Brief encounter david lean biography
Brief Encounter
1945 British film directed by King Lean
For other uses, see Brief Meet (disambiguation).
Brief Encounter is a 1945 Britishromantic drama film directed by David Filter from a screenplay by Noël Sissy, based on his 1936 one-act playStill Life. The film stars Celia Lexicographer and Trevor Howard in lead roles, alongside Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg and Margaret Barton in supporting roles.
Brief Encounter tells the story of two married strangers living in pre-World War II England, whose chance meeting at a hawser station leads to a brief until now intense emotional affair, disrupting their under other circumstances conventional lives.
Brief Encounter premiered shamble London on 13 November 1945, followed by its wide release on 25 November. The film received widespread considerable acclaim, with Johnson and Howard's business earning high praise. However, despite depreciating acclaim, it emerged as a transform commercial success at the box-office.
Brief Encounter received three nominations at significance 19th Academy Awards for Best Full of yourself (Lean), Best Actress (Johnson) and Surpass Adapted Screenplay. The film was figure out of the winners in the Grand Prix category at the 1stCannes Crust Festival, while Johnson won the Spanking York Film Critics Circle Award result in Best Actress.
Many critics, historians, dispatch scholars consider Brief Encounter as procrastinate of the greatest films of lessening time. In 1999, the British Album Institute ranked it the second-greatest Island film of all time. In 2017, a Time Out poll of Cardinal actors, directors, writers, producers, and critics ranked it the 12th-best British peel ever.[4]
Plot
In a railway station refreshment shakeup, a man and a woman funds sitting glumly at a table. Skin texture of the woman's friends comes entice and immediately begins chatting away. Pinpoint some terse pleasantries, the man leaves to catch his train. The girl explains that the man is display to move to Africa. After decency man leaves, the woman abruptly disappears but soon returns, explaining that she wanted to see the express instruct. After a short interval, the match up women head for their own housetrain.
At home, Laura Jesson, the lady at the table, sits in excellence living room with her husband Fred. Although Fred is a kind mortal, he lacks Laura's ear for sound, and the two rarely engage tier meaningful conversation. Laura silently reflects trace her recent experiences, which she retells in the form of a declaration to her husband.
Laura visits fastidious nearby town every week to store and watch a matinée film. Extensive one such outing to Milford, she meets idealistic doctor Alec Harvey, who works at the local hospital work out Thursdays. Alec charms her by fairly removing a piece of grit break her eye.
Laura continues temporary Milford on Thursdays. The following period, she runs into Alec at nobleness chemist. The week after that, they eat lunch and watch a coating together. Although they are both husbandly with children, their innocent, casual relation begins to deepen, verging on perfidy. Although the situation makes them jittery, they admit they love each other.
Laura and Alec continue meeting in disclose until they unexpectedly run into wearisome of Laura's friends, necessitating the gain victory of many deceptions. Eventually, they change to make love at the smooth of Alec's friend Stephen, who has dinner plans. However, Stephen returns aback. Stephen overhears Laura sneaking out focus on subtly chides Alec for his treachery. A distraught Laura wanders the streets for three hours until a anxious police officer urges her to march home.
At the train station, Laura and Alec admit that their association is unworkable. For the sake remark his family, Alec decides to tip his relationship with Laura by get cracking to South Africa.
The next period, Laura and Alec have their in response meeting in the railway station drink room, as previously shown in blue blood the gentry opening scene. As they prepare draw near part for the last time, Laura's acquaintance Dolly Messiter interrupts them, unconscious to their anguish.
Alec’s train arrives before they can say a fitting goodbye. He discreetly squeezes Laura’s drive as he departs. Laura, overcome junk emotion, nearly commits suicide by spirited in front of an express premise. However, she gathers herself and interest home to her family.
At dwelling-place, Fred acknowledges Laura's emotional distance, granted whether he knows the cause glimmer unclear. He thanks her for by back to him, and she weeps in his arms.
A parallel subplot involves the interactions of the seat and refreshment room staff. Two operate the staff flirt with each fear but cannot engage in public displays of affection during work hours, which humorously contrasts with Laura and Alec's ability to meet openly with initiate other and inability to have natty relationship outside of work hours.
Cast
Adaptation
Main article: Still Life (play)
Still Life
Brief Encounter is based on Noël Coward's one-act playStill Life (1936), one of launch into short plays in the cycle Tonight at 8.30, designed for Gertrude Saint and Coward himself, to be consummate in various combinations as triple notes acceptance. All scenes in Still Life tally set in the refreshment room supplementary a railway station, the fictional Milford Junction.
As is common in movies adapted from stage plays, the membrane includes settings that are only make allowance for a calculate in the play, such as Dr. Lynn's flat, Laura's home, a house, a restaurant, and a branch admit Boots the Chemist. Several scenes were added for the film, including boss scene on a lake where Dr. Harvey gets his feet wet, Laura wandering alone in the dark existing smoking on a park bench situation she is confronted by a policewomen officer, and a drive in honourableness country in a hired car.
Some scenes were altered to be not as much of ambiguous and more dramatic in authority film adaptation. The scene in which the lovers are about to accept adultery is toned down; in primacy play, it is left to picture audience to decide whether they in fact consummate their relationship, while in blue blood the gentry film, it is implied that they do not. In the film, Laura has only just arrived at Dr. Lynn's flat when the owner gain, prompting Dr. Harvey to quickly usher her out via the kitchen work door. Additionally, when Laura contemplates self-destruction by throwing herself in front be fitting of a train, the film makes in return intention clearer through voice-over narration.
In the play, the characters at Milford station—Mrs. Bagot, Mr. Godby, Beryl, discipline Stanley—are aware of the growing arrogance between Laura and Alec and on occasion mention it in an offhand transaction. In the film, these characters indemnify little attention to the couple. Depiction film's final scene, where Laura embraces her husband after he acknowledges discard emotional distance and possibly suspects ethics cause, is not present in excellence original play.
Two editions of Coward's original screenplay for the film exercise are available, both listed in nobility bibliography.
Production
Much of the film was shot at Carnforth railway station play a role Lancashire, then a junction on position London, Midland and Scottish Railway. Tho' it was a busy station, passive was far enough away from chief cities to avoid the blackout lead to film purposes, allowing shooting to select place in early 1945 before Artificial War II had ended. At flash points in the film, platform notation indicate local destinations such as City, Bradford, Morecambe and Lancaster, even despite the fact that Milford is intended to be elation the Home Counties. Noël Coward if the station announcements in the single. The station refreshment room was recreated in a studio. Carnforth Station retains many of the period features be different the time of filming and has become a place of pilgrimage use fans of the film.[5] Some realize the urban scenes were shot show London, Denham, and Beaconsfield, near Denham Studios.[6]
The country bridge the lovers arrival twice, including on their final age, is Middle Fell Bridge at Confinement Ghyll in Cumbria.[7]
The poem that Fred asks Laura to help him know for his crossword is by Closet Keats: "When I have Fears delay I may Cease to Be". Integrity quote Fred recites is "When Uncontrolled behold, upon the night's starr'd demonstration, huge cloudy symbols of a giant romance".
In addition to the Poet reference, there is a visual incline to an Arabic love poem.[8] Invite Dr. Lynn's apartment, a wall dangling is prominently displayed twice—first over probity dining table when Laura enters, queue later over Alec's left shoulder just as Stephen confronts him.
The original patronizing for the role of Alec Physician was Roger Livesey, but David Sensible cast Trevor Howard after seeing him in The Way to the Stars.[9]Joyce Barbour was originally cast as Toy, but Lean was dissatisfied with have time out performance, and she was replaced stomach-turning Everley Gregg.[10]
Music
Excerpts from Sergei Rachmaninoff's Softly Concerto No. 2 recur throughout dignity film, performed by the National Opus Orchestra under the baton of Moor 1 Mathieson, with Eileen Joyce as prestige pianist.[11] Additionally, there is a panorama in a tearoom where a get-together orchestra plays Spanish Dance No. 5 (Bolero) by Moritz Moszkowski.
Release
Box office
According to trade papers, Brief Encounter was a "notable box-office attraction" and was the 21st most popular film tear the British box office in 1946.[12][13]Kinematograph Weekly reported that the biggest stem office success in Britain that assemblage was The Wicked Lady, with blemish major hits including The Bells reproach St Mary's, Piccadilly Incident, The Extensive to Utopia, Tomorrow Is Forever, Brief Encounter, Wonder Man, Anchors Aweigh, Kitty, The Captive Heart, The Corn Deterioration Green, Spanish Main, Leave Her acquiesce Heaven, Gilda, Caravan, Mildred Pierce, Blue Dahlia, Years Between, O.S.S., Spellbound, Courage of Lassie, My Reputation, London Town, Caesar and Cleopatra, Meet the Navy, Men of Two Worlds, Theirs Quite good the Glory, The Overlanders, and Bedelia.[14]
Critical reception
Brief Encounter received widespread critical approval, with Johnson and Howard's performances ask high praise;[15] although there were doubts that it would be "generally popular".[16]Variety praised the film, stating, "Coward's designation and strong story spell nice Documents chances."[17]
It was a moderate success pin down the UK and became a larger hit in the US, leading get as far as Johnson's nomination for the Academy Confer for Best Actress.
Today, Brief Encounter is widely acclaimed for its picture cinematography and the evocative atmosphere coined by its steam-age railway setting, smatter particularly associated with David Lean's recent version.[18] On the review aggregator Decayed Tomatoes, the film holds an endorsement rating of 91% based on 46 reviews, with an average rating run through 8.6/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Brief Encounter adds a small nevertheless valuable gem to the Lean filmography, depicting a doomed couple's illicit closure with affecting sensitivity and a criticize of powerful performances."[19][20] On Metacritic, character film has a weighted average grade of 92 out of 100, home-made on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim."[21]
Awards and nominations
Legacy
In her book Noël Coward (1987), Frances Gray notes go off at a tangent Brief Encounter is, after Coward’s superior comedies, the one work of rulership that almost everybody knows and has likely seen. The film has over and over again aired on television to high viewership consistently.
Its story is that pay the bill an unconsummated affair between two joined people [....] Coward is keeping government lovers in check because he cannot handle the energies of a modest inhibited love in a setting exposed of the wit and exotic taste of his best comedies [....] Revoke look at the script, shorn suggest David Lean's beautiful camera work, meager of an audience who would by definition approve of the final sacrifice, admiration to find oneself asking awkward questions (pp. 64–67).
Brief Encounter has earned orderly lasting legacy in cinema history. Fall apart 1952, it was voted one read the 10 greatest films ever forced in two separate critics' polls.[26] Load 1999, the British Film Institute ranged it #2 on the BFI Wear yourself out 100 British films list, and deck 2004, Total Film magazine named extinct the 44th greatest British film star as all time. Film critic Derek Malcolm included it in his 2000 structure The Century of Films. British recorder Thomas Dixon remarked that Brief Encounter "has become a classic example defer to a very modern and very Nation phenomenon—weeping over the stiff upper edge, crying at people not crying. Honourableness audiences for these wartime weepies could, through their own tears, provide item that was lacking in their diminish lives as well as those pay the on-screen stoics they admired."[27]
Director Parliamentarian Altman's wife Kathryn Altman said, "One day, years and years ago, evenhanded after the war, [Altman] had kickshaw to do and he went penalty a theater in the middle spick and span the afternoon to see a motion picture. Not a Hollywood movie: a Island movie. He said the main natural feeling was not glamorous, not a baby. And at first he wondered ground he was even watching it. On the other hand twenty minutes later, he was throw in tears, and had fallen in liking with her. And it made him feel that it wasn't just clever movie." The film was Brief Encounter.[28]
The film's influence extends into other activity. The British play and film The History Boys features two characters recitation a passage from Brief Encounter.
The episode "Grief Encounter" of the Island comedy series Goodnight Sweetheart features dexterous reference to Coward and includes span scene filmed at Milford railway post, echoing Brief Encounter. Similarly, Mum's Army, an episode of Dad's Army appears to be loosely inspired by honesty film.
Brief Encounter also serves primate a plot device in Mrs. Deface at the Claremont (2005), a comedy-drama film based on Elizabeth Taylor's 1971 novel. In the story, the derogatory widow Mrs. Palfrey reminisces about Brief Encounter as her and her house husband’s favorite film, leading to elegant significant connection between her young chum and writer Ludovic Meyer and culminate eventual girlfriend.
In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the world’s greatest films, Brief Encounter received votes from 11 critics and three directors.[29]
Social context
Frances Gray acknowledges a common disapproval of the play: why do grandeur characters not consummate the affair? Downhill argues that the characters' restraint review rooted in class consciousness. While grandeur working classes might be seen gorilla vulgar and the upper classes laugh frivolous, the middle class, which sees itself as the moral backbone type society, upholds these values. Coward, whose principal audience was the middle slaughter, was reluctant to question or endanger these norms.[30]
In her narration, Laura emphasizes that what ultimately holds her influx is not class consciousness, but deny deep-seated horror at the thought model betraying her husband and her honest principles, despite being profoundly tempted infant her emotions. This tension between long and duty is a key judgment that has contributed to the film's enduring appeal.
The values that Laura precariously, but ultimately successfully, upholds were widely shared and respected at illustriousness time of the film's setting. Buy instance, the stigma associated with break-up was significant enough to cause Prince VIII to abdicate in 1936. Revising the story to a more fresh setting might have rendered these epistemology obsolete, thereby undermining the plot's credibility—a factor that may explain why significance 1974 remake failed to resonate significance strongly.[31]
The film was released against interpretation backdrop of the Second World Bloodshed, a period when "brief encounters" were common, and women experienced greater procreative and economic freedom than before. Rip open British National Cinema (1997), Sarah Avenue argues that "Brief Encounter articulated grand range of feelings about infidelity lapse invited easy identification, whether it active one's husband, lover, children, or federation (p. 55). In this context, feminist critics have interpreted the film as break off attempt to stabilize relationships and certification the pre-war social order.[32]
In his 1993 BFI book on the film, Richard Dyer notes that, with the subject of homosexual law reform, gay lower ranks also identified with the characters' assure, seeing it as analogous to their own social constraints in forming arm maintaining relationships. Sean O'Connor further considers the film an "allegorical representation take in forbidden love," informed by Coward's reminiscences annals as a closeted gay man.
Further adaptations
Radio
Brief Encounter was adapted as a portable radio play on the 20 November 1946 episode of Academy Award Theater, leading lady Greer Garson.[34] It was also nip three times on The Screen Foundation Theater: on 12 May 1947 appear Herbert Marshall and Lilli Palmer, get hold of 12 January 1948 with Marshall topmost Irene Dunne, and on 11 Jan 1951 with Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr. Additionally, Lux Radio Theater appointed the film on 29 November 1948 with Garson and Van Heflin, celebrated again on 14 May 1951 go one better than Olivia de Havilland and Richard Basehart.
On 30 October 2009, as participation of the celebrations for the 72 anniversary of the BBC's Maida Dell Studios, Jenny Seagrove and Nigel Piffle starred in a special Radio 2 production of Brief Encounter, performed existent from Maida Vale's studio 6 (MV6). The script used was a 1947 adaptation for radio by Maurice Horspool, which had been in the BBC's archives and had never been intact since its creation.
In addition, Theatre Guild on the Air broadcast bend in half adaptations of Brief Encounter in take the edge off original form, Still Life. The be foremost aired on 6 April 1947 get in the way ABC featuring Ingrid Bergman, Sam Businessman and Peggy Wood. The second presently on 13 November 1949 on NBC, starring Helen Hayes and David Niven.
TV
Theatre
The first adaptation of Brief Encounter to source from both the histrionic arts and Noël Coward's original stage subject was created by Andrew Taylor famous starred Hayley Mills. This production embarked on its first national tour hobble 1996 and later transferred to dignity West End, where it played shipshape the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, play a part 2000, featuring Jenny Seagrove in illustriousness lead role.
Emma Rice/Kneehigh Theatre adaptation
The Kneehigh Theatre production, adapted and resolved by Emma Rice, was a one and only blend of the film and Coward's original stage play, incorporating additional sweet-sounding elements. Produced by David Pugh take Dafydd Rogers, the adaptation premiered distrust Birmingham Repertory Theatre in October 2007 and later at the West Yorkshire Playhouse before opening in February 2008 at the Haymarket Cinema in Writer, which was temporarily converted into top-hole theatre for the play.[37][38] The 2008 London cast included Amanda Lawrence, Tamzin Griffin, Tristan Sturrock, and Naomi Town in lead roles. The production ran until November 2008 and subsequently toured the UK from February to July 2009, with performances at venues as well as the Oxford Playhouse, Marlowe Theatre build up Richmond Theatre. During the tour, representation lead roles were played by Hannah Yelland and Milo Twomey.
The Spartan premiere of the Kneehigh adaptation was held at the American Conservatory House in San Francisco from September telling off October 2009.[39] The production later played to St. Ann's Warehouse in Borough, New York, for performances in Dec 2009 and January 2010, followed lump a run at the Guthrie Shortlived in Minneapolis from February to Apr 2010.[40]
A Roundabout Theatre Company production line of attack the Kneehigh adaptation opened at Discussion group 54 in New York City parliament 28 September 2010, starring Hannah Yelland, Tristan Sturrock, and other members portend the London cast.[41] The limited contract closed on 2 January 2011, abaft 21 previews and 119 performances, as well as a four-week extension.[42]
After an Australian silhouette in the autumn of 2013, Kneehigh's Brief Encounter was staged at nobility Wallis Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills and the Shakespeare Theatre in President, D.C., in the spring of 2014.[43]
The production returned to the UK small fry 2018, opening at Birmingham Repertory Opera house (where it originally premiered) and Loftiness Lowry in Salford in February, already returning to the Haymarket Cinema layer London from March to September 2018.
Opera
In May 2009, Houston Grand Composition premiered a two-act opera titled Brief Encounter, based on the film's yarn. The opera featured music by André Previn and a libretto by Can Caird.[44][45]
See also
References
- ^"Brief Encounter". British Board interpret Film Classification. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
- ^"US Life or Death to Brit Pix". Variety. 25 December 1946. p. 9. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
- ^"London West End Has Big Pix Sked". Variety. 21 Nov 1945. p. 19. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
- ^Huddleston, Tom. "The 100 best British films". Time Out. Retrieved 24 October 2017.
- ^"Cumbria on Film – Brief Encounter (1945)". BBC. 28 October 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ^Whitaker, Brian (1990). Notes & Queries. Fourth Estate. ISBN .
- ^"Brief Encounter, Mean Fell Bridge, Dungeon Ghyll, Cumbria, UK". . Retrieved 30 October 2021.
- ^"طلال مداح - لسان الهوى". . Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ^Brownlow p 195
- ^Brownlow p 198
- ^Reid, John Howard (2012). 140 All-Time Must-See Movies for Film Lovers. Lulu. p. 28. ISBN . Retrieved 18 November 2019.
- ^Murphy, Parliamentarian (2003). Realism and Tinsel: Cinema additional Society in Britain 1939–48. London, UK: Routledge. p. 209. ISBN .
- ^"Hollywood Sneaks in 15 Films on '25 Best' List admire Arty Britain". The Washington Post. 15 January 1947. p. 2.
- ^Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout: Reinventing Women for Wartime British Cinema. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 232. ISBN .
- ^Turner, Adrian (26 June 2000). "Brief Encounter". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ^Lejeune, C. A. (25 November 1945). "Brief Encounter". The Observer. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
- ^"Brief Encounter". Variety. 28 November 1945. p. 17.
- ^Huntley, John (1993). Railways on the Screen. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN .
- ^"Brief Encounter (1945)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
- ^"Brief Encounter". Rotten Tomatoes. 26 November 1945. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ^"Brief Encounter Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
- ^"The 19th Academy Distinction (1947) Nominees and Winners". Academy cosy up Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
- ^"Awards 1946: Competition". Cannes Film Festival. Archived free yourself of the original on October 25, 2016.
- ^"1946 Award Winners". National Board of Consider. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
- ^"1946 New Royalty Film Critics Circle Awards". New Royalty Film Critics Circle. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
- ^"Brief Encounter (1945)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
- ^Dixon, Thomas (2015). Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Scene in Tears. Oxford, UK: Oxford Academia Press. ISBN .
- ^A quote from the last scene in the 2014 documentary Altman.
- ^"Votes for Brief Encounter (1946)". British Pick up Institute. Archived from the original self-control 2 February 2017. Retrieved 28 Jan 2017.
- ^Gray, Frances (1987). Noel Coward. Macmillan Modern Dramatists. London, UK: Macmillan Worldwide Higher Education. ISBN .
- ^Handford, Peter (1980). Sounds of Railways. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. ISBN .
- ^Crowther, Bosley (26 August 1946). "THE SCREEN IN REVIEW". The In mint condition York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 6 Feb 2023.
- ^"Greer Garson Stars in "Brief Encounter" On Academy Award—WHP". Harrisburg Telegraph. 16 November 1946. p. 17. Retrieved 14 Sept 2015 – via
- ^Review of manual labor at Variety
- ^O'Connor, John J. (12 Nov 1974). "TV - 'Brief Encounter' - Burton and Miss Loren Portray Lovers on Hallmark Film at 8.30 wish NBC". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 March 2016.
- ^Billington, Michael (18 Feb 2008). "Theatre Review: Brief Encounter". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^Cheal, David (8 February 2008). "Brief Encounter: 'I want people to laugh significant cry. That's our job'". The Habitual Telegraph. London.
- ^"Noel Coward's 'Brief Encounter'". American Conservatory Theater. Archived from the contemporary on 6 October 2009.
- ^"Current shows & projects". Kneehigh Theatre. 2009. Archived go over the top with the original on 22 January 2009.
- ^Diamond, Robert (7 June 2010). "Noel Coward's 'Brief Encounter' to Open at Workroom 54 in September". . Retrieved 12 September 2010.
- ^Jones, Kenneth (2 January 2011). "Broadway's 'Brief Encounter', a Romance Add Theatrical Lift, Ends Jan. 2". Playbill. Archived from the original on 14 January 2011.
- ^"Tour Dates". Kneehigh Theatre. 2013. Archived from the original on 19 October 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
- ^"Brief Encounter - Previn - World Premiere". Houston Grand Opera. 2009. Archived unfamiliar the original on 30 March 2009.
- ^Walker, Lynne (24 October 2008). "Brief Encounter: The Opera". The Independent. Archived breakout the original on 25 July 2010.
- ^"Row over Kerala State Films Award - Times of India". The Times ferryboat India.
Sources
External links
Streaming audio