Monday, October 23, 2017

Great Moments in Movie Shelves #117

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Almost the entirety of David Lean's Brief Encounter (one of my favorite movies, which I excitedly caught for the thousandth time thanks to TCM this weekend) takes place in flashback - Laura is a married woman reminiscing about her doomed-from-the-start love affair with another man while sitting across from her husband in the world's most oppressive drawing room.

The clashing patterns, the looming firelight off to the left - every time the film cuts back to this stuffy death-trap of a room you inherently understand why Laura was feeling the need to stray even as her husband's a sweetheart - who could breathe in this place? It swallows you up!

Laura looks so small against everything (those bookshelves look poised to topple over on her) and she turns the music up too loud so it's wailing inside this room while you can practically feel the heat gagging the air from the fireplace. For god's sake, somebody save this woman!


1 comment:

Forever1267 said...

Such a claustrophobic room! I love love LOVE this movie! One of the most romantic and bittersweet!