Brief Encounter

I'm wondering - was it a commercial success when released? How was it perceived by audiences at the time?

WickedLadyKiller

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Lean and co. gave an advance screening of Brief Encounter in Rochester whilst filming Great Expectations. It seems that the crowd wasn't attuned to the tortured romance of BE and laughed at Alec's agonised attempts to get Laura into bed.

Critics seemed to be more impressed, though. Both Celia Johnson and David Lean were nominated for Oscars, and the film picked up gongs in Cannes and New York. Whether or not this critical success was mirrored at the box ffice I don't know.

stevie boy

I heard a story that Roger Livesey was offered Trevor Howard's role in Brief Encounter. Does anyone know if that is true??

Wicked Lady

According to a Trevor Howard bio I'm reading at the moment by Terence Pettigrew, Noel Coward "had no clear cut choice for Alec, but believed that Roger Livesey would do an excellent job". David Lean couldn't see Livesey as a romantic hero and wanted an unknown. Lean spotted Trevor Howard, by chance, during a screening of a rough cut of The Way to the Stars. When Lean re-screened the film for Coward, Noel stopped the film after Howard's character was killed off and said "well done, let's look no more".

julian_craster

BRIEF ENCOUNTER played well in Guildford, but was not booked to cinemas in working class areas (known as 'industrial halls'), where they prefered Frank Randle .

The Carlton DVD has a good doc on the film's reception, with an interview with Ronald Neame.....