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?

Or - she may have experienced exactly that but was now in the drudgery of marriage, it was a bit stale, children etc - her world was very small. Men who got to leave the house and their neighbourhood everyday wouldn’t necessarily have experienced it like that.

I like to hope that as her husband realised that she’d emotionally left him for a while, but did come back, that the both of them might have put in a bit more effort to remember those early days of courtship and marriage, and to understand that sometimes you need a bit more than the everyday.

So many women would have been widowed when this film came out. Others would have been left holding the baby by some feckless GI - or been whisked across the Atlantic to start a new life there. Some would be dealing with deeply damaged husbands and sons. Some would be struggling with being forced to give up the work and independence that the war had given them.

The world had been turned upside down. Everyone would have been sitting on their emotions for 6 years to try and get through. The work of rebuilding was starting.

I’m not really sure what I’m saying with all that. But that it’s a completely alien situation to us in 2025. Was it better? I don’t know. We see the struggles women have as single parents, or trying to create new blended families and how that so often goes wrong, especially for the children concerned.

Emotions are tricky things, bringing us great joy and great sadness, and often nothing much at all.

That’s life, I guess!

It's shite and tries to normalise cheating. I hated it the first time I saw it decades ago too.

Omg. I LOVE that film

Marrying whomever we want for love is a relatively new thing. Not that long ago marriages were 'arranged' for financial advantage or social advancement or even just security. It didn't matter that you didn't love or even fancy your marriage partner, you were supposed to work together as a couple. I think we, with our modern sensibilities, have lost sight a little of how life was for generations before.

I’m a big fan, of the insight it gives into those other times, and love to wallow in the tragic emotion without actually having the bad things happen to me.

Did anyone else see the Douthbank Centre? Full orchestra and a relative of Celia Johnson, who pointed out what I had missed was Noel Coward in the role of train station announcer. They also suggested a parallel interpretation, that the main characters were actually two men (which explained why the husband was at how waiting for ‘wife’ to come home and would add to the sordid mess of being ‘caught’ by the owner of the flat coming home unexpected.

It was not possible at the time to even suggest such illegal activity in a movie and so the man / women storyline was used. It seemed plausible to me, I have no way to verify this and notice none mentioning it on this thread.

I'm with The History Boys (watch their re-enactment of scenes from both these), I really love Brief Encounter and also Now Voyager.

I like it, but then I very much like Celia Johnson and films from that era. Her best film imho is This Happy Breed which I’ve watched many times

I love Now Voyager.

Anyone else seen the Enchanted Cottage?

Why do you keep watching it then 😆

Absolutely adore BE. Just so understated and perfectly done.
also love IAWL simply because of jimmy Stewart.

I watched it too. I wasn't keen. It made me feel uncomfortable.

I think she was incredibly selfish and self-absorbed. How wonderful it must have been to be a wife and mother back then as it seemed she had an entire day to herself.

There is much symbolism of intimacy. The beautiful arched bridge with water flowing underneath, the steamy trains roaring by as they kissed.

He professed love very quickly. Did he love bomb her?
He was persistent and inviting her to the empty flat was a huge red flag. Her scarf left behind was symbolic of something being lost.

I made some notes as I watched it but they're on my laptop.

I absolutely love that film but it's pretty bleak! The bit where her son says something about how he knows that he's a very large part of her life, but she's not a big part of his makes me absolutely howl.

And her marriage is so unhappy (for her anyway) but she has no real option but to plod on. And I got the sense that her life after the war ended was going to be much smaller without much to look forward to.

Well I think it varied. I posted earlier about one set of unhappy grandparents. My other set couldn't have been more different. They eloped in 1922 when she was a teenager. They were very much in love and one thing I vividly remember is going to the graveyard with grandad to put flowers on granny's grave. Her headstone was like an open book with her details on one page, he'd point to the other page and say one day when he was back with her his details would be on the other page. It was clear that all he wanted was to be reunited with her. I can never imagine that they didn't love each other in almost fifty years of marriage and twelve babies.

Her family were scandalised at the marriage but they married for love and it lived up to their expectations. I don't think everyone is that lucky.

Yeah her son is so harsh to her, then reels her back in but she’s wary by that point. I watch it every year in the run up to Christmas and basically cry all the way through it.

I can't dislike anything with James Stewart in it.

Oh another for the Christmas moan 😀 it is such a dreary film

I was a child in the 70’s but I used to love ‘Butterflies’!

The depiction of a family with two big lads and an emotionally unavailable husband (perfectly played by Geoffrey Palmer) was fascinating to me. I was a bit of a weird kid!

I love it; it's a really beautiful film.

I was also growing up watching Butterflies. I think a lot of the more emotional stuff passed me by, but my mum was a dreadful cook like Ria so I empathised with the sons probably more than I should have!

It's absolute heaven, I've watched it hundreds of times since I was a child, and I adore Celia Johnson. I do hate the ending though, they should have ended up together.

I also loved butterflies. I clearly wasn't aimed at "us" but you could really feel her frustration at her family.

2020s Britain, where "I don't like it" equates to "it's crap" rather than "it's not to my taste".

Anyway, I thought I remembered that the book on which the film was based was ambiguous about whether they DTD? Can anyone verify that?

I love This Happy Breed, it’s my favourite film. Although to be fair , I love a lot of old British films. I do like Brief Encounter and as mentioned previously the parody by Victoria Wood is excellent.

i love it . I don’t have to approve of the main characters to appreciate films or books.

I’d forgotten that! My Mum learned to cook for a family in the early 1950’s so it was pretty grim. I still shudder at the thought of her boiled meat, potatoes and rhubarb pie.