Marriage Story

AVID LEAN’S (1949) is both a companion piece to his better-known (1945) and in many ways its antithesis. In the earlier film, a fleeting, chastely thwarted love affair between two married people plays out amid the drab austerity of railway station tearooms and suburban streets. The later film spans many years, following a couple whose enduring passion is reignited every time their paths cross, and moves between the glorious peaks of the Swiss Alps and the burnished interiors of upper-crust London homes. Where sets up a straightforward conflict between love and duty, has a troubling riddle at its heart. It never satisfactorily explains why Mary (Ann Todd) refuses to wed her true love, Steven (Trevor Howard), instead choosing a comfortably loveless marriage to a wealthy old man, Howard Justin (Claude Rains). The film’s swooning score and sensuous