Doktor Zjivago

It has been called too long, no-one in the film looks particularly Russian and the fact that the'' Dr'' of the title is written ''Doctor'' ought to warn us about the pretentious modelling that this chopped up version of Pasternak's literary masterpiece has been subjected to. A Nobel prize winning adaptation about an enormous nation's even more enormous upheavals and destinies, though really only as an excuse to show a red-hot romance against icy-white snow crystals. Julie Christie's exceptional performance as Lara. Omar Sharif - the last of the great exotic screen heroes, at his best. The noble Guinness and Richardson oblige with customary stability. Tom Courteney and Rita Tushingham are young and angry, Steiger suitably slimy, not forgetting the anarchistic Klaus Kinski in an exquisite minor role as a lavatory attendant, as punishment for his ''intellectualism''. But this is David Lean's film. He has, as few, a perfect relationship with both photography and the Cinemascope format. With an MTV-free rythmical reflection he allows the camera to caress his various subjects and objects, down to the last detail. A snow-flake, a swaying tree crown, a field of lilies, he seems to have directed each and every one of the snow-flakes, leaves and flowers. Do not miss the rainbow during the final credits, that alone is worth the price of a ticket.

Premiärstatus
–: Orig. titel
Doctor Zhivago: Medverkande
Geraldine Chaplin, Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger: Producent
Carlo Ponti: Manus
Robert Bolt, based on the novel by Boris Pasternak: Foto
Freddie Young: Musik
Maurice Jarre: Talat språk
English