AIBU to go off a friend because she's never heard of the film 'Brief Encounter'?

[shakethetree]

I do not expect my friends to know every piece of classical music, or to know the Latin names of every plant - but jeez, I expect them to have heard of Brief Encounter!

Meh. One Christmas I bought the DVD of 'It's a Wonderful Life' because it was supposed to be so Amazing and Christmassy.

It was horribly dated, just went on and on and we all fell asleep

Were you pissed?

it's a wonderful life is a bit meh.

Too American for me, I always expect Micky Mouse to pop up somewhere lol

Sacrilege shake

Anyway, I've gone all meta and am TAATing about you www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/2138430-to-think-that-anyone-who-considers-Its-a-Wonderful-Life-a-bit-meh?

to be fair on me, it is July so I'm not really in the Christmas spirit. Plus 'A Christmas Carol' is the best Christmas film ever ( Alastair Sim version naturally )

I might have to concede half a point there

brief encounter isn't really shown on tv anymore is it though, like most early b & w films that were a staple of tv in the 70s and 80s, they just aren't shown so am not suprised people haven't heard of the classics.

i love old b/w films and they are hard to see on tv now even hard to buy so it seems a bit silly to 'go off' someone if they haven't heard of a certain film

i would certainly go off someone who liked any film with sandra bullock in though

fideline Amazon.

sinister keep searching Amazon every so often. A few years ago you couldn't get any of the old movies on DVD but now they are being produced overseas and they are fair churning them out.

You just have to go into menu and turn the subtitles off.

The prices go up and down quite a bit so a film can cost £10 one month and £3 the next.

I have a list and check it regularly. I have a lovely collection of old films. I like to watch them when I am hiding in the shed sewing :)

i found a copy of picnic at hanging rock the other day and it was like striking gold! i have found a site that sells old british films and tv shows though \link{http://networkonair.com/\network}

Gosh how awfully disappointing to find out such beastly news.

I love the film it is so so English

Picnic at Hanging Rock is great and so is the original The LadyKillers

I'm sure Brief Encounter is on Netflix, or it was a while ago. No excuses not to have heard of it.

I didn't get Picnjc at Hanging Rock. I remember reading a comparison of it with a David Lynch film when I was a teenager obsessed with Lynch, and I was desperate to see it. I finally saw it a few years ago and I kept waiting for something to happen and nothing did, I think the years of expectation ruined it!

Kundry, I also had a moral reversal about Brief Encounter about 20 years after first seeing it and began to sympathise much more with the husband and think the other guy was a bit of a bounder.

Maybe this duality is intended.

It depends on the age of your friend, tbh.

My ahem, younger friends haven't heard of anyone, Nancy Mitford, Waugh, David Niven and his part in the SAS, its as though history has passed them by in the desire for the here and now.

I referring to some one as the prince of darkness recently, and my young friend thought it was a great description until I said Shakespeare had obviously nicked it for someone when writing king Lear, many hundreds of years ago.

And Ovid- he's amazing. Nothing changes:)

Kundry, I also had a moral reversal about Brief Encounter about 20 years after first seeing it and began to sympathise much more with the husband and think the other guy was a bit of a bounder.

No no no. No bounderishness. The opposite.

They don't give into the temptation after all.

It wouldn't work unless the strength of the attraction was fully demonstrated before they do the right thing. It is a film rather than life.

They do give into temptation. They conduct an affair. It's all a bit seedy and I don't know why anyone enjoys watching it.

Thank you, my darling. Thank you for coming back to me...

Can I be your friend? (Even though I'm not very sociable, or even nice...)

They don't have an affair

They fall in love, they kiss, they meet up regularly, they arrange to have sex, they are open about their feelings for each other. They are married to other people. How is it not an affair?

Well it probably would count as an emotional affair but it's all terribly chaste and tortured and guilt-ridden and largely revolves around public tea-drinking. Their half-hearted move to consumate the thing is abortive and was always going to be because they are both essentially too decent, which is the central point of the piece. It is character driven. They are representative of the great British character, so it has to be so.

They have an emotional affair.

I don't think we are invited to care that much about the DH

The point is, it's about her lack of her opportunity to self actualise, it being the 1940s. Imo

Adore Brief Encounter, and totally recommend Hobsons Choice for like-minded people (like me)

Don't think her self-actualising or not comes into it, think it is primarily about guilt so not limited to the 1940s.

I agree Flip. Lack of opportunity for a woman to self-actualise was pretty much a given at the time.

Thank you, my darling. Thank you for coming back to me...

One of the most moving lines in cinema!

The main couple are highly unreasonable. They have (some sort of) an affair & her only excuse is being slightly bored. She should get more exciting library books and her husband should LTB(itch)....

The mere notion :)