Is it the age we live in, or is it that objectively this is a slow-moving quaint view of the 50's England? Sophia Loren is lovely as usual, and you can't help but think that this film was also a commentary on her private life. Her husband, Carlos Ponti, produced this film. A much older man, he must have had to face the dilemma featured in this movie often. And the answer was obviously always the same: the allure of a sexually titillating romance could not be overcome for a victim of WWII the wonderful stability of home and family, no matter how 'boring'. Definitely a morality tale, 'Brief Encounter' is based on a Noel Coward play which I find intriguing. The movement is slow, the dialogue similarly, and you are left wondering what exactly was missing from her home life that she should turn to this fellow. It's perfectly obvious what's missing from his, when his wife barely looks up from her writing to say, "Our love slipped away so long ago, I hardly noticed it. But why is love necessary, anyhow?"
Review of Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter
(1974 TV Movie)
Interesting shots of rural England, but nothing much more!!
30 September 1999