You don't suck that much, Sébastien! it was a tough quiz and I'd at least read most of the book.
I think David Lean's place in film history is secure, in spite of the comparison to Kurosawa. To me, they're each notable for completely different reasons.
Yes, you're right and I should have put it in context, because his films are magnificent, even Zhivago with its rather strange and empty story looks stunning.
The book is written in a manner to pick out the film-makers that broke the mould in such a way that it literally becomes a "story", almost with a narrative. He mixes a chronological rundown with veins of certain directors careers and sometimes it's interesting who
isn't included. Mark Cousins starts by giving an example that one of his favourite films, or at least the one he has seen the most, is The Apartment. He describes why he thinks it's so wonderful and then why it is unlikely to feature in the book properly. It's simply because it's a film that didn't mark a change in the schema (a term he uses often to refer to the accepted structure of a film at that time).
Kurosawa is notable in the book because it seemed like he was getting missed -Ozu was the key director in Japan who really changed things- and maybe that was correct because Kurosawa loved Hollywood and was in a way following their methods. Improving, arguably yes, but not changing. But then came Rashomon, and you can't underestimate the effect that had. Throughout the rest of his career, he was pushing the technology to its limits.
Lean simply wasn't doing that and there are no moments in the narrative of The Story of Film where you can honestly say, "Lean did this and the world changed".
This comparison between Lean and Kurosawa is simply an excuse to get down to brass tacks. So it isn't that his films are poor or his ability is being questioned, just his place in cinema history specifically as an artist who made everyone else follow him. Lawrence of Arabia will always be in my top 10. My favourite film is Dances With Wolves and that has a similar story and definitely didn't change anything!
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