Essential Art House: Brief Encounter (1945) (Criterion Collection)

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After a chance meeting on a train platform, a married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) enter into a muted but passionate, and ultimately doomed, love affair. With its evocatively fog-enshrouded setting, swooning Rachmaninoff score, and pair of remarkable performances (Johnson was nominated for an Oscar for her role), this film, directed by David Lean and based on Noël Coward’s play Still Life deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance, and has influenced many a cinematic brief encounter since its release.

One of cinema's most timeless love stories, David Lean's Brief Encounter stars Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson as a married doctor and a housewife who meet one gray evening on a London train platform and embark on a tentative, forbidden romance. Lean directs this exquisite adaptation of a Noel Coward play with his customary precision. In this master filmmaker's hands, the temporary, guilt-ridden affair is as delicate as a flickering candle.