Today is the Birth Anniversary of Sir DAVID LEAN (25 March 1908 – 16 April 1991) English Film Director, Producer, Screenwriter and Editor, best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and Doctor Zhivago (1965); for perhaps the most highly regarded of all the adaptations of Dickens novels with Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948); and for the renowned romantic drama Brief Encounter (1945). Acclaimed by directors including 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. Nominated seven times for the Academy Award for Best Director, for which he won twice for The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Lawrence of Arabia. Lean has three films in the top five of the British Film Institutes Top 100 British Films. Lean was born in Croydon, Surrey (now part of Greater London), to Francis William le Blount Lean and the former Helena Tangye (niece of Sir Richard Trevithick 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. Lean was a half-hearted schoolboy with a dreamy nature who was labeled a dud of a student; he left in his mid-teens and entered his fathers chartered accountancy firm as an apprentice. At age 16, his father deserted the family when he ran off with another woman, and Lean would later follow a similar path after his own first marriage and child. Lean is the most represented director on the BFI Top 100 British films list, having a total of seven films on the list. As Lean himself pointed out, his films are often admired by fellow directors as a showcase of the filmmakers art. Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese in particular are fans of Leans epic films, and claim him as one of their primary influences. Spielberg and Scorsese also helped in the 1989 restoration of Lawrence of Arabia which, after release, greatly revived Leans reputation. John Woo once named Lawrence of Arabia among his top three films. More recently, Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, Atonement) has cited Leans works, particularly Doctor Zhivago, as an important influence on his work. RIP Sir DAVID LEAN.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 01:17:30 +0000
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