If you haven’t found your “voice” – then you’re well on your way to finding it.

Great piece and it’s nice that it lacks the snarky tongue-in-cheeck humorous spin that Jason (Admin) and I often put in our reviews.

Looking forward to more…much more.

Why is this movie in the Janus Collection? I really thought it was a dud, and it sure doesn’t seem to be of the same historical importance in the film industry as the others we have so far watched. Perhaps it is important because showing such infidelity on the silver screen was extremely risque in 1946 England?

The most interesting thing to me about this movie was how horribly retched the most beautiful Celia Johnson looked. She and the film scored a ten on conveying the awful price to be paid for betrayal. The story itself is an interesting exploration of the grey area between the black-and-white wrong and right, and how confused we can be when false passion clouds our eyes. In my opinion, these two “lovers” were not so much in love with each other as they were with the excitement of the naughtiness in which they were engaging.

I’ve often thought that none of us has only one true soul mate, that there are many out there if we but choose to look for them, and that we can love almost anyone if we decide to do so. The confusion comes when we take our chosen mate for granted and begin to forget the promises we’ve made. If we use our vows as our compass (and I’m not referring only to church-and-state vows), we will never have any confusion in our choices, as there will never be any grey areas in which to get tripped up. Wrong is wrong and right is right.

My two favorite scenes were:

1) the scene between Alec and his colleague Stephen-with-the-very-bad-teeth (what is it with the British and their teeth?), at Stephen’s apartment, where he is first falsely sympathetic to Alec and gives him an excuse to have been seeing a woman there, but within a split second turns and shows his true disappointment in Alec; and

2) the very last scene of the movie, in which Laura’s husband is glad that she has come back to him, and he is forgiving and loving.

Despite my previously stated wrong-wrong/right-right conviction, we are all human and will all make less-than-admirable choices, and the bigger question may be how we respond to our loved ones (and ourselves) when they (and we) are the ones on the floor in a pile of grey.

The importance of this film was probably that by putting it in front of the audience of the time, it got people talking about the taboo subject of female infidelity. Still, I was not convinced that the characters in this movie had a true conflict. In my opinion, this was not a remarkable film, and my first question stands unanswered.

[After writing the above, I read the reviews already posted, and here is my two-cent response:

Perhaps guys think gals are automatically always drawn to the "more exciting" chap, and sometimes the Indiana Joneses are the ones we do jones after. But for me, all throughout this movie, I had no patience with Laura for going ga-ga over Alec (who was definitely not an Indiana Jones). I was more drawn to the comfort of her life with hubby, Fred, than the superficial flirting she was doing with Alec. I loved the way Fred talked with Laura at the dinner table about solving the latest dilemma with the kids. He was clever and kept things in perspective. They spent their evenings together in companionship, working the crossword and doing handiwork. (He was at home, not working late or out carousing.) They had food on the table, a warm home, and nice clothes. And she was free to spend a day every week shopping in another town! What's not to love?!? Sure, it's not a life spent pursuing excitement, but in my experience in the last almost 50 years, drama comes unbidden into our lives often enough without us chasing after it. I was rooting for Fred the whole time.]

When I saw that the next film was David Lean’s “Brief Encounter” – I thought to myself: “Uh, yeah, BRIEF…I’ll bet…” Then when it arrived from Netflix I was shocked to see that the film was less than 90 minutes long and, not only that, the cast was so small it could have been a stage play (actually it IS based on a stage play). Is THIS what Lean did before “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago” and “Passage to India” – well, of course, Duh! Still – for some reason I didn’t think that Mr. Lean had it in him. But that goes to show what happens when your film watching spans from “What’s Up Doc” to “Star Wars” with a few Disney films thrown in for good measure.

Side comment. A few months ago I was watching a public domain film about a young couple about to start a life of crime. The film was made in the 1930’s when any film that showed a crime the criminals HAD to be punished at the end. No way anyone was getting away with ___________ (insert crime here). In this film a wise cop (or someone…it’s hard to remember) says to the couple: “Well, if you get arrested and thrown in jail…you won’t be able to get married.” And, suddenly, they look at each other with shock on their faces. I’m thinking…so? Live together! But, again, this was the 1930’s…and that just. Was. Not. Done.

“BE” is a film about that shocking moment.

Our story opens in a train station in England and we see two characters interacting quietly. One of those “busy-body types” comes wandering into the station and begins chatting up her friend. And when I say “chatting up” – I mean it’s a non-stop mile-a-minute amount of drivel coming out of this lady. Sadly, the man’s train needs to leave and he gets up, squeezes the other woman’s shoulder and he is gone. Within moments she is gone, too, only to return a moment later.

What follows is a flashback to the past few weeks. The woman in the train station is Laura and she is in love with Dr. Alec – the man with the shoulder squeeze. Problem? Yes! Both Laura and Dr. Alec are married…though we don’t see the Dr.’s wife, we meet Laura’s husband early on and he’s one of those “wears ties around the house, smokes in the house, and does crossword puzzles.” Obviously he is a boring loser. And though they’ve had two kids I doubt they bump uglies any more as we see late in the film that they sleep in separate beds.

Laura, who travels by train to go shopping every Thursday in a small town (and visit the library) meets Dr. Alec in a train station after getting something in her eye. They strike up a quick friendship and before you can say “bobsyeruncle” they’re going to see movies like “Forbidden Passion” and Donald Duck cartoons. Next thing you know…they’re in love.

Now – even though the relationship isn’t really explored all that well – we do get the feeling that these people have fallen in love. After the first encounter, though, Laura readily admits to her crossword obsessed husband that she has met a man, a doctor and she’d like to invite him and his family over for dinner. Her husband says: “Sure, why not.” But…it never happens.

As the visits together become more passionate Laura finds herself lying to her husband, lying to her friends. Making up stories and greatly falling apart. Since this isn’t a story about Dr. Alec – we never see or hear much of all the trials and tribulations HE’s going through. Proving, once again, that the woman is the one who has to bear all the guilt and shame.

Kissing now on a regular basis – with trips to the country – I started wondering if and/or when this relationship was going to kick it up a notch. In other words…when were they going to cross the bedroom line and finally consummate this love affair? It was still all pretty chaste up to this point and could be dismissed away as a moment of weakness or passion but once they cross the sheets…then what?

Finally Dr. Alec confides in Laura that he has the key to a friend’s “flat” for the night and he was going to be hanging out there. “Key to a friend’s flat” must be 1945 code for “I want to sleep with you.” Still, the offer was placed and would Laura fall into his arms only to wake up 15 minutes later with a cigarette dangling ever so gently from the corners of her mouth? Would she go through with it – scandal/marriage be damned!

Getting on the train and then quickly getting off, she runs to Dr. Alec’s arms but before they can get barely two pieces of clothing off – the friend shows up. Now this is the only miss-step in the film (besides a Rachmaninoff score that made me want to blow my brains out). Pushing Laura out to a fire escape Alec thinks he’s clear until the friend comes in and notices her scarf! He talks to Alec about bringing a woman there and the conversation is extremely distracting due to a number of things.

1. I have no idea what the guy is talking about. It starts out kind of “nudge, nudge, say no more!” and then turns into a “I’m disappointed in you.”

2. He’s got these really weird teeth and David Lean shot him in a way that wasn’t very, uh, flattering.

3. He’s got an Adam’s apple that should have it’s own zip code and it bounces up and down like an annoying yapping puppy – and it might as well have been.

Still, Laura is on the run, calling her husband, saying she’s late helping a friend – ANOTHER LIE! That she’ll get the next train, that she’s fine. Dr. Alec meets up with her and they make out in a corridor off the tunnel. All very well done in Black and White.

Finally she is told by Dr. Alec that he must leave. Travel to Africa to be a Doctor there. She is heartbroken but understands and they say goodbye with a loving shoulder squeeze. But, yes, Laura wants to die and nearly kills herself by train.

While all this is going on for 88 minutes – there is a great sub story about a train worker flirting with a gal who works in the café in the station. She’s got one of those fabulous cockney “Wot oo on about ‘ere?” accents and their relationship, give-and-take, flirty, out in the open, not very proper – but not caring much (though she does take issue with it on occasion – with a wink and a “meet me ‘ere later”) about what other people think is a great counter to the staid and proper relationship between Laura and Dr. Alec.

WHAT I LIKED:

It was in English.

Great Black and White print. Fabulous looking.

Relationship and resolution was all a lot of fun and I could really feel the pain this woman is going through with loser/slacker/tie-wearing/smoking/crossword puzzler husband. Good that they didn’t cookie cutter him into something one-dimensional. I got the feeling he really did love her but was, basically, clueless as to her needs and desires (like most men – me included).

The supporting cast was great.

WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE:

The f-ing Rachmaninoff score. I love the man, love the piano, but golly jeez – every time she was outside they seemed to play the same piece of music over and over and over again. Bleah.

I would have liked to have seen what was going on in Dr. Alec’s mind but I can live without it – as the burden is always on the woman.

Bottom line: Excellent film. Amazing how poignant you can make a shoulder grab after spending 85 minutes with these characters.