David Lean Collection

MS 3974

1962-1967

Lean was the son of strict Quaker parents and did not see his first film until age 17. His father, an accountant, came from a long line of distinguished Quaker schoolmasters, and was disappointed when his elder son showed a marked lack of academic ability, finding it difficult to learn to read and write. In 1922 David failed his Common Entrance examination but family connections gained him a place at Leighton Park, a Quaker school in Reading, where his interests in nature and photography were encouraged. The school also allowed David to visit the cinema, which had been forbidden at home. In 1923 David Lean's parents separated and when he left school in 1926 he tried to study accountancy to please his mother. However an aunt pointed out that he had no aptitude for that work and an evident passion for cinema and suggested that he should be allowed to see whether he could make a living in film production. He began his film career in 1928 as a teaboy for Gaumont-British studios, where he soon was promoted to clapboard boy, and finally to editor. By the end of the 1930s Lean was the most highly-paid film editor working in British cinema and widely regarded as the best. Until the end of his career, Lean considered editing the most interesting step in the filmmaking process and always contracted with studios to cut his own films. Lean’s collaboration with playwright Noël Coward began in 1942 when they codirected the drama ‘In Which We Serve’. The success of this film allowed for the funding and formation of Cineguild, a production company helmed by Lean and cofounded by Coward, producer Anthony Havelock-Allan, and director-cinematographer Ronald Neame. The company’s initial productions—three adaptations of Coward’s stage plays—were Lean’s first solo efforts as a director. The first of these, the domestic drama ‘This Happy Breed’ (1944), is today seen as hopelessly dated because of Coward’s patronizing treatment of the lower middle-class. The second was Coward’s classic supernatural comedy ‘Blithe Spirit’ (1945), regarded as a good effort but little more than a stage play on celluloid. The last of the Coward vehicles, the romantic melodrama ‘Brief Encounter’ (1945; based on Coward’s play ‘Still Life’), was a masterpiece and the first of many Lean films to employ the theme of private obsessions versus outward appearances. Two Charles Dickens classics served as source material for Lean’s next efforts. ‘Great Expectations’ (1946), which garnered Academy Award nominations for best director, picture, and screenplay, is still considered by many to be the finest screen adaptation of a Dickens novel. ‘Oliver Twist’ (1948) is also highly regarded and features a memorable performance by Alec Guinness as Fagin. In 1950 Cineguild disbanded, and Lean began working for British producer Alexander Korda at Shepperton Studios. Lean’s films of the late 1940s and early ’50s are regarded as good but unremarkable, highlighted by the standout performances of Charles Laughton in ‘Hobson’s Choice’ (1954) and Katharine Hepburn in ‘Summertime’ (1955). He returned to prominence with the prisoner-of-war drama ‘The Bridge on the River Kwai’ (1957), a film noted for its psychological battles of will and taut action sequences. It won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and Lean’s first as best director, and has been named to the Library of Congress National Film Registry, a national honour given to films deemed culturally, historically, and artistically significant. Its success insured that, for the remainder of his career, Lean would devote himself exclusively to big-budget epics. The story of T.E. Lawrence, a controversial British officer who led an Arab revolt against the German invasion during World War I, became the basis for ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962), often considered Lean’s finest film. The film won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and director, and made international stars of actors Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif. ‘Doctor Zhivago’ (1965), a love story set against a backdrop of the Russian Revolution, and the romantic ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ (1970) followed, both exhibiting the grand scale, lush cinematography, and breathtaking landscapes that had become the hallmark of Lean’s work. ‘Doctor Zhivago’ received mixed reviews but was a popular success. ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ was financially successful, but critics panned it. Lean was humiliated by the negative press and did not direct another film for 14 years. His last film, ‘A Passage to India’ (1984), based on the E.M. Forster novel, was regarded as his best work since ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. Lean was knighted by Queen Elizabeth that year, and in 1990 he was awarded the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award. At the time of his death, he was preparing a screen version of Joseph Conrad’s novel ‘Nostromo’.

The collection consists of tapes, notes and correspondence relating to the production of the film Dr Zhivago; correspondence including 49 letters from Robert Bolt, 3 letters from Alec Guinness and 3 letters from Katherine Hepburn; personal correspondence between David Lean (48 letters and 30 telegrams) and Barbara Cole-Beale.

2 boxes

English

fonds

Sir David Lean, 1908-1991, Knight, Robert Oxton Bolt, Alec Guinness