Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter

1945

Director: David Lean

Writer: Noel Coward, Anthony Havelock-Allen, David Lean, and Ronald Neame.

86 Minutes

If you have never seen a David Lean film, start with Brief Encounter. His films are epic, tall tales about the human condition and normally end on a down note parallel to our own reality, which is why most people haven’t seen a David Lean film.

But, they are good. They are so good.

And Brief Encounter takes the cake. It’s a story about two married people who meet a train station for seven weeks carrying on a hot affair. Both know it’s wrong, realizing their short-lived time together will come to a bitter end, but it’s love. It’s love above everything else. And although forbidden, I quote John Lennon saying, ‘All you need is love.”

This is the not the case.

I picked this opening scene because it’s the end. The death. The end of the relationship. The movie is told through narration and flashback (which everyone explains those tools slow down a movie), yet this film is short. It goes quick. Characters interrupt, others create conflict, but none every question these two in their “friendship.” As if there was no doubt of monogamy.

But, this film is important for two reasons: one, it shows two people can be so right, but so wrong. And two, it explains the history of relationships and the duty behind marriage.

Today, people would get divorced.

“Oh, you found someone else? What are you going to do about your wife?”

“Getting a divorce, but I’m happy.”

Divorce is common - like foldiong laundry or only seven hours of sleep at nights. Today, it’s an easy (and expensive) road to be with the person you want to be with, even if he or she or you are/where married. Yet, in the 1940’s, there was an obligation.

“I met a woman. Another woman. I don’t know what to do. I’m miserable.”

“End it now before your life goes to hell.”

Perhaps that’s what makes this film great: responsibility. These two people meet, fall in love, and have to take responsibility for it. In this world, taking responsibility for your feelings, attitude, and actions is so rare that even though these two people are cheating, they realize what must be done.

A wrong. A right. A broken heart. A duty.

In the end, Brief Encounter is a film you’d find a public library, been shelved for months, but given the right audience, evening, and time in your life - this film could change everything. It’s magical and forbidden.

David Lean does it again. And again. And again.