Brief Encounter (1974 film) Brief Encounter (1974 film) Brief Encounter is a 1974 British-Italian television film starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, adapted from the play "Still Life" by Noël Coward. The plot of the film is about two strangers, both married to others, who meet in a railway station and find themselves in a brief but intense affair. The material was previously the basis for the David Lean film "Brief Encounter" (1945). Burton was cast at the last moment, after Robert Shaw dropped out. The film had its premiere on U.S. television on 12 November 1974 as part of the "Hallmark Hall of
Still Life (play) first presented at the Manchester Opera House beginning on 15 October 1935, and a seventh play, "Family Album", was added on the subsequent provincial tour. "Still Life", however, was added for the London run, together with "Ways and Means" and "Star Chamber", the last of which was performed only once. The first London performance in the cycle was on 9 January 1936 at the Phoenix Theatre but "Still Life" did not premiere until May 1936. Coward directed all ten pieces, and each starred Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Coward said that he wrote them as "acting, singing, and dancing vehicles for