“TEA AND RACHMANINOFF”

By Raymond Benson

David Lean’s Brief Encounter, based on Noël Coward’s one-act play Still Life and adapted for the screen by Lean, Anthony Havelock-Allan, and Ronald Neame, represents one of the most admired and poignant love stories ever put on celluloid. The picture frequently lands on various “best” lists and is often called one of the great movie romances. It is also a decidedly British picture, one that deftly captures the zeitgeist of immediate post-war England with a focus on middle-class values and morality of the time. It appeared in British cinemas in late 1945 and was released in the U.S. in 1946; thus, it was nominated for the ‘46 Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Actress (Celia Johnson), and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Criterion Collection released the film on DVD years ago, both alone and as part of the box set collection, David Lean Directs Noël Coward (the collection was also released on Blu-ray); however, until now the title was not available as a separate Blu-ray disk. All of the supplements from the box set edition have been ported over to this single disk version.

Brief Encounter is the story of Laura (wonderfully played by Johnson), a respectable, happily-married woman who happens to meet a respectable, happily-married doctor named Alec (Trevor Howard) one day in the train station. There is a mutual attraction, and they begin to see each other on day outings over the next few weeks. They fall in love, of course, and the next big question is... will they or won’t they?

With Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 underscoring the affair, this is lush, romantic stuff.

It was Lean’s fourth collaboration with Coward (their first picture, In Which We Serve, was co-directed by both) and it’s the piece that exhibited Lean’s growing artistry as a filmmaker. For a man who went on to make big budget epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, Brief Encounter is strikingly small and intimate, and that’s the reason it has such charm and resonance. The two leads are superb. Johnson (whom James Bond fans may know was, in real life, the sister-in-law of Ian Fleming) displays such controlled emotion (in a manner that is distinctly British), that it becomes heartbreaking to watch. Howard’s conflict between desire and responsibility is palpable. Their rapport is very real and totally believable, even seventy-one years later.

The Blu-ray disk contains a high-definition digital transfer of the BFI National Archive’s 2008 restoration, with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack. There is an audio commentary from 2000 by film historian Bruce Eder.

The supplements include an insightful interview from 2012 with Noël Coward scholar Barry Day; a terrific short documentary on the making of the film; a nearly-hour-long 1971 television documentary on Lean’s career up to that point; and the theatrical trailer. An essay by historian Kevin Brownlow appears in the booklet.

Brief Encounter is the perfect date movie. Watch it tonight with someone you love.

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