chance in a railway station when Alec, a doctor, comes to Laura’s aid after a bit of coal dust becomes lodged in her eye. Their first meeting is innocent enough, as is their next when they run into each other in the street. After a third chance encounter when they share a table at a cafe, they can no longer deny their mutual attraction. Both are happily married. Neither is looking for an affair, but they find themselves helplessly drawn together hopelessly and passionately in love.

To 21st-century eyes, Laura and Alec’s relationship hardly constitutes an affair. Theirs is a romance more of words than deeds with a few stolen kisses in the railway station serving to consummate their bond. But that’s enough to consume both with guilt, so that even running into Laura’s friend Beryl (Margaret Barton) in a restaurant is enough to induce seismic waves of remorse. The longing between Laura and Alec is palpable, but Laura, in particular, can’t break free of the notion of doing the right thing. Personal happiness runs a distant second.

Brief Encounter is told from Laura’s perspective, as she sits in miserable domestic bliss with her husband Fred (Cyril Raymond). Fussing with the children and his crossword puzzles, Fred cuts a drab figure compared to the dashing Alec. Yet, Laura will never leave Fred. Propriety and social conditioning have had their way with her more than Alec ever could.

The mournful sound of the whistle as trains enter and leave the station and the strains of Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto that fill the soundtrack enhance Brief Encounter’s dark mood, as does Robert Krasker’s sublime black-and-white cinematography.

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