Brief Encounter Screening at the Southbank Centre

One of my favourite films is Brief Encounter. this 1945 David Lean classic is just perfection! Celia Johnson plays Laura, a married women who meets Alec in a now iconic 'meet cute'. Laura gets something in her eye and asks for a glass of water in a station waiting room. Luckily Alec, a Doctor, is standing close by and comes to her rescue. This is the start of a dangerous and emotional love affair and the ending of the film breaks my heart every time.

So, it was with ridiculous levels of excitement that I saw the Southbank Centre was presenting Brief Encounter with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Another element of the film I love is that the music throughout the film is all extracts from Rachmaninov's Piano Concert No. 2 in C minor Op. 18. So the idea of the film and live orchestra was too much to resist!

On entering the Southbank Centre we discovered that there was a pianist playing Noel Coward songs, it was a shame this was not mentioned to ticket holders as my Mum and I would have arrived earlier had we known.

An extra thrill on the night before the screening began was an introduction from Celia Johnson's daughter, Lucy Fleming. It was a treat to hear stories from the set, and I felt honoured to be hearing her speak about her mother. I was already emotional and the film hadn't even started yet.

Firstly the orchestra played the concerto in it's entirety with Leon McCawley on the piano. Then came the film and the orchestra! Although I love the film I have to admit I expected the orchestra to be more present, it may be the acoustics of the hall but it just wasn't as prominant as I had hoped. It wasn't that different from watching the film in a cinema, unfortunately. Another thing I didn't like was other audience members finding parts of the film hysterically funny, moments that aren't funny except from the fact that the film is obviously very dated - having been made in 1945.

All in all the night was great, and I do wish I had dressed up in 1940s clothes as many had! As I left my Mum and I decided to have the cocktail suggested in the programme notes. A cocktail that was publicised as being specially created to accompany this screening. However after asking many members of staff, noone knew about it! Although the staff were all lovely it did leave a slightly anti-climatic feel to an otherwise wonderful evening.