A bit startled, and disappointed, by the film Brief Encounter (1945). The original one-act play (Still Life, from Coward's Tonight at 8:30) is so utterly wonderful – melodrama perhaps, but such spare, precisely written melodrama, where every character is completely outlined with just a few deft strokes, and the whole story progresses so delicately and inevitably towards its tragic focus. Besides, the whole point should be that they don't have many words for their situation, shouldn't it? – that their feelings for each other are strong but unmanageable – all much more believable, much more powerful, in the original version. Why add narration, flashbacks, foreshadowing, discussion?... ick. I'm afraid I can't understand why this is supposed to be a classic film.
It reminds me of what my friend Laura said, when her beloved youngest brother drowned in a silly vacation accident, and her family, which always expected her (and only her, not even her feckless parents) to be the Adult In Charge; they indulged themselves in the drama of the situation, weeping and wailing and such, and she said quietly to me: "It's already so awful, why do they need to make it awful?" I've always remembered that line – it says a lot about real feelings, and their resistance to being spoken....
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