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ANNE V. COATES: “LAWRENCE OF ARABIA” ORIGINAL LINED SCRIPT WITH DAVID LEAN NOTES (WITH DVD AND BOOK)

A production used original lined script for the classic film Lawrence of Arabia (Horizon Pictures, 1962) containing notes by director David Lean, from the estate of editor Anne V. Coates, who won an Academy Award for her work on the film.

Lawrence of Arabia recounts the epic story of T.E. Lawrence, an English officer who successfully led Arab tribes in a fight against the Turks during World War I.

On the film’s set, continuity supervisor Barbara Cole sat next to David Lean, hand annotating the script with every shot, camera placement, revisions, and additional comments. As a result, the script offers a rare and extraordinarily detailed view of the difficult, complicated production and post production process behind the legendary film.

Anne V. Coates was an established film editor in England when she had a lucky encounter with her friend, first A.D. Gerry O’ Hara, at Harrods department store in London. He told her he was shooting a week of extensive tests on a film called Seven Pillars of Wisdom (which would later be re titled Lawrence of Arabia) with Albert Finney in the lead role, and she asked if they needed an editor. Shortly after, she was offered a position cutting the tests.

Finney’s screen test, budgeted at $100,000, was unusually elaborate. Top cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth shot the test in 35mm on sets built at the MGM British studios at Borehamwood, with a supporting cast. Coates was intimidated to show Lean her footage, as he had been a well known editor before pivoting to directing, but her fears would prove to be unfounded.

In an interview with Gary Crowdus for Cineaste titled “The Editing of Lawrence of Arabia,” she said:

“At the end of it, David stood up in front of everybody, it sounds sort of conceited to say this, and said, ‘That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a piece of work cut exactly as I would have done it.’”

Lean quickly hired Coates to work on the film, which was re-cast with Peter O’Toole after Finney, surprisingly, turned down the part of Lawrence.

When possible, Coates and Lean worked closely and very harmoniously. However, Coates and her team had to edit hundreds of thousands of feet of footage in less than four months to ready the film for its Royal Premiere on December 10, 1962. Often, they worked while Lean was shooting the film deep in the Jordan desert, where projecting dailies was impossible. As a result, Coates and her team created several of the film’s most iconic moments on their own in the editing room.

A disparity between this script and the final film vividly demonstrates one such moment: a jump cut in which Lawrence blows out a match in England and the scene instantly transforms into the blazing Arabian desert.

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In the script, Dryden (Claude Rains) the head of the Arab Bureau who enlists Lawrence as a liaison to the Arab revolt, guffaws when Lawrence says that his trip through the desert will be fun. The script reads:

“CLOSE UP. LAWRENCE. He smiles and raises the flame to his lips. He blows it out in the normal manner./DISSOLVE TO:/SUNRISE IN THE DESERT.”

Coates’ striking and experimental decision not to include the transitional dissolve between the shots gave the moment a new impact, and influenced motion picture editing as a whole. Describing the change, Coates told Gary Crowdus:

“To us it wasn’t anything special, it just happened during the cutting. I doubt if it would have been seen the same way if one were working digitally but, because we were working with film, the two shots were joined together and, since the optical was going to be made later, the film had crayon markings indicating the dissolve for the lab.

But when we ran it, we saw the cut and David and I got very excited about the fact that we could cut directly from the match to the sunrise. So we did a couple of different timings on it and then looked at it. We thought it was a great idea but David said, ‘It’s not perfect. Take it away and make it perfect, Annie.’ So I took it away and literally took two frames out of it.”

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The cameras and angles used to shoot each scene are demarcated by lines in the script that run vertically through each described shot. When multiple cameras are used to film a scene, multiple lines run parallel to each other in the script. These lines further illuminate how Lawrence‘s individual sequences were filmed and edited.

For example, the spectacular battle scene that serves as a climax for the film’s first act, “The Taking of Aqaba,” has heavy and complicated lining. Watching the film side by side with the script gives an understanding of which angles Lean and Coates had to work with while editing the film, and which ones they ultimately chose and combined to create different effects.

The script also includes a lengthy note by Lean on his intentions for this sequence, revealing exactly what he was thinking when he conceived of and shot the epic battle, and how he might have discussed its editing with Coates. He writes:

“The mood is one of pure success, the visual impression that of irresistible momentum. For this reason the charge is first seen when it is already going at full belt…

If it were possible, I should even advocate that we stay with the charge from start to finish in a single prolonged Moving shot…In lieu of this I have cut from the charge to the Turkish victims, retaining the sense of impetus and continuity by repeating the device of the thundering hooves being heard distantly when we are with the Turks and swelling until the charge engulfs them, reappearing on screen as it does so. The effect of this is intended to be like a series of breaking waves both aurally and visually…

Let the charge be quite theatrically magnificent, beautifully ordered in its front rank at any rate, let it suffer few casualties or none, let the Turks go over like ninepins, obligingly, their tents similarly, their defeat as total as the success of the Arabs. In other words let the suffering and squallor [sic] of war be evaded of set intent and the glamour of it deliberately exaggerated, so that the audience is left stirred, excited, breathless with no time to reflect, only to enjoy, after the long slog through the desert…”

In addition to its striking editing, Lawrence would come to be known for its lengthy single shots. Lean was often confident enough to shoot only a master shot with a single camera, giving anxiety attacks to studio executives who wanted multiple camera angles to provide coverage. In the script, several scenes are marked only by one, long line.

This original script is one of the most vitally important artifacts in American film history. It brings to life the day to day creation of an awe inspiring work of art, and the inner workings of one the most dynamic collaborations ever to take place between a film director and editor.

This lot includes a DVD of the film and a hardcover edition of the book Lawrence of Arabia: The 30th Anniversary Pictorial History by L. Robert Morris and Lawrence Raskin (New York: Doubleday, 1992).
 

11 x 8.5 x 1.25 inches

PROVENANCE From The Estate of Anne V. Coates

$30,000-50,000