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Mainly About Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson was the most original British filmmaker and theatrical director of his generation. His films If . . . , O Lucky Man!, and Britannia Hospital created a Human Comedy of life in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century and were witty, daring, and often prophetic. This Sporting Life and O Lucky Man! made Richard Harris and Malcolm McDowell international stars; The Whales of August provided Lillian Gish, Bette Davis, and Ann Sothern the opportunity to give extraordinary farewell performances.
He also directed notable documentaries in several in Britain, the Academy Award-winning Thursday's Children, about a school for deaf-mute children; in Poland, The Singing Lesson, a personal impression of a group of students at a drama school. In China, he recorded the 1985 concert tour by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley of WHAM!
As a theatre director he collaborated with playwright David Storey on a series of successes ( The Contractor, The Changing Room, In Celebration, Home ), and he worked with such actors as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, Joan Plowright, and Rachel Roberts.
Anderson was, as well, an outspoken and sometimes ferocious critic of British films--and of Britain itself. He was the author of the most important and acclaimed book on John Ford. And he was one of Gavin Lambert's closest friends for more than fifty years.
Lambert's book begins with his and Anderson's days as movie-struck schoolboys, becoming fast friends, growing up in the shadow of World War II. He shows us their postwar creation of and collaboration on the influential magazine Sequence --a magazine that was produced on love and a shoestring, and which shook up the British film world with its admiration for both Hollywood noir and MGM musicals (at the time unfashionable genres) and its celebration of such directors as Ford, Buñuel, Cocteau, Vigo, and Sturges.
He describes how both men rebelled in opposite directions--Anderson remaining in England, Lambert leaving in 1958 for Los Angeles--and traces their unorthodox paths through the film industry.
An illuminating, multifaceted portrait--of a friendship, of postwar moviemaking on both sides of the Atlantic, and, mainly, of the remarkable Lindsay Anderson.
He also directed notable documentaries in several in Britain, the Academy Award-winning Thursday's Children, about a school for deaf-mute children; in Poland, The Singing Lesson, a personal impression of a group of students at a drama school. In China, he recorded the 1985 concert tour by George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley of WHAM!
As a theatre director he collaborated with playwright David Storey on a series of successes ( The Contractor, The Changing Room, In Celebration, Home ), and he worked with such actors as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, Alan Bates, Albert Finney, Helen Mirren, Peter O'Toole, Joan Plowright, and Rachel Roberts.
Anderson was, as well, an outspoken and sometimes ferocious critic of British films--and of Britain itself. He was the author of the most important and acclaimed book on John Ford. And he was one of Gavin Lambert's closest friends for more than fifty years.
Lambert's book begins with his and Anderson's days as movie-struck schoolboys, becoming fast friends, growing up in the shadow of World War II. He shows us their postwar creation of and collaboration on the influential magazine Sequence --a magazine that was produced on love and a shoestring, and which shook up the British film world with its admiration for both Hollywood noir and MGM musicals (at the time unfashionable genres) and its celebration of such directors as Ford, Buñuel, Cocteau, Vigo, and Sturges.
He describes how both men rebelled in opposite directions--Anderson remaining in England, Lambert leaving in 1958 for Los Angeles--and traces their unorthodox paths through the film industry.
An illuminating, multifaceted portrait--of a friendship, of postwar moviemaking on both sides of the Atlantic, and, mainly, of the remarkable Lindsay Anderson.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1901
About the author
Gavin Lambert
48 books25 followersGavin Lambert was a British-born screenwriter, novelist and biographer who lived for part of his life in Hollywood. His writing was mainly fiction and nonfiction about the film industry.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 15, 2024
From GL’s account of the memorial celebration for Lindsay Anderson at the Royal Court Theatre, November 1994:
‘He was a man with a set of values seemingly in place since birth,’ said David Storey in his introduction to the evening. ‘They were values by which he observed, scrutinized and judged everything around him, [and he had] an appetite for a world nobler, more charitable and above all more gracious than the world in which he found himself.’ But this didn't mean that in person Lindsay was always charitable or gracious, and after noting that he was also ‘a man of vivid contradictions’, David proceeded to list them. ‘He could be cantankerous and vituperative, he could be obdurate and acerbic, yet he was incorrigibly loyal and unfailingly generous. He was authoritarian, yet unmistakably a liberal. He was a stoic, yet undeniably sentimental. He was a self-confessed atheist, and yet he was imbued with what can only be described as a religious spirit.’
‘He was a man with a set of values seemingly in place since birth,’ said David Storey in his introduction to the evening. ‘They were values by which he observed, scrutinized and judged everything around him, [and he had] an appetite for a world nobler, more charitable and above all more gracious than the world in which he found himself.’ But this didn't mean that in person Lindsay was always charitable or gracious, and after noting that he was also ‘a man of vivid contradictions’, David proceeded to list them. ‘He could be cantankerous and vituperative, he could be obdurate and acerbic, yet he was incorrigibly loyal and unfailingly generous. He was authoritarian, yet unmistakably a liberal. He was a stoic, yet undeniably sentimental. He was a self-confessed atheist, and yet he was imbued with what can only be described as a religious spirit.’
July 24, 2018
Not the best commentary on Anderson, his career, or his work. In fact, it's a bit of an assassination of Anderson. Filled with much gossip, speculation, and a great deal of talk about himself, Gavin Lambert. In fact, this is book is mainly about Gavin Lambert. With the title and all, it's a sort of last gasp attempt at being witty, I guess.
April 2, 2023
A gossipy, though rich account of an overlooked British movie and theater auteur whose uncompromising style prevented him from making more than six feature films. I've removed a star from the review because the book's author, Gavin Lambert, focuses more on his own life than the career of his close friend Lindsay Anderson.
Mainly about Lindsay Anderson is strongest when it shares a behind-the-scenes look at the British New Wave of the late 1950's and early 1960's. Some sections are clumsily and lazily scripted, to the book's detriment. And like many books, it loses cohesiveness and focus towards the end. Anderson's homosexuality was an open secret among his friends but he never formally came out during his lifetime, in contrast to Lambert, who was very open about his sexual orientation. Lambert's willingness to provide a truthful account of the lives and actions of many closeted directors, screenwriters, actors, and actresses was controversial at the book's time of publication.
Mainly about Lindsay Anderson is strongest when it shares a behind-the-scenes look at the British New Wave of the late 1950's and early 1960's. Some sections are clumsily and lazily scripted, to the book's detriment. And like many books, it loses cohesiveness and focus towards the end. Anderson's homosexuality was an open secret among his friends but he never formally came out during his lifetime, in contrast to Lambert, who was very open about his sexual orientation. Lambert's willingness to provide a truthful account of the lives and actions of many closeted directors, screenwriters, actors, and actresses was controversial at the book's time of publication.
October 7, 2015
but also quite a bit about nick ray and lambert himself. scattershot, personal reminiscences - interesting material on anderson's theatre and much helped by lambert's having his diaries, but overall pretty patchy
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews