David Lean

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David Lean (right) filming Doctor Zhivago  (1965)

Sir David Lean KBE (born March 25, 1908 in Croydon , † April 16, 1991 in London ) was a British film director . Lean became famous for his films Lawrence of Arabia , The Bridge on the Kwai and Doctor Schiwago .

Life

David Lean had his first experience with the movie business as a simple film flaps Wizard. Around 1930 he worked as an editor for newsreels and later got up close and personal with directing as a film editor . His work in motion pictures then began with Escape Me Never (1936), and his first work as a film director he delivered as a collaboration with Noël Coward : In Which We Serve (1942). He found his own style in Encounter (1945) and then directed several films based on classic Charles Dickens novels such as Mysterious Inheritance (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948) . These two films also marked the beginning of his long and highly fruitful collaboration with Alec Guinness , who starred in almost all Lean films.

The film The Unknown Enemy (1952) demonstrates British steadfastness, and Lean-produced The Lord of the House I Am (1954) is a stylized version of King Lear , set in Victorian Manchester .

In the 1950s, David Lean established himself as one of the leading directors of lavishly produced film epics such as Die Brücke am Kwai (1957), for which he received an Academy Award . He won another for Lawrence of Arabia (1962). The film adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel Doktor Schiwago (1965), some of which was shown in cinemas for years, was an overwhelming success . With these highly budgeted films, which were in production for many years and always starred, Lean became one of the most successful directors of his time.

After Ryan's daughter received a bad response from critics and audiences in 1970, David Lean retired from the cinema for many years and did not direct again until 1984 on a trip to India . With this film, too, the director was unable to build on earlier successes. Lean died while preparing a film adaptation of Joseph Conrads Nostromo . Many younger directors such as Steven Spielberg, for example, declared Lean to be their role model as the great master of epic cinema.

Filmography

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Director

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lean, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film director
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Croydon
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1991
Place of death London