After a chance meeting on a train platform, a married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) enter into a muted but passionate, ultimately doomed, love affair.
With its evocatively fog-enshrouded setting, swooning Rachmaninoff score, and pair of remarkable performances, David Lean’s film of Noël Coward’s play Still Life deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance, and has influenced many a cinematic brief encounter since its release. --criterion
Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond
Cannes (In Competition): Grand Prix, Berlinale (Retrospective)
About this movie
Title: Brief Encounter (1945)
Directed by: David Lean
Date of birth: 25 March 1908, Croydon, Surrey, England, UK
Date of death: 16 April 1991, London, England, UK
Writing credits: Noel Coward (play Still Life)
Music: Muir Mathieson, Sergei Rachmaninoff
Year: 1945
Country: UK
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Runtime: 86 min.