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David Lean
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Sir David Lean, CBE, (25 March, 1908 – 16 April, 1991) was an English filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter, and A Passage to India. Acclaimed and praised by directors such as Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick, Lean was voted 9th greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute Sight & Sound "Directors Top Directors" poll 2002. Lean has four films in the top eleven of the British Film Institute's Top 100 British Films.
as born in Croydon, Surrey (now part of Greater London), to Francis William le Blount Lean and the former Helena Tangye.
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Encyclopedia
Sir David Lean, CBE, (25 March, 1908 – 16 April, 1991) was an English filmmaker, producer, screenwriter and editor, best remembered for big-screen epics such as Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter, and A Passage to India. Acclaimed and praised by directors such as Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick, Lean was voted 9th greatest film director of all time in the British Film Institute Sight & Sound "Directors Top Directors" poll 2002. Lean has four films in the top eleven of the British Film Institute's Top 100 British Films.
Early life
He was born in Croydon, Surrey (now part of Greater London), to Francis William le Blount Lean and the former Helena Tangye. His parents were Quakers and he was a pupil at the Quaker-founded Leighton Park School in Reading.
Film career
Editing
Lean started at the bottom, as a clapperboard assistant. By 1930 he was working as an editor on newsreels, including Gaumont Pictures and Movietone. His career in feature films began with Freedom of the Seas in 1934 and Escape Me Never in 1935.
He went on to edit Gabriel Pascal's film productions of two George Bernard Shaw plays, Pygmalion (1938) and Major Barbara (1941). He edited Powell & Pressburger's 49th Parallel (1941) and One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942). After this last film, Lean began his directing career. He had edited more than two dozen features by 1942. As Tony Sloman wrote in 1999, "As the varied likes of David Lean, Robert Wise, Terence Fisher and Dorothy Arzner have proved, the cutting rooms are easily the finest grounding for film direction."
For Lean's final film, A Passage to India (1984), he chose to both direct and edit, and the two roles were given precisely equal status in the film's credits. Lean was nominated for Academy Awards in directing, editing, and writing for the film.
Directing
His first work as a director was in partnership with Noel Coward on In Which We Serve (1942), and he went on to adapt several of Coward's plays into successful films. These included This Happy Breed (1944), Blithe Spirit (1945) and Brief Encounter (1945). These were followed by two celebrated Charles Dickens adaptations - Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948), as well as The Sound Barrier (1952) a collaboration with the playwright Terence Rattigan, and what many consider the definitive version of Hobson's Choice (1954), based on the play by Harold Brighouse.
Summertime (1955), marked a new direction in for Lean. Filmed in colour, it was shot entirely on location in Venice. U.S.-financed, the film starred Katharine Hepburn as a middle-aged American woman who has a romance while on holiday in Venice.
In the following years, Lean went on to make the blockbusters for which he is best known: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Academy Award, followed by another for Lawrence of Arabia, (1962). Doctor Zhivago (1965) was another major hit. In addition, Lean directed some scenes of The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) while George Stevens was doing location work in Nevada. Most of his scenes involved Claude Rains and Jose Ferrer, both of whom had previously worked with Lean on Lawrence of Arabia. Following the moderately successful Ryan's Daughter in 1970, he did not direct another film until A Passage to India (1984), which would be his last. He was knighted in 1984.
He was in the midst of planning an epic production of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo when he died from cancer, aged 83, and was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium. Marlon Brando, Paul Scofield, Anthony Quinn, Christopher Lambert, Isabella Rossellini, and Dennis Quaid were among the ensemble cast set to star in the film.
Nostromo would eventually be made as a BBC mini-series. Among other films he attempted to make, but was forced to abandon or pass on to others, are The Wind Cannot Read (1958), The Bounty (1984), Out of Africa (1985), and Empire of the Sun (1987). He also turned down offers to direct Spartacus and Gandhi.
BAFTA
Lean was one of the founding members of the British Film Academy (later the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA) and was appointed its first chairman in 1947.
Reputation
Lean's films in general have always been extremely popular with the general public, with The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago among the highest-grossing films of all-time. While Ryan's Daughter and A Passage to India were less successful on release, they have found wide and appreciative audiences since their release on DVD.
Although he is considered one of the greatest film directors of all time by many, Lean's critical reputation has shifted somewhat over the years. While his early British films have generally had near-universal acclaim, certain of his epics have been the cause of some disagreement among some critics.
Certain critics, including Pauline Kael, Bosley Crowther, and Andrew Sarris, have disliked Lean's epics as a whole, arguing that they are simply visual spectacles with no depth. Director François Truffaut once referred to Lean's films as "Oscar packages," while critic Lindsay Anderson characterized Lean's epics as having a "chocolate-box view of history." Others have felt that while The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia were accomplished films, his later epics — Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter — were simply attempts to replicate his previous successes. In his review of Doctor Zhivago, Richard Schickel argued that the film, while flawed in many aspects, was a great film if regarded in a purely visual sense. Other critics have praised the scripts of Lean's epics (by Carl Foreman, Michael Wilson, and Robert Bolt), which they consider to be more intelligent, literate, and believable than most epic film scripts.
As Lean himself pointed out, his films are often admired by fellow directors as a showcase of the filmmaker's art. Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese in particular were huge fans of Lean's epic films, and claimed him as one of their primary influences. Both Spielberg and Scorsese also helped in the 1989 restoration of Lawrence of Arabia which, when released, greatly revived Lean's reputation. George Lucas has referenced Lean's films, Lawrence of Arabia in particular, throughout his Star Wars film series. John Milius, Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, Stanley Kubrick, and Sydney Pollack also claimed influence from Lean's films. Mel Brooks is also an admirer and parodied several of Lean's films in his sci-fi spoof Spaceballs. More recently, Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) has cited Lean's works, particularly Doctor Zhivago, as an important influence on his work, and Baz Luhrman has named Lean as one of the inspirations for his 2008 epic Australia.
Roger Ebert, in reviewing Doctor Zhivago, wrote:
I agree that the plot of "Doctor Zhivago" lumbers noisily from nowhere to nowhere. That the characters undergo inexplicable changes of heart and personality. That it is not easy to care much about Zhivago himself. . . That the life of the movie is in its corners. . . That "Lara's Theme," by Maurice Jarre, goes on the same shelf as "Waltzing Matilda" as tunes that threaten to drive me mad.
And yet the stage has running water, and the horses look real enough to ride. "Doctor Zhivago". . . is an example of superb old-style craftsmanship at the service of a soppy romantic vision, and although its portentous historical drama evaporates once you return to the fresh air, watching it can be seductive.
In answer to his critics, Lean has been quoted as saying
"I wouldn't take the advice of a lot of so-called critics on how to shoot a close-up of a teapot."
Influences
Lean often cited John Ford as one of his favorite directors, and used that director's The Searchers (1956) in particular as a reference point while shooting his epic films (e.g. Lawrence and Zhivago). Another major influence was King Vidor's The Big Parade (1926), which he directly referenced in a scene in Zhivago. He was also a major fan of silent directors Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and cited Rex Ingram as his "idol" on multiple occasions.
Casting
Lean worked with Alec Guinness on six of his films. The two frequently fought with each other; Lean had adapted Guinness's stage version of Great Expectations for the screen for his second film, and thus felt responsible for Guinness's screen career; Guinness resented this assertion immensely. This, along with Guinness's perfectionism and difficult personality and what he perceived as Lean's authoritarian attitude while shooting a film, caused the two to quarrel on virtually all of their films together. Despite their differences, the two men held each other in high regard and continued to work together throughout their careers.
Other actors who worked on multiple Lean films include John Mills, Trevor Howard, Omar Sharif, Jack Hawkins, Celia Johnson, Ralph Richardson, Kay Walsh, Ann Todd, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Robert Newton, Francis L. Sullivan, Andre Morell, and Claude Rains.
He frequently attempted to work with Marlon Brando, in such roles as Victor Komarovsky in Doctor Zhivago (which went to Rod Steiger) and the Major in Ryan's Daughter, and was also planning for him to be in his production of Nostromo which he had planned before his death. He did not, however, want to give him the title role in Lawrence, as he preferred an English actor; Spiegel wanted Brando as T. E. Lawrence and not Peter O'Toole. As a result of their frequent contacts, however, Brando and Lean did become close friends.
Peter O'Toole's performance as an eccentric filmmaker in 1980's The Stunt Man was loosely based on Lean, who directed him in Lawrence of Arabia. While O'Toole held Lean in high regard, he declined opportunities to work with him again after Lawrence (O'Toole was offered parts in all of Lean's subsequent films). The two reportedly had a falling out after O'Toole turned down the lead in Zhivago.
Lean said at various points that he considered Charles Laughton (star of Hobson's Choice), William Holden (Bridge on the River Kwai), and Claude Rains (of The Passionate Friends and Lawrence of Arabia) as his favorite actors to work with. He also remained lifelong friends with his Summertime star, Katharine Hepburn.
Personal life
Lean was a long-term resident of Limehouse, East London. His home on Narrow Street is still owned by his family. He was married six times, and divorced five — his last wife survived him:
- Isabel Lean (28 June 1930 – 1936) (David's first cousin) — one son Peter
- Kay Walsh (23 November 1940 – 1949)
- Ann Todd (21 May 1949 – 1957)
- Leila Matkar (4 July 1960 – 1978)
- Sandra Hotz (28 October 1981 – 1984)
- Sandra Cooke (15 December 1990 – 16 April 1991)
Filmography
Academy Awards
2 Wins and 9 Nominations
External links
- on the BAFTA website*
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- , by Anthony Lane The New Yorker, March 31, 2008
- , by Armond White, New York Press September 3, 2008
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