Film Forum

(1959) New-in-town, working-class born and bred Laurence Harvey sets his sights way high – on Heather Sears, daughter of the gloweringly formidable boss, Donald Wolfit – and her social stratosphere – but finds himself diverted by the more mature and sensuous Simone Signoret, in an Academy Award-winning performance, with another one going to Neil Paterson for his adaptation of the steamy John Braine novel. Hermione Baddeley (an ex-lover of Harvey’s) as Elspeth earned the record for shortest Oscar-nominated performance in history (2 minutes, 32 seconds). DCP. Approx. 115 min.

A PARK CIRCUS RELEASE

Reviews

“The most significant British feature of the Fifties.”
– Georges Sadoul

“Brief Encounter, 50s style.”
– Time Out (London)

“[Its characters] connive, commit adultery like recognizable (and not altogether unlikable) human beings. And the effect is startling. One feels that a whole new chapter is about to be written in motion picture history.”
– Arthur Knight

“At last someone in a British film actually admitted that sex was enjoyable.”
– George Perry

“Acclaimed as the first British film to treat sex seriously and as one of the first to show the North of England as it 'really was'.”
– Time Out (London)

“Permanently altered the social content of British cinema.”
– Roy Sherwood

“The cynical, disenchanted and footloose post-war youths of England, who justifiably have been termed ‘angry,’ have never been put into sharper focus.”
– A.H. Weiler, The New York Times