Brief Encounter (1945) dir. David Lean

The first time I watched Brief Encounter, I was most taken by the rather extreme Dutch angle shot of Laura’s face as the film nears climax.

Burdened by her sinful desire, her perpetration of adultery, and the loss of her lover, Laura is pushed beyond the brink of rationality. And, briefly, for close to a minute, her world shifted, she is taken away from her reality. All until the remembrance of her domestic dependents draws her back to her world and with that, the camera shift back straight.

She lingers, for the remaining minutes of the film, as seen in the first many minutes, jilted by the entirety of her being, this inconceivable episode of her life and the memory of brief end.

In this story narrated entirely by Celia Johnson’s Laura Jesson, the story of a love affair comes unraveled in parts till it reaches, in many ways, its sudden close.

More on ostranenie, Verfremdungseffekt and Mooreeffoc coming soon, upon a critical rewatch.