24 January 2008
Great British film director celebrated with restoration of 10 films
David Lean centenary year packed with tributes and celebrations
Ten films directed by David Lean during the 1940s and 50s have been faithfully restored by the BFI National Archive, in partnership with Granada International, to coincide with the centenary year of the great British film director. The sparkling new restorations were announced today at the BFI as part of a year-long programme of events, screenings, tributes, book and DVD releases involving different organisations and allowing people across
The £1 million restoration project was completed thanks to generous funding from the David Lean Foundation. The Foundation was set up at Lean's request to promote the appreciation of film as an art form and to encourage skills and technical excellence in filmmaking.
David Lean remains one of
Most of us know the great Lean epics that won many awards here and in
At BFI Southbank in June and July there will be a retrospective of the 16 feature films Lean directed, as well as a number of the more significant ones he edited, including Pygmalion (1938) by Anthony Asquith and 49th Parallel (1941), directed by Michael Powell. The two-month season, in association with Film 4, will also include events with documentary clips, discussions and feature presentations from experts exploring themes around his career and working style. Full details of the programme will be announced in the spring.
Throughout the year, brand new 35mm and high definition digital prints of the restored films will be screened up and down the country by Granada International, through its theatrical partners Park Circus and the BFI, and by Canal Plus. A complete season is also planned for screening on Film 4 in September, taking Lean's films to a wider audience across
BAFTA is a charity organisation with long-established links with David Lean, which supports, develops and promotes the art forms of the moving image. BAFTA will be holding events and screenings in
Also paying tribute to David Lean will be Carnforth Station in
In February David Lean: A Biography is being republished by Faber & Faber UK. Written by filmmaker and historian Kevin Brownlow who spent many hours in conversation with David Lean and his family and co-workers, the book is universally acknowledged to be the definitive biography and provides the reader with a unique insight into the man, the director, his career and his work.
A two-day conference gathering together filmmakers, writers, scholars and collaborators of Lean is planned for late July at Queen Mary University of London and will offer a broad range of perspectives examining aspects of the director's life and career in cinema.
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
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February - March |
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Exhibition including original posters from the films of David Lean, BAFTA Members' Bar at 195 Piccadilly, |
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10 February |
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BAFTA Tribute to David Lean at the |
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24 February |
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Reissue of Kevin Brownlow's definitive biography, David Lean (Faber & Faber UK) |
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22 March |
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Carnforth Station Centenary Launch Carnforth Station, basis and location of Lean classic Brief Encounter, launch their exhibition on the life and work of David Lean with screenings of Great Expectations and Brief Encounter. |
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25 March |
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Centenary of David Lean's birth Academy members' screening of Ryan's Daughter in 70mm at 195 Piccadilly, Film4 screening of The Bridge on the River Kwai |
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April |
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An evening in honour of David Lean as part of Brit Week, presented by BAFTA/LA in |
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7-11 April |
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Granada International to launch the David Lean Centenary collection to international broadcasters at MIPTV in |
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Summer |
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Open-air screening events (BFI, Park Circus) TBC |
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June |
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Ten newly restored titles released across the The David Lean Foundation has generously funded the restoration of ten of Sir David Lean's sixteen films by the BFI National Archive, Granada International and Canal Plus, and these will be available in high quality 35mm prints and HD digital format through BFI Distribution and Park Circus. |
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June-July |
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Rediscover David Lean: Retrospective at BFI Southbank In addition to screening all of David Lean's works as director and a selection of those which he edited, BFI Southbank will also present a number of events ranging from presentations by experts in particular aspects of his work, to introduced screenings by those associated with individual titles and will also include discussions embracing different perspectives on some of these classic titles. |
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July - Dec |
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24/25 July |
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David Lean Conference, Queen Mary University of London Gathering together film-makers, writers, scholars and people who knew Lean, this conference will offer a broad range of perspectives. Papers welcome on individual films, conditions of production, literary adaptation, key collaborations, as well as all other aspects of Lean's life in the cinema |
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August |
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ITVDVD release The David Lean Centenary Collection Optimum Releasing issue The Sound Barrier and Hobson's Choice on DVD |
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2-3 August |
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Public screenings of a selection of four restored prints of David Lean films at BAFTA's headquarters on 195 Piccadilly, |
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Sept |
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An event in honour of David Lean, presented by BAFTA East Coast in David Lean Season on Film4, including restored prints Opening of The David Lean Library at the National Film and Generously supported by the David Lean Foundation, the light and airy David Lean Library is a central feature of the School's new building, completed in time for the new academic year starting at the end of January 2008. As well as increased space for books and study, the new Library provides improved storage facilities for the School's collections, including room for many years of growth in audio-visual material. |
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Date TBC |
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BAFTA David Lean Centenary Lecture Since 2001, the David Lean Foundation has generously supported BAFTA's high profile annual film lecture at 195 Piccadilly designed to educate, inform and inspire practitioners by providing insight into the experiences of some of the world's most compelling filmmakers. Previous lectures have been given by Sydney Pollack, Robert Altman, Ken Loach, John Boorman, Woody Allen, Oliver Stone and David Lynch. The lecturer for 2008 has yet to be announced. |
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THE DAVID LEAN FILM RESTORATION PROJECT
All film restorations require collaboration, but the David Lean Film Restoration Project partnership is a model for how this kind of collaboration can most profoundly affect film heritage.
The David Lean Foundation, whose resources come directly from the revenue the films of David Lean still generate, sponsored the restoration of eleven of the sixteen films that David Lean directed. The BFI undertook the technical side of the restoration of ten of these titles, working with Granada International and Canal Plus.
The BFI National Archive in Berkhamsted is now the permanent home of the preservation elements resulting from the restoration work. The restored films will be the basis of all distributed elements in the future, ensuring that every audience everywhere will see the restored version of each film.
The overall technical approach to the project, led by Andrea Kalas, Senior Preservation Manager of the Archive Film Lab, was to find the best surviving material on each title and restore and preserve each film using the best methods available. For 8 of the films this involved collaboration with Granada International's Perivale archive and working with the technical team headed by Fiona Maxwell, Director of Operations and Servicing. As quality considerations focus mainly on elements duplicated from an original, each element was inspected for quality and condition. Dirt and scratches can be printed in, and focus and fluctuation issues in the image can also occur. Condition issues can include signs of deterioration, mould, and most often the effects of usage.
Original camera negatives of many of the films were badly damaged: with scratches, frames missing, tears, even one important original negative entirely missing. Elements from both the BFI and Granada International archives were viewed and compared to find the best materials to work from.
The next stage was to decide how and where to complete the restoration which needed specialized equipment and expertise. Archival film is often fragile and in need of printers and scanners that have been optimized for this purpose, and the knowledge of the experts who are restoring the films is crucial. The ability to ensure that Guy Green's black and white cinematography is brought back to life with utmost care is the ability to understand how to effectively reproduce sharpness, contrast and the greyscale range. To ensure that the Blithe Spirit is a shade of green that looks ghostly and not cartoonish, requires an understanding of the Technicolor process and how to replicate that in modern film stocks.
The ten films were restored by one of three standard film restoration processes: Photochemical, Digital Sections and Full Digital Intermediate. Each film also had digital audio restoration. Although the Archive Film Lab at the BFI National Archive was the main facility for the restoration work, other film labs such as Cineric in
THE RESTORED TITLES
IN WHICH WE SERVE
Lean shared the directing credit with Noël Coward, who wrote and starred in this tense and moving account of life on board a wartime destroyer. Although based on the experiences of Louis Mountbatten, this is a state-of-the-nation film with social divisions on shore faithfully mirrored aboard ship. Lean arranged all the camera set-ups and directed Coward in his scenes in front of the camera.
With John Mills, Bernard Miles, Celia Johnson, Richard Attenborough.
UK / 1942 / bw / 116 mins / Granada International / Park Circus
THIS HAPPY BREED
Noël Coward was again the source for this story of a
With Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, John Mills, Kay Walsh, Stanley Holloway.
UK / 1944 / Technicolor / 114 mins / Granada International / Park Circus
BLITHE SPIRIT
David Lean's first comedy, again scripted by Noël Coward from his Broadway hit, stars Rex Harrison as a successful and cheerfully cynical novelist whose marital bliss is interrupted by the mischievous ghost of his first wife, visible to him but invisible to everyone else. The simple but effective special effects, all the more impressive in Technicolor, won an Oscar.
With Constance Cummings, Kay Hammond, Margaret Rutherford.
UK / 1945 / Technicolor / 96 mins / Granada International / Park Circus
BRIEF ENCOUNTER
David Lean's international reputation was established with this study of unfulfilled passion and guilt - themes that were to recur in his later work. Critically debated, mocked, referenced and remade, this account of an unconsummated affair between a middle-class housewife and a doctor, forced to meet at a railway station, retains a tight emotional grip on any contemporary audience.
With Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard.
UK / 1945 / bw / 86 mins / Granada International / Park Circus
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Undoubtedly one of the finest Dickens adaptations, the film is studded with memorable set-pieces, from young Pip's hair-raising encounter with Magwitch in the graveyard to the eerie Gothic fantasy world of Miss Havisham. The Oscar-winning team of cinematographer Guy Green and production designer John Bryan bring Dickens' settings to vivid, indelible life.
With John Mills, Valerie Hobson, Bernard Miles, Alec Guinness.
OLIVER TWIST
Dickens' extravagant vision of Victorian London is perfectly balanced by superb performances and Lean's fierce grip on the sprawling narrative. Guy Green and John Bryan lend an Expressionist look to Fagin's hellish underworld and Alec Guinness, in his second major role, gives a finely judged theatrical - if controversial - depiction of Fagin himself. Lean was always eager to open a film without dialogue and here he excels himself with a tour de force sequence of Oliver's pregnant mother battling against a storm.
With Robert Newton, John Howard Davies, Kay Walsh.
THE PASSIONATE FRIENDS
Re-released by the BFI to mark David Lean's centenary in 2008, The Passionate Friends has been hailed by critic David Thomson as his work 'most deserving rediscovery'. Mary (Ann Todd) has chosen a comfortable secure life with her rich banker husband (Claude Rains) over romantic passion with her first love Steven (Trevor Howard). Turmoil ensues when Steven suddenly reappears in her life. With its subtle performances, nuanced direction and beautiful cinematography, Lean's absorbing romance, adapted from a story by H G Wells, is a fascinating companion piece to Brief Encounter.
With Ann Todd, Trevor Howard, Claude Rains.
MADELEINE
In this period drama, set in Victorian Glasgow and based on a true story, Lean exploits the ambiguous and enigmatic screen presence of Ann Todd. Here she plays a young woman who, rebelling against her patriarchal father, falls for a penniless but exploitative French aristocrat who later dies of arsenic poisoning. Madeleine is anything but a victim, daring to expose her sexuality. Guy Green's deep focus photography owes much to CITIZEN KANE.
With Leslie Banks, Elizabeth Sellars, Ivan Desny.
THE SOUND BARRIER
The human cost of scientific progress underlies this story of an aircraft manufacturer whose obsession for perfection leads him into near madness and brings his family suffering - a tendency shared by Lean himself. The script by Terence Rattigan delivers the drama, but the exhilarating aerial footage and the score by Malcolm Arnold are what lodge in the memory.
With Ralph Richardson, Ann Todd, Nigel Patrick.
UK / 1952 / bw / 118 mins / Canal Plus
HOBSON'S CHOICE
Charles Laughton delivers a bravura performance as a self-important
With John Mills, Brenda de Banzie, Prunella Scales.
UK / 1953 / bw / 107 mins / Canal Plus
For further information please contact:
The David Lean Foundation
Anthony Reeves (PA Chris Buckham)
01782 202020 / aar@kjd.co.uk
BFI
Theatrical Release
Colette Geraghty
020 7957 8919 / colette.geraghty@bfi.org.uk
BFI Southbank Retrospective
Ilona Cheshire
020 7957 8986 / ilona.cheshire@bfi.org.uk
Debbie Lawrence, The Lippin Co Ltd
020 3008 5406 / dlawrence@lippingroup.com
BAFTA
Corinna Downing
020 7292 5851 / CorinnaD@bafta.org
Park Circus
John Letham
0141 332 2175 / 07793 363 790 / john@parkcircus.com
Canal Plus
Candy Vincent-Smith, Optimum
020 7307 1519 / Candy@optimumreleasing.com
ITV DVD
Alice Burden,
020 7389 8609 / alice.burden@itv.com
Film4
Chloe Dunbar, 020 7306 8726
CDunbar@Channel4.co.uk
Carnforth Station
Sheila Ashcroft, 01524 735165
carnforth_station@yahoo.co.uk
Karin Farnworth, 01494 671 234
kfarnworth@nfts.co.uk