Movies: 'Brief Encounter'

Brief Encounter was first brought to my attention in a Cinema and Sound lecture at university. Music and sound is particularly important to this film as a whole: firstly, the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 was chosen as the entire soundtrack and proved to be integral to the script. With an array of mixed emotions being projected from the lead actress in particular, through an equally integral internal monologue, the music manages to fit in at just the right moments to play alongside main character Laura’s feelings. Whether it’s in alignment with the somber sadness of heartache from the opening scenes, to the more jolly moments of elation, as Laura fantasizes about another life with the object of her affection Alec, the music is not just accompanying the scenes, but with Laura, it too is telling a story. Secondly, sound is projected often in loud bursts from the trains passing by, promoting the passion derived from Laura and Alec, as they embrace one another.

So what of the actual script and storyline itself? Well much like the original play it is based on, Still Life, the film allows Laura to tell the tale through a mixture of internal monologue and desperate facial expressions. From the start, we are placed within the main location of the station café. The “subplot” couple – the café owner and her platform controller admirer – set off the film with some snappy chit chat, as the camera drifts off to the nearby, middle class couple sat together at a table, sipping tea and looking quiet and cheerless. This is actually where the film will end and at this point the viewer knows little about the couple and why they are so morose. The viewer also won’t know just how infuriating it actually is that Laura’s long term acquaintance, Dolly, who bursts through the café door and spots Laura, thinks nothing of interrupting the two in what is in fact their last few moments together. Soon Alec has left and whilst Dolly tends to the café counter for some chocolate she turns back to Laura only to find her gone. A few seconds later and Laura has reappeared at the café door, seeming dazed and a little faint. Dolly takes care of her offering her something stiff to drink and once Laura has composed herself they both leave to catch their train home. Sat opposite Dolly, who has a nasty habit of rambling on about nothingness, Laura begins telling her story to the audience. Her heartache, before anyone has had a chance to discover where it has derived from, is instantly felt through the sound of her low, choked up voice and pessimistic thoughts. Insisting that “this misery can’t last” and that her friend just “stop talking”, it is with these thoughts that her heart wrenching pain seeps through to the viewer and before the film has even really started and before you even know the full story, the viewer is already feeling their own tears start to project through. Once home, Laura’s story continues, but this time, she is personally telling the story through an internal monologue to her husband Fred. Though she cannot tell him out loud, perhaps it is through guilt that she chooses him to be her audience.

“If only it was somebody else’s story and not mine. As it is, you’re the only one in the world that I can never tell. Never, never. Because even if I waited until we were old, old people and told you then, you’d be bound to look back over the years and be hurt. And my dear, I don’t want you to be hurt.”

Throughout the film we will have a picture painted of Fred: in Laura’s own words (to Alec) he is “tall, brown hair, and not delicate at all.” Fred himself has a fair amount of screen time, perhaps to get across the contrast between Laura’s husband and her lover. Fred, although at times teasing and playful towards Laura, is undoubtedly unexciting in comparison to Alec. Fred likes to complete crossword puzzles in the evening (Fred: “Come into the living room, you can help me with The Times crossword.” Laura: “You do have the most unusual ideas of relaxation.”), pays little attention to Laura when she describes her day out and demands dinner upon his return home from work. In comparison, Alec likes to know all about Laura, which to her would probably be a crucial part of his appeal, in that really there is little for her to tell; he likes to spoil her with surprises (champagne, a fancy rented car for a day out together), as well as with his words, telling her how beautiful she is, inside and out. This all leads to the key element of the affair: Alec is the fantasy Laura pursues. Perhaps from the books she reads, the movies she watches or the time spent alone as a housewife, Laura clearly seeks some sort of break away from her seemingly dull life, however fulfilling it should really be. She herself observes that her life is by no means tragic – she is married, has two children, is wealthy and on the surface has everything she needs and wants. Yet Laura is no doubt an identifiable character and the storyline of this film is itself equally identifiable. However, what makes this film stand above those similar, is that it manages to expose those thoughts, feelings, inhibitions and situations, without so many words, in the most honest and truthful way. Laura is a bored housewife in search of something (or someone) to inject more excitement in her life; Fred is the excuse the film uses to explain the reasons for Laura’s crisis; and Alec is the temptation.

Having been made during a time in cinema where adultery would have been considered highly immoral subject matter, the film surprisingly crosses some boundaries here. At one stage during the film, Laura and Fred are shown lying asleep at night in separate beds, then at another stage in the film, Alec and Laura are on the verge of hopping into bed with one another. At this point, it is not their moral conscious that pipes up and tells them to stop what they are doing, but instead it is a chance return home by Alec’s friend to the flat where the dirty deed would take place that breaks up the canoodling. It is hard to imagine that had this not occurred that the pair wouldn’t have gone through with it, considering Laura’s fickleness eventually leading her back into the arms of Alec, when she should have been making her way back home.

Throughout the film, there are certain subliminal storylines that mirror Laura and Alec’s relationship. Firstly, and as mentioned earlier, there is the café hostess and the platform controller. These two in particular are significant in that they are not only trying to disguise their relationship from the surrounding public eyes, but they reflect the ‘Laura and Alec’ of the lower class. Myrtle and Albert, a more comic version of our love struck protagonists, spend their time flirting over the counter of the café; Albert teasingly pestering his lady friend and Myrtle desperately trying to conceal her enjoyment of it. Another instance of relationships creeping beneath the surface of the film is that of the younger Beryl and Stanley. This is only briefly shown, but during Laura and Alec’s realisation that they will have to end their relationship, Beryl and Stanley can be seen chasing one another around the station platform. Furthermore, the movie Laura and Alec attend, ‘Flames of Passion’, showcases an exotic looking couple locked in a fiery romance. It is with these instances that we can grasp more messages on the concept of adultery and passionate romances – the romance is desirable: it can be exciting and new, like the kind between a young couple (or those having an affair); it can be a chance to explore one’s sexuality again, like the kind between an older, perhaps widowed, or divorced couple (or those having an affair); and it can be a fantasy played out, like the kind between an attractive pair of actors in a high concept film (or those having an affair). On the contrary, these romantic subplots could also be suggesting that whilst all the good parts of a romance are desirable, there are also morals and boundaries. Laura herself pinpoints the latter parts on occasion: she talks about feeling like she is being watched and feels guilty after her unruly behaviour whilst surrounded by other passengers on her train, including a clergyman; she brings herself back to reality after her imaginings of her and Alec, as a real couple commenting how “ … all the silly dreams disappeared.”; and furthermore, certain events in the film help to advise Laura about righting her immorality, such as her son being hit by a car and slightly injured, or being caught with Alec at lunch by an old friend.

Whilst the audience most likely wants to see the pair run off into the sunset together, it is not meant to be. Instead, the film takes the moral road and returns Laura to her husband, and although the film seems like it is going to end on a more unhappy note, it gracefully pulls itself back up. Laura has lost a man she fell for deeply and the pain is so bad she almost ends it all for good. Despite the less colourful view created of Fred, it is with Laura’s return to his arms and not into Alec’s, that we feel a sense of pride and encouragement. Fred at this point has finally started to pick up on Laura’s misery. He sympathetically looks at her obviously sorrowful face and gets up from his chair and crossword puzzle. Walking over to her and crouching down to her chair, he makes clear his awareness that she has been quite unhappy:

“You’ve been a long way away …. Thank you for coming back to me.”

Whether he knows to the full extent of where Laura has been whilst she’s been “away”, or whether he has simply caught eye of Laura’s rut in their relationship, one can’t help but feel that underneath Fred’s indelicacy, is a warm person who truly loves and cares about his wife. As an audience, that is all that we could have asked of the film.

What is a pitch perfectly captured romance on the one hand, is also a tale tinged with great sadness. Laura and Alec make for a beautiful and passionate couple, but their personal circumstances create a dark cloud over the entire story. It is indeed a brief encounter.