Brief Encounter

Published 2022-09-01

Film info

Title Brief Encounter
Director David Lean
Year 1945
Run time 1hr 26m
Genres Drama, Romance
Tagline A story of the most precious moments in a woman's life!

In the course of their day-to-day life, middle-class suburbanites Harvey and Jesson meet and, from normal nods of recognition, become acquaintances, which ripens into deep affection. Both are married and parents, but their meetings become brief, meaningful highlights in their weekly lives.

Live blog

Time	Comment
1:59	So much leftover smoke and steam from a steam train. It’s been gone for ages and still wafting around.
4:35	“No sugar?” “It’s in the spoon.” What does that mean??
11:40	Haha, those adorable children trying desperately to act.
13:00	Doing the Times crossword as a way to relax.
16:10	“I’m a happily married woman,” she says, looking so, so miserable.
16:56	Boots sells books?
18:17	The mince pie in the eye bit!
20:04	There’s a whole library in Boots!
31:04	Seems like all this talk of lung disease is a real turn on.
42:06	You shouldn’t feel guilty about leaving a movie or play halfway through. Life’s too short!
42:39	“I believe we should all behave quite differently if we lived in a warm, sunny climate all the time.”
55:44	I quite like black and white movies but sometimes just get struck by a ‘what colour is that coat’ thought.
1:11:01	A woman sitting by herself in town is suspicious, if only because it’s completely unsafe!
1:16:58	I did not know All By Myself had a bit of classical music in it!
1:23:59	Woah, didn’t see that potential twist coming. That’s where she disappeared to for a minute!

Thoughts

So good. Well played, gentle movie, just guiding you through the growing dramatic tension until the end - an unrequited love where real life has to be given a higher value over the dreams of what might have been. So lovely. And incredibly short but you never feel short-changed or that it should have been longer. It's perfect.

Rating: 5 / 5