Doctor Zhivago

[starkiller]

Oh, absolutely. The tabloids have a lot to answer for with all they do in the name of 'news.'

[starkiller]

And ooh! Production stills! Me likey!

[Virgil Reality]

If you didn't get your free copy with The Mail, you can find a copy from the numerous choices available now on Ebay! At least the good folk believe in recycling and not letting a good thing go to waste

search-desc.ebay.com/Hans-Matheson_W0QQfsooZ1QQfsopZ3QQftsZ2

[Virgil Reality]

I'm pleased to have permission to post here this lovely letter from a Russian viewer's perspective on "Doctor Zhivago"

Dear Hans,



I've just watched Dr. Zhivago with you as Yury. The film itself, the whole crew and you in it were fantastic! And I'm telling you that in spite of the fact that I'm Russian and therefore could see some reality mistakes the film is a success! You (the whole team) managed to capture the essence: what they call "an enigmatic Russian soul". You as a person played the most important role in this guess. It seems to me first of all you yourself understood what was "the Russian soul" and then your personal guess contributed to the whole of the film. I could enumerate all those reality drawbacks in the film if you asked me, but what for? The most important thing is that you managed to show all the passion and feelings of the epoque and love of your character on its background. And what is more interesting you may be know that last year (so 4 years after your English version) our Russian film "Dr. Zhivago" was shot. So may be you know that the atmosphere in both films is the same! Finally they call out the same feelings out of spectaculars! And that is fantastic and that is why I can congratulate you with the success of your film!

After I finished watching the film I rushed to look for your traces in the internet and I found your unofficial site which I liked very much. Then I printed out and read all your interviews and found out a lot of interesting facts about you. I was really impressed by the fact that you visited the house of Pasternak's niece in Oxford and that you fell in love with his poetry. When I studied English at the University I was interested in translation of poetry. Quite by chance I bought a book with Boris Pasternak's poems translated into English by his sister Lydia Pasternak Slater. It was so great! I've been always interested in how to render all the depth and music of original language poetry to foreign readers, I had thought it was almost impossible. But after I had read those translations of Pasternak I understood that I had been wrong. In those translations even the rhythm and size of Pasternak's lines was preserved! I found the poem "Winter Night" which you liked so much on your site, but the translation was different from what I read in the past. So I rushed to look for this book and fortunately I found it. I think the version I have is better as the rhythm and music of Pasternak's original poetry is exactly the same! Such good translation is a miracle! Here it is:



It swept, it swept on all the earth,

At every turning,

A candle on the table flared,

A candle, burning.



Like swarms of midges to a flame

In summer weather,

Snowflakes flew up towards the pane

In flocks together.



Snow moulded arrows, rings and stars

The pane adorning.

A candle on the table shone

A candle burning.



Entangled shadows spread across

The flickering ceiling,

Entangled arms, entangled legs,

And doom, and feeling.



And with a thud against the floor

Two shoes came falling,

And drops of molten candle wax

Like tears were rolling.



And all was lost in snowy mist,

Grey-white and blurring.

A candle on the table stood,

A candle, burning.



The flame was trembling in the draught;

Heat of temptation,

It lifted up two crossing wings

As of an angel.



All February the snow-storm swept,

Each time returning.

A candle on the table wept,

A candle, burning.



If you were here, in Russia, I would take you to Pasternak's suburban house, which is his museum right now, where he wrote "Dr. Zhivago" and his best poems. May be you know that Boris was also torn between two women in his life: his wife (his debt, sacrifice at the end of his life, who he could not leave as a person, but could not love any more as a woman), and Olga Ivinskaya, Lara's prototype, his late love. Boris was suffering from this situation very much. He was orthodox, and in our religion it's a great sin. But sometimes life brings unpredictable gifts which you can not overcome. He was very sincere to both of the women and they both tried to put up with this "double" existence.

With kind permission of Nina

[marycathy]

I've bought the DVD a few days ago. I hadn't seen Doctor Zhivago before. I had only seen the Omar Sharif movie.

I love Hans' Doctor Zhivago! I rediscovered the story. This is a very good movie i think. There are some really stirring scenes, between Lara and Yuri. And the war scenes look quite realistic.

I love Hans, he's perfect for the role, i think. He is, in my opinion, more touching than Omar Sharif. There is something more touching in this film.

I couldn't help crying at the end of the movie. I desperately wanted to see them happy in the end! The little boy running to escape is a really sad and beautiful last scene. But i almost felt angry, you know, to see Lara being taken away and Yuri dead before he had reunited with her.

There is a scene that is really stirring too, it's the scene when Yuri gets out of the train and walks in the woods. It's strange, because it's quite poetic at the beginning of the scene, it's very beautiful and, i don't know, i felt good watching that. And then, there's the young boy who gets killed, and it was so unexpected, the poetic scene turns into something horrible, and here i felt like crying too. This is a very interesting scene, but really sad. And i think in that scene i realized the situation the characters were in. You understand a lot of things because of this scene.

I also watched the interviews of the DVD. I LOVE Hans' interview! i watched it about twenty times since i bought the DVD! lol.
I love it, i find him endearing, there's something really nice about this interview.

[HeathenMaiden]

Doctor Zhivago has just been released on DVD here in Sweden with a really nice DVD cover. I have an imported one but I might just go and buy the Swedish one simply because the DVD artwork is stunning!

Have a look yourself:
Front cover
Back cover

They've apparently decided that Keira's the big star of the film though lol

The text above "Doktor Zjivago" says "Forbidden Love in the Time of Revolution"

[zita]

I was on a "hunt" this morning and I could get my "almost free"
copy of Zhivago. It means 999.-HUF (less than 4 Euros...) - ridiculous price! Here is the cover for the gallery!



I know what I'm gonna do tonight...

[Gg]

I think you should get it!

So much more photography on that jacket version.

[zita]

Yeah, I really like the cover. But I'm disappointed a bit - there are not any extras on my version! No interview, neither photos...
Anyway - the film is the most important.

[Gg]

have you seen the extra features???

[zita]

Most of you mentioned that there were interviews with Hans and other members of the crew on your DVD. There isn't any on mine.

But the film is truely amazing! Hans is so brilliant, I love the way he acts! I like Alexandra Maria Lara's Tonya too. So nice and modest, really a " nice couple" with Hans - as it was mentioned in the film. Keira Knightley and Sam Neil are also remarkable. I was satisfied with Keira's interpretation, not as in "Atonment".
My attention couldn't even weaken for a single second, though I watched along the two parts together. The music is beautiful, I'm enchanted...a care for my soul for awhile.

[Gg]

there are interviews and Hans' is pretty long (well, 5 minutes would be a feast considering, but anyway) check your PM and let's get you those interviews if we can.

[Virgil Reality]

Oh you must see that interview.

In the "it never rains but it pours" category--- just came upon some never-seen-before pictures from behind the scenes of the Doctor Zhivago shoot. They're by Ken McKay the official photographer's own site, and they are Flash so I can't copy them (can anyone?

www.kenmckay.com/artist.asp?ArtistID=9971&AKey=X2PSX357

You might have to scroll past a whole lot of other pics until you come to them. Some familiar ones but a couple new to me - one in bed with Keira Knightley!

[zita]

I found it. How lovely pictures-and how many should be somewhere, that we'll never see.
I'm a bit shy to ask, but... I read somewhere that there are too much and unnecessary sex and nudity in Lean's version. Well, call me insatiable, but I didn't find it too much...Or maybe my DVD is a strongly censored one.It is signed from age 12.

[Virgil Reality]

The Lean version? Absolutely no 'sex' or nudity. It was made in the 1960's and typical of mainstream movies of that time, everythng was alluded to rather than explicit.

Where you may have got confused was that "this" version was rumoured to be full of explicit sex and nudity which scandalised Anna Pasternak - before the series release. Of course, Andrew Davies may have originally intended for it to be more explicit, but when Keira Knightley was cast, at sixteen going on seventeen, it was more discreet than may otherwise have been the case.