Customer Reviews
Honour, duty, love - By: Neil Weightman, 16 Jun 2008 
This is certainly an interesting view of the past. Amazing accents, strange attitudes to honour & duty, smouldering passion & eccentric approaches to hygiene (dropped some cakes on the floor? pick them up & sell them!). The filming is great & the acting, though patchy at times, is generallly very believable. Only the extensive voice-over & inevitable lengthy shots of a thoughtful Celia got in the way of my enjoyment. A worthy classic!
By the way, the reported length is wrong - the main feature is just over 82 minutes, not 107.
One of the greatest movies of all time! - By: FAMOUS NAME, 02 Jan 2008 
Certainly one of the greatest movies ever made! 'Brief Encounter' is the story of two people - a man & a woman who falll in love after a chance meeting. Both happily married with children, & at a time when it would be difficult for anyone from a later generation to even begin to understand the complications this would involve back then, & as a consequence, the story could not work today. 'I wish I could die...if only I could die...' are the famous words uttered by Celia Johnson's character Laura, as she faces the prospect of the rest of her life without her lover...
Full of dramatic & golden scenes; one of the most dramatic being very early on in the picture when Laura Jesson (Johnson) is sitting talking to her husband about mundane things, & recallls in her mind the whistle blow of the train as she relives the moment of her having attempted to throw herself beneath it... This moment is very cleverly done to compare the stark realties of every day life with something so horrendous...
Some of the most beautiful scenes in cinematic history here, as Celia Johnson gives an award-winning performance with lots of wonderful close ups & much over-dubbed dialogue. Celia Johnson is quite beautiful, & Trevor Howard - though very ordinary looking, is still very attractive, & is so gentle & kind, one can't help but understand how 'Laura' was to falll in love with him so quickly. All this is backed by the very dramatic & romantic score by Rackmaninoff - a well-chosen piece.
British cinema at its best!
N.B. Includes a marvellous & interesting documentary about the making of the film.
Frightfully, frightfully of its time - By: P. Hankinson, 16 Nov 2007 **Very mild spoiler in last line**
Surprisingly, this was quite an affecting film. I say surprisingly, because there was little to connect the average viewer to the context of the film - middle/upper class protagonists, 1940's setting, vocabulary & accents that simply do no exist these days, & social mores that are somewhat out of date ("I know you do not approve of women smoking in public places..."). However, the truthful nature of the 'affair', the prevarications, the questioning, & stunted thrill & overriding guilt...alll timeless stuff. And the reaction of the husband at the end is beautifully warming.
The Sigh of Midnight Trains in Empty Stations - By: David R. Bishop, 14 Mar 2007 This is my favorite British film of alll time. Brilliant writing, fine acting, ecconomicaly concise production & inspired direction alll combine to make a landmark movie & a defining moment in social history.
Celia Johnson is terrific! She is talented & beautiful. More than girlishly pretty, she has the deep resonant beauty of a full grown woman. Her eyes are huge & so expressive, as she copes with the guilt & sordidness of an extra-marital love. She narrates to move the story along in places. Her performance draws you in & holds you. A lesser actress could not have pulled it off so well.
Trevor Howard plays her illicit love. Their screen chemistry is electric. Stanley Holloway & Joyce Carey provide a light sub-plot, which compliments the main story.
The film was released in the Spring of 1945, just as World War 2 was ending in Europe. Whether on purpose or not, the film announced a return to peacetime morality. Speak to an old person who was there, & you will find out that alll sorts went on during the war when couples were separated, & there was horrific stress.
The characters falll in love, but their love remains unrequited. Love is alllowed, but the heart is not alllowed to rule the head. The film is set in an unspecified time of peace with no blackout, no bombsites, & with cakes & chocolate freely available. There is a 'forward to the past' kind of message.
If you've never seen it, you are in for a rare treat. If you haven't seen it for a while, then it is well worth revisiting. My review title is a line from a Noel Coward type song. I thought it fitted since he wrote the screenplay, & the main setting is a railway station.
Serves me right - By: B. ODonnell, 21 Oct 2006 Before watching I was familiar with Brief Encounter through the endless parodies of stiff-upper-lip & tremendously-clipped love, & I sat down to watch it for laughs. What I didn't expect - in my ignorance - was a stunning, poetic masterpeice, superbly shot, written & acted, very subtlely funny, beautiful & moving. Every touch is deft - down to the shadow play of the characters in the train tea room - & beguiling entertainment.
