I love this film, though have not seen it for years.
The 'going away' scene is truly sad and tragic because I always took it that nothing physical ever happened between them and their love was unrequited.
So is that the case?
The Trevor Howard character goes away as he know's it is for the best and will not ruin someone else's life or lives. He falls on his sword or does the decent thing, if you like.
She's a man, it's a sled, he's dead already.
I'm with you on the nothing physical happening. However, my perspective is that she took the lead - she was the one always holding back, didn't want to go to the flat, kept saying it would hurt too many people and couldn't happen etc. I think you are givinmg him too much credit - he took her to the flat hoping it would be physical and I feel that had SHE been less insistent nothing was going to happen he would have pushed it! I got the impression he didn't push it because he knew he wouldve been turned down. So less gallant, more resigned!
share I agree the guy was looking to score with her in the sack. He would have lost everything as she would have. I don't see her being o k with cheating on her husband It would have bothered her. It would have destroyed the love they thought they had. I also feel it would have unraveled at some point.
The movie did not work as well as it could have. If he had not pushed her to have sex or they showed the husband and the doctors wife being bad people it would have been a better film. Kudos to the writer for sticking to the plot of it was not meant to be. And she did not make the mistake of a life time loosing everything she had being unfaithful.
If there had been a consummation, it would have ruined this film. The main reason is because there would not have been time left to play out all of the fallout from the consummation and the movie would have been forced to an abrupt end. Since there was no consummation, we're left to imagine what would have happened if the consummation had occurred and therein lies the intrigue of this film.
shareCaperGuy I agree physical consummation would not have have been good for the film. However, I do think the only reason it did not happen was that Steven happened to return early to the apartment. (I'm glad they write it that way). My impression was when she got off the train for home and ran back to the apartment to be with the doc, it was definitely going to happen. That act alone showed she had pretty much thrown caution to the wind. Fate (in the form of Steven's early return) saved her from doing something she probably would never have been able to live with just as fate (the speck in the eye) had brought the doc into her life in the first place.
I've always felt she gets a bit too much credit for not actually having sex with the doc. Returning to that apartment to be with him was, in my mind, a pretty clear sign she was going to do it. As we hear her tell the story in her mind, there is doubt and conflict about much of what is happening. In reality, though, she pretty much went along with everything he suggested. I think we know what he was about to suggest in that apartment.
Also, I don't think the doctor was being all that noble when he decided to leave. Remember when he told Laura about the job offer he made it very clear that he would stay if she wanted him to do so. Essentially, when she didn't ask him to stay he realized they had reached a dead end and did the smart thing.
What some are missing is how the roommate scene really played out In her mind. I might be wrong about this, but as I remember the roommate let in slip that he [the Doc.] sort of planned the whole thing without telling either of them. So the guy knew if she would go for it then he would have a place. Am I wrong?
She may have not figured it out but maybe the director was telling us or adding more fuel to the fire as some have said that the Doc planned all along to have sex with her and maybe that was his goal in the long run.
This was a brief period for them so I am not all to keen that love was the motivation from either of them but even if the were not conscious of it they both used it for getting close. Just from what she said in the end one can see it was not love.
I can't remember if someone has already said this but his come on to her seemed to me to have been done on some other women before her. He counting on the woman backing out of the leaving there families for him. In this case he just missed the mark as she backed out before the sex happened. He was way to casual to be this great person to put her and his own families at such risk without even knowing what she would be like in the sack.
And I think it was all the more romantic, because there was no consummation. It could have happened at the flat, but Alec's friend returned at an inopportune time. I do think Laura would have resisted with all of her might. It was she who seemed to have a conscience about the attraction. Alec never expresses any remorse toward his family, or really anything much about his feelings toward them.
"..sure you won't change your mind? Why, is there something wrong with the one I have?"
I remember reading something about that in a David Lean biography years ago. Trevor Howard found the whole thing silly basically, and while they were making the movie he said to Lean at some point (talking about his character): "Why doesn't he just f vck her?" It made me laugh, and I remember it because I didn't know people used that word back then ;)
After the film's release (this also comes from the same book), there was one review that said something like: "this film is about a man and a woman looking for a room". If you want to be crude, you can see the film as just that. However, I don't. I think the film hasn't aged too well, to be honest, but it still has its charms - and I can never hear Rachmaninov's 2nd concerto and not think about Brief Encounter.
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I read the Noel Coward play STILL LIFE, upon which the film was based, a few years ago, and it more than implies that their relationship was physical - I believe they met at the doctor's apartment more than just the once that the film gives us.
Billy Wilder said that it was that scene in the film, with its implication of someone loaning out their apartment for sexual trysts, that later inspired his screenplay and film THE APARTMENT.
In my case, self-absorption is completely justified.