Brief Encounter movie storyline. Laura Jesson and Dr. Alec Harvey spend each Thursday in Milford – Laura running her shopping errands and catching a movie picture and Alec doing rounds at the hospital – before each boards a train at the end of the afternoon going in the opposite direction to their respective homes of Catchworth and Chorley. They meet accidentally enough in the Milford Junction refreshment room while waiting for their respective trains when Alec helps Laura remove a piece of coal dust from her eye.
Over the course of a few weeks seeing each other only on Thursdays, Laura and Alec fall in love. The problem is that each is already happily married with a family, and neither wants to hurt their own spouse. Laura tries unsuccessfully to avoid meeting up with Alec as her emotional need to see him takes over. They have to decide how to deal with what looks to be a doomed but life long romance with each other, while hiding their encounters from anyone, especially their friends and acquaintances who may see them together in Milford.
Brief Encounter is a 1945 British romantic drama film directed by David Lean about British suburban life on the eve of World War 2, centering on Laura, a married woman with children, whose conventional life becomes increasingly complicated because of a chance meeting at a railway station with a stranger, Alec. They fall in love, bringing about unexpected consequences.
The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey. The screenplay is by Noël Coward, based on his 1936 one-act play Still Life. The soundtrack prominently features the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, played by Eileen Joyce.
Brief Encounter was met with wide praise from critics upon its release, and is today considered to be among Lean’s finest works. It has been credited as an important early work of realist cinema for its small scale and the lack of big-name stars in its cast. In 1999, the British Film Institute voted Brief Encounter the second greatest British film of all time. In 2017 a poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers and critics for Time Out magazine saw it ranked the twelfth best British film ever.
Brief Encounter (1945)
Directed by: David Lean
Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg, Marjorie Mars, Margaret Barton, Wilfred Babbage, Alfie Bass, Wallace Bosco, Noël Coward
Screenplay by: Anthony Havelock-Allan, David Lean, Ronald Neame
Cinematography by: Robert Krasker
Film Editing by: Jack Harris
Art Direction by: Lawrence P. Williams
Distributed by: Eagle-Lion Distributors
Release Date: November 26, 1956 (United Kingdom)
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