David Lean

David Lean
File:DavidLean.jpg
Occupation(s)	UK film director, producer
Years active	Template:Fy-Template:Fy
Spouse(s)	Isabel Lean (1930-1936) Kay Walsh (1940-1949) Ann Todd (1949-1957) Leila Matkar (1960-1978) Sandra Hotz (1981-1984) Sandra Cooke (1990-1991)

Sir David Lean (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. His younger brother, Edward Tangye Lean (1911–1974), founded the original Inklings literary club when a student at Oxford University.

Film career

Editing

Lean started at the bottom, as a clapperboard assistant. By 1930 he was working as an editor on newsreels, including those of Gaumont Pictures and Movietone. His career in feature films began with Freedom of the Seas in 1934 and Escape Me Never in 1935.

He edited 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, after editing 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 collaboration with Noel Coward on In Which We Serve (1942), and he later adapted several of Coward's plays into successful films. These included This Happy Breed (1944), Blithe Spirit (1945) and Brief Encounter (1945). Two celebrated Charles Dickens adaptations followed - Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). The Sound Barrier (1952) had a screenplay by the playwright Terence Rattigan and Hobson's Choice (1954) was based on the play by Harold Brighouse.

Summertime (1955), marked a new direction for Lean. 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 make the epics 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.

During the last years of his life, Lean was in pre-production of a film version of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. Lean assembled an all star cast for his film, including Marlon Brando, Paul Scofield, Anthony Quinn, Peter O'Toole, Christopher Lambert, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Quaid and Georges Corraface as the title character. Lean also wanted Alec Guinness to play Doctor Monyghan, but the aged actor turned him down in a letter from 1989: "I believe I would be disastrous casting. The only thing in the part I might have done well is the crippled crab-like walk." Steven Spielberg came on board as producer, with the backing of Warner Bros., but after several rewrites and disagreements on the script, Spielberg left the project and was replaced by Serge Silberman, a respected producer at Greenwich Film Productions. The project went through several writers; among those were Christopher Hampton and Robert Bolt. But in the end, Lean decided to write the film himself. Originally Lean considered filming in Mexico, but latter decided to film in London and Madrid, partly to secure O'Toole, who had insisted he would only take part if the film was shot close to home. Nostromo had a total budget of $46m and was just six weeks away from filming at the time of Lean's death.

Lean died of throat cancer. It was rumoured that fellow film director John Boorman would be taking over direction, but the production collapsed and Nostromo soon became a BBC television mini-series.

Other films Lean attempted to make, but was forced to abandon or pass on to others, were 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 (1960) and Gandhi (1982).

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.

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.

David Lean was the most represented director on the BFI Top 100 British Films list, credited with seven films.

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."

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, had one son, and was divorced five times. He was survived by his last wife, Sandra Cooke.

1. Isabel Lean (28 June 1930 – 1936) (David's first cousin) — one son, Peter
2. Kay Walsh (23 November 1940 – 1949)
3. Ann Todd (21 May 1949 – 1957)
4. Leila Matkar (4 July 1960 – 1978)
5. Sandra Hotz (28 October 1981 – 1984)
6. Sandra Cooke (15 December 1990 – 16 April 1991)

Filmography

Main article: David Lean Filmography and Awards in his films

Academy Awards

2 Wins and 9 Nominations

• Best Director for The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia
• Nominated for Best Director for Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, Summertime, Doctor Zhivago and A Passage to India
• Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Brief Encounter, Great Expectations (in both cases with with Sir Anthony Havelock-Allan and Ronald Neame CBE) and A Passage to India
• Nominated for Best Film Editing for A Passage to India

References

• Kevin Brownlow, David Lean, Faber & Faber, 1997.

External links

• David Lean at IMDb
• David Lean Archive on the BAFTA website
• David Lean at the BFI's Screenonline
• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database, Biography by Alain Silver
• Biography at British Film Institute
• Master and Commander: Remembering David Lean, by Anthony Lane The New Yorker, March 31, 2008
• Mean Lean Filmmaking Machine, by Armond White, New York Press September 3, 2008
• Honours from the Queen
• David Lean Foundation. Charity which grants monet to restore Lean's films, and to film studies students.