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Brief Encounter

1945 · TMDB 7.7

Directed by David Lean

Returning home from a shopping trip to a nearby town, bored suburban housewife Laura Jesson is thrown by happenstance into an acquaintance with virtuous doctor Alec Harvey. Their casual friendship soon develops during their weekly visits into something more emotionally fulfilling than either expected, and they must wrestle with the potential havoc their deepening relationship would have on their lives and the lives of those they love.

Why it matters

David Lean's tale of two married people who meet in a railway station buffet and nearly, but never quite, change their lives. Celia Johnson's voiceover and Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto turn restraint into devastation.

From The Melodrama They Never Let Us Keep

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