The novel Doctor Zhivago, is an epic romance set in the breathtakingly beautiful but extremely harsh world of Russia around the time of World War I and the Soviet revolution.
It was written by Boris Pasternak who was born in Moscow in 1890 into an artistic family of Russian-Jewish heritage. His father was an acclaimed artist, and his mother a renowned concert pianist.
In their home they entertained famous friends like the composer Rachmaninoff and the writer Tolstoy.
Pasternak had a happy childhood, being brought up by prominent intellectuals in a cosmopolitan atmosphere. His work at a chemical factory in the Ural (your-UL) Mountains of Siberia during WWI was later used as material for his novel.
In 1917 he fell in love with a girl and wrote a collection of passionate poems that brought him international recognition. Pasternak cautiously tolerated the Russian revolution but was shocked with the brutality of communists' extremist.
During 1940s-50s Pasternak wrote his autobiographic novel Doctor Zhivago. A model for Lara in the novel was the poet's muse, a beautiful girl, a magazine editor he had an affair with.
When Pasternak completed Doctor Zhivago and tried to publish it, the authorities rejected it because of its negative depiction of Communist Russia. The manuscript was later secretly smuggled out of the Soviet Union and was first published in Italy in 1957.
Pasternak then won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958. But Soviet authorities declared him a "traitor" and attacked him with a campaign of persecution. He died in poverty and exile in 1960.
The novel soon became a modern classic, translated into many languages. In 1988, after being banned in the USSR for three decades, Doctor Zhivago was finally published as a sign of changing times. In 1989 Pasternak's son accepted his father's Nobel Prize in Stockholm.
Winning out over several other producers Carlo Ponti bought the film rights to Doctor Zhivago from its Italian publisher in 1963.
At the time, David Lean was the only director who seemed capable of pulling off such a large-scale production. On the strength of his international success with Lawrence of Arabia, Ponti hired him and gave him complete artistic control.
It is the story of a doctor who is also an artist, a man who things happen to beyond his control. He is an admirable human being, of deep sensibility and romantic nature, who struggles against all odds to write of the beauty of life in his poems.
Zhivago is a pacifist who identifies with both sides, and he witnesses the exchange of the old oppression of the tsarist state for the new, much harsher yoke of the revolutionary super-state.
It's the story of a man whose wife loves him absolutely, especially his poetry. But war and revolution tear them apart and eventually he gets reunited with a beautiful young woman whose husband is consumed elsewhere by communism. This tenderness rekindles the poet's passion to write as if his love and life were about to end.
Director David Lean hired Robert Bolt who had co-written Lawrence of Arabia with him to take Pasternak's 704 page novel and cut down on the amount of characters with odd names and subplots.
Lean and Bolt lived together for two months working to focus the script. In the book you hear the poet's thoughts, but in the film, they decided to use what he saw to be poetry. They said it was their most difficult project, like "trying to straighten out cobwebs."
But as the adventure begins it is the story of three innocents flowering into adults. To explain Zhivago, Lara and Tonya (Zhivago's wife), we must see them grow into seasoned adult human beings.
The casting of Lara was difficult. Someone suggested a pretty blonde (Julie Christie), a relatively unknown actress they had just seen in the 1963 film Billy Liar, where she famously walks down a street swinging a purse... and all eyes were on her. So, Lean called his friend, director John Ford to ask what he thought of Christie who acted in his film Young Cassidy, which had yet to been released.
Ford was most enthusiastic saying, "She's great, the best young actress that has come into the business. No one in the past has shown so much talent at such an early age."
Julie Christie had a very different impression of herself. She thought they must be off their nuts but went along thinking it might be a nice vacation.
At a press conference announcing the cast before the start of shooting the excited newshounds sped past players like Omar Sharif (who was to play the reflective lead), Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger and Ralph Richardson and hovered around Geraldine Chaplin who was to play the doctor's wife. You see up until 1965 none of Charlie Chaplin's eleven children had appeared in a major film so it was a very big deal for the media.
The cinematographer was Freddie Young who was also part of Lean's team on LoA. Together they came up with clever things to bookend or segue the story. Both are used in the first streetcar scene, where Zhivago and Laura don't meet, but only touch when they back into each other. The director then cuts to the trolley's overhead arm sparking on the electric cable as symbolism. Many scenes dove tail small pieces of action into a form of visual poetry. In fact, Lean is quoted with having stolen many silent film techniques.
"I envy people who receive sudden flashes of genius, because I don't." Lean said. "I try to work out every possible way to do a scene and then choose the way that will surprise audiences."
It was hardly surprising that the atmosphere was marked with anxiety. Lean was directly responsible for a massive production with over 2,000 people working in front of and behind the camera, gradually going further and further over budget from 7 million to 15 million.
At one point they were another 3 million over budget and the producer dropped by to see what the holdup was. While he was waiting to see Lean they showed him some of the film they had shot. Afterwards, he then told Lean, "You carry on doing and let me look after the money."
Lean was such a perfectionist that once while filming a long shot of a train he asked his cameraman from which direction the sunlight was coming, and he realized the wrong way. So, Lean had the train sent back to the station which was an hour and a half away, to have it turned around, and then have it back up for an hour and a half to get the shot right.
There was no second unit footage. Lean directed every frame. Production lasted eleven months. When it finally ended, Omar Sharif said the cast wept and the director said I don't want it to end. He then began editing and hired Maurice Jarre to do the music based on some Russian balalaika theme. But after 5-6 unsuccessful attempts, Lean told Jarre to go off and spend a romantic weekend somewhere. Upon his return he wrote the haunting Lara's Theme, also known as Somewhere, My Love.
The film originally received some mixed reviews from critics. Well, let me assure you it gets better every time you see it. And instead of slow it becomes hypnotizing, instead of confusing you now understand each character's motivations. It has now become the director's most profitable film.
David Lean was a master director like Hitchcock and Ford and he could handle large crowds like D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. But he excels at showing the humanity of one person's story vs. All of life's challenges. As in the hot humid jungle of Bridge on the River Kwai, or Peter O'Toole baking and fighting in the endless dry deserts of Lawrence of Arabia. Well tonight you're going to experience the cold of communism in the snows of winter where romance blooms like a million daffodils.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Doctor Zhivago!
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