Did David Lean have a philosophy of filmmaking? David Lean: Filmmaker and Philosopher draws out the threads and themes of this widely celebrated and incredibly influential director who, despite his long career, remained consistently reticent in claiming anything approaching a unifying mode of thought in his work.

From the early, more domestic films like Brief Encounter and his Dickens adaptations, to the sprawling epics Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, the five decades that Lean devoted to filmmaking are laid out and their common motifs plotted in full. Lean's films were filled with noise, with no striking image or elaborate sequence going unaccompanied, and it is this flow of sound and visuals that holds the key to understanding the philosophical side of his cinema. This is one of the aspects of constructing a film on which he did admit to having a conscious philosophy, likening the editing process that was so acclaimed in his films to the flow of writing of music. The other major preoccupations of Lean's filmography are also explored in astute detail, including those of infidelity, the adventurous encounter, and the literal and aesthetic possibilities of modern transport. All of these films enable a significant weight of philosophical literature to be brought to bear on Lean's films, unearthing the thoughts and ideas behind one of cinema's great technicians.