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David Lean: Ten British Classics

Critical and popular evaluations of the career of British director David Lean (1908-1991) generally focus on three of his most famous films: THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA and DR. ZHIVAGO. While these films achieved popular success and legendary status, they also earned Lean the reputation of only being capable of staging stunning, but impersonal, commercial stories on an epic scale. This centenary retrospective of Lean's earlier films from the 1940s and 50s, restorations drawn from the Archives of the British Film Institute, offers a more balanced appreciation of his talents. Ranging from adventure narratives (IN WHICH WE SERVE), through literary and stage adaptations (GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OLIVER TWIST, THIS HAPPY BREED, BLITHE SPIRIT), to “women's” melodramas (BRIEF ENCOUNTER, MADELEINE, PASSIONATE FRIENDS), these diverse films offer a full picture of Lean's artistic brilliance and personal vision. A common character in Lean's work is the visionary protagonist who seeks to remake the world according to his or her dreams. From a man who rose from clapperboard assistant to master filmmaker through the tenacity of his vision, this recurring figure may be David Lean's most personal touch of all. For critic David Thomson, the films of this period constitute Lean's greatest achievements: “They are lively, stirring, and an inspiration—they make you want to go out and make movies, they are so in love with the screen's power.”

Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 8 PM	IN WHICH WE SERVE DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN, NOëL COWARD UK Lean shared the directing credit with Noël Coward, who wrote and starred in this tense and moving account of life on board a wartime destroyer. Although based on the experiences of Louis Mountbatten, this is a state-of-the-nation film with social divisions on shore faithfully mirrored aboard ship. Lean arranged all the camera set-ups and directed Coward in his scenes in front of the camera. With John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson, Richard Attenborough. ( 114 min ) ^ Top
Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 6:30 PM Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 4:30 PM	THIS HAPPY BREED DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK Noël Coward was again the source for this story of a London lower middle-class suburban family in the inter-war years from 1919 to 1939. The finely and wittily observed family feuds unfold against a panorama of public events ranging from the General Strike of 1926 to the outbreak of war itself. Beautifully acted by an ensemble cast featuring Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, John Mills, Kay Walsh and Stanley Holloway, and shot in Technicolor, the film was a huge contemporary hit and has lost little of its appeal. ( 110 min ) ^ Top
Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 9 PM Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 7 PM	BLITHE SPIRIT DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK Lean's first comedy, again scripted by Noël Coward from his Broadway hit, stars Rex Harrison as a successful and cheerfully cynical novelist whose marital bliss is interrupted by the mischievous ghost of his first wife, visible to him but invisible to everyone else. The simple but effective special effects, all the more impressive in Technicolor, won an Oscar. With Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford. ( 95 min ) ^ Top
Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 7 PM Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 5 PM	BRIEF ENCOUNTER DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK Lean's international reputation was established with this study of unfulfilled passion and guilt—themes that were to recur in his later work. Critically debated, referenced and remade, this account of an unconsummated affair between a middle-class housewife (Celia Howard) and a doctor (Trevor Howard), forced to meet at a railway station, retains a tight emotional grip on any contemporary audience. ( 86 min ) ^ Top
Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 7 PM Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 4:30 PM	GREAT EXPECTATIONS DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK Undoubtedly one of the finest Dickens adaptations, Lean's film is studded with memorable set-pieces, from young Pip's hair-raising encounter with Magwitch in the graveyard to the eerie Gothic fantasy world of Miss Havisham. The Oscar-winning team of cinematographer Guy Green and production designer John Bryan bring Dickens' settings to vivid, indelible life. With John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles, Alec Guinness. ( 118 min ) ^ Top
Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 7 PM	OLIVER TWIST DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK Dickens' extravagant vision of Victorian London is perfectly balanced by superb performances and Lean's fierce grip on the sprawling narrative. Guy Green and John Bryan lend an Expressionist look to Fagin's hellish underworld and Alec Guinness, in his second major role, gives a finely judged theatrical—if controversial—depiction of Fagin himself. Lean was always eager to open a film without dialogue and here he excels himself with a tour de force sequence of Oliver's pregnant mother battling against a storm. With Robert Newton, John Howard Davies, Kay Walsh. ( 115 min ) ^ Top
Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 7 PM Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 5 PM	THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK One of the least known films in the director's distinguished canon, this absorbing love story is a fascinating companion piece to BRIEF ENCOUNTER and has been hailed by critic David Thomson as “of all Lean's works the film most deserving rediscovery”. Mary (Ann Todd) has chosen a comfortable secure life with her rich banker husband (Claude Rains) over romantic passion with her first love Steven (Trevor Howard). Turmoil ensues when Steven suddenly reappears in her life. With its subtle performances, nuanced direction and beautiful cinematography, THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS, adapted from a story by H G Wells, is a triumph of visual storytelling from a master of the art. ( 91 min ) ^ Top
Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 9 PM Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 7 PM	MADELEINE DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK In this period drama, set in Victorian Glasgow and based on a true story, Lean exploits the ambiguous and enigmatic screen presence of Ann Todd. Here she plays a young woman who, rebelling against her patriarchal father (Leslie Banks), falls for a penniless but exploitative French aristocrat Ivan Desny) who later dies of arsenic poisoning. MADELEINE is anything but a victim, daring to expose her sexuality. Guy Green's deep focus photography owes much to CITIZEN KANE. ( 114 min ) ^ Top
Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 8 PM	THE SOUND BARRIER DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK The human cost of scientific progress underlies this story of an aircraft manufacturer whose obsession for perfection leads him into near madness and brings his family suffering—a tendency shared by Lean himself. The script by Terence Rattigan delivers the drama, but the exhilarating aerial footage and the score by Malcolm Arnold are what lodge in the memory. With Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick. ( 116 min ) ^ Top
Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 7 PM	HOBSON'S CHOICE DIRECTOR: DAVID LEAN UK Charles Laughton delivers a bravura performance as a self-important Lancashire bootmaker who attempts to dictate his daughter's choice of husband, only to find that she marries his downtrodden and simple-minded employee and starts a rival business. Set in the 1890s, this working class comedy by Harold Brighouse was first staged in 1916 but is here given a fresh breath of cinematic life thanks to luminous cinematography by Jack Hildyard. With John Mills, Brenda de Banzie, Prunella Scales. ( 107 min ) ^ Top