Episode 4

full
Published on:

8th Jul 2026

Brief Encounter (1946 Cannes Award Winner)

The fourth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1946 features one of the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix winners, David Lean’s Brief Encounter. Directed and co-written by David Lean and starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey and Cyril Raymond, Brief Encounter was one of 11 films to tie for the Grand Prix at the first-ever Cannes Film Festival.

The contemporary reviews quoted in this episode come from Bosley Crowther in The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/1946/08/26/archives/the-screen-in-review.html), Variety, and C.A. Lejeune in The Observer (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/16/brief-encounter-romance-archive-review).

Check out more info and the entire archive of past episodes at https://www.awesomemovieyear.com and visit us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/awesomemovieyear

You can find Jason on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JHarrisComedy/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jasonharriscomedy/ and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/goforjason/

You can find Josh online at http://joshbellhateseverything.com/, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joshbellhateseverything/, on Bluesky at signalbleed.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/signalbleed/

If you’re a Letterboxd user and you watch any of the movies we talk about on the show, tag your review “Awesome Movie Year” to share your thoughts.

You can find our producer David Rosen and his Piecing It Together Podcast at https://www.piecingpod.com, on Twitter at @piecingpod, on Bluesky at piecingpod.bsky.social and on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/bydavidrosen/

Join the Popcorn & Puzzle Pieces Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/piecingpod for more movie discussion and our Awesome Movie Year audience choice polls.

All of the music in the episode is by David Rosen. Find more of his music at https://www.bydavidrosen.com

Subscribe on Patreon to support the show and get access to exclusive content from Awesome Movie Year and Piecing It Together, plus music by David Rosen: https://www.patreon.com/bydavidrosen

Please like, share, rate and comment on the show and this episode, and tune in for the next 1946 episode, featuring our documentary pick, John Huston’s Let There Be Light.

Show artwork for Awesome Movie Year

About the Podcast

Awesome Movie Year
All Points West
Awesome Movie Year is a podcast co-hosted by film critic Josh Bell and filmmaker and comedian Jason Harris. Each season looks at why a certain year was an awesome movie year. Each episode focuses on a different film from the year being investigated. Produced by David Rosen of the Piecing It Together Podcast for the All Points West Podcast Network
Support This Show

About your host

Profile picture for David Rosen

David Rosen

David Rosen is a music composer and podcast producer. He has scored feature films, commercials and more, as well as creating albums of instrumental music. He currently produced Piecing It Together which he hosts and Awesome Movie Year.