Skip to main content
Brief Encounter film image; woman leaning out a window towards a man

Brief Encounter

80th Anniversary

This event has passed

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

Director

David Lean

Cast

Trevor Howard, Celia Johnson

Credits
Country of Origin

UK

Year

1945

Language

English

Awards

Grand Prix, Cannes

19+
87 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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

Lust, Caution

Dir. Ang Lee
158 min

Each month we showcase a movie selected by one of our VIFF+ Premium members. This month, Shanwen Yan chooses Ang Lee's erotic WWII spy 2007 thriller, starring Tany Wei, Tony Leung and Joan Chen.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Gondola
Gondola film image; two women staring intently at one another sitting in a gondola

Gondola

Dir. Veit Helmer
85 min

In this whimsical comedy two cable car conductors fall in love as they criss cross a beautiful Georgian valley every half hour.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Inedia

Dir. Liz Cairns
107 min

Liz Cairns makes a mesmerizing feature debut that sees a young woman suffering from mysterious food allergies join a remote island community practicing alternative healing methods. She soon realizes that not everything is as it seems.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Shall We Dance?

Dir. Masayuki Suô
137 min

Masayuki Suô's delightful and charming 1996 film was a box office smash and won 14 Japanese Academy Awards including Best Film. It's the story of a married salaryman who falls in love with... dance.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre