Passionate Encounters: David Lean & Trevor Howard X 2

The Passionate Friends
(David Lean, UK 1949, 91 min., 35mm)
November 8 @ Cinémathèque (Passionate Encounters: David Lean – Ten British Classics)

Brief Encounter
(David Lean, UK 1945, 86 min., 35mm)
November 8 @ Cinémathèque (Passionate Encounters: David Lean – Ten British Classics)

Restorations, beautiful prints, on the big screen — what a treat!

I haven’t seen many of David Lean’s pre-epic works presented in this “Ten British Classics” series, and had never heard of The Passionate Friends.  The Cinémathèque’s write-up describes it as “Something of a companion piece (and more glamorous cousin) to Brief Encounter” so I was glad to see them together on the same night.  (Tho’ I totally forgot I’d actually seen Brief Encounter (on TV) not too long ago.  No matter.  It’s better on the big screen — you feel the emotion more.)  Also, Trevor Howard’s in both, so there’s another way to look at the double bill.

The Passionate Friends (based on an H.G. Wells novel?!) is a romantic triangle story starring Ann Todd (who the program notes tell us became Lean’s third wife) as a woman who wouldn’t marry her great love Trevor Howard cos she didn’t want to give up her freedom, but later, having gotten married anyway to the older, richer Claude Rains — a comfortable, companion match, if not passionate — whenever she runs into the first guy, she wants to be with him.  Similarly, Brief Encounter (adapted by Noel Coward from his own one-act play) is about people who feel drawn to each other but are married to others.  Both films also tell their stories through flashback with voiceover narration, and cinematically show what’s going on in characters’ heads, via camera, sound, and acting, as with pausing to think, reminisce or fantasise, considering potential courses of action, and making realisations.

Both stories introduce us to the women’s spouses, who are glad to have them, but Claude Rains’ rich husband has more of a part to play, especially towards the end of Friends.  Not wanting to give too much away, I’ll just say the endings are in some ways similar too, in regards to staying with or leaving husbands, tho’ actions and consequences differ.  Other commonalities: Trevor Howard’s charming character “playing truant” and cheating wife heroines going to throw themselves in front of trains.

The Passionate Friends is indeed more glamourous, with settings including a Swiss resort and massive society ball, while Brief Encounter‘s lovers see each other at train platforms and coffee shops (with enjoyable glances at the refreshment room’s characters with their own dramas every Thursday, the day the lovers meet.)  But the latter’s characters have more of a sense of reality and how their actions could affect others — namely, their spouses.  Ann Todd’s Friends character is so self-centred and insensitive to the people around her, at times she got a bit tiresome, whereas Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Encounter are, well, nicer, so you care about them more.  Still, I found Friends quite emotional at the end, which kinda surprised me.

Of the double bill, I preferred Brief Encounter — a classic conflicted romance, conveying the British propriety while still being romantic, and not too melodramatic.  I guess I generally prefer working class, everyday people stories — I don’t need rich, glam characters to escape in a movie.  I also really enjoyed Celia Johnson’s performance.

A little funny side note about the pre-show slides shown at the Cinémathèque: last night there was a little message showing at the bottom of the screen saying “Please replace the LAMP.”  I went to take a picture of it when the slide advertising the ‘thèque’s new projector (“brand new light”) was up, but my cellphone was low on battery and couldn’t take one.  Heheh.

Also, I think I spotted a continuity error (I don’t know that I notice them usually): in a brief flashback early on in The Passionate Friends, the couple is shown in reflection, then not, but both are in the same position in the shot (ie. same person on the left/right) — the reflection isn’t the opposite, as it should be.  No “goofs” are listed on the film’s IMDb entry, so now I’m doubting if I actually saw it.  What did Premiere magazine used to call that?… (google…) — the gaffe squad.