Dom Robinson reviews
Brief Encounter
Distributed by
Carlton Home Entertainment
Cat.no: 37115 00023
Cert: PG
Running time: 83 minutes
Year: 1945
Pressing: 1998
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 8 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono)
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Presented in Fullscreen
16:9-Enhanced: No
Macrovision: No
Price: £19.99
Extras : Scene index, Cast/Crew Biographies
Director:
(The Bridge On The River Kwai, Dr Zhivago, Great Expectations, Lawrence Of Arabia, Oliver Twist, A Passage To India, Ryan's Daughter )
Producer:
Cast:
Laura : Celia Johnson (The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, The Hostage Tower )
Alec : Trevor Howard (Battle Of Britain, Ghandi, Ryan's Daughter, Sons And Lovers )
N oel Coward's sensitive portrayal of what happens when two happily
married strangers, played by Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson ,
meet and their acquaintance deepens into affection and eventually into love.
It is the story of two people, thrown together by the chance meeting of the
title, helpless in the face of their emotions but redeemed by their moral
courage.
The picture quality is very good with motion artifacts only really noticeable
in the dark areas. I was surprised it would look as good as it does because
I've seen a few of DVDs which struggle which grey/black shades. This being a
black and white film, bad encoding could have made watching it a nightmare, but
gladly the only thing you have to worry about is the general scratches on the
original print which would be present on any medium and do not deter from the
viewing pleasure.
The film is presented in fullscreen, as it was originally filmed and has a
reasonably high average bitrate of 5.53Mb/s.
The sound is mono - albeit presented in Dolby Digital 1.0 - and is fine, but
is sent through the rear speakers as well as the front speakers.
Extras :
Biographies : Sir David Lean , producer
Noel Coward and principal leads Celia Johnson and Trevor
Howard .
Chapters :
Languages/Subtitles :
There's just the one language on this disc - English - with no subtitles.
Menu :
The interactive menu is very good, but static. Sometimes dragging the mouse
pointer over an option highlights it, but even if it doesn't you can still
select that option.
On inserting the disc, a copyright logo is shown before the film begins.
Selecting the main menu option from the remote control will bring this up very
quickly.
Overall, this is a very engaging film well-acted by both Johnson and Howard,
containing clever dialogue with funny touches. Watching a film like this makes
one wonder how today's studios can get away by substituting a good dialogue
exchange for a supposed raunchy sex scene that's about as enticing as doing
the ironing!
It's also interesting to see Carlton bringing a range of old films and TV
drama to a new format so soon and in Dolby Digital, but it would be an idea
to include subtitles and a decent number of chapters.
FILM : ****
PICTURE QUALITY : ****
SOUND QUALITY : ***
EXTRAS : *
-------------------------------
OVERALL : ***
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.
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