Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Covering All Phases of a Fascinating and Complicated Genius, January 24, 2002
Kevin Brownlow touched all bases of David Lean's life, providing insight into the films and his unconventionally fascinating life, making this one of the finest film biographies I have ever read about a cinema giant about whom I had longed to learn more about. Brownlow divides Lean's career into two distinct phases, 1) the British period in which he worked at home and captured the true essence of his people and, 2) the international phase in which the master film craftsman lived in hotels and moved from one country to another in producing a series of internationally spectacular movies such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai."Brownlow begins with Lean's roots as a restless youngster in the London suburb of Croydon. His lack of curiosity and penchant for traditional school learning coupled with the stolen hours he spent sitting inside darkened theaters in a state of fascination revealed where his adult years would be spent. Once that Lean began following his dream he quickly became established as Britain's foremost film editor. In that context Brownlow expunges a canard that was carried all the way to obituaries after the great director's death in 1990 that Noel Coward gave the aspiring director a leg up in teaming up with him to co-direct the brilliantly done war film about the British Navy, "In Which We Serve," in which Coward also starred along with Celia Johnson and John Mills. It turned out that Coward's move proved to his personal benefit as Lean did most of the directing and Coward was concerned mainly about his own scenes, after which he would generally leave the set, entrusting the basic direction of the film to Lean. We also learn that Lean, unlike Sir Carol Reed and other prominent British directors, turned down a chance to begin his directing career on low budget "quota quickies," deciding instead to wait for a major opportunity, which came with "In Which We Serve." Later that same year one of Lean's greatest films, the epic love story "Brief Encounter" with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson, hit the screens and the young director's career was away in a flourish. After achieving prominent worldwide status as a great international director, Lean's sensitivity resulted in overreacting to the criticism of tart New Yorkers at a Round Table session at the Algonquin Hotel. Lean was sharply criticized for "Ryan's Daughter," which American critics such as Richard Schickel and Pauline Kael believed was well below the high standard he established with "Brief Encounter" and continued with other films. According to Brownlow, Lean was sufficiently wounded to take a sabbatical before doing his last film, the highly acclaimed Indian epic "Passage to India" based on the E.M. Forster literary classic. Brownlow does a superb job of depicting the period and the films from Lean's prolific career. Lean's was a mastery of style and entertainment, enriching story telling with beautiful visual imagery and word economy in the best sense, making the language all the more meaningful. This book does his career justice while enhancing our knowledge of a great man.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brownlow's magisterial biography is a landmark in the field., April 12, 1997
By A Customer
Kevin Brownlow's "David Lean: A Biography" is a landmark in the field of cinema studies. In this work, the premier cinema historian in the English language meets arguably the greatest English director, and the result is a masterpiece of the genre worthy of the maker of such film masterpieces as "Brief Encounter," "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia." Brownlow's understanding of the technical aspects of film-making does great justice to Lean's career, who himself made his reputation in the industry as an editor, gaining renown as the premier "cutter" of his time. In my estimation, Lean was arguably the premier "technician-style" director, a master of cinematic form rivalled only by Stanley Kubrick. My pantheon of directors includes more "personal" directors, Bergman, Fellini and Tarkovsky, yet I respect the accomplishments of Lean; when I saw "Brief Encounter" on the big screen, the climax of the film literally stunned me. The awesome construction of "Brief Encounter" perhaps could only have been created by a director possessing technical genius bred in the cutting room, and it is a great credit to Brownlow that he makes us fully understand the genesis of Lean's particular genius for film. While in these 800-pages, Brownlow does not slight the more conventional aspects of movies, e.g, personalities, finance, criticism, etc., it is his commanding knowledge of film as a craft that gives us great insight into Lean. This book should be required reading for film students for the insight it gives into the craft of constructing a motion picture. Finally, "David Lean: A Biography" is also an insightful story about an unusual man with a marvellously contradictory character who would make a great protagonist in a work of fiction. Lean was, in turns, a sensualist with a Quaker background who had six wives, marrying many of them when most men, it was said, would be divorcing them; a director who commanded huge crews who essentially was a lonely and uncommunicative man; a man of extraordinary generosity who would deny a fellow professional a minor credit; an artist of international reputation who could be wounded mortally by a bad review by an insignificant critic, whose career was derailed by the storm of negative criticism over "Ryan's Daughter." Brownlow's portrait of the essentially unintellectual Lean, an insecure man tormented by a rivalry with his younger brilliant brother, himself a brilliant technician working in a medium with great artistic pretensions who was uncertain of his worth and reputation, should not be missed by any person who loves film. Lean's eclipse after the critical debacle of "Ryan's Daughter," his years in the woods in which he tried in vain to bring new projects to fruition that later were realized by other, lesser directors, his ultimate return to glory and respectability with "A Passage to India," and his final years as the respected yet still tormented man searching for the backing for his last project, "Nostromo," kick this book out of its genre into the ranks of the best biographies in which the life of which we read informs us not just about the human condition, but about ourselves. Don't miss this book
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greatest filmmaker biographies ever...., August 3, 2006
I adore this book. I have been reading it as of late, and I love the book (and David Lean) even more. I have always detested biographies of filmmakers that are far too academic in their tone; that professorial tone where they analyze the films ad nauseum, and are constantly talking about symbolism and other completely useless things. This book spares us of that. It is meticulously researched, with great antedotes and quotes from the master himself. It talks about Lean's childhood, and you realise what Lean had to overcome to become one of the greatest filmmakers ever. It's a shame this massive book is out of print. Like a reviewer said earlier, we're constantly given fluff pieces of talentless whores like Spears, Lohan, etc., but here is a real artist whose films still inspire people today. Thank you, Kevin, for writing such a great book, and, of course, to David Lean himself...
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