Brief Encounter- the film

[Orangesandlemons77]

We watched this film on TV last night. DH confided in me he used to watch it years ago, over and over and had been in tears over it.

To be honest I didn't really like it. A bit boring. All about an emotional affair between two random people in the 1940s who meet in a train station and go to the pictures etc despite having husbands / wives and children at home.

It just went on and on and then finishes with them saying goodbye and her crying in the arms of her husband who she has been lying to throughout.

AIBU?

@Tigerthatcametobrunch -cinema is art and fantasy-not earnest homilies on how we should behave in the ‘real world’. It’s where you can vicariously experience heartbreak, joy, grief and humour and be absorbed in the drama of the actors’ and film makers’ creations. We don’t take instruction from films-if we did, we’d either be faking orgasms in coffee shops or boiling up bunnies.

Incredibly moving. Rachmaninov helps.

"We don’t take instruction from films-if we did, we’d either be faking orgasms in coffee shops or boiling up bunnies."

😂😂

The film came out at the end of WW2 and I suspect captured a bit of the zeitgeist.
I’m sure difficult circumstances led to a few short term relationships (forged in tragic/stressful situations or perhaps due to greater freedom etc). But the theme is that sacrifices had to be made for the greater good.
it’s of its time and fascinating for that reason.

I love Casablanca much more though - for the humour as much as anything else.

It’s so different when the man is the one anxiously waiting for the love of their lives return isn’t it. And it’s beautiful bc it’s so rare/ unlikely to happen. Like the opposite of the beauty and the beast tale where the gorgeous bloke falls for the dowdy young woman and sees beyond outward appearances.

If it were a tearful woman waiting for her husband to come back and not shag some woman he met on his daily commute we’d be wanting to throw bricks at the screen no doubt lol

The children had hilariously posh accents. Could barely understand them!

I love this film and I feel sorry for your DH OP, he must have been so disappointed after your reaction when it's so meaningful to him. This is why I don't lend people my favourite books, in case they hate them!

Does your DH catch the train to work? If so I bet he's scanning the tea rooms for an emotionally restrained lady with something in her eye today.

I do love the film but I also like an alternate interpretation that I read once; Laura doesn't actually know anything about Alec. They have no mutual friends. He may not be a doctor at all, he might have made up the story of moving to Africa in order to end the relationship when he realised Laura wasn't going to give him easy sex after her fit of conscience in his friend's flat. He might be an utter cad who picks up women on stations every week.

I absolutely love it. I love your dh too!

lol!
Berilll!

What about the towering works of art and literature like Anna or Madame Bovary? It’s part of being human to be tempted and either to suppress your desires (as They do in BE) or to act on them, and bear the consequences of your choices.

One of the fantastic pleasures of film and literature is that they enable us to experience all kinds of emotions, situations, dilemmas and struggles vicariously - at a safe distance- whilst also (hopefully) giving us insight and understanding of the people involved.

i don’t judge these characters harshly though - they are bound up in strong emotions and difficult situations.

I love Brief Encounter and think people who don't have no soul, but would happily admit to loathing It's A Wonderful Life.

Anyone who said it was one of their favourite films though I'd look at with huge suspicion.

Suspicion of what?

I love it.

Both protagonists initially pretending that there was nothing in it but of course the dam breaks.

A most perfectly acted scene occurs when the pair are having lunch in a restaurant and two women known to Laura arrive and see them. While Laura makes overly-bright, slightly panicky introductions and Alec gives polite greetings, the simultaneous secret horror felt by both of them is palpable.

This 💯plus Rachmaninov too…..
I got the composer in a quiz once and I thought that I could feel the men in my team falling in love with me just cos I knew it 🤣

I love the accents nobody is that posh these days 😀

I think BE is realistic in the sense that life isn’t perfect - things don’t always work out, people who perhaps should be together can’t be, or chances are lost.

IAWL is too ‘pat’ for me - life isn’t really like that. Bad things really do happen to good people and vice versa. I don’t buy the happy ending at all.

Maybe you are the OP's husband, and neither of you has realised the other one is on Mumsnet!

I also love it. All the 'things unsaid' and the subtlety with which they are communicated - we don't get things like that nowadays when everything has to be written VERY VERY BIG FOR PEOPLE WHO MIGHT NOT UNDERSTAND IT OTHERWISE... I get tired of being hit around the head by Big Messaging, and I love the gentle, understated nature of this entire film.

In fact, I'm going to go and watch it now...

Even the late Queen’s accent changed over the decades. She talked ‘quite common’ at the end ( compared to her 1950s broadcasts)!

If my husband was having an emotional affair with someone else and then came back to me as a duty rather than being with her as a personal desire, I would tell him to fuck right off.

Me too. I agree, even tv programmes are now giving a quick rundown of what happened before the ad break, in case anyone has forgotten the gist of the 30 minute programme.

Thanks for this thread I’m sorted now x

I must be very bad because I think most people stay together because of duty. It makes me sad to think of it, but that’s life as an adult it seems.

But life is so different nowadays. Back then, when divorce was a disgrace to the entire family people often had to choose between their own personal happiness and the 'reputation' of themselves and their family.

I don't think we can judge 'then' against 'now'. We have so much more freedom now to do what we want and to make ourselves happy.

It's a beautiful, moving, romance. Very much of its time, with very fine acting.
I must have watched it dozens of times !
I had it on a video, now DVD.

The tea rooms from the film are still running at Carnforth railway station. Worth a visit if you like the film