A lot of movies that I watch are quite forgettable. It’s not that I don’t enjoy them or think the acting was bad, but once they’re over, I’m not compelled to see them again, and they fall off my radar indefinitely. Then there are films that I can watch over and over again, and never get sick of them. These are the films I consider my favorites. It doesn’t always mean they’re the best films ever made, but they always compel me to return for more. David Lean’s 1945 film Brief Encounter is one such film.
Last night, Brief Encounter was screened at the Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood (part of the Mary Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study) as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ tribute to Noel Coward. I’ve mentioned a few times how fun it is to see one’s favorite old films on the big screen. AMPAS screened the new BFI restoration, and it looked beautiful–very crisp and clear. Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard were amazing as usual, and I found myself picking up on little things in the film that I never noticed when watching it at home on DVD.
Going to an AMPAS screening is interesting because there are all types of people there, and they’re all film nerds, like me! It’s fun to people watch. There were two elderly ladies sitting behind us–one of them was British–and they were talking about all kinds of movies that they love. I really wanted to turn around and ask, “Do you like Vivien Leigh?” but then I got shy and reminded myself that probably not everyone is as big of a fan as I am. But I do remember when I was in England the first time, old people loved talking to me about Vivien and Laurence Olivier, and a lot of them had stories of seeing one of them out and about. So you never know…
Aside from the obnoxious woman sitting catty corner behind us who would not be quiet the entire time, it was quite an experience! Brief Encounter is a film I think everyone who likes old movies should see because it’s a great example of top quality movie-making. The performances (including the supporting ones by Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carrey), the camerawork, the music and especially the dialogue combine perfectly to make a wonderfully understated melodrama.
The Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward exhibit at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was fascinating! It documented Coward’s life from a boy actor to a playwright, famous friend, producer, etc. Artifacts found in the exhibit included Noel’s stage make-up case from the 1950s complete with Max Factor compacts, brushes, lipstick, and a cracked mirror, several of his silk dressing gowns, letters to Noel from both Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, an original annotated script from Brief Encounter (quite possibly my favorite item in the whole exhibit), photos from his stage productions, hand-written lyrics for his famous song Mad Dogs and Englishmen, his Oscar for In Which We Serve, and much more. They even had a running video of his home movies from the 1930s that showed people like Leslie Howard, Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg, etc. It was so amazing.
The Oliviers and Mary Mills attend a performance of Noel COward's Cabaret at the Cafe de Paris in London
As I said in a previous post, I discovered Noel Coward through my fascination with Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, and quickly grew to love him. His collaborations with David Lean in the 1940s produced two of my favorite films: Brief Encounter and Blithe Spirit, and I think his songs are hilarious and so very Cole Porter-ish.
Noel was a very close friend to both Vivien and Larry for many years, including the whole length of their marriage to one another. They often confided in him with their marital problems and he acted as a sort of middle man at times, and he meant a lot to both of them. They would often go visit him at his home in Jamaica when he was a tax exile. The letter from Vivien that was in the exhibit was to thank Noel for taking her in during Christmas of 1959 (she stayed with him at Les Avants, his house in Switzerland). It was a very hard time for Vivien because she was going through the divorce with Larry. Her letter read:
Oh darling dear–I can never thank you enough for being so angelically kind to me. You made Christmas & the New year so much more than possible than I ever thought it could be. You are so wonderfully generous in every way, Noellie darling & I shall never cease to be grateful to you. Your wise and kind advice is in my mind & I shall try to follow it. You know well how difficult that is, but I am sure you are right. Thank you dear dear for your unfailing friendship and thought of me. I do hope you are going to have the greatest joy from the new house. You have made it so lovely & goodness how thrilled I am to have been your first guest. Next time I think I shall be a gayer one. I also trust that you will beat the hell out of me at baccarat & Backgammon. Of course it was only your masterly teaching that enabled me to achieve those stunning results!–Oh darling my loving loving thanks. You are so good as well as being the very prettiest & very best.
Your ever devoted
Vivien
Vivien at Les Avants, Christmas, 1959
In his diaries, Noel wrote of how he felt when Vivien died, which I think gives a clear indication of just how close their friendship was and how much she meant to him in return.
Sunday 16 July
I can’t even remember the date of the morning that Coley came into my suite at the Savoy, suffused with tears, and told me that Vivien had died. The shock was too violent. I mind too deeply about this to go on about it very much. She was a lovely, generous and darling friend, and I shall miss her always. Apparently Jacko [Marivale] came back from his theatre, saw her sleeping peacefully and went to warm up some soup for himself in the kitchen. When he came back a few minutes later she was laying on the floor in a welter of blood, having had a haemorrhage. Jacko, with almost incredible courage and tact, cleaned up all the hideous mess because he knew that she would hate anybody, even the doctor, to see her like that. Then he telephoned for the doctor. Jacko is a good and kind man. A day or two later he rang me up and asked me to read the address at her memorial service, which is, I believe, to be on the twenty-fourth. I lovingly but very firmly refused. I truly do not believe I could have done it without breaking down and making a shambles of it. I know this was cowardly, but I cant regret it. The emotional strain would be ghastly, and as I am not feeling any too well at the moment it would possibly cause me great damage. All my own loved ones agree and I can only hope that they’re right. if it could have helped Vivien in any way I would have done anything, but it couldn’t because she’s gone forever…
I could probably write an entire post about Noel’s friendship with Larry Olivier (hmm, maybe I will at some point).
The Oliviers with Noel's mother Violet at the premier of In Which We Serve, 1942
Anyway, I seem to have gotten off track there. The exhibit was great, and I really enjoyed seeing so many artifacts from one of the greatest personalities ever to come out of England. Noel’s star waned in the 1950s but made a great revival in the 1960s. He was the first living playwright to be invited to the National Theatre to direct one of his own plays (Blithe Spirit). It really seems like if you weren’t friends with Noel Coward, you weren’t anyone, and he had a lot of famous friends.
The exhibit runs through the middle of April, so if you get a chance to go and see it, I’d highly recommend it.
One of my favorite things about living near Los Angeles is all of the fun events and screenings that are put on by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Currently, they’re hosting an exhibition about the “Master,” called “Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward.” Noel Coward is one of many people who’s work I became familiar with through my fascination with the Oliviers, as he was a long-time friend of both Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. He was a famous playwright and teamed up with director David Lean in the 1940s to produce what have become two of my favorite films, Brief Encounter and Blithe Spirit. Laurence Olivier’s stage career was practically launched by Noel, who gave him the part of Victor Prynne in Private Lives in 1932, and Vivien Leigh worked with him in the 1956 production of South Sea Bubble and again in the 1959 play Look After Lulu.
Noel by Louis Athol-Shmith
I’ve been on quite a Noel Coward kick for a couple of years now. Just this Christmas I received The Noel Coward Diaries, and saw a fabulous documentary called The Noel Coward Trilogy, in which Noel’s partner, Graham Payne, said Laurence Olivier liked to smoke a bowl whenever he and Vivien visited Noel at Blue Harbor in Jamaica, which I thought was hilarious. Though Noel had a lot to say about the Oliviers in his diaries, it is quite hard to find longer passages of people, especially Vivien Leigh, talking about Noel. Luckily for your reading pleasure, I’ve found a terrific story by Vivien. This is from a collection of remembrances about Noel called The Pleasure of His Company: Noel Coward Remembered by William Marchant. I think this story really shows something of Vivien’s friendly character.
