Trains have been a part of cinema from the start. Porter from Trains are deeply cinematic. Their sharp design features and straight paths of motion make for striking compositions. The image of a train flying down the tracks, even projected on a screen, is just that impressive.
As the new century struggled through its first few decades with war and plague and financial ruin and nonstop revolution, the train became something else: A symbol. Anything romantic or spontaneous or passionate becomes a piece of grit in the eye, an inconvenient and painful scrape.
Her ending, happy and stable on the surface, feels tragic not just because she lost her lover, but because she submitted to the crushing machine: her maternal role; her proper British family; her housewife responsibilities; her imperial twilight.
The grit in her eye has been cleared, though something vital has been lost. Brief Encounter is the story of two married people — not to each other — falling in love in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
A friendly doctor, Alec Harvey Trevor Howard and Laura both find themselves in town every Thursday: Laura doing the weekly shopping, Alex doing a shift at the local hospital.
