Brief Encounter (1945)

Directed by David Lean. Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Joyce Carey, Stanley Holloway, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg, Margaret Barton, Marjorie Mars, Valentine Dyall.

Noël Coward’s one-act play “Still Life” is adapted for the screen; bored but happily-married housewife Johnson happens into a conversation with married doctor Howard, and over a series of encounters, they fall in love with each other, ever mindful that it cannot last even as their feelings drive them toward more reckless decisions. Framed as an unspoken confession from Johnson to her husband (Raymond), the spare and simple plot examines complicated emotions in elegant but devastating detail. Johnson and Howard both rate poignant performances that capture heartbreaking frailty. Beautifully filmed during the waning days of World War II on memorable, lived-in sets (train station, tea room, etc.). Palme d’Or winner from Cannes. Screenplay later adapted for other media, including the theater, a radio play, television remake, even an opera.

93/100