Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard meet by chance at a railway station (Milford Junction). Both are married and neither will stoop to impropriety. Yet there is an immediate attraction and a series of stolen lunch dates develops into one of the cinema’s most affecting love affairs. It was David Lean who hit on the flashback structure which takes Noel Coward’s one-act play out of the station, and for all the lovers’ stiff upper lip rectitude this is where the filmmaker’s romantic inclinations blossomed (Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 2 does the rest). In a funny way it’s very In the Mood for Love, 1945 edition.
Nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Director, Best Actress and Best Screenplay) the film won the Grand Prix at Cannes. Today it is considered one of the greatest British films ever made.
Lean’s sad, buttoned-up account of unconsummated love is about all of us and our cautious natures.
Zadie Smith
One of the most vivid, impassioned and painfully believable love stories ever committed to celluloid.
Tom Huddleston, Time Out
David Lean
Trevor Howard, Celia Johnson
UK
1945
English
Grand Prix, Cannes
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Producer
Noël Coward
Screenwriter
David Lean, Ronald Neame, Anthony Havelock-Allan
Cinematography
Robert Krasker
Editor
Jack Harris
Original Music
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
Art Director
L. P. Williams
Also Playing
Every Little Thing
If you thought Flow was an emotional rollercoaster, wait til you meet Cactus and Wasabi, baby hummingbirds fighting for their lives under the loving care of hummingbird-whisperer Terry Masear, an Angelino who makes it her mission to nurse injured birds.
The Room Next Door
Reunited with an old friend, Martha (Tilda Swinton) has a peculiar favour to ask Ingrid (Julianne Moore); the last favour she will ever ask... Almodóvar's latest is a bittersweet testament to the importance of how we say goodbye.
Porcelain War
In Canada we cannot truly comprehend a scenario in which our country is invaded and civilians compelled to take up arms. Yet for Ukrainians, this is the reality. In Porcelain War, three artists elect to stay and fight -- with cameras, yes, and with guns.