‘Brief Encounter’ and the Lancashire train station that gave us some of cinema’s most indelible scenes
The romantic drama reached sublime heights when David Lean’s Brief Encounter emerged in 1945.
While war was coming to an end, there was still a thick atmosphere of repression and tragedy in the air, which inevitably shaped the film, even if it had been based on Noël Coward’s play Still Life, written in the pre-war era.
Brief Encounter reflects the stuffy and traditional landscape of Britain during the war, which prevented citizens from simply living the lives they desired, explored through the affair between Laura and Alec, who meet at a train station and fall in love, despite the fact that they already have spouses of their own.
The pair know that what they’re doing is wrong, but being with each other is the only time that they both feel truly fulfilled, experiencing something greater than the humdrum nature of their married lives, with the most heartbreaking scene coming through when the two, played by Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard, have to say goodbye to each other, her acknowledgement that they need to end their affair coming with his announcement that he is taking a job in South Africa.
So, they meet at the train station, where they first met, and prepare to bid an emotional farewell, and yet, Laura’s irritating acquaintance Dolly interrupts their goodbye, none the wiser, meaning that he can only touch her shoulder as a way to depart for his train, and she is left utterly distraught.
As a result, Laura contemplates jumping in front of the train, but instead, she retreats home to her husband and kids, where she knows she’ll be unhappy, but ultimately, her status as a dutiful wife will be restored. It’s absolutely tragic, although the sheer beauty of the story, its emotional gravitas, sometimes just too much to bear, has allowed it to become one of the most influential and astounding movies ever made, a true feat of filmmaking.
It’s a masterpiece, which, let’s be real, could only be the right outcome when the artistic forces of Lean and Coward were brought together, charting a legacy that has lived on, and the train station featured in the film has become a popular site of pilgrimage for fans of the film, Although you wouldn’t expect such a genre-defying film to have found its home in Lancashire, and while interior scenes might have been shot in a London studio, it was at Carnforth Station, a small two-platform station, which serves the exteriors, standing in for the fictional Milford Junction.
Opened in 1846, the station’s clock played a prominent role in the film, a symbol of the couple’s impending doom, and years later, the site still stands, partly in tribute to the film; you can even visit the Brief Encounter Bistro and Bar while you’re there, and yet, many people likely pass through the small station unaware of its important role in serving a cinematic masterpiece all those years ago.
Thanks to Brief Encounter, cinema gave us a love story equally as complicated as it was affecting, stripped of Hollywood glamour, instead gifting us something more relatable in its Lancashire setting, reflecting how a story of despair and complete heartbreak really could happen to anyone.
