Andrew Collins Remembers David Lean in a lengthy piece in the London Observer/Guardian:
"If it's David Lean, we must start with a bold, widescreen establishing shot that sets out our stall. A vast expanse of grey tarmac, viewed dramatically from above, bordered by asymmetric shadows and a single motorcycle. A blonde figure in grey jacket carefully puts petrol into its tank and kickstarts the bike, along with the film, Lawrence Of Arabia. As the titles conclude he rides off into a chocolate-box English village and to his certain fate.
"Or the imposing man-made curve of the walkway to a Soviet hydroelectric dam in Doctor Zhivago …
"Or perhaps, in expressionist black-and-white, the opening tableau of Great Expectations …
"No? How about Croydon High Street, south London, 1921. Grainy, newsreel black-and-white, stiff shop awnings, sky as interesting as tea crisscrossed with overheard tram wires, one or two parked cars, shuffling overcoats and — a beacon in all of this — the exotic promise of the Scala cinema on the right, advertising The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Eille Norwood as Holmes. Instead of Pip, it's the 13-year-old David Lean, running to make the two o'clock. His first ever trip to the cinema. His Quaker parents are in the throes of splitting up, and escape seems the main purpose of this excursion into the dark. It will change him forever. And have no less a seismic effect on cinema itself."
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