David Lean; A Biography

New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. First U.S. Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Good/Good. Format is approximately 7.125 inches by 10.25. xxi, [1], 809, [1] pages. Illustrated endpapers. Frontis illustration. Illustrations (150 photos throughout the text. 32 page insert of art quality photos. color insert) . Filmography. Bibliography. Source Notes. Index. DJ has some wear, soiling, stains and edge tears. Minor stain/soiling to rear board. Kevin Brownlow (born 2 June 1938) is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. Brownlow is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era. Brownlow interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. He has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of early mass- entertainment cinema. Brownlow received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. An epic biography of an epic moviemaker, written by an esteemed historian, "David Lean" details Lean's own life as well as the making of such classic films as "The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia", and "Doctor Zhivago". In the course of his career, David Lean created some of the most unforgettable images in cinema history: the terrifying opening graveyard sequence in Great Expectations, the poignant railway farewell in Brief Encounter, the shimmering desert of Lawrence of Arabia and the frozen expanses of revolutionary Russia in Dr Zhivago. Film-maker and historian Kevin Brownlow spent many hours with Lean, who talked openly about a career which lasted over 50 years. Furthermore, Lean's family and friends - from the son from whom he was estranged, to the women who loved him - talk frankly about his complex personality: a man who was charming, self-deprecating, autocratic and ruthless, and yet surprisingly generous. Brownlow's definitive biography of Lean leaves the reader with an understanding of the man and an appreciation of his cinematic achievement.