David Lean: “Interesting story about The Passionate Friends. Claude had arrived from America and we went straight into the scene where Trevor and Ann come back into the room and Claude knows they haven't been to the theatre, as they've said, and there's a cat-and-mouse scene. Claude says words to the effect, 'Enjoy the play?'
"They said, 'Yes.'
" 'Good,' said Claude. 'Care for a drink?' And the first hint you, the audience, get that he knows, is when he turns to one of them and says, 'Ice?' The way he says it, 'Ice?' You know he's on to them."
The scene was rehearsed, says Lean. "This is the first time I'd ever worked with Claude, and he said, 'Would you care for a drink?' and so on and so forth, then, 'Ice?' And I stopped it. 'Mr. Rains,' I said, 'I think you misread this scene.'"
"What?" asked Rains, astonished and perhaps a bit embarrassed.
"I said, 'You're playing a rather elaborate cat and mouse with them. For instance, "Ice?" has to have a cutting edge to it, which makes the wife think, 'Oh, Christ, he knows!’"
"Good God," said Rains. "I crossed the Atlantic to play this scene like that, and it's wrong."
"Look," said Lean. "I'm terribly sorry, but don't you see? You're playing it as an injured husband instead of being on top of it and playing Trevor and Ann."
"Yes," conceded Rains, "I'm a fool. I've misread it."
"Terrible silence," Lean remembers.
"Claude said, 'I won't be able to shoot this today. I'll go straight back to the hotel and I'll be ready in the morning.'
Rains returned the next day. Lean called for a fresh run through.
"And the rehearsal," says Lean, "was just more or less what you saw on the screen. The best scene he did in the picture."
(An excerpt is from the book "David Lean" by Stephen M. Silverman)
19 апр 2018
