RESTORED ARCHIVAL PRINT!

“Superb . . . Noël Coward’s crisp script is a classic of passionate reserve. . . . Celia Johnson is astounding. . . . A must-see” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian). Lean’s fourth and final collaboration with Coward is a moving drama about a romance between a doctor and housewife that is quashed by their sense of duty to their respective marriages. Brief Encounter was a major success for Lean, bouncing back from a devastating preview screening to subsequently enter the pantheon of British cinema. The film’s central concern, the elegiac tension between social responsibility and individual passion, is one that Lean explores frequently in his films. For many Lean lovers, Encounter, set to a stirring Rachmaninoff score, remains his most touching and expressive work. “The wit and poignancy of Noël Coward’s screenplay still burns strong. . . . It’s the loveliest period piece imaginable, marvellously shot in sooty black and white by Robert Krasker” (Anthony Quinn, The Independent). “The archetypal British film of the period” (Brian McFarlane, An Autobiography of British Cinema).

Rated PG.