Cineguild Productions

Cineguild Productions was a production company formed by director David Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and producer Anthony Havelock-Allan in 1944. They produced some of the major British films of the 1940s.

Havelock-Allan served as associated producer on the 1942 war film In Which We Serve, which starred Noël Coward, who co-directed the picture with David Lean. The director of photography on the film was Neame. Havelock-Allan, Lean, and Neame founded their own company, Cineguild, in 1944. Its first production was an adaptation of Coward's 1939 patriotic play film adaptation. The film was produced by Coward, directed by Lean, and shot by Neame. All three partners—Havelock-Allan, Lean and Neame—collaborated on the script.

The exact same combination of talents created the adaptation of Coward's comedy Blithe Spirit, with Havelock-Allan and Neame sharing producing duties with Coward. The quartet then produced the classic Brief Encounter, with Havelock-Allan and Neame sharing producing duties with Coward, with Coward helping write the script, an adaption of his 1936 one-act play Still Life. Neame did not serve as director of photography on the film, or subsequent Cineguild productions. Instead, Robert Krasker was the lighting cameraman.

Brief Encounter won the Palme d'Or at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival. Lead Celia Johnson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress at the 1947 awards, and Lean picked up the first of his seven Best Director Oscar nominations. Along with Havelock-Allan and Neame, Lean also was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. One of the enduring classics of world cinema, in 1999, Brief Encounter came in second in a British Film Institute poll of the top 100 British films.

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