POR SU OBRA SE CONOCE AL ARTESANO

Las imgenes de las que se nutre el cine de Lean pertenecen, desde luego, a otros tiempos. Su cadencia y su naturaleza [beben] de las fuentes de ese clasicismo prototpico cuya ms patente finalidad consista, ni ms ni menos, en contar una historia del modo ms directo posible, confiando an en la posibilidad de una cierta pureza. []

A diferencia de estos ltimos, Lean no slo ha evidenciado un mayor talento estilstico, sino que se ha cuidado muy mucho de reforzar la personalidad de su discurso visual con el frecuente apoyo de un discurso ms aparente edificado sobre elementos prestigiosos. En esta orientacin, de Nol Coward a Edgard M. Forster, de Charles Dickens a Boris Pasternak, el factor literario ha acostumbrado a erguirse en elemento clave a la hora de legitimar unas aspiraciones de grandeza que siempre han vivido junto a un marcado gusto por la ortodoxia y por un singular eclecticismo a veces rayano en lo contradictorio. Adems de facilitarle su consabida condicin de recolector de Oscars y su habitual bendicin por parte de las academias de todo signo, estas

Aunque ms prximo al artesanado flmico que a otra cosa, el cine de Lean tiene algo que lo trasciende, un crucial toque de distincin que lo separa de la rigidez del esquema pero que no le garantiza, por el contrario, la irrupcin de esos brotes de genialidad que a menudo se echan en falta en sus pelculas, impidindole la entrada en el mbito de lo incuestionablemente magistral. Es normal que, siendo as, su quehacer se perciba como sensiblemente inferior al de un Ford, Lang, Hitchcock, Vidor, Sirk, Preminger, Cukor o cualquiera de los grandes nombres del clasicismo ms

caractersticas lo podran emparentar con cineastas del rango de George Stevens o William Wyler, dos contumaces cazadores de prestigio, aunque sea de justicia reconocer, en favor de Lean, el menor afn demostrativo de ste, su superior precisin narrativa y mayor capacidad para impedir que la proporcin de sus ambiciones acabe por sobrepasar sus propias posibilidades.

La reivindicacin contempornea del cine de David Lean, por tanto, debe ser asumida bajo una ptica relativista, desprendida de nostalgias irresponsables y de entusiasmos excesivos [], pero asimismo [tambin debe ser] presidida por un justo afn de reconocimiento de sus mejores e innegables virtudes, entre las que no es precisamente la menor su

caracterizado, y, al mismo tiempo, como manifiestamente superior al de un Fleming, Asquith, Dearden, Koster, Gilling, Neame, Robson, y tantos otros representantes de la asepsia visual.

facilidad para fusionar con impensable naturalidad intelectualismo y sentimentalismo, logrando que ambos no se excluyan

de rasgos, despus de todo, en donde reside su mejor y ms perenne credencial. ENRIC ALBERICH David Lean. Un toque de distincin Dirigido por... Maig de 1989

mutuamente ni coloquen en peligro su proverbial rigor narrativo. Es ste sin duda un aspecto contundente cara a la transformacin de Lean como un cineasta eminentemente conciliador, verstil, capaz de adaptar a literatos de signo bien dispar a la vez que de captar a sectores de la audiencia muy alejados entre s, y ello sin que dichas particularidades repercutan en absoluto en el ntimo planteamiento de un filme. Excelente paisajista al tiempo que notable escrutador de rostros, David Lean encontrara la

corroboracin de su propia versatilidad y de su ya aludido sentido conciliador en su manifiesta disposicin para la restitucin del detalle a priori nimio, insignificante, como para la plasmacin de la magnificencia de cualquier tipo.

Ms que en relacin a unos temas constantes claramente delimitados, la personalidad de Lean se perfila, as, a travs de sus modos narrativos, sin que afirmar tal cosa implique, como ya se ha expresado, su reduccin a la categora de mero tcnico. En la obra de este director britnico, la tcnica deviene instrumento, mtodo para aproximarse al mundo y proporcionar una visin de l, en el interior de un contexto en el que la relacin entre paisaje, decorado y personajes o la misma ubicacin de stos dentro del encuadre adquirirn una trascendental relevancia. Es en esta clase

LOVINGLEAN LOVINGLEAN
David Lean is a name in motion pictures that stands for perfection. Every department the sound, the photography, the casting is delegated to a persons at the very top of their profession. The locations are chosen with the utmost care.

Suddenly, he got up and said, No, this really wont do at all. This battle took place in 1917, and at that time, this cornfield would have been full of red poppies.

Immediately he sent out a crew to dig up red poppies from another field and plant the in the cornfield. It took all day. David looked delighted. Yes, thats nice, he said. Authentic. Really authentic. And so much colorful.

There is a great story about the making of doctor Zhivago. A friend of mine was playing a villain. He had been sent back to London from Madrid where they where working and had been told that they would need him again when the corn had ripened. Time passed. Finally, he got a wire: THE CORN IS RIPE.

Heres another story. Zhivago is kidnapped and taken to a glade of trees which has a stream running through it. David decided to sent the soldiers through the stream on horseback, which he thought would make a very pretty shot with the splashing water. They finished the shot and David said: I cant see the water splashing.

Back he went to Madrid and was picked up by the studio car and taken to the cornfield location, along with about fifty other men who were his soldiers. They were costumed. They were allotted horses and the waited by the side of the field to be told what to do. The idea of the scene was that these soldiers would attack a small army that was hidden in the cornfield. David was sitting in his chair looking at the cornfield. David was obviously studying the situation.

John Box, who was the set designer, said David, if you want to see the water splashing, the stream will have to be deeper.

Yes, I agree with you, said David. Lets dam it up. They did.

And yet another story was told me by his property man, Eddie Fowlie. They were working at a castle in Spain the Arab headquarters of Lawrence of Arabia and a car was driving up to the front door dispelling passengers. David called Eddie.

Listen Eddie, when that gray Rolls gets in the door, I want you to be sure that the double Rs on the axle stand absolutely up-ring. You understand I dont want the lying down.

Some scenes of Summertime could only be shot in a certain hour of the day, actually a certain minute, when the sun would be over a narrow alleyway lighting the scene as he wished in a certain way. I was always terrified that I might not be able to deliver exactly what he wanted on the

Of course, Eddie answered.

dot. But the fascinated thing to me is that he picked the particular location with such imagination and such sensitivity that you couldnt miss doing the

There was only one thing that interested David perfection.

scene properly. His sense of the mood was always exactly right.

I knew this. Id made a picture with him in 1954 Summertime, in Venice. We share that quality. We wont give up. If we say well be there, well do it. You say youll get to the top of the hill you do!

Summertime was my only experience of working on a film with David Lean. He took a play The Time of the Cuckoo and he removed about all of the rather complicated and extraneous happenings and turned it into a very simple story of a woman approaching forty who took a trip to Venice

David is sweet simple and straight and strong and savage; and he is the best movie director in the world. And nothing did you hear me? nothing I said nothing gets in this way. Hell stand and look and stare. He wont be hurried. He wont budge until he can smell perfection. Thats his aim, work or play: do it as well as it can possibly be done. Or dont do it.

one summer and had a love affair with a fascinating Italian.

I can remember being so wildly impressed with what we choose to include all the things which a woman of this sort would know about and would seek. Nothing too highfaluting or arty, just the simple sights and atmospheres which really make Venice what it is the canals, the Piazza San Marco, the gondolas, the neighboring islands, the pensione on the

For an actress, this has its advantages. You get a pure point of view. Im not prejudiced about his direction. I see what I see, and I dont just see it through rose-colored glasses. But hes far, far superior to most people.

Grand Canal, the little shops

He was a famous cutter as a young man, and of course this gives one a real knowledge of film as a medium. I think he really understands film as a

painter understands his paint his brushes canvas. It was really thrilling working with him in the cutting room for a few brief visits.

To work with someone who really knows what he is doing, who has an enthusiasm for working in film beyond ones imagination, whose capacity for work has no end, whose determination is to produce the best possible result, to whom nothing matters discomfort or exhaustion so long as it contributes to a perfect result.

My admiration for David is infinite.

KATHARINE HEPBURN Introducci de David Lean S. M. SILVERMAN 1989