Today (September 7th), EBS1 will air ‘Doctor Zhivago Part 2: Original Title (Doctor Zhivago)’ directed by David Lean.
A 1965 American film directed by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. Running time: 137 minutes. Rated for ages 15 and up.
◆ plot:
Young Yuri loses his parents and is left in the care of the wealthy Kromekos. Yuri grows up to be a young man who studies medicine and writes poetry, and falls in love with the Kromekos’ daughter, Tonya. Then one day, he accidentally passes Lara on the tram. Lara is a 17-year-old college student who lives with her single mother who runs a clothing store and receives financial support from her deceased father’s friend, Viktor Komarovsky. However, Viktor and Lara’s mother were in an affair, and when Viktor turns his eyes to Lara, Lara’s mother commits suicide. Yuri, who secretly visits the king because of this, sees Lara again. Lara rushes to marry her fiance, Pasha, a passionate young man who dreams of the Bolshevik Revolution, and loses her virginity after a fight with Viktor. Lara visits a Christmas party for upper-class people and shoots Viktor, but Yuri, who is there, treats Viktor. This marks the third time the two have passed each other. After a while, Yuri marries Tonya and Lara marries Pasha, and they have children and start a family. However, World War I soon breaks out and the two meet in the retreating ranks of the Russian army. Before they can return home, the Russian Civil War breaks out and they work as doctors and nurses in a makeshift field hospital for six months. They become good colleagues and lovers, but they separate, deciding to be faithful to their spouses. Yuri returns to Moscow to find his house occupied by people wearing red armbands. Famine, poverty, and severe cold hit Russia, and while stealing firewood, Yuri meets his half-brother, Yevgraf, who is now a policeman. Yevgraf advises Yuri to run away to the countryside and live in hiding, saying that the party hates Yuri’s poetry. So Yuri takes his family and boards a train. On the way, he encounters Lara’s husband, Pasha, who is mistaken for an assassin, but Yuri and his family safely arrive at Barikino. Yuri, who was living there by cultivating the land himself, goes to the library one day and reunites with Lara. Yuri suffers from repeated secret meetings with Lara, declares a breakup with Lara, and is kidnapped by partisans on his way back. After being dragged around by partisans for over two years and escaping, Yuri hears that his family has left while returning to Barikino. Yuri visits Lara nearby and regains his health under her care. Then he reads a letter sent by Tonya, who knew about their relationship. Suddenly, Viktor comes and offers to help Lara and Yuri, but the two refuse and run away to the villa in Barikino. There, Yuri writes poems about Lara and enjoys his life as a poet, but Lara’s life is in danger due to Pasha’s death, and Yuri entrusts Lara and her daughter to Viktor.
◆ subject:
The film is a screen adaptation of Boris Pasternak’s novel. The novel was completed in 1955, but it was banned in the Soviet Union for its impure treatment of the Bolshevik Revolution, and Pasternak suffered hardships such as being expelled from the Writers’ Union. However, after its first publication in Italy in 1957, it became an international bestseller. Whether the author intended it or not, the protagonist Doctor Zhivago, the author, and Pasternak lived similar lives. They both lived through the historical period of the communization of Imperial Russia and the two World Wars, but they were not interested in politics or revolution and only wanted to devote themselves to literature and art. However, regardless of their intentions, their works caused political problems and tormented them. Another commonality is that they chose to remain in their homeland until the end, despite living through the cruel times of overthrow of the system, revolution, and subsequent reaction. In this way, it contains the various human figures disappearing in the midst of revolution and war created by unstable people. In particular, by depicting the life story of an individual with artistic sensibility through the protagonist, a poet, it shows that while neither artists nor revolutionaries can escape death, art filled with pure passion has immortal vitality that transcends time.
◆ Points to note:
Director David Lean has already proven his outstanding ability to adapt novels into films with , and has shown his excellence in directing war and the chronicle of a single person with . In this respect, , which deals with the Russian Revolution and the life of a person called Zhivago, was a work that allowed him to fully display his abilities. However, the 1960s, when this film was produced, was the height of the Cold War and filming in the Soviet Union was unimaginable. So, after filming most of the scenes in Spain, he filmed the winter scenes in Finland. Director David Lean hired the same staff and actors he had worked with, including screenwriter Robert Bolt, composer Maurice Jarre, cinematographer Freddie Young, Omar Sharif, and Alec Guinness, so he was able to direct more stably than ever. In particular, the snowy landscape shown with his trademark extreme long shots gave an unforgettable impression and became a legend that will be talked about for a long time in film history. In addition to cinematography, it also won five Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, and Best Costume Design, and can be said to be the most accomplished work among the epic epic films that once dominated Hollywood.
◆ Director: David Lean
David Lean, born in 1908 in a strict Quaker family in England, worked for his father, an accountant, after graduating from high school. However, his room was filled with books on film, and he started working at a TV studio for 5 pounds a week, starting as a slate boy on the set and learning various jobs such as editing and photography. He then moved to a newsreel production company and worked as an editor. At the time, it was World War II, so he often edited documentary films airlifted from the war in a short period of time. He made his directorial debut in 1942 with the war propaganda film . After that, he was recognized for his solid directing skills by adapting and by the great author Charles Dickens to the screen. In 1955, he released the melodrama , starring Katharine Hepburn, and in 1957, the war film , starring Alec Guinness, and he built a reputation as a director with both delicacy and generosity, and won his first Oscar for Best Director. Then in 1962, he won his second Oscar for Best Director. In 1965, he succeeded in catching two rabbits at the same time, with the release of three consecutive films, which were both box office and critical successes. However, in 1970, he was not only a commercial failure, but also received harsh criticism from critics, calling it a “master’s guest.” However, as time passed, the film gradually gained recognition for its true value, and it was evaluated as the perfect David Lean film. Then, 14 years later, in 1984, David Lean, now 77 years old, returned with , showing off his unrusty directing skills and the visual aesthetics that only he could capture. Then, in 1991, he passed away while working on the film .
The EBS1 program ‘World’s Masterpieces’, which showcases carefully selected masterpieces, airs every Saturday at 10:35 p.m.
Reporter Kim Kyung-eun Photo = EBS World Masterpieces
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2024-09-07 13:22:31