casio

Hi I have my A level exam coming up soon and one of the films im studying is Brief encounter, could someone give me some examples in the film where passion or repression is displayed in a scene.
Thanks
Casio

Rob Compton

Well, might I politely suggest that you watch it for yourself and decide which scenes represent what you are after?

rgds
Rob

Moor Larkin

Well said sir!!

The whole bloomin' movie. It's a positive roller-coaster of clenched orifices and extremities......

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casio

I've watched it twice, taken down notes jus thought id come on here for a bit of extra help. Thanks anyways

Rob Compton

I'm not trying to be unhelpful, its just that - as Moor Larkin says - the entire film is a long series of repressed emotions. If you seen it, you'll have enough evidence I would have thought.

Best of luck with the exams

rgds
Rob

vaggmk1938

Poor Casio, but what can you expect from a man with that avatar!?

Repression--how about Celia Johnson's obivious embarassment when going to the friend's flat for an assignation? Also her very obvious reluctance to continue the "affair" in several instances. Whether these indicate sexual repression or are simply a reflection of the social mores (or morals) of the time is arguable. In the 1940s and 1950s women were certainly sexually repressed, middle class women, particularly.

Passion, the entire movie is laced as Moor Larkin remarked with both repression and passion. Perhaps again the scene where Celia decides to go to the flat, here passion overcomes repression--until she gets cold feet. Also passion is certainly shown in her mad dash to the platform edge--a wild desire to kill herself?--that always seemed a bit extreme.

I think it is a B of a question to put and I would suggest using LM's remark, perhaps in a more refined translation!

All best.

casio

vaggmk1938 ur the man thanks for that i'll deffinately take that into account much appreciated and ye Rob Fair enough but im 19 and people from my generation dont particulary find these sort of films interesting or understand them as easily as most of you on here who either like these films or have experience in these sorta films or might have even grown up with them. And yes i have my evidence and notes but like i said i just wanted that little bit of extra help.

P.S ignore the avatar

batman

It might also be worth mentioning that in Coward's original notes the Celia Johnson character was a man.

Bats.

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vaggmk1938

Well, you see Casio, you do learn something every day on this forum.

I just did a Google on "brief encounter" +coward +"homosexual" and found an interesting Manchester Guardian article about the film and repression. Also do a general Google and the Wikipedia article is informative.

casio

so fred and alec were originally meant to be gays?

mel walton

Whoever changed it deserves a lot of credit (Coward?) They made a great movie out of what would've been garbage. Guess everyone has heard stories about Coward. but his 'Still Life' ( 'Brief Encounter') was a stroke of genius.

Moor Larkin

It would have been illegal not to have changed it. The direct representation of homosexuality was illegal until the Fifties or Sixties wasn't it?

I find it difficult to believe a professional like Coward would have 'written' something that could never have been performed. I can quite see that his own repressive feelings may have informed the nature of the piece however. Unrequited love engenders much the same feelings regardless of the plumbing I expect.

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batman

Apparently, Coward wrote the original story years before the film with the idea of rattling a few cages, but his friends talked him out of it. So he adapted it into an 'acceptable' stage play.

I may be wrong, and I am sure our resident Anthony Asquith expert will tell me if I am, but I think The Young Lovers was also conceived in a similar fashion but was changed due to the then current laws on homosexuality.

Bats.

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batman

Are you saying that, because a tender and beautifully written love story may have been about two men it would have been garbage, but because it was changed to a man and a woman it suddenly becomes a masterpiece?

Also, are you saying that Coward was able to create a 'stroke of genius' despite his homosexuality?

Coward was able to create that masterpiece primarily because he had a real insight into the problems that 'illicit' relationships face, and it was these insights which helped create such a wonderful film.

Bats.

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batman

Yes .... the characters of Laura and Fred have been swapped over from how they were in Coward's original story to how they are in Brief Encounter.

Bats.

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