Doctor Zhivago -- aka Dr. Zhivago -- was shown
on the TMC channel today (from wikipedia).
David Lean’s rendering of Doctor Zhivago will celebrate its 45th anniversary in 2010, and the film was featured this evening by television's TMC (Turner Classic Movies) as part of its “The Gigantic World of Epics” series. (Perhaps Avatar has everyone thinking about “epic” movies again?) Doctor Zhivago is considered one of Lean's finest works among an impressive body that includes Lawrence of Arabia, Brief Encounter, The Bridge on the River Kwai and A Passage to India.
The film is set in the Russia during 1912-1921, tumultuous years which included World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War. Even though the overthrow of the tsar-regime brought many changes, when the movie was made in 1965 the book upon which it’s based (written by the famed Russian poet-writer Boris Pasternak) was still banned in the Soviet Union. Accordingly, Spain, Finland and Canada served as Dr. Zhivago movie locations.
Filmed primarily in Spain, an entire set representing Moscow was built for the production outside of Madrid. Most of the scenes covering Zhivago and Lara's service in World War I were filmed in Soria, as were scenes from the Varykino Estate’s “ice palace.” (The appearance of ice was actually recreated with frozen beeswax thrown on the furnishings from a cup.)
Amazingly, most of the film’s winter scenes were filmed in Spain’s warm temperatures, sometimes nearing 90 degrees Fahrenheit. To film the charge of the Partisans across the frozen lake, for example, a cast iron sheet was placed over a dried riverbed and fake snow (marble dust) was applied to it.
Some winter sequences were filmed in Finland (mostly establishing landscape scenes), but the winter scenes of the family travelling to Yuriatin by rail were filmed in Canada.
It's interesting to note that Doctor Zhivago was not shown in Russia until 1994. We've come a long way, comrade!
Comments
Interesting article!
The visual images from Dr. Zhivago are still vivid in my mind even after all these years. For the filming not to have been done in Russia is a testament to the wonderful cinematography.
The scenery in this film is quite remarkable, but the music of Lara's theme will not get out of your mind after you watch it.
How fascinating! I'm always amazed by the skills of film-makers when it comes to creating scenes - especially turning Spain into frozen places.
I have read the book, but never seen the movie. I will have to check it out.
This is fascinating background information about a memorable film. Thanks for sharing. It enhances the vivid impressions of the film. 'Course, now we all have to watch it again to see how cleverly we were fooled. Amazing!
This is one of my all time favorites. It was very interesting to learn all of the location details. Thank you, Debi.
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