Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
The information in this is staggering – Lean’s own story, with the history of British cinema interwoven. Kevin Brownlow, it seems to me, has talked to everybody who ever worked with Lean – the groundbreaking aspect of the book is in its astonishing reliance on written testimony. The result is the most wonderful sense of an endless series of close-ups of the man in action. This is not hagiography either. Brownlow clearly admires the films and he knows exactly how much to give us about them, and he does deal with the man’s limitations and unattractive qualities.
The next book you’ve recommended is David Lean by Kevin Brownlow. What is it about this book that makes it such a great portrait of the director?
For my money, this is quite simply the best biography of a filmmaker I’ve ever read. It’s an entirely – all 750 pages – enthralling account of a man enraptured by cinema, written by another man enraptured by cinema. The information in it is staggering – Lean’s own story, with the history of British cinema interwoven. Kevin Brownlow, it seems to me, has talked to everybody who ever worked with Lean and the groundbreaking aspect of the book is in its astonishing reliance on written testimony. The result is the most wonderful sense of an endless series of close-ups of the man in action. This is not hagiography either. Brownlow clearly admires the films and he knows exactly how much to give us about them, and he does deal with the man’s limitations and unattractive qualities.
Personally, I don’t care if I never see any Lean film after 1958 again. I haven’t got enough life left to spend trudging through snow or sand or sea spray. Brownlow makes me wonder if I haven’t been a bit impetuous in my dismissal of these later films. I don’t care for the epics, but he makes me feel I need to think again about them. It is, without a shred of doubt, the very greatest biography of anyone ever in film. Quite a large claim, isn’t it?
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Brian McFarlane is a leading academic on film and the writer and editor of The Encyclopedia of British Film. He is Honorary Associate Professor at Melbourne’s Monash University and Visiting Professor at the University of Hull. He is a film critic and a regular contributor to publications such as the Australian Book Review. He is also a fellow of the Australian Humanities Academy and was awarded the Australian government’s Centenary Medal for services to the arts and literature in 2003.
