Revisiting classic movies on the big screen

The west is of course best, but one of the undeniable advantages of living in Dublin is its cultural vibrancy. Whether it is the galleries, or the theatres, or the wide variety of gigs and events, you can usually find something to do of an evening.

With such large numbers of people, there is a place for the niche, for the minority interest. A particular little treasure of that type is the IFI Cinema in Temple Bar. The IFI is also Ireland’s national cultural institute for film and on their website you can find all sorts of brilliant material from Ireland’s film heritage.

The cinema itself is a lovely place which specialises in the kind of movies that wouldn’t get much of a showing in your local Cineplex, the type of film that many people would call ‘arty’ movies. Some of them indeed wouldn’t be for everyone but they are always thought-provoking and interesting.

The IFI have also developed a clever idea of showing classics, great movies that were made for the big screen but don’t get seen on them too often anymore. Some time ago I went to see Jaws there. To watch it on the big screen – after years of seeing it on the small – was terrifyingly brilliant. On that big screen you really do appreciate how the shark is much more scary when it is out of sight. The cinema was full that evening: everyone left with a look of ‘wow’ on their face.

Bringing all its various missions together, over April and May, the IFI have decided to run a series on the movies of David Lean. It has caught my eye, much like his movies themselves.

Lean was one of the great film-makers of all time. He was a master both of the use of image and of the portrayal of character and human relationships. He won the Best Director Oscar twice, and seven of his 16 films were Oscar-nominated. All 16 are being shown in the series. It is the kind of thing Channel 4 would have done in the past, except this time they are on the big and not the small screen.

Lean was a very interesting man and film-maker. He had three distinct phases to his work, with the first phase seeing many adaptations of great stories by Noël Coward and by Dickens. The IFI are showing his movies in order of their release, with the latest this Wednesday evening, Brief Encounter, with the screenplay by Coward, and followed shortly thereafter by Great Expectations and Oliver Twist.

His middle period of filmmaking is lesser known, but it is with respect to his third period that one can confidently say that everyone has seen a David Lean film. This was the time of his epics, and epic they were.

They divide opinion a little as some critics prefer his earlier work, seeing it as less ‘Hollywood’ focused. But in many ways, his epics bridge the divide between ‘arty’ and popular. While the series is now in the IFI, there was a time in the west of Ireland when his latest large scale epic, whether that was Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, Ryan’s Daughter or The Bridge on the River Kwai, would fill every cinema in the region. The sheer scale of those movies – with their colour and sweep – lit up the world of the late 1950s to the end of the 1960s.

They were designed for a different, more attentive age. The movies were long – needing that most wonderful of things, an intermission – and they were designed to lift and elevate you from your world into a whole new reality. They communicated complex and sophisticated ideas in a way that appealed to the widest possible audience. They were strong stories, tales of derring-do, while also providing complex insights into the human condition and the nature of human character. They also, much more straightforwardly, looked beautiful. They were not made for an age when people ached to look at their phones every few minutes. Perhaps that is another reason for their return to the big screen to be so welcome.

Back in the 1960s, my parents’ generation filled those cinemas. The latest David Lean movie was awaited with anticipation and every cinema wanted them. My own generation then watched those movies on the small screen, filling many a Saturday in wintertime. But the small screens could not do them justice. They were too little for the vision. How can you appreciate an epic on a small scale? So it is particularly welcome for the IFI to put them on the stage they deserve.

Which ones to go to? For me, proximity will allow me to get a number of them. But for those in the west, to come up to one as a day trip would be a very nice treat.

For me the first choice is very simple. To see Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen will be a fantastic occasion. The movie is so stunning in visual terms. The desert is more than a backdrop; it is both the setting and a character. The movie comes with a great cast, with a marvellous performance by Peter O’Toole as Lawrence. Omar Sharif is also a powerful presence throughout, and the scene of his entrance is one of the great moments in the history of cinema. A moment that was designed for the big screen.

The story itself is a tale as old as time: a young idealistic man achieves great things, but in the process he destroys a part of his own soul.

The same will go for Doctor Zhivago, a movie whose reputation has been enhanced over time, with many now considering it one of the greatest ever made. The soundtrack will be worth the admission price alone. There are so many scenes in that movie that will be both gorgeous and thrilling, as well as, of course, heart-breaking.

The first time I saw Ryan’s Daughter I couldn’t get my head around it. To see the events of that time depicted in a story like that was so unusual to me that it started to change the way I thought about a lot of things. The movie was panned by the critics and Lean took the criticism badly. But to me it is a fascinating story, which is to say nothing for how amazing it looks, and will most especially on that big screen.

And while The Bridge on the River Kwai is a pretty unrealistic depiction of the dynamics in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, it is a hell of a film.

Whichever of his movies you most like, you can find out all the details on ifi.ie/david-lean. As days out go, it would be a pretty good one. Whichever you choose, be sure to eat well before the movie – the IFI has a nice café – and get your popcorn: but keep the phone switched off.