David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago now feels like a classic from the end of cinema’s golden age, much admired by later generations of filmmakers for its sheer craftsmanship in the era before CGI. But as Ian Christie argues in his new BFI Classic book accompanying the film’s reissue in glorious 4K, it was also a dramatic political intervention in the mid-60s – and a deeply emotional plea for poetry and romance in a cynical world from Lean and his screenwriter Robert Bolt, as the novel had been for Boris Pasternak in his last despairing years.
Critic, Film historian and broadcaster Ian Christie will discuss the making and the many meanings of Zhivago – how Lean’s team recreated Russia in Spain; how it made immortal stars of Julie Christie and Omar Sharif; and how it saved MGM.
Part of BFI LOVE, in partnership with Plusnet