David Lean picks his favourite movies of all time
When Lawrence of Arabia was released in 1962, it was considered an instant classic, admired for its epic scale and beauty. Critics quickly praised the movie, which resulted in commercial success. As the years have progressed, David Lean‘s historical drama has maintained its appeal, inspiring countless movies, from Star Wars to Avatar and even the children’s animated musical Frozen.
Lean’s interest in the arts began at an early age when his uncle gave him a Brownie box camera. He told The Guardian in 1991: “You usually didn’t give a boy a camera until he was 16 or 17 in those days. It was a huge compliment and I succeeded at it.” Over the following years, Lean developed an affection for the cinema. This led the young man to apply for work at Gaumont Studios, trying his hand at assistant directing and eventually editing. Before Lean could transition to directing, he edited films such as Pygmalion and Powell and Pressburger’s 49th Parallel.
By 1942, he had directed his first film, In Which We Serve, in collaboration with Noël Coward. A few years later, Lean adapted one of Coward’s plays into Brief Encounter, which earned him a ‘Best Director’ nomination at the Academy Awards. The director quickly became one of Britain’s most well-regarded filmmakers, continuing his successful streak over the following years. However, Lean experienced an even greater taste of acclaim with The Bridge on the River Kwai, released in 1957. He won ‘Best Director’ at the Oscars for the movie, which he also achieved in 1962 for Lawrence of Arabia.
Lean’s last film was A Passage to India, described as his best work since his masterpiece Lawrence of Arabia. The director was a master at commanding an epic scale; he could bring depth to vastness, and his films were nothing short of visual beauty. Thus, it is unsurprising that Lean’s favourite films are all, in some way, epic, whether that be in scale, visuals, or influence. For example, Lean was a big fan of Federico Fellini’s 8½, a grand masterpiece about the art of filmmaking itself.
The director was also a keen Powell and Pressburger enthusiast, citing Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I’m Going!, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing and 49th Parallel (which he edited) as some of his all-time favourites. Although most of Lean’s picks pre-date the 1970s, he also favoured some later releases, with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws and Duel and Roman Polanski’s Chinatown making the cut.
Check out the complete list of David Lean’s favourite movies below.
David Lean’s favourite movies:
- 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
- Dr Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
- Children of Paradise (Marcel Carne, 1945)
- Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
- Mrs Miniver (William Wyler, 1942)
- Dodsworth (Wyler, 1936)
- The Day They Robbed The Bank of England (John Guillermin, 1960)
- The Mark of Zorro (Fred Niblo, 1920)
- The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler, 1946)
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse (Rex Ingram, 1921)
- The Dawn Patrol (Howard Hawks, 1930)
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (Micheal Curtiz, William Keighley, 1938)
- The Big Parade (King Vidor, 1925)
- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
- All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930)
- Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
- Duel (Steven Spielberg, 1971)
- Jaws (Spielberg, 1975)
- An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, 1951)
- Billy Liar (John Schlesinger, 1963)
- The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1915)
- Intolerance (Griffith, 1916)
- Greed (Erich Von Stroheim, 1924)
- The Merry Widow (Von Stroheim, 1925)
- The Love Parade (Ernst Lubitsch, 1929)
- The Crowd (Vidor, 1928)
- Henry V (Laurence Olivier, 1944)
- The First of the Few (Leslie Howard, 1942)
- The Gentle Sex (Howard, 1943)
- The Way Ahead (Carol Reed, 1944)
- The Lamp Still Burns (Maurice Elvey, 1943)
- The Way to the Stars (Anthony Asquith, 1945)
- 49th Parallel (Michael Powell, 1941)
- One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing (Powell and Pressburger, 1942)
- The Silver Fleet (Gordon Wellesley, Vernon Sewell, 1943)
- The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell and Pressburger, 1943)
- I Know Where I’m Going! (Powell and Pressburger, 1945)
- A Matter of Life and Death (Powell and Pressburger, 1946)
- Black Narcissus (Powell and Pressburger, 1947)
- The Rake’s Progress (Sidney Gilliat, 1945)
- The Adventuress (Frank Launder, 1946)
- Green For Danger (Gilliat, 1946)
