After a what has been a very long break between blogs on my all time favorite comedies, I am changing directions to talk about a director whos work I have long admired.
For painting a canvas and delivering a sweeping epic, there is no equal. I give full marks to Cecil De Mille, and William Wyler, and John Ford, no one brought to the screen more majestic tapestries of visual and viceral beauty. With the best camer work, and the best musical score, and it helps having Maurice Jarre score your master works, or Bernstein, the stage is set.
Plus which, he drew out the very best in actors, and gave them the type of leeway to develop characters to their fullest. William Holden says his work on The Bridge on the River Kwai surpasses anything he did before or after. Peter O'Toole was a veritable unknown, and he owned every scene in Lawrence Of Arabia, not easy pitted with Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn or Jack Hawkins. Sharif was at his finest in Dr.Zhivago, and John Mills delivering an oscar performance in Ryan's daughter.
For all the acting nominations, what stands out is the way Lean makes use of the soundtrack and the landscapes, as if he was laying every brushstroke down himself.
It is as if he has this great visual in his mind, he sees O'Toole atop a train willing the Arabs to overthrow the Turks, and he just has to recreate that mental picture.
He was able to pull together all star casting in each movie , right up to A Passage to India.
