Contents:
SIR DAVID LEAN’S CAREER II OLIVER TWIST (1948) II THE EDITING STYLE OF SIR DAVID LEAN
I
One of the great directors of Classic British Film, Sir David Lean, divides this place in history with other important names such as Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Michael Powell and so on. In my opinion, David Lean is perhaps when talking about great British film directors the one I have a special regard for and that is due to many reasons. First and foremost, unlike many other directors, Lean was raised in a Quaker community and therefore not allowed to frequent theatres and spectacles of that nature, this according to his words in an interview for the British Film Institute. So, only later in his adult life while working for an accounting firm would he spend time at movie theatres and become fascinated by the moving pictures. And this fact is quite impressive, because in order to be a great director, you have to have a trained eye and an insuperable imagination and its quite honestly amazing that living a childhood/teenage years without those kind of sources, didn’t hurt Lean’s imaginary capacity but rather developed it even more.
Another aspect that is fascinating about Lean’s career is the extreme care and planning he took in his films, taking him years to prepare a film. His need to be absolute sure of the film’s subjects, story and characters is great to such a point that while watching his films, one feels that the film goes through such depth, exploring concepts and specifically characters that it surpasses the portrait like realm, to theorize and show us human nature and its characteristics rather than an isolated event or character. And this aspect of preparation and planning connects with my third personal reason to regard Sir David Lean so high, the depth of his films. And the film’s capacity to evolve the audience with the character’s quest or with the world in question that we seat comfortably for three or four hours watching something without actually noticing the time passing.
But the title of this article mention’s one particular film, “Oliver Twist”. And this was an adaptation made of the classic written by Charles Dickens and originally publishing in 1839. In terms of David Lean’s career, this film comes after his cycle of Noel Coward adaptations which went from 1942 to 1945. The first of these films being “In Which We Serve”, followed by “This Happy Breed”, “Blithe Spirit” and “Brief Encounter”. This last one winning quite a couple of great awards and nominations which catapulted Sir David Lean to what we can call the definitive A movies, with larger budgets and production resources, as well as, stars.
Coming after Lean’s first Dickens’ adaptation “Great Expectations” released in 1946, “Oliver Twist” records the life of a young orphan who goes by the name of Oliver Twist, a name given to him by the orphanage’s beadle Mr Bumble. Who after hearing that the boy asked for more food offers him to a local businessman to serve as an apprentice. However, Oliver manages after a terrible conflict with the businessman’s family to escape and run away, his next destination being London.
Once in the great city, Twist befriends members of a small criminal gang headed by Fagin. After a small-time robbery gone wrong, Oliver is presented with the kindness of Mr. Brownlow. However, this doesn’t last long since Fagin’s henchman Bill Sikes kidnaps the boy, for he and Fagin after learning aspects of the boy’s real identity plots to make profit out of him, however, one of the gang’s accomplishes, Nancy, will try to save the boy’s life.
Now there are a couple of aspects that make this a good and certainly one of the best adaptations of Charles Dickens’ novels, as well as, one of the finest early works by Sir David Lean. First and foremost I would say acting is a rather easy to spot quality of this film, with its cast being nearly perfectly casted giving absolutely great performances. Alec Guinness despite the controversy surrounding his performance as Fagin has a distinct and great presence throughout the whole film, as well as, Robert Newton whose eyes are as capable to destroy you with malice as they are capable of picturing the self-destruction of his character Bill Sykes. In addition to this I would also mention John Howard Davies as Oliver Twist whose casting was definitely a plus because he does have a certain sensibility when compared to the other children of the film and to me there is a shot in the scene when Bill Sykes invades Fagin and the boys’ hiding place that is a clear example of this. The shot is of the boys looking around one another to see who is going to approach Sykes with a drink he had asked for and even though the boys’ faces are unkept and Davies’ is the one in the centre of the shot (if my memory doesn’t fail me), we can clearly see how Davies’ presence stands out among the others. There was definitely something about him.
When it comes to cinematography, this aspect is directly related with the set design which surprisingly complex gives the film such authenticity as to what Dickens’ descriptions were of the slums of London and the Victorian society. High angles combined with a great use of objects and figures to explore the shot’s depth of field, as well as, subtle and great light/shadow contrasts add a lot to the film’s quality. However, last aspect I would like to address is the editing. And in my opinion that’s the cherry on top of the cake.
The editing style of Sir David Lean
Taking “Oliver Twist” as the main example but also mentioning later films as well, let’s address Sir David Lean’s editing style and in order to do that one should firstly mention the main concepts behind his style – transparency, linearity.
Film is a dramatized reality and it is the director’s job to make it appear real…an audience should not be conscious of technique…
David Lean
So, essentially what the director is advocating is that the audience shouldn’t be in a way conscious of the cut. And by making transitions clean and unnoticed by linked ideas, sounds and images our brain will read it as a natural reaction or a natural sequence to what just happened without actually thinking that we just passed from an image of a man talking about a place, to the image of the actual place. This is also an intelligent way of economising the narrative, meaning, to make sure that what is on screen is what needs to necessarily be there and that each scene has its weight and importance within the whole of the film. For instance, in “Oliver Twist”, when Oliver asks for more food instead being taken trough different scenes that would have led to the boys faith of literally being sold away from the orphanage, we’re shown a series of quick cut reactions that go from the person more directly in charge of the children to the board in charge of the running of the orphanage and the consequences of his asking for more: “5 pound and a boy offered to any tradesman wanting a strong and healthy apprentice”.
What also comes as an evident characteristic of Lean’s style is the very limited use of musical cues, which I believe it might be due to three reasons, the first so that transactions don’t all look the same, the second because by providing a musical cue the nature of that cue will introduce some information to the audience that might necessarily not be right (for instance introduction of an atmosphere that is not the one portrayed on screen), and the third reason might be because of wanting to keep give a surprising effect or wanting to omit the nature of a certain event to the audience.
What also made Sir David Lean’s films so innovative was his cuts using sounds, either sound effects or dialogue. And this once more connects with the clean and precision that sounds offer which used when cutting can make the transition smoother. An example?
In “Doctor Zhivago”, there is a scene where a character throws a needle into the table and this sound cuts directly to an image of a train leaving. And this proves that not only the use of sound is helpful to maintain linearity and a cleanliness of style but also when given some similarity they can make transitions smoother.
Another distinctive characteristic was the director’s ability to build up a scene, meaning his ability to manipulate the tone of a certain scene by efficiently building it up or introducing a surprising element that is not exaggerated to the reality of the scene and the film. So let’s go back again to the example of Oliver asking for more food and as the sound goes up and the reactions flash by us, the scene is built up with the conclusion of the poster being put on a wall offering a boy for apprenticeship. And this all comes between the tenue line of the acceptable and the cliché, and in my opinion Lean always manages to get it done in a great way that is not disproportional to the reality of the world he is working on.
Two other aspects Sir David Lean taught us with his films and especially through his editing is the importance of introducing characters, because it is the way we introduce characters that will affect the character’s presence, performance and empathy throughout the film with the audience. Also because in a film there is no time to explore everyone’s story and background hence why in this context an image is worth more than a thousand words, because it will be that first impression that will not only present the character to the audience but also its role and logic within the film’s narrative. And characters was also a point where the director always concentrated a great effort at, and I believe that is why he’s Dickens’ adaptations were so good, because like the writer, Lean could spot and explore the role of a character and what he or she symbolised. Hence why, in “Oliver Twist”, Nancy is indeed part of a criminal gang, herself a criminal and popularly believed to be a prostitute (I believe the term prostitute was given to her by the author because of marginal way she lived her life), however the way the director introduces her in the film is by painting her as the one character that amongst all darkness surrounding her still maintains a heart. Also being visible her sentimental connection with the boy, perhaps one could argue sensing that he has a change to live a better life she never had.
Lastly, the use of suggestion and when it comes to this aspect, the director made an extensive use of it during his career, but when connecting it with “Oliver Twist” it’s easy to identify a scene where this happens – Nancy’s murder. Where the audience hears the violence in off and the focus of our attention is the dog which is desperately trying to escape the brutality which it is a witness of. And by leaving it to the audience’s imaginations to portrait whatever happens, the director is actually evolving the spectators even more in his films by letting their imagination fill the holes within the narrative.
And with this we come to the end of this article and I can only but thank the ones that actually made it this far. And perhaps put forward that probably I will write a bit more about Lean’s works in the future as there is much more to be said about his great career and his great creative and technical achievements.
“Oliver Twist” (1948) on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUMCPdpklAQ
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