Quote:
Originally Posted by jackhammer
I don't like to be emotionally manipulated and I don't go in for sentimentality or schmaltz so this scene from Shadowlands based upon the true story of the author C.S Lewis's love for American poet Joy Gresham is all the more poignant due to the lack of both.
I really feel that Anthony Hopkins is not even acting here, he is drawing on some tragedy in his past and letting it out on screen and director Richard Attenborough knows this and let's the scene unfold without any unnecessary background music or edits. Stunning scene and absolutely superb film that I really should watch again after a few years away.
In fact I have held back watching this clip until I have completed this post and happy with my wording as it holds even more power now than it did when I first saw it many years ago for obvious reasons.
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Yes, that´s a very touching scene, jackhammer, with all the merits you mention. Your honesty has prompted me to come clean about one of my favourite movies,
Brief Encounter, in which two respectably married people are tempted to be unfaithful to their spouses.
My clip has a heavy dose of schmaltz, I´m afraid, with Rachmaninov´s Piano Concerto helping the sentiment along, but in this movie director David Lean was actually pioneering some of today´s taken-for-granted, cynically exploited movie effects.
What I hope our clips have in common is the sympathetic way they show how the British often cope with strong emotion. So much is repressed, but in this clip Celia Johnson conveys plenty, even when working with lines as unpromising and dispassionate as
"Yes, of course, steelworks." 
:-