David Lean PDF
Preview David Lean
‘A rule of mine is this,’ said the screenwriter William D David Goldman in 1983, ‘there are always three hot directors a and one of them is always David Lean.’ One of the BRITISH BRITISH v best-known and most widely admired of British filmmakers, FILM i Lean FILM David Lean enjoyed a directorial career that spanned five d decades and encompassed everything from the intimate MAKERS MAKERS black-and-white romance of Brief Encounter (1945) and the L celebrated adaptation of Great Expectations (1946) to the e Melanie Williams spectacular Technicolor epic of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) a and his successful return to the screen after a fourteen n year hiatus, A Passage to India (1984). Melanie Williams’ comprehensive overview of the director’s W body of work yields new insights on the established i classics of Lean’s career as well as its lesser-known l l treasures. The book’s approach combines archival ia investigation of the details of production, marketing and m s critical reception alongside nuanced close readings of Lean’s films in terms of mise en scène, cinematography, editing and soundtrack, aiming to honour the director’s belief that ‘moments you remember in movies are not often dialogue. They are images – pictures with music and sound that move you.’ David Lean also offers an original approach to its subject matter by prioritising questions of gender, emphasising the often-overlooked but highly significant recurrence of female-centred narratives throughout the director’s career. In so doing, it offers a full analysis and appreciation of the director’s manifold achievements, making the book essential reading for all students and scholars of British cinema and every admirer of this remarkable British filmmaker. Melanie Williams is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia Cover image: Still from Brief Encounter (1945) courtesy of the Steve Chibnall Collection www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk ISBN 978-0-7190-7385-4 british film David Lean mAKErs Williams_Lean.indd 1 26/03/2014 14:43 Brian McFarlane, Neil Sinyard series editors british Allen Eyles, Philip French, Sue Harper, film Tim Pulleine, Jeffrey Richards, Tom Ryall series advisers mAKErs already published Lindsay Anderson: Cinema authorship john izod, karl magee, kathryn mackenzie, isabelle gourdin-sangouard Anthony Asquith tom ryall Richard Attenborough sally dux Roy Ward Baker geoff mayer Sydney Box andrew spicer Jack Clayton neil sinyard Lance Comfort brian mcfarlane Terence Davies wendy everett Terence Fisher peter hutchings Terry Gilliam peter marks Derek Jarman rowland wymer Launder and Gilliat bruce babington Mike Leigh tony whitehead Richard Lester neil sinyard Joseph Losey colin gardner Carol Reed peter william evans Michael Reeves benjamin halligan Karel Reisz colin gardner Tony Richardson robert shail J. Lee Thompson steve chibnall Michael Winterbottom brian mcfarlane and deane williams Williams_Lean.indd 2 26/03/2014 14:43 David british film Lean mAKErs Melanie Williams Manchester University Press manchester and new york distributed exclusively in the uSA by Palgrave Macmillan Williams_Lean.indd 3 26/03/2014 14:43 Copyright © Melanie Williams 2014 The right of Melanie Williams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester m13 9nr, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, ny 10010, USA Distributed exclusively in Canada by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada v6t 1z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for isbn 978 0 7190 7385 4 hardback First published 2014 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset in Scala with Meta display by Koinonia, Manchester Williams_Lean.indd 4 26/03/2014 14:43 Contents list of plates page vii series editors’ foreword ix acknowledgements xi 1 Introduction 1 2 Cutting and Coward: David Lean’s early career and In Which We Serve (1942), This Happy Breed (1944) and Blithe Spirit (1945) 15 3 Nineteenth-century blues: Great Expectations (1946), Oliver Twist (1948), Madeleine (1950) and Hobson’s Choice (1954) 40 4 Women in love: Brief Encounter (1945), The Passionate Friends (1949) and Summer Madness (1955) 84 5 Men of vision: The Sound Barrier (1952), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) 133 6 Feminising the epic: Doctor Zhivago (1965), Ryan’s Daughter (1970) and A Passage to India (1984) 175 filmography as director 246 bibliography 253 index 262 Williams_Lean.indd 5 26/03/2014 14:43 Williams_Lean.indd 6 26/03/2014 14:43 List of plates 1 Flashbacks from home: Shorty (John Mills) remembers his wedding to Freda (Kay Walsh) in In Which We Serve (Two Cities Films, 1942) page 22 2 A domestic still life: Frank (Robert Newton), Sylvia (Alison Leggatt) and Ethel (Celia Johnson) listen to the radio announcement of the death of George V in This Happy Breed (Two Cities Films, 1944) 29 3 Ghostly first wife Elvira (Kay Hammond) comes between Charles (Rex Harrison) and second wife Ruth (Constance Cummings) in Blithe Spirit (Cineguild-Two Cities Films, 1945) 34 4 Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt) and Estella (Jean Simmons) conspire to break the heart of Pip (Anthony Wager) in Great Expectations (Cineguild, 1946) 46 5 Nineteenth-century noir: Sikes (Robert Newton), Fagin (Alec Guinness) and Nancy (Kay Walsh) argue over the fate of Oliver (John Howard Davies) in Oliver Twist (Cineguild, 1948) 57 6 Woman as enigma: Ann Todd as the eponymous heroine at the end of Madeleine (Cineguild, 1950) 70 7 Father versus daughter: Hobson (Charles Laughton) clashes with Maggie (Brenda de Banzie) in Hobson’s Choice (London Films in Association with British Lion, 1954) 75 8 Sweet sorrow: Laura (Celia Johnson) and Alec (Trevor Howard) say goodbye in Brief Encounter (Cineguild, 1945) 98 9 The love triangle of The Passionate Friends (Cineguild, 1949): Mary (Ann Todd), Howard (Claude Rains) and Stephen (Trevor Howard) 108 10 Jane (Katharine Hepburn) and her camera in Summer Madness (Lopert Films/London Films, 1955) 119 11 Ridgefield (Ralph Richardson) seduces Tony (Nigel Patrick) with a model of the new Prometheus in The Sound Barrier (London Films, 1952) 138 Williams_Lean.indd 7 26/03/2014 14:43 viii list of plates 12 Nearer the end than the beginning: Nicholson (Alec Guinness) and Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) at sundown in The Bridge on the River Kwai (Horizon Pictures, Columbia, 1957) 150 13 T. E. Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) surveys his new white robes in Lawrence of Arabia (Horizon Films, Columbia, 1962) 158 14 Zhivago (Omar Sharif) and Lara (Julie Christie) seek refuge from revolution in Doctor Zhivago (Carlo Ponti/MGM, 1965) 198 15 The voluptuous quality of an erotic thought: Rose (Sarah Miles) among the lilies in Ryan’s Daughter (Faraway Productions, MGM, 1970) 216 16 A life-changing moment of physical contact: Aziz (Victor Banerjee) offers his hand to Adela (Judy Davis) as they climb up to the Marabar caves in A Passage to India (G. W. Films, John Heyman, Edwards Sands, Home Box Office 1984) 230 Williams_Lean.indd 8 26/03/2014 14:43 Series editors’ foreword The aim of this series is to present in lively, authoritative volumes a guide to those film-makers who have made British cinema a rewarding but still under-researched branch of world cinema. The intention is to provide books which are up-to-date in terms of information and critical approach, but not bound to any one theoretical methodology. Though all books in the series will have certain elements in common – comprehensive filmographies, annotated bibliographies, appropriate illustration – the actual critical tools employed will be the responsibility of the individual authors. Nevertheless, an important recurring element will be a concern for how the oeuvre of each film-maker does or does not fit certain critical and indus- trial contexts, as well as for the wider social contexts which helped to shape not just that particular film-maker but the course of British cinema at large. Although the series is director-orientated, the editors believe that refer- ence to a variety of stances and contexts is more likely to reconceptualise and reappraise the phenomenon of British cinema as a complex, shifting field of production. All the texts in the series will engage in detailed discussion of major works of the film-makers involved, but they all consider as well the importance of other key collaborators, of studio organisation, of audience reception, of recurring themes and structures: all those other aspects which go towards the construction of a national cinema. The series explores and charts a field which is more than ripe for serious excavation. The acknowledged leaders of the field will be reappraised; just as important, though, will be the bringing to light of those who have not so far received any serious attention. They are all part of the very rich texture of British cinema, and it will be the work of this series to give them all their due. Williams_Lean.indd 9 26/03/2014 14:43
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