Doctor Zhivago (Lean, 1965)

"The personal life is dead in Russia. History has killed it." As though in rebellion against the high political sophistication of its source, Lean leaves no personal... more >

"The personal life is dead in Russia. History has killed it." As though in rebellion against the high political sophistication of its source, Lean leaves no personal dynamic unexplored, no emotion unsifted. Structured as a series of flashbacks in which a woman attempts to re-discover her father, the film unravels like a re-affirmation of the place of the individual in a world in which winter sumptuously follows summer, irrespective of politics. While she struggles to remember, Freddie Youngs camera constantly finds Zhivago(Sharif)and his alter ego Pasha (Tom Courtenay) peering through frosted panes, cut off from yet curous about the present. Eventually rebelling against the old and the new, Zhivago and Lara (Christie) flee to a frozen dacha and cohabit in a pact so idyllic that it invites comparison with the trendiest of 60s living arrangements. < less

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DVD Extras

• Two discs
• Commentary by Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger & Sandra Lean, Introduction by Omar Sharif
• Music only audio track
• 10 vintage documentaries including 'DR.Zhivago: Tha making of a Russian Epic
• New York press interviews with Omar Sharif and Julie Christie.

Film Details

Cast

Rod Steiger, Julie Christie, Omar Sharif

Technical Details