Lean subsequently became less prolific, the time between films increasing as a result of the epic scale on which he began to work. The Bridge On The River Kwai, winner of seven well-deserved Oscars, including Lean’s first for direction, had a suitably huge budget, and production took nearly a year. Alec Guinness, who argued throughout with Lean over their differing views of the character, is Colonel Nicholson, leader of a contingent of British prisoners of war. Forced to construct the titular bridge by their captors, an increasingly deluded Nicholson comes to see the project as a monument to British superiority.

Notes by Kevin Coyne.

Screening as part of The Films of David Lean season.