BRIEF ENCOUNTER (BFI).

A doctor and a housewife, both happily married with children, meet by accident in a railway refreshment room. They fall in love and feel terribly guilt. The final scene, in which the unexpected arrival of a talkative acquaintance interrupts their farewell, is Noel Coward’s masterstroke. The stiff-upper-lip understatement (despite having been the subject of endless parody) still works. The film remains the perfect 1940’s period piece, revealing of the character of the time and thanks to the performances of Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Cyril Raymond and Rachmaninoff and the direction of David Lean, it is deeply moving.