More views of - or before - Cambridge Film Festival 2019 (17 to 24 October)
(Click here to go directly to the Festival web-site)
Michaelmas Day (29 September)
Query :
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 29, 2022
In Lean's film, is Howard's character also sympathetic (as Johnson's telling means us to see her*), or actually to be seen in a noirish light, and his 'cover story' one that 'bigs him up' as worthy, so rather better than he is ?
* Fallible, but frightened and faithful. https://t.co/ZhXP9kKghE
On one clear level, we can read Howard as proxy¹, in a screenplay for which Coward's credited² (adapting his play).
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 29, 2022
¹ Then, or knowing of those times, one can see 'the encounter' through a lens of 'Careless Words Cost Lives', etc.
² E.g. https://t.co/4I1u30iBuT names others. pic.twitter.com/GpBB6xfZtV
Instead, or as an adjunct, maybe Howard's character does what we see in the prime part of this 1h 29 serially ?
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 29, 2022
Independently of what he says, what *do* we know of a man called Dr. Alex Harvey (Howard) ?
When he seeks Laura Jesson (Johnson), it's one thing ; does she find him ?
#UCFF came to Brief Encounter (1945) via a stage-adaptation*, before that became the norm of what theatres offer... : These are the spoilers !
Spoilers :
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 29, 2022
1) Alex's deniable medical status relies on being 'nifty with a hankie' when soot enters Laura's eye³ - hardly unlikely, in days of steam, at a railway-station !
2) A timely intrusion on the room that he's 'borrowed' for... ?
³ Word-play on immaculate / macula ?
Spoliers :
— THE AGENT APSLEY #ScrapUniversalCredit #JC4PM2019 (@THEAGENTAPSLEY) September 29, 2022
One might re-watch to ask :
* Who is Dr. Harvey ?
* Have we good reason to believe anything that he says about himself ?
At any rate, these tropes, clues, symbols are there...
Laura 'survives to tell the tale' to a husband to whom she imagines confessing.
ENDS
End-notes :
* At The Arts Theatre, Cambridge - some time, many more than 260 moons ago !
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Unless stated otherwise, all films reviewed were screened at Festival Central (Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge)
