March 25th marked the centenary of David Lean’s birth. His Lawrence of Arabia is arguably the best film ever made; an intelligent, sweeping epic that would not be made today. Starring then unknown Peter O’Toole as the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence, the movie took two years to film, featured no established movie stars, had no love story, little action, and dared to portray Lawrence as a complex antihero: noble, tortured, vain, ambitious, bloodthirsty, self-hating, and maddeningly brilliant.

Anthony Lane of New Yorker wrote a lovely piece to honor one of cinema’s greatest craftsmen, and perhaps the last of the epic filmmakers.

The glory of Lean was that, with “Lawrence,” he summoned his earliest memory of awe  and, perhaps for the last time, restored our illusion that a mass medium could be a miracle. And the sadness of Lean is that he went on clinging to that belief while the rest of us watched it drift away. He died in 1991. Thank heaven he was not around for the iPhone.

Here’s the full essay.

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Paul Scofield, one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century, has passed away at 86.

Known as a quiet, reclusive man, Scofield rarely gave interviews and refused a knighthood in the 1960s. His acting spoke for him. His Oscar-winning performance as Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons is a family favorite, a rich and heartbreaking portrait of a saint that convinces without ever being sentimental. Part of his authenticity as the Catholic martyr who stood up to King Henry VIII in defense of his principles may be attributed to Scofield’s own inherent goodness: he was nicknamed “Saint Paul” among friends and associates who appreciated his humility and the simplicity of his family-oriented lifestyle.

Which isn’t to say he couldn’t play bad guys. Scofield oozed cultured menace as Burt Lancaster’s Nazi nemesis in John Frankenheimer’s The Train. The weight of the world found expression in his hangdog face and weary gestures as the melancholic French King in Branagh’s Henry V. He added warmth and gravitas to the role of Mark van Doren in Quiz Show, earning another Oscar nod. I watched him recently as the Ghost in Zeffirelli’s Hamlet (better known, I’m guessing, as Mel Gibson’s Hamlet). He is the highlight of the film — his grizzled face, low, mournful voice, and tortured eyes suggest an otherworldly, purgatorial ghost — a ghost who has truly harrowed hell. He was also towering as King Lear in Peter Brook’s 1971 version.

I hope that in Heaven he’ll be willing to repeat some of his greatest performances for the benefit of those unable to see them in this life: his Whiskey Priest in The Power and the Glory, Salieri in Amadeus, Uncle Vanya, Hamlet, Timon of Athens, Othello…basically anything he was ever in.

Goodnight, sweet prince, may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest…

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Over at Roger Ebert’s website, they’re republishing an interview he did with the legendary director, Alfred Hitchcock, in 1969. Very entertaining. Hitch informs us:

My pictures become classics, magically, with age. The critics never like them first time around. I remember when ‘Psycho’ first came out, one of the London critics called it a blot on an honorable career. And Time magazine panned it so badly that I was surprised, a year later, to find them referring to someone else’s thriller as being ‘in the classic “Psycho” tradition.

Here’s the full interview.

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