Stometer
Save your money for something good and enjoyable
UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
vincentlynch-moonoi
I'm not a big fan of older British films, with a main reason being that the pace is often so slow as compared to American films. That is somewhat true here, but this movie is so beautifully filmed (naturally, David Lean directs) that I could overlook a somewhat slower pace. I suppose that Americans might also think it odd that the romantic lead -- Trevor Howard -- isn't a man we would tend to cast in such a role; he is decidedly not handsome; but, he is a fine actor.The story isn't that different from many such stories -- a romantic triangle featuring an ex-lover (Trevor Howard) and a husband (Claude Rains) involved with a woman who can't quite make up her mind (Ann Todd).In re Ann Todd, for some reason while watching this film I kept thinking that she was an everyday Grace Kelly. Okay, I know that's odd, but she was quite attractive, an excellent actress, and this role reminded me of one that you might found Kelly in. I am glad it was Todd! I've always admired Claude Rains, and I wonder if this may not have been his finest role. If not, he certainly has some superb scenes! Trevor Howard...well, I think of him as the British version of "old reliable"...and he certainly is here.We expect a lot from David Lean, and he always seems to deliver. As I said, it's not that this story is that different from many other romantic triangle stories, but Lean's direction sets it a high step above the rest.And as an extra bonus, there's some wonderful filming done on location, as well as back-screen shooting that is virtually flawless. I did laugh at one location shot in London where there is a man clearly gawking at the filming, but it's about the only flaw in the picture.I'm giving this film something I rarely give -- an "8".
st-shot
The Passionate Friends is the first of three films that director David Lean made with Ann Todd in and she gives a fine performance in this mannered British melodrama that evokes in ways two other popular British films of the era, Lean's Brief Encounter and the Todd starring The Seventh Veil. Former lovers Mary Justin (Todd) and Steven Stratton (Trevor Howard) meet accidentally at a New year's party and rekindle lost feelings. Trouble is she is married to a wealthy banker Howard Justin (Claude Rains) and Stratton's in a committed relationship. Justin discovers the affair however and puts an end to it. Nine years pass and they meet again while vacationing. Stratton is now married with kids but Howard thinks otherwise and files for divorce. Mary becomes desperate and suicidal.With quality performances (especially Rains) from all of the leads The Passionate Friends is credible melodrama that overachieves with Lean displaying his superb grasp of film language, employing jump cuts, montage and juxtaposition for maximum effect. With a few Hitchcock like flourishes along the way he does an excellent job of keeping the audience guessing right up until the final minutes. It is this subtle triumph of form that makes The Passionate Friends a superior example of its genre.
howardmorley
When I saw the trailer for this 1948 film on "UTube", I was immediately struck by the similar musical format to "Brief Encounter".In the latter film, Lean wisely increased the dramatic tension by adding a classy soundtrack by selectively dubbing on Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto in C minor (played by Eileen Joyce).In "The Passionate Friends" he dubbed on the adagio second movement of Grieg's famous piano concerto in A minor.By casting Ann Todd as the leading lady he added more verisimilitude in the minds of the paying public who had previously seen her play a concert pianist in "The Seventh Veil (1945).As I have only seen the trailer I have graded it 7/10 which was the average universal rating of other informed reviewers many of whom have given very sagacious comments above.
Jem Odewahn
David Lean's criminally underseen THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS has often been hastily dismissed as a weak "sequel" to his earlier masterpiece BRIEF ENCOUNTER. It's not. While it isn't the classic BRIEF ENCOUNTER is (not many films are), it has much to recommend. And it's not a sequel at all. Yes, it does deal with the same central theme of BRIEF ENCOUNTER (a married woman having an affair), and is a follow-up in the sense that the couple meet again years later, but the characters are entirely different. The film is told in a non-linear fashion, with lots of flashing forwards and backwards (it works well, yet is occasionally distracting). The plot basically is this: beautiful Mary (cool blonde Ann Todd, who had scored a huge hit with THE SEVENTH VEIL four years later and had recently married Lean) is in love with a young student Stephen (Trevor Howard), yet marries Claude Rains. Stephen and Mary drift into an affair after her marriage, and they are found out by an enraged (yet off-camera) Claude Rains. Years pass, and Todd, still the dutiful, notably childless wife of Rains, runs into Howard while they are both holidaying. The encounter is entirely innocent, yet Rains again finds out and assumes the pair are re-starting something that is now dead (Howard has since married, and had children). All this almost ends in tragedy, as Rains discovers how much Todd really does mean to him. Todd's somewhat detached screen presence works well for her character. The film is adapted from a short story by H.G Wells that explores an emancipated, beautiful young woman who rejects passion in favour of security. A poignant and telling scene between Howard and Todd early in the picture displays this notion- Howard:If two people love each other, they want to belong to each other. Todd: I want to belong to myself Howard: Then your life will be a failure Todd's marriage to Rains is a union of convenience. She can have the finer things in life she is accustomed to, she has the freedom to do as she pleases, and she's secure. Rains seems happy with this arrangement, telling himself that his love for her is also without true passion, until the crucial, revealing final scenes. These scenes constitute some of Rain's finest emotional work on film, as he spits at Ann Todd that she has treated him with all the kindness "that she would treat a dog". Rains comes to realise that his love for Mary is indeed "of the romantic kind", the same love that he denounces to Howard earlier in the picture. However, Todd, trance-like and thinking she has ruined several lives (potentially breaking up Howard's marriage, and also her own), walks to the train station and tries to commit suicide, ANNA KARENINA-like (she gets her own Garbo moment!). Rains, having followed her, pulls her back and takes her back home with him. While not a comforting ending, it seems to fit the picture well . As I said earlier, Rains is excellent, and this is one of his best performances. Unfortunately audiences tend to take the wonderful Trevor Howard for granted, and he is always an assured presence. Todd's beauty seems to be worshiped by husband Lean who gives her plenty of exquisite close-ups. As with THE SEVENTH VEIL, Todd is asked to carry much of the narrative weight of the film (the flashbacks and so forth), yet she works well and is particularly effective in a painfully bittersweet scene in which she imagines Howard as her husband, taking her into her arms, instead of Rains.
