Several years ago I was lucky enough to make some documentaries on Classic British Films. ITV Studios (well, Carlton back then) owned the Rank, Korda Romulus and Rohauer film libraries and wanted half hour 'making ofs' to accompany the re-release of some of the films on DVD.
For a film geek like me, talking to the people who made Black Narcissus, The 39 Steps (The Hitchcock version) and Oliver Twist was kind of a 'Jim'll Fix It'* moment.
One of the highlights was making a short documentary about Brief Encounter. Whilst David Lean and most of the cast had passed on, I did manage to talk to the producer Ronald Neame who would later have a very distingushed directing career in his own right.
Brief Encounter is one of those films you feel you've seen even if you haven't. The RP accents and Celia Johnson's narration have been parodied countless times and to today's post-post modern cynic I guess there is something rather quaint and even amusing about two people having such a chaste affair.
However, I'd urge such cynics to look at the film again (and watch the little documentary if they have time). The flashback structure is incredibly advanced, the performances pitch perfect, Robert Krasker's photography luminous.
in 2011 'couple have affair' would barely qualify as a soap subplot, but this simple story of two ordinary people wrestling with feelings they never thought they'd have is invested with such intensity and sincerity that it becomes completely cinematic; Celia Johnson's enormous eyes filling the screen.
Whether you buy the 'Valentine's Day Edition' (er, in a pink box) or lovefilm it, I'd urge anyone who thinks it's just an old film about people in funny hats talking in a train station to watch it again.
As neither Celia Johnson or Trevor Howard would say, it rocks.
* For the young, this was a late 70s/80s TV show in which a creepy cigar puffing man in a tracksuit granted children's wishes and gave them medals. No, really.
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