Brief Encounter (Rank Collection Box Set)
A vital part of The Rank boxset, this was the final collaboration between David Lean and Noel Coward, number four to be exact. Warmly remembered by anyone who made it to the end, this film remains a sensitive meditation on unsustainable love between two people who have met at the wrong points in their lives. From the moment the film starts, the tone is established by the trains passing through the
Note: This release of Brief Encounter is part of the Rank Collection boxset which includes The Red Shoes, The 39 Steps, Brief Encounter, Henry V, A Matter Of Life And Death, Genevieve, The Wicked Lady, Hamlet. Any recommendations for the release should be taken in the context of the whole boxset not the individual release:
A vital part of The Rank boxset, this was the final collaboration between David Lean and Noel Coward, number four to be exact. Warmly remembered by anyone who made it to the end, this film remains a sensitive meditation on unsustainable love between two people who have met at the wrong points in their lives. From the moment the film starts, the tone is established by the trains passing through the station and leaving in their wake a trail of smoke that disappears into the night sky.
The film is mainly narrated by Laura, a married woman with children, who takes us through the full range of emotions of her impossible predicament, narrating the story in her mind to her husband who is routinely filling out his Times crossword, in an attempt to absolve herself of the guilt at taking part in such a series of illicit rendezvous with Dr Alec Harvey.
As you would expect from one of the best filmmakers to have lived, the film is handled with such mastery that most of the films details remain firmly implanted in everyone’s mind. Included are Lean’s trademark attention to class based humourous dialogue that mark all of his later works, and his rich mixing of sound and image that would later make him one of the most copied filmmakers alive, as well as an original talent. Also in, is his attention to character, with not one gesture or movement out of place.
Anyway, the story concerns two married people who, after a series of brief encounters, have fallen madly in love with each other, only to discover en route that it will be a doomed romance, as reality and their lives just will not allow them to fully consummate their feelings. A series of key moments are broken up by intrusions from ‘outside elements’, continually establishing and reaffirming that time is truly against them. The doomed nature of their love is further emphasised by the tone of the music, the atmosphere of the camera work and the continual immersion in the way that their love both makes them feel. The duality of love is also abruptly counter posed by their feelings of guilt, betrayal and shame towards their actions that are all behind their partner’s backs.
One can’t help but feel that there is also a class based commentary taking place. The central two middle-upper class characters are continually intercut with the relationship between the flirtations of the working class station porter (the excellent Stanley Holloway) and the tea lady. These encounters are light relief amongst the doom and gloom but also serve to highlight that these types of illicit affairs are by no means limited to the better off, or in this case, a doctor and a bored housewife, who spends every Thursday shopping. Although the precise commentary remained unclear to this reviewer, Lean’s work has always been highly efficient in tackling the higher echelons of British pomposity, LAURENCE OF ARABIA and A PASSAGE TO INDIA being two obvious examples. But as with the better filmmakers, what you see during one viewing, you will see something different during the next one. That is why they remain classics I guess, even though no one is quite sure why, as it is relative.
The DVD looks good and the sound is clear enough as well. As this is the DVD digitally remastered special edition, I doubt whether their will be a better copy coming onto the market for the foreseeable future and as the film was released just after the second world war ended, I doubt there will be many more extras that could be included, unless they find some archive footage or give it a commentary at some point in the future. As it is we are given a bonus documentary.
EXTRAS
A Profile of Brief Encounter (24 Mins)
This is a warm little tribute to BRIEF ENCOUNTER that includes two of the films producers, Ronald Neame and Anthony Havelock-Allan, Celia Johnson’s daughter, Noel Coward’s biographer Sheridan Morley, and the young actress who played the tea room assistant and now looks like the queen. Sheridan Morley expounds that this was the first film where you saw what characters thought, instead of just watching what they do. Havelock-Allan says the film is about “two honourable people, remaining honourable”. John Sessions rightfully points out the genius of Celia Johnson’s acting and superb dialogue delivery and Neame tells us how the film went down with the first preview audience. This is a tidy little document and of interest to anyone who likes the film. We find out that Coward was abroad during shooting and only penned additional dialogue and insisted on the films music. We also find out that the film was originally a half hour play and of course that it was shot at Carnforth station, well certain scenes anyway. It was also shot before the end of the Second World War and Carnforth station went against black out regulations when they were shooting.
PHOTO GALLERY
These are 15 photographs with a text. Most are from the film and one shows the shooting of the film.
TRAILER
If you want a measure of how this picture has been remastered, check this trailer out and you will be amazed.
BIOGRAPHIES
Two pages each on Lean, Coward, Johnson and Howard.
All in all this is a good DVD to own. The film will remain a classic. Few films have such a detailed and precise characterisation as this gem. The dialogue is fantastic, the acting remarkable in places, and the all round mastery of the language of cinema is very clear. Some people actually despise voice overs for being a quick fix and a deviation from pure cinema, however as this film and certain Scorsese pictures show (as obvious examples), a great deal of depth can be gained from the use of this technique. The presentation of the DVD is excellent and as a fan of cinema your DVD shelf is shouting out for you to add this, even if only to have one film to watch with your folks when they show up unannounced and after conversation has already dried up.
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