We quite often see Laura and Alec together in the train station tearoom were it is enclosed which signifies that their relationship is too enclosed and momentary. The setting of their relationship in this tea room shows us that their relationship will not last very long as it is very repressed.
When Laura and Alec go on one of their dates they go rowing in a boat and they are not constrained in a transient location and they are having fun. Then they come to a bridge and Alec falls in the water. The tunnel under the bridge is blocked and tied up by chains. This can show that even if their relationship is not constrained (like their boat rowing experience) that they have no way forward in this relationship because it is basically a dead end.
In this film we never see Laura leaving her home; we always see her returning. This could be seen as showing her future. Laura will return home to her husband Fred and will not continue her relationship with Alec. Also, because this film is in flashback sequence (it’s Laura in the present, telling her story, in her head, to her husband about her affair with Alec) in the present time we always see Laura at home which could signify that even though she seems to be mislead that she will transgress and find her way home to her family.
The lighting and the elements of film noir in this film are also an exploration of passion and repression. After coming back from one of their dates, in the transient train station, going from one platform to the next, Alec grabs Laura in the darkly shadowed passages and kisses her. This shows the claustrophobic aspect of the relationship and how it is very repressed and transient.
Also in the passage here the expressive shadows and coldness of them shows that what Alec and Laura are doing is very dark/wrong. This adds intensity to the film. We see Alec and Laura in mainly enclosed environments with dim lighting such as the tea room and the dark passages which shows that their love for each other is dark/wrong and also doomed.
In this film one of the focus points is the significance of the train. This can be seen to connote desire and danger by the speed that the train is going. For example when Alec grabs Laura and kisses her in the passage from one train platform to another a train rushes past at that precise moment. This suggests a momentary rush of passion and danger of being caught which intensifies the desire. This is the same for each time they kiss except for once at the end. When they kiss a train always goes past in a rush. On the other hand the last time they kiss at the end the train behind them is departing slowly. From the established motif of the train from this part of the film it shows that the passion for each other is dying and their realisation that the affair should not go on is setting in.
Laura and Alec can be contrasted with the working class couple in this film (the woman who serves in the tearoom and her gentleman caller. Compared to them Laura and Alec’s relationship is very constrained. They can hardly show any affection towards each other because it is socially unacceptable because they are both married whereas the working class woman openly admits she left her husband and the man taps her bottom which is a sign that their relationship is quite physical. Also there is a certain shot were Laura and Alec are standing very still in the foreground and the working class couple behind them. This is a great insight into how constrained Alec and Laura’s relationship is as the working class couple are having fun and laughing and have their arms round each other but Alec and Laura are stood very still and there is no sign of physical contact between the two of them. The woman even says to her assistant about her husband “the last thing I want after housework is providing him his home comforts”.
Another point in the film which shows that Alec and Laura’s relationship is much more fantasy than real life living is that when she is on the train Laura fantasizes about Alec. She day dreams while staring out the window and imagines them doing such things as dancing wearing formal clothes. This indicates that this relationship is not meant to be in two main ways. One being that she is fantasizing and fantasizes are usually about things that you cannot have but seek to want, and two the fantasizes that she is imagining are very unrealistic for she would not be dancing in a ballroom with Alec if their relationship blossomed; it would be more likely that she would be serving him his tea and looking pretty for him much like she already does with her husband, Fred.
Another two aspects of this film which also indicate the difficulties of the relationship are the music; Rachmaninov and Laura’s hats. In the time that this film was released Laura’s hat would not be the traditional head wear for a woman to have. Laura’s hats would have been seen as ridiculous. This ridiculousness of the hats can parallel to the ridiculousness of her and Alec’s relationship; that it is ridiculous to think that it will work out. This could be an able idea to put forward since when we see Laura in the home environment with Fred she does not wear a hat which could indicate that this is the relationship she is supposed to be in. In addition the music that is played on the stereo is Rachmaninov which is a very emotional and turbulent piece which is parallel to Laura even when she shows great restraint. This music shows us that her relationship with Alec and her feelings in her mind are very tense and that she is feeling an intense guilt because she is betraying Fred.
In the end Laura regresses to back to Fred still feeling intense guilt. The message in this film is that even through great passion women will always go back to their husbands; into the security of the home. There is a choice in this situation but the ones who go back to their husbands are better off. The message is that they should ignore the feelings of passion and regress back to their security. David Lean uses passion and repression as great themes and through the film shows that a passionate, repressive affair is more trouble than it is worth, and for women, this means going back to the safe haven of their home.
