David Lean

Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter

After a chance meeting on a train platform, a married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) begin a muted but passionate, and ultimately doomed, love affair. With its evocatively fog-enshrouded setting, swooning Rachmaninoff score, and pair of remarkable performances (Johnson was nominated for an Oscar), this film, directed by David Lean and based on 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.

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Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1945
  • 86 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #76

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • High-definition digital transfer of the BFI National Archive’s 2008 restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary from 2000 by film historian Bruce Eder
  • Interview from 2012 with Noël Coward scholar Barry Day
  • A Profile of “Brief Encounter,” a short documentary from 2000 on the making of the film
  • David Lean: A Self Portrait, a 1971 television documentary on Lean’s career
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by historian Kevin Brownlow

Purchase Options

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Out Of Print

Collector's Set

David Lean Directs Noël Coward

David Lean Directs Noël Coward

Blu-ray Box Set

4 Discs

$79.96

Collector's Set

David Lean Directs Noël Coward

David Lean Directs Noël Coward

DVD Box Set

4 Discs

$63.96

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • High-definition digital transfer of the BFI National Archive’s 2008 restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Audio commentary from 2000 by film historian Bruce Eder
  • Interview from 2012 with Noël Coward scholar Barry Day
  • A Profile of “Brief Encounter,” a short documentary from 2000 on the making of the film
  • David Lean: A Self Portrait, a 1971 television documentary on Lean’s career
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by historian Kevin Brownlow
Brief Encounter
Cast
Celia Johnson
Laura Jesson
Trevor Howard
Dr. Alec Harvey
Cyril Raymond
Fred Jesson
Stanley Holloway
Albert Godby
Joyce Carey
Myrtle Bagot
Margaret Barton
Beryl Waters
Valentine Dyall
Stephen Lynn
Everley Gregg
Dolly Messiter
Credits
Produced by
Noël Coward
Director
David Lean
From the play Still Life by
Noël Coward
Adapted by
David Lean
Adapted by
Ronald Neame
Adapted by
Anthony Havelock-Allan
Director of photography
Robert Krasker
In charge of production
Anthony Havelock-Allan
In charge of production
Ronald Neame
Art director
L. P. Williams
Film editor
Jack Harris
Music
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
Played by
Eileen Joyce
Played by
with the National Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by
Muir Mathieson

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David Lean

Director

David Lean
David Lean

For many cinephiles, the name David Lean signifies grand moviemaking—sweeping epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago. But the long and eclectic career of this legendary British director encompasses arresting intimacy as well, as evidenced by the films of his in the Criterion Collection. Among those are pictures that he was responsible for editing, early on in his work in film: some of his national cinema’s greatest hits, including Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard’s Pygmalion, Gabriel Pascal’s Major Barbara, and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 49th Parallel. In the forties and early fifties, having moved to directing, he made several luminous films, including adaptations of such classic and important contemporary works from the stage and page as Harold Brighouse’s Hobson’s Choice, Noël Coward’s Still Life (Brief Encounter, in the film version), and Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and Oliver Twist. All are graced by evocative, shadowy black-and-white cinematography and elegantly restrained compositions. Summertime, his gorgeous 1955 Technicolor trip to Venice with Katharine Hepburn, marked a turning point in his career: the sun-dappled location shoot was galvanizing for Lean, and the remainder of his films, from The Bridge on the River Kwai to A Passage to India, could be considered outdoor spectacles. Yet Lean’s deep interest in complex characters, his brilliant way with actors, and his classic sense of storytelling were never trumped by scale.

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