Steadily rising critical tides for writer Noël Coward, helmer David Lean & especially composer Sergei Rachmaninoff have largely eliminated old knee-jerk apologies & pleadings of ‘guilty pleasure’ long held against this classic romance of stifled emotions . Even back in the ‘60s & ‘70s, when its rep was at an ebb, no one gainsaid the performances (all superb; transcendent in the case of Celia Johnson) or Robert Krasker’s steely-beautiful cinematography. Now, taunts of condescension & failed realism so often held against Coward seem not only self-serving, but incomprehensible. The Master knew exactly what he was after and what he was doing, with Lean happily serving the chamber-sized material of a near affair between husband & wife, happily married, but to others; and giving each character & plot turn the precision of a chronometer.
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