It is always risky going back to a movie that you loved when you were much younger. In my mid-twenties I saw this as a tragic reflection on how romance is stifled by the mundane. Going back to it now I see that the "hero" is a terrible selfish manipulator (at best, an unwitting one). In fact this may be the perfect key to the movie https://images.app.goo.gl/ctiYAWj7PvpzVqtQ8

And people think Before Sunrise is a genre in its own

Exquisite film, one of my very favorites. The lead performances, especially Celia Johnson's, are enough to make you weep for days. The economy of the film is astounding: orienting, flashback, rise, fall, conclusion, all in less than 90 minutes. What I appreciated it most, watching it in the context of watching many movies of the time, is that this relationship feels much more real than what you often get in the 40s. Often you get two movie stars locking eyes, and by the next scene they love each other. Here you get minor scenes that build: grit in the eye, a casual hello on the corner, a day at the movies--so that when the "I love you" comes, it feels authentic and earned. My heart breaks for these two, trapped in loveless marriages with no choice but to carry on, chin up.

Brilliant. Managed to see this in the theatres and it's sublime how an 80-year-old movie is this relatable. David Lean managed to make something simple out of a complicated emotion. Loved the ending.

Classic.... Yeah?

[spoiler] I haven't laughed at a film like this in ages.. Its of a bye gone age.. The school of ham... So much was just wrong..
Personally it would have been better if she had chucked herself under the express train.. [/spoiler]

That's a master class in Englishness. It's perhaps a wonderful document of how the society was back then, but I can't really relate to it. The story is actually not very complex. I mean nothing but that unfolding extra marital affair happens. I don't even buy why she falls in love with that guy. That's not very relatable. The fact that it's told from the perspective of the women makes the movie certainly better, but is that really how women are secretly thinking about a perfect affair (how boring!) and how and why to conceal it? I mean, 80% it's about blaming herself. She even wants to commit suicide for questionable reasons. She doesn't even we question whether she really has done something wrong. That's not a very liberating movie. It's as if a man wants to make clear that one point clear: women, don't cheat and you alone are to blame!

Great David Lean movie with great actors, script and direction

So bourgeois that it edges upon the camp.