David Lean

[Mr Sloane]

Oliver Twist for me.

[davidlean]

Thanx,

you've been very helpful, Most people said Lawrence, Brief Encounter was second and then Dr Zhivago was third.

[Freddy]

Difficult to have a top film but Lawrence, In Which We Serve, The Passionate Friends and Great Expectations are at the top, most disappointing would be Bridge on the River Kwai.

[Freddy]

Heads up to tell of of two programmes which can be seen on BBCi player.



David Lean and his Dedicated Maniacs

Available until:12:49am Sunday 11th October 2009

Oscar-winning director David Lean gathered round him a team who shared his total commitment to film-making. In a documentary narrated by Nigel Havers, four of the colleagues who worked with him on classic films such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago share their memories of their time on set with a man who demanded perfection.





David Lean in Close-Up With Jonathan Ross

Available until:10:29pm Saturday 10th October 2009

In an extended version of a programme first shown on BBC1, Jonathan Ross explores the work of one of the great names in British and international cinema, double Oscar-winning director and master of the epic, David Lean.



Steven Spielberg is among the cast list of admirers and colleagues who join Jonathan to analyse the career of the man behind Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Great Expectations and Brief Encounter.

[Brief Encounter]

Is the 90-minute version good?

[Brief Encounter]

I watched it last night - agree with Bernardo. Quite educative for us novices.

[AdrianTurner]

I recently watched the two South Bank Shows on Lean available in the two-disc DVD edition of This Happy Breed. I always rated the earlier programme from 1985 as the finest documentary about a film director that I have ever seen - beautifully constructed, as long as it needs to be, topical because it caught Lean while filming A Passage to India, and insightful about his entire career, and helped by an unusually cooperative and even vaguely confessional Lean himself. There is a particularly marvellous sequence when Lean films Victor Banerjee entering the house of James Fox - Lean's bothered by the fading light, the background action, Banerjee kicking the carpet and DP Ernie Day calling cut, Fox's movements in the shower, that infuriating fly that's buzzing around Lean's face, and all the while the South Bank Show's camera is drilling into his skull. The tension is palpable and Lean almost blows a gasket. Fabulous stuff.



The other programme (1989) mainly charts Lean's collaboration with Robert Bolt and their work on Nostromo.



Sadly, both programmes have had to be cut in significant ways for the DVD - solely due to problems over clips from two major films, Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter. This especially weakens the second programme when the cafe sequence in Zhivago is analysed at length and you really need the clips to illustrate the points Lean and Bolt make. The cuts also weaken comments made by Steven Spielberg in the first programme regarding Lean's ingenious sound and visual transitions.



Now, I have no idea why the clips are missing - either Ted Turner's company refused permission or Granada/LWT refused to pay the requested fee. Either way it's very sad and annoying and rather pathetic. I would always praise Ted Turner's company for their amazing work in the field of film restoration but for some minor legal eagle to enforce the cutting of the South Bank Show is a major disservice to film history that makes the Turner organisation look a little ridiculous.



Years ago, when I knew Lean and worked at the NFT, I discovered that MGM in Britain had destroyed all their 35mm and 70mm prints of Ryan's Daughter. I mentioned this to Lean who immediately called the then president of MGM, Frank Rosenfelt, and a new print was struck for us. I don't doubt that if Lean were alive today those clips of Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter would still be in those two South Bank Shows.

[MonicaMC]

Lean is ecstatically happy that he can still shoot films in the afterlife. The problem is, it turns out that his ex-wives are the producers, and have put the kibosh on any train sequences.

There might be a skit in there somewhere...

[mrs_emma_peel]

David Lean in Close-Up with Jonathan Ross
BBC4 ... Tuesday (Tonight) 19th April 2011 ... 9.00-10.30pm/2.20-3.50am

In an extended version of a programme first shown on BBC1, Jonathan Ross explores the work of one of the great names in British and international cinema, double Oscar-winning director and master of the epic, David Lean. Steven Spielberg is among the cast list of admirers and colleagues who join Jonathan to analyse the career of the man behind Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Great Expectations and Brief Encounter.
Sources: DigiGuide/BBC4/BBCiPlayer
Emma

[HUGHJAMPTON]

Cheers Mrs.P, not seen that, shall get that recorded for me

[pelam123]

It's a shame that Spielberg, who was such an admirer of Lean's that he, at Lean's request, managed to persuade Warner Brothers to put up $20m for Nostromo. Lean's response was to rebuff it and tell him to go back and ask for more (which he did) and when the answer was no, Lean never spoke to Spielberg again!

Sadly, Lean, according to many, was incredibly petulant and childish.

[MonicaMC]

Sadly, Lean, according to many, was incredibly petulant and childish.

Yeah, his wives could attest to that.

Unfortunately, a good artist does not necessarily equal a good human being. Actually, to be a total ass as an artist and succeed, one NEEDS to be exemplary. Still, I figure it's not a very good excuse to be an ass.

[christoph404]

Oh dear, suggesting that he was not " a good human being" and was "incredibly petulant and childish" seems a bit harsh to me. Artists are usually sensitive and emotional people. I've read that he was a bit of a tyrant on set, but making films on that scale and stamping your style on them means that you have to be a strong and forceful personality, Lean got upset with Spielberg because he had written a couple of pages of script notes on Nostromo, Spieleberg's account of the rift certainly suggests an over reaction on Lean's part but who knows what was going through his mind.