David Lean

Description

The images themselves are unforgettable: from the terrifying opening graveyard sequence in Great Expectations to the poignant railway farewell of Brief Encounter, from the shimmering desert in Lawrence of Arabia to the frozen expanses of revolutionary Russia in Dr Zhivago, David Lean has created some of cinema's most enduring moments.Film-maker and historian Kevin Brownlow spent many hours with Lean and had access to numerous previously unpublished documents and photographs. He charts the journey of Lean's life from his Quaker background to his early days at the Gaumont Studios, where he initially worked as a runner-cum-teaboy, then as assistant cameraman and editor, before turning to directing. It was a career that lasted over fifty years, a career characterized by careful planning, meticulous attention to detail, the fraught rewriting of scripts and inevitable financial problems.