![\"David](\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-deadline-2019\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n\tAsk Hollywood filmmakers to name the greatest directors ever, and one name will consistently appear \u2013 David Lean \u2013 the man who made Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and many more classics.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s on everyone\u2019s list and for many he\u2019s at the top,\u201d said Barnaby Thompson, director of Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean, which just premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. \u201cI think for a lot of people he represents really that sort of leap cinema made into what we think of as being the grand sprawling epic that became his trademark.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tDavid Lean<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlamy<\/p>\n
\n\tThe documentary, which premiered in the official Cannes Classics section, explores Lean\u2019s unlikely ascent to filmmaking brilliance. He was dyslexic and didn\u2019t excel in school, leading his father to conclude his son was a dunce. That wasn\u2019t the only obstacle in Lean\u2019s path.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe grew up in a rather dreary suburb of London. He was born into a family that were strict Quakers. So, they didn\u2019t approve of theater, and they certainly didn\u2019t approve of the cinema,\u201d Thompson said as he stopped by the Deadline Studio in Cannes. \u201cHe did very badly at school. His father really kind of gave up on him and never really believed in him I think at any point in his career. So, he had a lot to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThompson added, \u201cI think his secret was he discovered photography and he found that he was very good at photography. And I think that\u2019s what ultimately gave him the confidence to get into the film business.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWithout David Lean, Alec Guinness might never have become a film star.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cKay Walsh, who he was then married to, was an actress and she twisted David Lean\u2019s arm to go and see a little theater production, which was an adaptation of Great Expectations that had been done by Alec Guinness,\u201d Thompson explained. \u201cAnd Alec Guinness played a number of the parts in this adaptation. Lean had never read the [Dickens] book and I think he was amazed by what he saw, what Guinness had done. And so he decided to make a film of the book, and I think in return he gave Guinness his first stab. And then Alec Guinness worked with Lean more than any other actor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tDirector David Lean on location for \u2018Lawrence of Arabia\u2019 (1962)<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlamy\/Columbia Pictures<\/p>\n
\n\tLean put beautiful love stories on screen \u2013 Doctor Zhivago and Ryan\u2019s Daughter among them. Yet, as the documentary reveals, lasting love eluded him. He was married six times.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cHe was a man that was in pursuit of perfection,\u201d Thompson observed. \u201cI think he was a man that was always searching and I get the sense that whenever a romance had kind of blossomed as far as it felt it could go, he started looking over her shoulder. It\u2019s extraordinary in a way that this man who made just such the most romantic films of all time couldn\u2019t find happiness himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tWatch the full conversation in the video above.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Deadline Studio at Cannes is sponsored by SCAD.<\/p>\n
\n\tTitle: Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean<\/p>\n
\n\tSection: Cannes Classics<\/p>\n
\n\tDirector: Barnaby Thompson<\/p>\n
\n\tSales agent: Embankment Films<\/p>\n
\n\tLogline: The life of British filmmaker David Lean, from his strict upbringing to becoming a master of epic cinema. Features rare archival footage and insights from contemporary directors.<\/p>\n
\n\tPanelist: Barnaby Thompson (director)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ask Hollywood filmmakers to name the greatest directors ever, and one name will consistently appear \u2013 David Lean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[193559,10532,197462,93,61,60,193560,270],"class_list":["post-460040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-barnaby-thompson","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-cannes-studio","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-maverick-the-epic-adventures-of-david-lean","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}