The Films of David Lean: Interview with David Lean

TCM's take on David Lean

I tried to watch "Madeleine", which is based on a famous case, which is unfortunately much more interesting than the movie makes it out. Everything else is recommended, with the exception of "Zhivago".


3:00am [Crime] Madeleine (1950)
A beautiful young woman stands trial for poisoning her lover.
Cast: Ann Todd, Norman Woland, Ivan Desny, Leslie Banks Dir: David Lean BW-115 mins, TV-PG [Email Remind Me]

5:00am [Drama] Passionate Friends, The (1949)
A married woman has one last fling with her childhood sweetheart.
Cast: Ann Todd, Claude Rains, Isabel Dean, Betty Ann Davies Dir: David Lean BW-91 mins [Email Remind Me]

7:00am [Drama] Great Expectations (1946)
A mysterious benefactor finances a young boy's education.
Cast: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles, Francis L. Sullivan Dir: David Lean BW-118 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

9:00am [Romance] Brief Encounter (1945)
Two married strangers meet in a train station and fall in love.
Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Cyril Raymond Dir: David Lean BW-86 mins, TV-PG [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

10:30am [Epic] Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Illicit lovers fight to stay together during the turbulent years of the Russian Revolution.
Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Julie Christie, Tom Courtenay, Alec Guinness Dir: David Lean C-200 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox] [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

2:00pm [Epic] Bridge On The River Kwai, The (1957)
The Japanese Army forces World War II POWs to build a strategic bridge in Burma.
Cast: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa Dir: David Lean C-162 mins, TV-PG [Letterbox]

 

[image=http://www.collecthistory.org/Lawrence.jpg]

You forgot something.

 

No he didn't - Zaz has simply posted the screening schedule of the films they are showing. Lawrence of Arabia doesn't happen to be one of them.

 

Sorry than.

 

It was explained to me that TCM has a contract to show certain movies so many times per month and no more. So they couldn't show "Lawrence" or the wonderful "Hobson's Choice".

 

I've seen only Zhvago -- amazing! -- and Lawrence of Arabia -- astonishing! -- but unfortunately (for me!), I've never seen any other Lean film.

You may now smack me on the head and recommend which one I need to see right now tonight.

 

"The Bridge on the River Kwai"

 

Okay! I'll rent it this week. (I've seen parts of it but never all the way through. I remember trying to watch it as a teenager but getting bored with it. I'm more patient now, and appreciative of a slow build.)

 

Kwai is his best, I think; it's longish, but still incredibly taut. And the performances are top notch. Zhivago is pretty well a misfire, but Lawrence is amazing indeed.

 

I've always like "Kwai". The competing cultural lunacies of the Japanese and the the British, as dissected by a Frenchman.

 

Lean Times, Part One


Very interesting article on the career of David Lean...

 

Thank you Zaz.

That is very worthwhile reading for any Lean fan or any cinephile for that matter. I can't wait to read the next two parts.

As we always find when we look back into the careers of successful people, somewhere in their background there is always a learning curve, some pieces of luck and coincidence, trial and error, and lots of hard work. Nothing comes from nothing and Lean had labored long and hard before he ever came to prominence.

 

A lot of Lean's earlier films are overlooked in favor of the "epic" stage of his career, which began with Bridge on the River Kwai and lasted until his last film, A Passage to India. But he made a lot of great films in the 40s and 50s that were smaller and more modest in scope, but equally well-directed.

If you really want to get well acquainted with Lean's films, you might want to start with his directorial debut, 1942's In Which We Serve (which also happens to feature a very young Richard Attenborough as one of the ship's sailors).

 

Very well.





I second Bridge on the River Kwai.

Fun fact:The speech given by the Japanese camp commandant is used almost word for word by the Klingon prison warden on Rura Penthe in Star Trek VI.

 

Just watched the widescreen DVD of Bridge on the River Kwai. [SPOILERS AHEAD for anyone who hasn't seen this 52-year old movie!]

Remarkable film. I didn't find that it dragged in the slightest despite its 2:40 run time. It was engaging start to finish, with more humor (or specifically, irony) than I was expecting, and numerous moral/ethical dilemmas that kept me involved intellectually throughout. Emotionally, my heart was with Col. Nicholson/Alec Guiness, as perhaps the writer and director intended. I applauded his victory over Col. Sahito (sp.?) regarding the forced labor of his officers; I cheered when he explained to the bewildered British doctor why the proper construction of the bridge meant so much to them, as Britons and as human beings.

From the moment the train's whistle was heard approaching the climax, I was on the edge of my seat, and I do not exaggerate when I say my jaw dropped at the conclusion. After the shock of the "madness" receded, and I left the room to refresh myself, I actually burst into tears whilst thinking about the awful, awful fate the protagonists suffered -- the deep tragedy of it, the horrible irony, the uselessness of war. Though I had expected to be impressed with the director's technique, I did not expect to be as moved as I am. I still feel like I'm reeling from that damnable ending.

This is a magnificent film, one for the ages. It will linger long in my memory and require many repeat viewings throughout the years.

Thank you to those who recommended it.

 

Yes, indeed. Congratulations on having discovered one of the greatest films of all time. Moral complexity all over the place. All around excellent performances; witty, philosphical script; and that climax is right up there with Hitchcock for sheer tension and terror.

 

Okay, second recommendation:

"Hobson's Choice" starring Charles Laughton & Brenda de Banzie. Charlie didn't know what hit him. You may have trouble renting this. Try the library.

And yes, Lean, who seems a very unlikely comedy director, could do that, too.

 

I've not seen any early Lean to my knowledge, but Hobson's Choice and Great Expectations appear to be good places to start. The ironic touches in Kwai lend credence to the director's capacity for comedy; I laughed out loud on several occasions, and not just at Holden's "with or without a parachute?" line.

I've acquired a box set of three of the "later" epics -- Kwai, Lawrence and Passage to India. I'll move on to Lawrence next, as it's been at least 5 years since I've seen it, and wrap it up with Passage, which I've never seen. I'll offer commentary as I watch these, then move back to the earlier films as I discover them.

 

Sorry for the double post. I've spent the last half-hour gleaning insight into Lean's life and approach to filmmaking by reading the article linked upthread. Here is the third part of that article, which deals with the later, "epic" stage of Lean's career.

An excerpt regarding Kwai:

Before accepting the prestigious assignment about a group of captive British soldiers who construct a bridge for the Japanese Army during WWII, David Lean had some serious concerns regarding the source material. ?Pierre Boulle?s book was wonderfully funny but as far as movies are concerned he went too far,? stated Lean. ?Boulle was having a great joke against the British when he wrote it. It was just not believable when Clipton comes up to the colonel, ?I suppose we have to paint the thing, sir?? ?Don?t even think such a thing, Clipton,? said the Colonel testily. ?The most we could do is give it a coating of lime ? and a fine target it would make for the RAF wouldn?t it! You seem to forget there?s a war on!? I thought that was going too far. I went over to Sam Spiegel and said, ?If I can tone it down, if I can do it like the book but take the excesses out, I?ll do it.??

The fundamental creative challenge for the director was making the motivations of Colonel Nicholson, portrayed by Alec Guinness, comprehendible to the audience. ?If they don?t understand and admire him in spite of his misguided actions, his statue will diminish ? and being the cornerstone of the film, the size of the film will diminish with him.? In assessing the author?s depiction of the British in the book, the director responded, ?We love the letter of the law. We are ?superior? and stubborn as mules. Boulle has taken all of these characteristics, and with a great deal of warmth, admiration, and understanding. He has shown the characteristics of the old school tie carried to tragic lengths. The story of the building of a bridge over the River Kwai is the story of a folly. It is a folly to which all of us might subscribe under the pressures, emotions, and tempers of war. If we can show this minor incident as a miniature reproduction of a greater folly which is the War itself, we shall have a great film.?

So the Boulle novel is satirical and "wonderfully funny"! I find it utterly fascinating that Lean could take the material and re-shape it into a riveting, moving drama of moral complexity and keen insight into human motivations.

 

Well, I read the novel after seeing the movie at least twice and loving it, so I was certainly biased, but I felt the novel was pretty well a misfire. It did take on the Brits in a somewhat satirical way, but, as the article says, there's no real humanity in it. And it has nothing to say about the Americans, as the film certainly does. And the climax is utterly bumbled in the novel; it has nothing like the deathly suspense of the film or, to be honest, the tragedy. This is maybe the best example I know of taking deeply inferior source material (the book not only isn't great, it isn't even good) and turning it into pure gold. Genius, indeed.

 

You don't know how much the novel suffered in translation. I find most French translations unreadable, but if you can read the original in French, it's different.

 

I grant you that and it probably did suffer, but most of the problems were structural. The book didn't have the American character, thus making it a two pronged social statement, rather than the triangular psyche experiment the movie was.

And the ending, where the bridge blew up . . . not in the book. The commandos return and state that the bridge blew up without so much as giving any details about the hows or whys, just their job is done, the bridge is blown up.

So those are the two major structural problems of the book; a lesser psychological complexity and no climax. Both problems the movie solved in spades.

 

From "The Greatest Films Never Made"

"Films such as David Lean?s last project, an adaptation of Joseph Conrad?s Nostromo, which gradually died as the director?s health failed."

Lean was far more interested in this film visually than he was intellectually. I remember seeing illustrations of the scenes made by him.

 

IIRC Dennis Quaid, of all people, was set to star in this, but I believe Lean died during pre-production.

 

July 22 on TCM

8:45am [Drama] Great Expectations (1946)
A mysterious benefactor finances a young boy's education.
Cast: John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles, Francis L. Sullivan Dir: David Lean BW-118 mins, TV-G [Close Captioned] [Email Remind Me]

12:45pm [Drama] Oliver Twist (1948)
The famed orphan gets caught up in Fagin's criminal band while searching for familial love.
Cast: Robert Newton, Alec Guinness, Kay Walsh, Francis L. Sullivan Dir: David Lean BW-116 mins, TV-G

These are both very intelligent adaptations, with "Oliver Twist" taking the palm, I think.