Looking back on popular cinema of the 1940s scandal and certainly infidelity don’t seem to be a common theme in general. Romance is more often light, fun, and passionate, and though the main love story of this film certainly has passion, it is outweighed by the guilt.
After a housewife ventures out one Thursday for her usual errands, she bumps into a handsome stranger. From there a sordid affair begins, and the pair quickly fall in love, though both are married to other people.
From its opening scene, the Brief Encounter has you guessing. A seemingly random man and random woman sit in the corner of a train station café, as the regular customers come and go, and take no notice of them. It isn’t until the young woman’s gossipy acquaintance approaches them and begins chatting incessantly, that we discover the pair are integral to the film. The man makes a quick getaway, after giving his companions shoulder a polite and gentle squeeze. From this brief interaction, it seems there is definitely some sort of tension between the pair but what caused that tension remains to be discovered. We find out later that this man and woman are Laura Jesson, and Dr. Alec Harvey, and as the film plays out through flashbacks from Laura’s perspective, we discover that they do in fact know each other, very intimately.
The film has multiple existential moments as much of the film’s narration is Laura’s internal struggle with her indelible guilt over her relationship with Alec. She states quite early on “This can’t last. This misery can’t last” yet continues to see Alec in the proceeding weeks. The film captures the sense of disorientation that is involved in infidelity stories with the pair, particularly Laura, spending the entirety of the film going back and forth on what she wants versus what is right. If you remove both characters respective partners, the film is a beautiful love story about two people who happen to stumble upon each other and spark a passionate romance. However, this is not that kind of film, and what plays out is an adulterous struggle between to flawed humans.
What is most refreshing about this film is that it speaks to a deeper essence of humankind’s nature. No one is perfect and through Laura’s internal monologue we know just how aware she is of that fact, in this entire situation. Laura appears to feel more guilt than Alec, about the affair, but both vocalise their desire for the situation to be different – if this were an ideal world.
Overall, the film keeps you on edge and keeps you guessing. Will they get caught? Will one of them not turn up one day? You don’t know and that’s what has made it a solid film – not just for 1940s audiences, but for modern audiences too. The themes can be so easily translated into a modern context, and the sense of guilt throughout the film, are relatable to every single person, in one form or another.
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