Doctor Zhivago (1965)

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Movie
German title Doctor Zhivago
Original title Doctor Zhivago
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1965
length 197 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director David Lean
script Robert Bolt
production David Lean
Carlo Ponti / MGM
music Maurice Jarre
camera Freddie Young
Nicolas Roeg (only some scenes)
cut Norman Savage
occupation
synchronization

Doctor Zhivago is an epic drama film directed by David Lean from 1965. The screenplay was written by Robert Bolt based on the novel of the same name by Boris Leonidowitsch Pasternak . It tells the story of a doctor in Tsarist Russia who feels torn between two women. The historical background is formed by the First World War , the October Revolution in 1917 and the civil war that followed . While Pasternak focuses on the personal experience of social upheaval, in the film the act of love comes to the fore. The very extensive staff of the novel is reduced to a few characters and many situations in the novel appear in completely different contexts. The leading roles are played by Omar Sharif , Julie Christie , Geraldine Chaplin , Rod Steiger and Sir Alec Guinness . The high-budget film was very successful at box offices around the world and received five Oscars .

action

The plot of the film extends over the years before, during and after the Russian Revolution in 1917. The attitude of the title hero, Doctor Zhivago, towards the upheavals in his country remains in the background throughout. At a time when many people pretend to act for the common good, Zhivago keeps an eye on individual people. At the center of his attention - and thus also at the center of the film - are the two love affairs of the protagonist.

Jurij Schiwago becomes an orphan at the age of about five. He is taken in by the family of his uncle Alexander Gromeko and grows up in their house in Moscow.

Already during his medical studies there was a chance encounter with Lara in a tram, but this had no consequences. After graduation, however, he married Tonya, the daughter of his foster parents, and later had a son with her.

As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly clear that Jurij's marriage is not the emotional focus, but rather his extramarital connection to Lara. For her part, Lara is initially in the sphere of influence of two men - the ruthless opportunist politician Komarovsky and the idealistic revolutionary Pavel ("Pasha") Antipov.

Komarovsky has a very unfavorable influence on both Lara and her mother, with whom he has an affair each. Lara's mother tries to commit suicide - apparently out of disappointment with his behavior.

Komarovsky needs a doctor to save Lara's mother from the mortal danger she has brought herself. The university doctor whom he calls is accompanied by Jurij. On this occasion, he meets Lara sleeping in an armchair, and he is recognizably taken with her.

At the end of a rendezvous with Lara, Komarovsky insults her as a prostitute , attacks her and rapes her. Later she tracks him down at an evening party, shoots him, but injures him only slightly. Her friend Pasha picks her up there afterwards. Jurij is also present at this incident and treats Komarovsky.

Jurij next meets Lara during the First World War on the Ukrainian front. He works as a doctor, she as a nurse. In the meantime she has married the revolutionary Pasha. She and Jurij work together for about six months. They fall in love with each other, but out of respect for their respective spouses, they leave it to a platonic love .

When Jurij returned to Moscow from the front line, he had to come to terms with the fact that the revolution had repercussions on the most personal level. His family home has been confiscated by the revolutionaries. His wife, son and father-in-law have little space available for their household.

His half-brother, Yevgraf, a high-ranking member of the party, urges him to leave Moscow with his family because, as a well-known poem writer, he is considered suspect by the new rulers.

Jurij moves with his family to the Urals, his father-in-law owns a property there. They want to live there now. On an arduous train ride that took several days to get there, he happened to meet Pasha, who now calls himself Strelnikov and is terrorizing the population with an armored train from the Bolsheviks . After a brief interrogation, Jurij is released and allowed to travel on.

In the Urals, Yuri discovered that Lara lived in a town very close by. He visits her and they finally fall in love. When his heavily pregnant wife Tonya is about to give birth, he makes the decision to end his relationship with Lara. When he rides back to the property after a tearful farewell, he is picked up by Bolshevik partisans on a forest path, kidnapped and forced to work as a doctor with them without being allowed to see his family again.

After two years of losing battles on different fronts, he manages to escape in the middle of the severe winter and is drawn to the house where he left his family behind. But his family has left the area. However, Lara is there for him and the two resume their relationship. Through a letter sent to Lara by his wife Tonya, he learns of her escape to Paris and that Tonya knows about his relationship with Lara. During this time Lara becomes pregnant by Jurij, but without informing Jurij.

Komarovsky appears surprisingly at Lara and tries to get her to flee with him first to the Far East and from there abroad. Lara's husband Strelnikov has fallen out of favor with the party, and her own social position is no longer secure. Jurij and therefore Lara initially refuse, but when Komarovsky Jurij reports in private that Pasha shot himself very close before he was shot and that Lara is no longer needed as a "decoy", they finally agree.

Jurij pretends to accompany Lara on her trip with Komarovsky, but in reality does not follow them. He returns to Moscow alone. Eight years later, he believes he recognizes Lara in a woman walking past the tram. Jurij can only leave the crowded tram with great effort and tries desperately to follow this woman on foot. However, due to his heart failure, he collapses on the street and dies.

The action is accompanied by the voice of a narrator throughout the film . The narrator is Yury's half-brother Yevgraf, who made a career in the CPSU and the NKVD .

In one of the film's frameworks, Yevgraf is looking for the long-missing daughter of Jurij and Lara and believes he has found her in a young worker. He shows her a book of poems by Jurij and observes whether the sight of Lara's photo triggers memories in her. She initially reacts rather uninvolved. However, towards the end of the film, there are indications that she is likely the daughter of Jurij and Lara.

Locations

David Lean (right) and Omar Sharif during the filming

The film was shot in Spain and Finland. Filming locations in Spain were: Granada , Barajas, Canillas (both Madrid ), Sevilla and the like. a. The interior shoots were realized in the Madrid CEA Studios (Estudios CEA ( C inematografía E spañola A mericana)). In Finland mainly the scenes were filmed in winter a. a. in Helsinki , Joensuu , Kolu, Punkaharju .

Canfranc station - a border station on Spanish territory, but with French sovereignty in the Pyrenees near Jaca - is said to have served as one of the other locations and as a background for the film . However, this is not certain, there is no evidence of Canfranc train station as the location of the film.

synchronization

The information on the German dubbed version comes from the German dubbing index .

The dubbed version was created in 1966 at MGM Synchronisations-Atelier Berlin . Michael Günther directed the dialogue .

role actor Voice actor
Dr. Yuri Zhivago Omar Sharif Michael Chevalier
Larissa Lara Antipova Julie Christie Eva Pflug
General Yevgraf Zhivago Alec Guinness Ernst Wilhelm Borchert
Tonya Schiwago, b. Gromeko Geraldine Chaplin Maria Koerber
Viktor Komarovsky Rod Steiger Martin Hirthe
Alexander Gromeko Ralph Richardson Paul Wagner
Pasha Antipov (Strelnikow) Tom Courtenay Joachim Ansorge
The girl Rita Tushingham Brigitte Grothum
Partisan leader Liberij Gérard Tichy Horst Niendorf
Engineer in the power plant Mark Eden Gert Günther Hoffmann
Prof. Boris Kurt Geoffrey Keen Hans Hessling
Kostoyed Amourski Klaus Kinski Gerd Martienzen
Amelia, Lara's mother Adrienne Corri Agi Prandhoff
Petya Jack MacGowran Knut Hartwig
Political Commissioner Rasin Noel Willman Arnold Marquis
Guard on the train José María Caffarel Hans W. Hamacher
Bolshevik Gwen Nelson Lilli Schoenborn
Bolshevik Bernard Kay Holger Kepich
Old soldier Erik Chitty Erich Kestin
Woman jumping on the train Lili Murati Ursula War

Reviews

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
IMDb

The film received mostly positive reviews and achieved a rating of 85% on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 33 reviews, and formulated as a synopsis :

"Consensus: It may not be the best of David Lean's epics, but Dr. Zhivago is still brilliantly photographed and sweepingly romantic. "

- Rotten Tomatoes

“The wildly moving life story of the doctor and poet Zhivago against the background of the Russian Revolution. The hero's individual fate comes into contact with the political and military events of his time, although (unlike in Pasternak's novel) his private passions are clearly in the foreground. David Lean's extremely popular production indulges in monumental atmospheric images and impresses with its staying power in the succession of lyrical and dramatic moments. One of the greatest box office successes of the 1960s, which shaped and strengthened the common ideas of 'old Russia' like hardly any other cinema opus. "

- Lexicon of international film

"A real, popular Hollywood Schmonzette."

- Heyne film dictionary

“The lavishly furnished film was shot for the most part in Spain (…) and was staged by Lean with the usual finesse. But the great events of the novel, as well as its main themes of fate and the paramount importance of the individual within society, are lost in a jumble of individual episodes. Maurice Jarre's informal kitsch music is just as devastating. But what makes the mammoth film above all of this are the excellent photography by FA Young and the acting skills of some of the actors. "

- rororo film dictionary

"Elaborate, monumental film adaptation of Boris Pasternak's bestseller, which unfortunately is nothing more than a spectacular historical sheet of pictures that has little in common with the original."

- Protestant film observer

Awards

Doctor Zhivago received five Oscars in 1966 :

The film was also nominated in other categories:

The film won the 1966 Golden Globe Awards in the categories of Best Picture - Drama, Best Director, Best Actor - Drama (Omar Sharif), Best Screenplay, and Best Score. In addition, Geraldine Chaplin was nominated in the Best Young Actress category.

David Lean, Julie Christie and Ralph Richardson were nominated for the British Film Academy Award . The British Film Institute chose Doctor Zhivago in 1999 at number 27 of the best British films of all time .

DVD release

  • Doctor Zhivago . 2 DVD set. Warner Home Video 2001

Soundtrack

  • Maurice Jarre : Doctor Zhivago. Original motion picture soundtrack . On the reverse: Doctor Zhivago & Ryan's Daughter. Original MGM soundtrack recordings . EMI 1989, sound carrier no. CDP 7932982 - Original recording of the film music conducted by the composer.

Lara's Theme became known as a unique piece, in a sung version, by Karel Gott among others. (You know where) An instrumental version of James Last , in which a trumpet intones the theme, became an evergreen . This version also appears in Ocean's 13 . The melody also sounds like a leitmotif in the film comedy Frau mit Hund sucht ... Mann mit Herz auf.

A sketch with Dieter Hallervorden became known and became a kind of cult number , in which "the middle part" of the topic is searched for at an accident- blocked intersection ("Schnief da di schneuf)" .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.filme-schauspieler.de/2/Doktor-Schiwago;2122.html
  2. ↑ spain.info: Andalusia, the backdrop of legendary film scenes
  3. ↑ The Canfranc Project.
  4. ↑ Pedro Zapater Zaragoza: ¿Se rodó 'Doctor Zhivago' en la estación de Canfranc? June 30, 2012, Retrieved December 18, 2018 (Spanish).
  5. ↑ Doctor Zhivago. Retrieved December 19, 2014.
  6. ↑ a b [1] at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on December 29, 2014
  7. ↑ Doctor Zhivago in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  8. ↑ Doctor Schiwago at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
  9. ↑ Doctor Zhivago. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  10. ↑ Wolfram Tichy, Liz-Anne Bawden, et al .: rororo Filmlexikon. Volume 1: Films A - J (OT: The Oxford Companion to Film ). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1978, ISBN 3-499-16228-8 , p. 148.
  11. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 430/1966
  12. ↑ 1967: The Year of the “Schiwago Melody” , Ö1 Leporello , May 3, 2017