     
|
|
AFI Life Achievement Award Interview |
|
|
Page 4 |
|
QUESTION: Brief Encounter has always been one of my most favorite pictures. Do you ever have a desire to do a more intimate, small-canvas picture like that again? LEAN: When I can no longer do a big one, yes. Well, as a matter of fact, you know, I've tried to do it in Passage to India. That's very much the play of characters -these wonderful characters of Forster's-and the attempts of people to reach each other and go out across barriers. A lot of that is quite intimate, isn't it? Willy Wyler said to me once, "I don't see why anything shouldn't be told through a love story." And he could do it. QUESTION . Do you feel you've changed as a director from the beginning of your career to now? LEAN: I think, probably, I have just a little more confidence. I think a little bit of confidence either makes you unbearable or much better. It's a very funny thing about getting old-you don't feel it. You feel exactly the same. So I really don't feel any different than I ever did, but as I say-and I mean it very lightly-I have just a bit more confidence, perhaps. QUESTION: What is your relationship with the cameraman? How do you tell them what you're looking for? LEAN: One curious thing about cameramen is that they very rarely read scripts or they read them and then forget them. One of the best cameramen I've ever worked with is Freddy Young. He'd always come up to me and say, Now, look, this is the scene after they've found the baby's dead-or whatever it is. I'd say, "No, Freddy, that's at the beginning." He always got it wrong. What I generally do with cameramen is remind them of the script, and I tell them the mood I'd like to create. I did Brief Encounter with a very good cameraman called Bob Krasker. And we started Great Expectations with him, and it was almost the same as Brief Encounter, very real looking. And I said, "Bobby, much more daring. Huge, great black shadows. Great big highlights over the top, because that's Dickens." And he couldn't do it. And I got him this ex-operator of mine who'd only done a bit of a picture before, Guy Green. I remember these shafts of light coming down, and it was simply wonderful. And he got the Oscar for cameraman on that picture. It's rather like casting actors, in a way. You've got to cast people who have a love for the atmosphere. In Doctor Zhivago, there was a winter scene, a series of scenes in winter, and I wanted spring, so we went to some daffodils. We were growing these damned daffodils for weeks. The scene before was the scene of the family in a small room, and I said, "Come on, let's make it absolutely colorless." Freddy said, "It's going to look bloody awful." I said, "Doesn't matter. It's going to look much better in a minute when we go to the next scene." And we took out every bit of color we could. We even got a spray gun and sprayed some of the colors gray. Now, that scene, which was flat and gray, made the daffodils because of the contrast, of course. I often think we are only at the beginning in making movies. I don't know what's going to happen. We've got sort of basic techniques, but I think we've got a long way to go. We haven't begun to use all sorts of things. I think we just photograph what's there rather than making what's there. That's why I like really doing sets as opposed to real streets. QUESTION: I'm fascinated by your use of sound, particularly at the end of Bridge on the River Kwai. Could you talk a little bit about how you shoot the scene in terms of sound? LEAN: I try to write sound and music into a script. I try to describe what I hear in my imagination. I'm always telling the sound people, "Don't be too realistic with sound. The audience has got to think it's realistic, but use it like an orchestra." And I try to do that. That's all.... QUESTION. Can you talk about the collaborative nature of the medium and the way you convey your vision to all these people who have to create it? LEAN . When I finish a script, I get everybody in the different departments and have endless cups of coffee with them. Just talk, talk. And then they'll start coming up with ideas and bouncing back and forth. I think directing a movie has got to be a very selfish job in a certain way, because the more a movie is one person's point of view, the better, The greatest thing in acting or in a movie is intention. I'm sure of that. Any fool can go on and take long shot, medium shot, over shoulders and close-ups, and then throw it at the cutting room. I could do that, and it's an easy way of doing it. I do it sometimes when I'm lost, but only when I'm lost because I think in doing all those shots and not knowing quite how it's going and throwing it to the poor editor, you lose intention. With good actors, you could, if you wanted to, stop them in mid-stream and say, "What are you thinking about?" He or she would tell you exactly what they were thinking about, because film acting is purely thinking. That's why I hate using doubles even in long shots. Celia Johnson-my goodness me, what an actress she was-she was wonderful. Unfortunately, dead now. In Brief Encounter, we had a scene in which a man had asked her to come to an apartment. She said she was married, and she said no. And she catches the train, she gets into the train, has the door slam and, as the whistle blows, she gets out, gets onto the platform, the train starts to move and she decides to walk towards the exit. And I just had one hell of a great long shot of this small figure ... walking up the path. And she walked, she half ran, she stopped herself, and I said, "Celia, that was wonderful. How do you do that?" She said, "Well, She would, wouldn't she?" And she was just thinking of it: I can't wait to meet him; I shouldn't go. And I bet you she could have told every thought passing through her mind. And I think that's the great thing with a script. Try not to get sidetracked, What is this saying? It's saying that. And if you can do that, you'll be the stronger for it, in my experience. |
|