Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.


or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Brief Encounter (Full Screen)
 
See larger image and other views 
Share your own customer images

Brief Encounter (Full Screen)

Celia Johnson (Actor), Trevor Howard (Actor), David Lean (Director) | Rated: Unrated | Format: DVD
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 66.99
Price: CDN$ 60.49 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: CDN$ 6.50 (10%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca. Gift-wrap available.
Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Tuesday, May 29? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this Movies & TV with Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ~ Maggie Smith DVD CDN$ 12.99

Brief Encounter (Full Screen) + Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Price For Both: CDN$ 73.48

One of these items ships sooner than the other. Show details

  • This item: Brief Encounter (Full Screen) ~ Celia Johnson DVD

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details

  • Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ~ Maggie Smith DVD

    Usually ships within 10 to 14 days.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.ca.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over CDN$ 25. Details

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

› Explore similar items

Product Details

Product Description

Amazon.com Essential Video

To many, Brief Encounter may seem like a relic of more proper times--or, specifically, more properly British times--when the pressures of marital decorum and fidelity were perhaps more keenly felt. In truth, David Lean's fourth film remains a timeless study of true love (or, rather, the promise of it), and the aching desire for intimate connection that is often subdued by the obligations of marriage. And so it is that ordinary Londoners Alec (Trevor Howard), a married doctor, and contented housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) meet by chance one day in a train station, when he volunteers to remove a fleck of ash from her eye (a romantic gesture that, perhaps, inspired Robert Towne's "flaw in the iris" scene in Chinatown).

It so happens that their schedules coincide at the train station every Thursday, and their casual attraction grows, through quiet conversation and longing expressions, into the desperate recognition of mutual love. From this point forward, Lean turns this utterly precise, 85-minute film into a bracing study of romantic suspense, leading inevitably, and with the paranoid, furtive glances of a spy thriller, to the moment when this brief encounter must be consummated or abandoned altogether. Decades later, the outcome of this affair--both agonizing and rapturous--is subtle and yet powerful enough to draw tears from the numbest of souls, and spark debate regarding the tragedy or virtue of the choices made. A truly universal film, with meticulously controlled emotions revealed through the flawless performances of Howard and Johnson, and an enduring masterpiece that continued Lean on his course to cinematic greatness. --Jeff Shannon

Video Details

From Noël Coward's play Still Life, legendary filmmaker David Lean deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance in the dour, gray Britain of 1945. From a chance meeting on a train platform, a middle-aged married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) enter into a quietly passionate, ultimately doomed love affair, set to a swirling Rachmaninoff score. Criterion is proud to present Lean's award-winning masterpiece a beautifully restored digital transfer.

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

 

Customer Reviews

24 Reviews
5 star:
 (21)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Encounter Brief Encounter, May 11 2004
By 
Rudy Avila "Saint Seiya" (Lennox, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Brief Encounter (Full Screen) (DVD)
1946's Brief Encounter, directed by David Lean (of Doctor Zhivago fame, which he would later direct in 1965) is a great film full of subtlety, romance and melancholia. Shot in black and white, this film is almost a signature of the 40's, as was the more popular and successful Casablanca. Without mention of World War II, this film deals with internal struggles of the heart. Cecila Johnson stars as the romantic heroine, a married woman and Trevor Howard the love interest, a married doctor. Though it's apparent they are disenchanted with their marriages and they are in love with each other, they never fully give in to a passionate affair. It's a romance that is mostly feelings and emotions, furtive glances, sighs, talk and regular meetings that are brief in a train station.

David Lean is experimenting with many techniques, particularily intimate angles and interior monologue. No film can ever top his Doctor Zhivago, but this film is at least second best and good for its time in 1946. There is a particularly impressive scene in which the lovers are interrupted and Celia Johnson's character must take a train trip with a very chatty, annoying woman friend. The older woman chatters away and we tap into Celia's thoughts. "I wish she would stop talking.. I wish she were dead" (I thought this was hilarious because we are wishing the same thing by that point)....but then she reprimands herself and comes to the conclusion, after a tiring day, that life does not last, that nothing really lasts forever, neither happiness nor despair. It's very poignant. Another reason besides the great acting and the story itself is the fact that Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2, regarded as his finest, is played in this film. The dramatic, romantic storm that is the first movement, followed by a melancholy adagio, is very effective for this type of film.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars One of the greatest love stories ever filmed, Jun 14 2002
This review is from: Brief Encounter (Full Screen) (DVD)
This has to be one of my favourite films of all times. The script is superb, the acting unrivalled and the atmosphere electric. Everything about it is just wonderful. Everything that is except this DVD. Is it just me, or has anyone else found that the transfer to DVD is simply appalling? I have bought 3 copies of this disc from 3 different suppliers, only to find on each one that the picture continually washes from light to almost pitch black every few seconds throughout the film. None of the other reviews here mention this fact, but I can't believe it's just been my bad luck. What a shame. I've been waiting for this movie for on DVD for a long time, but it's a waste of time.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An age of innocence, Mar 21 2003
By 
H. Paul Moon (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Brief Encounter (Full Screen) (DVD)
Well before Adrian Lyne's morality tales about adultery came this David Lean non-epic that didn't burst, early into the film, with sexual aggression. Rather, that subtle pain of nervous tension, between adults who are attracted to each other but who are not allowed to act on it, is brought to life in an age of innocence and rules.

Lean's style is stylistic in subtle doses (we can neither forget the atmosphere of the train station, nor the tilting camera when suicide almost happens). It is a compact, Lean (pun intended) narrative that had to be, immediately upon completion, an eternal masterpiece.

This Criterion Collection DVD bears an excellent transfer; it must have coincided with the new print I saw at the American Film Institute National Theater in Washington. However, unlike most Criterion DVDs, there is very little in the nature of extras, other than a commentary track and a brief description of the restoration process. (That is to say, no documentary.)

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
› Go to Amazon.com to see all 85 reviews  4.7 out of 5 stars 
 
 		 Most recent customer reviews











Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject













i.e., each DVD must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Amazon.ca Privacy Statement Amazon.ca Shipping Information Amazon.ca Returns & Exchanges