Table Of Content‘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
