Brief Encounter (1945/1946, UK)

In one of the greatest tearjerker films of all time by young director David Lean:

• the heartbreaking circumstances of two doomed, ill-fated lovers: middle-class housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) and doctor Alec (Trevor Howard) in their weekly meetings
• their first encounter at the Milford Junction train station when he removed engine soot from her eye

The Two Illicit Lovers
First Encounter: Removing Soot From Laura's Eye	Laura and Alec	Confession of Love To Each Other

• the soundtrack of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2
• the scene after a boatride when they confessed their love to each other but Laura cautioned: "We mustn't behave like this..."
• Laura's fantasy - viewed in the train window - of being with Alex in romantic settings
• their aborted attempt at a tryst to consummate their affair, when it was interrupted
• Alec's profession of love: ("I love you, Laura. I shall love you always until the end of my life")
• the scene of their final day together when they were interrupted by friend Dolly Messiter (Everley Gregg) during their last, painful, repressed goodbye (both at the start and end of the film) as Alec gently placed his hand on her shoulder and disappeared forever (on a medical journey to Africa): ("I felt the touch of his hand on my shoulder for a moment. And then he walked away, away out of my life forever...Dolly still went on talking, but I wasn't listening to her. I was listening to the sound of his train starting. And it did. I said to myself: 'He didn't go. At the last minute his courage failed him; he couldn't have gone. Any minute now, he'll come back into the refreshment room pretending he's forgotten something.' I prayed for him to do that, just so that I could see him again, for an instant. (pause) But the minutes went by...")
• the anguished Laura's near-suicide attempt (with a mad, self-destructive urge signified by a tilted camera) when she jumped up abruptly from the table and rushed outside the tea room to the rail platform. Her internal state was externalized and stylized as disorienting and unbalanced. At the edge of the platform as the train screeched through, she contemplated throwing herself under the passing train, but lacked the courage to do so
• the final scene in the company of her understanding and thankful husband Fred Jesson (Cyril Raymond), when he asked her: ("Whatever your dream was, it wasn't a very happy one, was it?...Is there anything I can do to help?...You've been a long way away....Thank you for coming back to me"), and she responded by weeping in his arms