The Art of David Lean
A Textual Analysis of Audio-Visual Structure
by
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When the clouds dissolve and the sun begins to rise in Ryan’s Daughter’s opening sequence, what is revealed to the spectator is a long stretch of beach, seagulls flying over it, and Rosy - a young woman on top of a steep green cliff looking forlorn as her lace embroidered parasol falls in the sea down below. Father Hugh and Michael – a dumb mental retard who prides over his catching a lobster - pick up the parasol and hand it back to her. The sense of deception is now complete. Not far from this idyllic setting lies the Northern Irish village of Kirrary, built along a dusty road with old grey houses, and inhabited by crude men and women whose bawdy idea of entertainment is the ridicule of Michael and the expression of scorn for the British soldiers that patrol the area. Following that brief depiction of the village and its residents, the camera once again cuts back to Rosy as she strolls along the sandy beach. The breaking waves under the bright sun create an aura of freedom and exuberance and Rosy, with a book in hand entitled ‘The King’s Mistress’, is on her way to greet Charles Shaughnessy - the village’s schoolteacher. It quickly becomes evident that Rosy’s attraction to Charles rests on his advanced knowledge and extensive travels outside Kirrary that, to her mind, set him apart from the rest of the villagers. His cordial manners and enthused comments about the Berlioz and Tchaikovsky concerts he has attended in Dublin, gratify her in that they provide a point of positive reference as to the pleasures and possibilities that lie beyond the ‘closed’ borders of her hometown. Hence, the lingering discrepancy between life in the village and Rosy’s solitary representation serves two primary rationales: on the one hand, it initiates from the very beginning of the narrative a process of her segregation from the remaining characters in the film. Rosy is presented as the protagonist who is both physically and emotionally set apart from the other inhabitants of her village. As Father Hugh angrily protests at her aimless mooning about the sea, "Doing nothing is a dangerous occupation". Her ground of repose is not the dreary village, but the vast expanse of beach where daydreaming becomes possible. The application of colour, along with non-diegetic music and camera placement, enhances this kind of detachment and conflict on a pictorial level since it foregrounds her colourful and vibrant universe that is nature, as opposed to the monotonous and essentially monochrome world of Kirrary. Similarly, the romantic but gleeful musical tones and the extreme long shots that accentuate her physical solitude, all delineate the essence of her nature. On the other, it sets the fictional canvas against which the narrative will unfold in a pattern of dramatic oppositions that will pervade through most of the film. Like in Summer Madness, dress colour codes play a pivotal role in helping define the psychology of the female heroine and in providing a visual and thematic referent for the spectator. When Rosy is seen for the first time in the film, she wears a beige straw hat with white paper flowers attached on its brim, a pendant, a body-tight white blouse and black skirt, as well as a light but dull brown jacket that she appropriately gets rid of before she meets Charles Shaughnessy. However, what is more arresting about her appearance is her pair of black lace gloves and the lace parasol which, as her father admits to Father Hugh, was bought for a substantial amount of money. The colours of her garments may be not striking in themselves but, to her father, Rosy is a ‘princess’, and that is true for the spectator as well, since when compared to the other villagers, she stands out as an image of elegance, beauty and femininity. Her stylish appearance and her carefree demeanour directly bear upon her desire to be impressionable and lure Charles into appreciating it. Her fundamental yearning is to escape the commonplace realities of life in Kirrary, and Charles appears to be the perfect vehicle towards achieving that goal. When Father Hugh protests to Rosy’s father that "it’s time she (meaning Rosy) had a fellow of her own, a house of her own, floors to scrub", the spectator senses that the Father’s refusal to comply with Rosy’s vision of life further accentuates a sense of incongruity between her and the people in her immediate surroundings.
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About the Book
The book is a breakthrough study of eight David Lean films including the less-known ones. Historically, books on Lean have concentrated almost exclusively on elements of pre-production, recurrent themes and biographical information. The current study attempts a textual analysis that concentrates on formal/structural aspects of Lean’s work that include sound, music, black and white lighting and colour. Yet, the study does not limit itself to a formalist approach but attempts to discern the socio-cultural background against which the films were produced. The detailed scrutiny aims at giving a clear and precise view on how these structural elements function as catalysts in the intellectual understanding of the films in question, while it also attempts to examine the multiplicity of ways in which they intermingle with the other formal/structural film elements that determine the style and aesthetic qualities of the final product.
About the Author
I was born in Athens Greece in 1966. From the age of fourteen, I had made up my mind upon pursuing a career in film, through the specific field in which I would indulge myself was still unknown to me. After graduating from high school, I decided to leave my native land and set foot in Great Britain, hoping to get a proper formal education in the field of filmmaking, as well as in the history and theory of film. After successfully completing a television training course and having gotten my ‘A’ level, I was accepted as a film student at the University of Kent at Canterbury. There, a whole new world of knowledge unraveled before me. I came to understand the mediums of communicative power. Following my B.A., I went on to do an M.A. by research on David Cronenberg, trying to expose the inadequacies of semiotic analyses of films. My hunger for more knowledge led me to continue for a Ph.D. This time the subject would be the film art of David Lean, studied through a primarily formalist perspective. Between doing research and teaching classes, I was pleasantly surprised by the wealth of information I discovered. This rewarding experience fueled my decision to do more research on filmmakers. Upcoming works will include the films of Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford.