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Doctor Zhivago (novel)
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Doctor Zhivago
Doctor Zhivago-1st edition.jpg
First Russian edition cover

Author
Boris Pasternak
Original title
Доктор Живаго
Country
Italy
Language
Russian
Genre
Historical, Romantic novel
Publisher
Feltrinelli (first edition), Pantheon Books
Publication date
1957
Media type
Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages
592 (Pantheon)
ISBN
N/A (Feltrinelli) & ISBN 0-679-77438-6 (Pantheon)
Doctor Zhivago (Russian: До́ктор Жива́го, Doktor Zhivago Russian pronunciation: [ˈdoktər ʐɪˈvaɡə]) is a novel by Boris Pasternak, first published in 1957 in Italy. The novel is named after its protagonist, Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet, and takes place between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and the Second World War.
Due to its independent minded stance on the October Revolution, Doctor Zhivago was refused publication in the USSR. At the instigation of Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, the manuscript was smuggled to Milan and published in 1957. Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature the following year, an event which both humiliated and enraged the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
The novel was made into a film by David Lean in 1965, and since then has twice been adapted for television, most recently as a miniseries for Russian TV in 2006.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot summary
2 Background
3 Characters
4 Themes 4.1 Loneliness
4.2 Individuality
4.3 Corrupted and misdirected revolution
5 Names and places
6 Adaptations 6.1 Film and stage adaptations
6.2 Translations into English
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Plot summary[edit]
Imperial Russia, 1903. The novel opens during a Russian Orthodox funeral liturgy, or panikhida, for Yuri's mother, Marya Nikolaevna Zhivago. Having long ago been abandoned by his father, Yuri is taken in by his maternal uncle, a former Orthodox priest and philosopher.
Formerly a wealthy member of Moscow's merchant gentry, Yuri's father, Andrei Zhivago, has squandered the family's millions through debauchery and carousing, and has been progressively bled dry by the corrupt lawyer Viktor Komarovsky. Komarovsky's connections extend to senior figures in both the Tsarist State and its Marxist opponents. Following his wife's funeral, Andrei learns the true nature of Komarovsky and confronts him during a railway journey. Moments later, a devastated Andrei commits suicide by jumping from the train. Almost within sight of this, Yuri is staying at the estate of Duplyanka, where his uncle is working on a book advocating land reform.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Amalia Karlovna Guichard, a Russified Frenchwoman and the widow of a Belgian engineer, arrives in Moscow from the Urals. At Komarovsky's insistence, she enrolls her son Rodion in the Cadet Corps and sends her daughter Lara to a girls' high school. For her own support, Amalia purchases a dressmaking shop in a working class section of Moscow.
Despite his ongoing affair with Amalia, Komarovsky begins paying court to Lara behind her mother's back. Although terrified of the consequences, Lara succumbs to his advances and they begin a discreet affair. Despite her intense resentment of Komarovsky, Lara becomes very adept at using her sensuality to manipulate her besotted lover. Meanwhile, Komarovsky's feelings for Lara begin to reawaken his long dormant conscience. Feeling deeply ashamed of what he has done to her, Komarovsky tells Lara that he wishes to marry her. Indignant, Lara refuses to permit this. Suspecting the worst, Amalia attempts suicide by drinking poison. Zhivago, along with his fellow medical student Misha Gordon, visit with a doctor and successfully save Amalia's life.
Obsessed with freeing herself from Komarovsky, Lara spends three years working as a governess for the children of Lavrenti Kologrivov, a wealthy silk manufacturer with Marxist sympathies. Then, Lara's brother Rodion Guishar begs her to ask Komarovsky to lend him 700 rubles, to replace that same amount which he has stolen and gambled away. Infuriated, Lara instead obtains the money from Kologrivov and severs ties to her brother. However, when the children graduate, Lara resents that the Kologrivovs allow her to stay on out of charity. Believing that Komarovsky has ruined her life, she attends a Christmas party and shoots at him with a revolver. However, Lara instead wounds a senior Tsarist prosecutor. Komarovsky secretly uses his political connections to shield her from prosecution.[2]
While treating the prosecutor's wounds, Yuri learns of the death of his foster mother, Anna Gromeiko. Soon after the funeral, Yuri becomes engaged to and marries his foster sister, Tonya Gromeiko. Meanwhile, Lara marries Pasha Antipov, a railway worker and Bolshevik sympathiser. To Komarovsky's grief, the Antipovs leave in order to teach at a school in the Urals.
In 1914, the Russian Empire declares war on Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although he loves Lara deeply, Pasha feels increasingly stifled by her love for him. In order to escape, he volunteers for the Imperial Russian Army. Ultimately, Lt. Antipov is declared missing in action, but is captured by the Austro-Hungarian Army. After escaping from a POW camp, Antipov joins the new Red Army. He becomes notorious as General Strelnikov ("The Shooter"), a fearsome commander who summarily executes both captured Whites and many civilians. Meanwhile, Lara becomes a battlefield nurse in order to search for her husband.
In 1915, Doctor Yuri Zhivago is drafted into the Army despite the recent birth of his and Tonya's first child. Wounded by artillery fire in Galicia, Yuri and his friend Misha Gordon are sent to a battlefield hospital where Lara works as a nurse. After his recovery, Zhivago stays on at the hospital as a physician.
Following the February Revolution and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, revolutionary fervor and anarchy spread to the front-line troops. In order to convince local deserters to return to the trenches, Gintz, a newly arrived commissar for the Provisional Government, decides to address them unarmed and without an escort. Believing that he can appeal to the deserters' pride as "soldiers in the world's first revolutionary army", Gintz is instead brutally murdered by them.
Meanwhile, Lara and Yuri have fallen in love. Neither, however, is willing to admit their feelings for the other. As he prepares to return to his wife and child in Moscow, Yuri expresses dismay to Lara that "the roof over the whole of Russia has been torn off, and we and all the people find ourselves under the open sky".[3]
Following the October Revolution and the subsequent Russian Civil War, Yuri and his family flee by train to their estate at Varykino, in the Ural Mountains. During the journey, he meets with General Strelnikov, who informs him that Lara has returned to their daughter in the town of Yuriatin. Soon after, Lara and Yuri meet and consummate their relationship.
While returning from an encounter with Lara, Yuri is abducted by Liberius, commander of the "Forest Brotherhood", the Bolshevik guerilla band. Liberius is a dedicated Old Bolshevik and highly effective leader of his men. However, Liberius is also a cocaine addict, loud-mouthed and narcissistic. He repeatedly bores Yuri with his long-winded lectures about the glories of socialism and the inevitability of its victory.
After Yuri deserts and returns to Lara, he learns that his family has been deported to France. Yuri stays with Lara and her daughter for a few months until Komarovsky reappears. Having used his influence within the CPSU, Komarovsky has been appointed Minister of Justice of the Far Eastern Republic, a Soviet puppet state in Siberia. He offers to smuggle Yuri and Lara outside Soviet soil. They initially refuse, but Komarovsky states that Pasha Antipov is dead, having fallen from favor with the Party. Stating that this will place Lara in the Cheka's crosshairs, he persuades Yuri that it is in her best interests to leave for the West. Yuri convinces Lara to go with Komarovsky, telling her that he will follow her shortly.
Meanwhile, the hunted General Strelnikov returns for Lara. Lara, however, has already left with Komarovsky. After expressing regret over the pain he has caused his country and loved ones, Pasha commits suicide. Yuri finds his body the following morning.
After returning to Moscow, Zhivago's health declines; he cohabits with another woman and fathers two children with her. He also plans numerous writing projects which he never finishes. Yuri leaves his new family and his friends to live alone in Moscow and work on his writing. However, after living on his own for a short time, he dies of a heart attack while riding the tram. Meanwhile, Lara returns to Russia to learn of her dead husband and ends up attending Yuri Zhivago's funeral. She persuades Yuri's half-brother, NKVD General Yevgraf Zhivago, to assist her in her search for a daughter that she had conceived with Yuri, but had abandoned in the Urals. Ultimately, however, Lara is arrested during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge and dies in the Gulag.
During World War II, Zhivago's old friends Nika Dudorov and Misha Gordon meet up. One of their discussions revolves around a local laundress named Tanya, a bezprizornaya, or Civil War orphan, and her resemblance to both Yuri and Lara. Tanya tells both men of the difficult childhood she has had due to her mother abandoning her in order to marry Komarovsky. Much later, the two men meet over the first edition of Yuri Zhivago's poems.
Background[edit]



 First Italian edition cover
Although it contains passages written in the 1910s and 1920s, Doctor Zhivago was not completed until 1956. The novel was submitted to the literary journal Novy Mir ("Новый Мир"). However, the editors rejected Pasternak's novel because of its implicit rejection of socialist realism.[4] The author, like Zhivago, showed more concern for the welfare of individuals than for the welfare of society. Soviet censors construed some passages as anti-Soviet.[citation needed] They were also enraged by Pasternak's subtle criticisms of Stalinism, Collectivization, the Great Purge, and the Gulag.[citation needed]
Pasternak sent several copies of the manuscript in Russian to friends in the West.[5] In 1957, Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli arranged for the novel to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Sergio D'angelo.[6] Upon handing his manuscript over, Pasternak quipped, "You are hereby invited to watch me face the firing squad."
Despite desperate efforts by the Union of Soviet Writers to prevent its publication, Feltrinelli published an Italian translation of the book in November 1957.[7] So great was the demand for Doctor Zhivago that Feltrinelli was able to license translation rights into eighteen different languages well in advance of the novel's publication. The Communist Party of Italy expelled Feltrinelli from their membership in retaliation for his role in the publication of a novel they felt was critical of communism.[8]
Soon English and French translations were also printed. A small run of 1000 copies of a mutant[clarification needed] Russian-language version which included typos and underdeveloped story lines was printed by Mouton, a publisher in Holland, in August 1958, before Feltrinelli came out with their own Russian version.[9][10]
According to a book published by Ivan Tolstoi, the American CIA lent a hand to ensure that Doctor Zhivago was submitted to the Nobel Committee in its original language, in order for Pasternak to win the Nobel prize and harm the international credibility of the Soviet Union. He repeats and adds additional details to Fetrinelli's claims that CIA operatives intercepted and photographed a manuscript of the novel and secretly printed a small number of books in the Russian language.[5][10][11]
More recently, Anna Sergeyeva-Klyatis wrote that following the publication of Lazar Fleishman’s book Russian Emigration Discovers "Doctor Zhivago", the only possible conclusion is that the pirated edition of Doctor Zhivago was initiated by one of the biggest émigré organizations in Europe: the Central Association of Postwar Émigrées. While CAPE was known to engage in anti-Soviet activities, the printing of this edition was not an imposition of its own political will but rather a response to the spiritual demands of the Russian emigration that was greatly stirred by the release of Pasternak's novel in Italian without an original Russian edition.[9]
In 1958 Pasternak wrote to Renate Schweitzer,

Some people believe the Nobel Prize may be awarded to me this year. I am firmly convinced that I shall be passed over and that it will go to Alberto Moravia. You cannot imagine all the difficulties, torments, and anxieties which arise to confront me at the mere prospect, however unlikely, of such a possibility... One step out of place—and the people closest to you will be condemned to suffer from all the jealousy, resentment, wounded pride and disappointment of others, and old scars on the heart will be reopened...[12]
On 23 October 1958, Boris Pasternak was announced as the winner of the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature. The citation credited Pasternak's contribution to Russian lyric poetry and for his role in, "continuing the great Russian epic tradition". On 25 October, Pasternak sent a telegram to the Swedish Academy:

Infinitely grateful, touched, proud, surprised, overwhelmed.[13]
On 26 October, the Literary Gazette ran an article by David Zaslavski entitled, "Reactionary Propaganda Uproar over a Literary Weed".[14]
Acting on direct orders from the Politburo, the KGB surrounded Pasternak's dacha in Peredelkino.[citation needed] Pasternak was not only threatened with arrest, but the KGB also vowed to send his mistress Olga Ivinskaya back to the gulag, where she had been imprisoned under Stalin. It was further hinted that, if Pasternak traveled to Stockholm to collect his Nobel Medal, he would be refused re-entry to the Soviet Union.[citation needed]
As a result, Pasternak sent a second telegram to the Nobel Committee:

In view of the meaning given the award by the society in which I live, I must renounce this undeserved distinction which has been conferred on me. Please do not take my voluntary renunciation amiss.[15]
The Swedish Academy announced:

This refusal, of course, in no way alters the validity of the award. There remains only for the Academy, however, to announce with regret that the presentation of the Prize cannot take place.[16]
Despite his decision to decline the award, the Soviet Union of Writers continued to denounce Pasternak in the Soviet press. Furthermore, he was threatened at the very least with formal exile to the West. In response, Pasternak wrote directly to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, "Leaving the motherland will equal death for me. I am tied to Russia by birth, by life and work."[17][18]
As a result of this and the intercession of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, Pasternak was not expelled from his homeland.[citation needed]
Ultimately, Bill Mauldin produced a political cartoon lampooning the Soviet State's campaign against Boris Pasternak. The cartoon depicts Pasternak and another convict splitting trees in the snow. In the caption, Pasternak says, "I won the Nobel Prize for literature. What was your crime?" The cartoon won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1959.[19]
Pasternak died of lung cancer in his dacha in Peredelkino on the evening of 30 May 1960. He first summoned his sons, and in their presence said, "Who will suffer most because of my death? Who will suffer most? Only Oliusha will, and I haven't had time to do anything for her. The worst thing is that she will suffer."[20] Pasternak's last words were, "I can't hear very well. And there's a mist in front of my eyes. But it will go away, won't it? Don't forget to open the window tomorrow."[20]
Shortly before his death, a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church had given Pasternak the last rites. Later, in the strictest secrecy, an Orthodox funeral liturgy, or Panikhida, was offered in the family's dacha.
Despite only a small notice appearing in the Literary Gazette,[20] handwritten notices carrying the date and time of the funeral were posted throughout the Moscow subway system.[20] As a result, thousands of admirers traveled from Moscow to Pasternak's civil funeral in Peredelkino. According to Jon Stallworthy, "Volunteers carried his open coffin to his burial place and those who were present (including the poet Andrey Voznesensky) recited from memory the banned poem 'Hamlet'."[18]
One of the dissident speakers at the graveside service said, "God marks the path of the elect with thorns, and Pasternak was picked out and marked by God. He believed in eternity and he will belong to it... We excommunicated Tolstoy, we disowned Dostoyevsky, and now we disown Pasternak. Everything that brings us glory we try to banish to the West... But we cannot allow this. We love Pasternak and we revere him as a poet... Glory to Pasternak!"[21]
Until the 1980s, Pasternak's poetry was only published in heavily censored form. Furthermore, his reputation continued to be pilloried in State propaganda until Mikhail Gorbachev proclaimed perestroika.
In 1988, after decades of circulating in samizdat, Doctor Zhivago was finally serialized in the pages of Novy Mir, which had changed to a more anti-communist position than in Pasternak's lifetime. The following year, Yevgeny Borisovich Pasternak was at last permitted to travel to Stockholm to collect his father's Nobel Medal. At the ceremony, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich performed a Bach composition in honor of his fellow Soviet dissident.
Characters[edit]
Yuri Zhivago is sensitive and poetic nearly to the point of mysticism. Zhivago's idealism and principles stand in contrast to the brutality and horror of World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the subsequent Russian Civil War. A major theme of the novel is how mysticism and idealism are destroyed by both the Bolsheviks and the White Army alike since both sides commit horrible atrocities.
Other major characters include Tonya Gromeko, Yuri Zhivago's wife, and her parents Alexander and Anna, with whom Zhivago lived after he lost his parents as a child. Later, he marries Tonya, and they have a son, Sashenka (Sasha), together. Yevgraf Andreievich Zhivago, Yuri's half-brother (the illegitimate son of his father), is an Old Bolshevik who gains a General's post in the Soviet secret police. In this capacity, Yevgraf helps his brother evade arrest throughout the course of the novel.
Zhivago's great love is Lara, whose full name is Larissa Feodorovna Guishar. Born the daughter of a Belgian factory owner, Lara's family, like Zhivago's, has fallen upon hard times. She ultimately becomes engaged to Pavel "Pasha" Antipov, an idealistic student who sympathises with Lenin's Bolsheviks. Lara simultaneously has a discreet affair with her mother's lover, Viktor Komarovsky. A deeply corrupt lawyer, Komarovsky's connections extend to senior figures in both the Tsarist State and its revolutionary opponents.
Themes[edit]
Loneliness[edit]
In the shadow of all this grand political change we see that everything is governed by the basic human longing for companionship. Zhivago and Pasha, in love with the same woman, both traverse Russia in these volatile times in search of such stability. They are both involved on nearly every level of the tumultuous times that Russia faced in the first half of the 20th century, yet the common theme and the motivating force behind all their movement is a want of a steady home life. When we first meet Zhivago he is being torn away from everything he knows. He is sobbing and standing on the grave of his mother. We bear witness to the moment all stability is destroyed in his life and the rest of the novel is his attempts to recreate the security stolen from him at such a young age. After the loss of his mother, Zhivago develops a longing for what Freud called the "maternal object" (feminine love and affection), in his later romantic relationships with women.[22] His first marriage, to Tonya, is not one born of passion but from friendship. In a way, Tonya takes on the role of the mother-figure that Zhivago always sought but lacked. This, however, was not a romantic tie; while he feels loyal to her throughout his life, he never could find true happiness with her, for their relationship lacks the fervor that was integral to his relationship to Lara.[23]
Individuality[edit]
The Russian Revolution was at its core an ideological struggle, forcing young and old alike to align themselves or risk extermination. Its uncompromising nature put great strain on the ideals of individual thought and choice, represented in Yuri Zhivago's constant attempts to come to terms with the Revolution. Yuri is the ultimate individual, expressing himself through poetry and recognizing beauty in all aspects of life. He is frequently overcome by emotion, and is deeply introspective. His affair with Lara was primarily fueled by passion and romanticism. However, he gradually realizes that his commitment to his own unique philosophy is rapidly becoming untenable in the face of a crystallizing Soviet ideology. His attempts to exert control over his own individual self end in futility: in one pivotal scene, he wounds and possibly kills several White soldiers despite his best efforts to avoid doing so. The taking of lives is a betrayal of his personal core beliefs, and Yuri is horrified and demoralized by the incident. Ultimately, the revolution's refusal to acknowledge the fundamental nature of the individual ensured that regardless of which faction Yuri sided with, he would not be able to survive in the new Soviet era as a true individual.
Corrupted and misdirected revolution[edit]
When he was younger, Zhivago enjoyed having political discussions with educated people, like his uncle Nikolay. Zhivago's views were relatively neutral—though not a revolutionary zealot, he recognized that Russia needed serious reform. As the story progresses, however, Zhivago realizes that many political activists simply parrot the ideas they have heard, reciting their memorized lines in order to seem intellectual. Still others actively seek power for themselves, taking advantage of the people's thirst for betterment by promising more than they intended to deliver. Pasternak shows what he thought went wrong in the revolution: that initially, revolutionary leaders had good ideas, but because of human failings these ideas were warped or even forgotten as the revolution transformed itself into a full-scale civil war. Pasternak's strategy to convey this point is to introduce seemingly obvious villains into the plot, but show that in the context of the entire novel, the results of their bad behavior pale in comparison to the harm caused by the corrupted revolutionary effort. Komarovsky and Strelnikov are both antagonists in the sense that they cause harm to other characters in the book, but Pasternak cleverly uses them to show that their damage was temporary and relatively minor, whereas the trauma and suffering caused by the misled train wreck of the revolution was more permanent, often fatal, and certainly more devastating to Russian society.
Names and places[edit]



 Pushkin Library, PermZhivago (Живаго): the Russian root zhiv is similar to "life".[24]
Larissa: a Greek name suggesting "bright, cheerful".
Komarovsky (Комаровский): komar (комар) is the Russian for "mosquito".
Pasha (Паша): the diminutive form of "Pavel" (Павел), the Russian rendering of the name Paul.
Strelnikov (Стрельников): Pasha/Pavel Antipov's pseudonym, strelok means "the shooter"; he is also called Rasstrelnikov (Расстрельников), which means "executioner".
Yuriatin (Юрятин): the fictional town was based upon Perm, near by which Pasternak had lived for several months in 1916. Note that this can be understood in Russian as "Yuri's town".
The public reading room at Yuriatin was based on the Pushkin Library, Perm.
Adaptations[edit]
Film and stage adaptations[edit]
A 1959 Brazilian television series (currently unavailable) was the first screen adaptation.[25]
The most famous adaptation is the 1965 film adaptation by David Lean, featuring the Egyptian actor Omar Sharif as Zhivago and English actress Julie Christie as Lara, with Geraldine Chaplin as Tonya and Alec Guinness as Yevgraf. The film was commercially successful and won five Oscars. Currently, it is widely considered to be a classic popular film. Maurice Jarre's score, featuring the romantic "Lara's Theme", is a big part of the film's appeal. Though faithful to the novel's plot, depictions of several characters and events are noticeably different.
A 2002 British television serial stars Hans Matheson, Keira Knightley, Alexandra Maria Lara, and Sam Neill. It was broadcast by ITV in the UK in November 2002 and on Masterpiece Theatre in the US in November 2003.
A 2006 Russian mini-series produced by Mosfilm. Its total running time is over 500 minutes (8 hours and 26 minutes).
A musical called Doktor Zhivago was scheduled to premiere in the city of Perm in the Urals on 22 March 2007, and to remain in the repertoire of Perm Drama Theatre throughout the 50th Anniversary year [3] [4].[26]
Doctor Zhivago is a musical adaptation of Pasternak’s novel rather than Lean’s film. It originally premiered as Zhivago at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2006. Ivan Hernandez played the title role.[27] It was revised and premiered as Doctor Zhivago at the Lyric Theatre, Sydney in February 2011, starring Anthony Warlow and produced by John Frost. The musical features a score by Lucy Simon (The Secret Garden), a book by Michael Weller (Hair, Ragtime screenplays), lyrics by Michael Korie (Doll and the Harvey Milk opera libretto) and Amy Powers (Lizzie Borden and songs for Sunset Boulevard). Both the 2006 and the 2011 productions were directed by Des McAnuff.[28]
Boy band 98 Degrees referenced the novel in their hit song "The Hardest Thing".
Translations into English[edit]
Max Hayward and Manya Harari (1958)
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (2010)
See also[edit]

Portal icon Novels portal
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ IMDb Russian miniseries release date
2.Jump up ^ pp. 73–85[full citation needed]
3.Jump up ^ Pevear and Volokhonsky's translation, page 128.
4.Jump up ^ "Doctor Zhivago": Letter to Boris Pasternak from the Editors of Novyi Mir. Daedalus, Vol. 89, No. 3, The Russian Intelligentsia (Summer, 1960), pp. 648–668
5.^ Jump up to: a b How the CIA won Zhivago a Nobel
6.Jump up ^ [1]
7.Jump up ^ [2]
8.Jump up ^ Il caso Pasternak, Granzotto, 1985.
9.^ Jump up to: a b Social sciences - A Quarterly Journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences: INTERNATIONAL PROVOCATION: ON BORIS PASTERNAK’S NOBEL PRIZE
10.^ Jump up to: a b Was Pasternak's Path To The Nobel Prize Paved By The CIA?
11.Jump up ^ The Plot Thickens A New Book Promises an Intriguing Twist to the Epic Tale of 'Doctor Zhivago'
12.Jump up ^ Olga Ivinskaya, A Captive of Time: My Years with Pasternak, (1978), page 220.
13.Jump up ^ Ivinskaya (1978), page 221.
14.Jump up ^ Ivinskaya (1978), page 224.
15.Jump up ^ Ivinskaya (1978), page 232.
16.Jump up ^ Frenz, Horst (ed.) (1969). Literature 1901-1967. Nobel Lectures. Amsterdam: Elsevier. (Via "Nobel Prize in Literature 1958 - Announcement". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 24 May 2007.)
17.Jump up ^ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Pasternak.html
18.^ Jump up to: a b Pasternak, Boris (1983). Pasternak: Selected Poems. trans. Jon Stallworthy and Peter France. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-042245-5.
19.Jump up ^ Bill Mauldin Beyond Willie and Joe (Library of Congress)
20.^ Jump up to: a b c d Ivinskaya (1978), pp. 323–326
21.Jump up ^ Ivinskaya (1978), pp. 331–332.
22.Jump up ^ Dillon, Kathleen (Winter 1995). "Depression as Discourse in Doctor Zhivago". The Slavic and East European Journal 39 (4): 517–523. JSTOR 309103.
23.Jump up ^ Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak, 1957, Pantheon Books
24.Jump up ^ Rowland, Mary F. and Paul Rowland. Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. Southern Illinois University Press: 1967. The Rowlands present an exhaustive analysis of most of the names in the novel.
25.Jump up ^ Doutor Jivago (TV series 1959) at the Internet Movie Database
26.Jump up ^ Perm features in the novel under the name "Yuriatin" (which is a city invented by Pasternak for the book) and many locations for events in the book can be accurately traced there, since Pasternak left the street names mostly unchanged. For example, the Public Reading-Room in which Yuri and Larissa have their chance meeting in "Yuriatin" is exactly where the book places it in contemporary Perm.
27.Jump up ^ "La Jolla Playhouse premieres stirring, haunting Zhivago" by Charlene Baldridge, San Diego News
28.Jump up ^ "Sydney to host World Premiere of Doctor Zhivago musical", AustralianStage.com (21 July 2010)
External links[edit]
Paolo Mancosu Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, the story of the first publication of Doctor Zhivago and of the subsequent Russian editions in the West ISBN 9788807990687
Homegrown Doctor Zhivago to Debut on Russian Television
"The 'Doctor Zhivago' caper" (editorial), The Boston Globe, 20 February 2007.
"The Wisest Book I Ever Read", by Robert Morgan from The Raleigh News & Observer.
'Pasternak – The Real Dr Zhivago A documentary in production'
'The Dr Zhivago Drawings' artist's rendering
"Doctor Zhivago – A New Musical"
'The Poems of Doctor Zhivago'


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Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago


Characters
Yuri Zhivago
 

Adaptations
Doctor Zhivago (1965 film) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2002 TV miniseries) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2011 musical)
 

Music
"Lara's Theme"
 

Related
"Torn Between Two Lovers"
 

 


Categories: 1957 in the Soviet Union
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Doctor Zhivago (film)
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 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2012)

Doctor Zhivago
DrZhivago Asheet.jpg
Theatrical release poster design by Tom Jung

Directed by
David Lean
Produced by
Carlo Ponti
Screenplay by
Robert Bolt
Based on
Doctor Zhivago
 by Boris Pasternak
Starring
Geraldine Chaplin
Julie Christie
Tom Courtenay
Alec Guinness
Omar Sharif
Rod Steiger
Music by
Maurice Jarre
Cinematography
Freddie Young
Nicolas Roeg (Uncredited)
Editing by
Norman Savage
Studio
Sostar S.A.
Distributed by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
22 December 1965 (US)
26 April 1966 (UK)
10 December 1966 (Italy)
28 September 1999 (US re-release)

Running time
197 minutes
 193 minutes (UK)
 200 minutes (1992 re-release)
 192 minutes (1999 re-release)
Language
English
 Russian
Budget
$11 million
Box office
$111,721,910[1]
Doctor Zhivago is a British 1965 epic drama–romance film directed by David Lean, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. The film is loosely based on the famous novel of the same name by Boris Pasternak. It has remained popular for decades and as of 2013 is the eighth highest-grossing film of all time, adjusted for inflation.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Background
2 Plot
3 Cast
4 Production
5 Reception 5.1 American Film Institute recognition
6 Awards
7 Home video
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Background[edit]
Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel was published in the West amidst celebration and controversy. Parts of Pasternak's book had been known in Samizdat since some time after World War II. However, the novel was not completed until 1956. The book had to be smuggled out of the Soviet Union by an Italian called D'angelo to whom Pasternak had entrusted the book to be delivered to Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, a left-wing Italian publisher who published it shortly thereafter. Helped by a Soviet campaign against the novel, it became a sensation throughout the non-communist world. It spent 26 weeks atop the New York Times best-seller list.
A great lyric poet, Pasternak was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature. While the citation noted his poetry, it was understood that the prize was mainly for Doctor Zhivago, which the Soviet government saw as an anti-Soviet work, thus interpreting the award of the Nobel Prize as a gesture hostile to the Soviet Union. A target of the Soviet government's vituperative campaign to denigrate him as a traitor, Pasternak felt compelled to refuse the Prize. The situation became an international cause célèbre and made Pasternak a Cold War symbol of resistance to Soviet communism, a role the poet was ill-suited for.
The film, though faithful to the novel's plot, is noticeably different in the depictions of several characters and events. Many critics believed that the film's focus on the love story between Zhivago and Lara trivialized the events of the Russian Revolution and the resulting civil war.[citation needed]
The sweeping multi-plotted story form used by Pasternak had a distinguished pedigree in Russian letters. The author of War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy, had used characters as symbols of classes and historical events in describing the events in the Russia of Napoleonic times. Pasternak's father, who was a painter, had produced illustrations for War and Peace. The name "Zhivago" is rooted in the Russian word "zhiv" ("life") and zhivago is Church Slavonic for "the living".[2]
In the true manner of the Russian epic novel, characters constantly meet due to coincidence, though this is less apparent in the film.
Plot[edit]
The film takes place mostly against a backdrop of World War I and the Russian Revolution. A narrative framing device, set in the late 1940s to early 1950s, involves KGB Lieutenant General Yevgraf Andreyevich Zhivago (Alec Guinness) searching for the daughter of his half brother, Doctor Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (Omar Sharif), and Larissa ("Lara") Antipova (Julie Christie). Yevgraf believes a young woman, Tonya Komarova (Rita Tushingham) may be his niece and tells her the story of her father's life.
When Yuri Zhivago is orphaned after his mother's death, he is taken in by his mother's friends, Alexander "Sasha" (Ralph Richardson) and Anna (Siobhán McKenna) Gromeko, and grows up with their daughter Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin).
In 1913, Zhivago as a medical student in training, but a poet at heart, meets Tonya as she returns to Moscow after a long trip to Paris. Lara, meanwhile, becomes involved in an affair with Victor Ipolitovich Komarovsky (Rod Steiger), a friend of her mother's (Adrienne Corri). That night, the idealistic reformer Pavel Pavlovich ("Pasha") Antipov (Tom Courtenay) drifts into left-wing extremism after being wounded by sabre-wielding Cossacks during a peaceful demonstration. Pasha runs to Lara, whom he wants to marry, to treat his wound. He asks her to hide a gun he picked up at the demonstration. Lara's mother discovers her affair with Komarovsky and attempts suicide. Komarovsky summons help from the physician. Zhivago arrives as the physician's assistant. When Komarovsky learns of Lara's intentions to marry Pasha, he tries to dissuade Lara, and then rapes her. In revenge, Lara takes the pistol she has been hiding for Pasha and shoots Komarovsky at a Christmas Eve party, wounding him. Komarovsky insists no action be taken against Lara, who is escorted out by Pasha. Zhivago tends Komarovsky's wound. Although enraged and devastated by Lara's affair with Komarovsky, Pasha marries Lara, and they have a daughter named Katya.
During World War I, Yevgraf Zhivago is sent by the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party to subvert the Imperial Russian Army for the Bolsheviks. Pasha is reported missing in action following a daring charge attack on German forces. Lara enlists as a nurse to search for him. Yuri Zhivago is drafted and becomes a battlefield doctor.
During the February Revolution, Zhivago enlists Lara's help to tend to the wounded. Together they run a field hospital for six months, during which time radical changes ensue throughout Russia as Vladimir Lenin arrives in Moscow. Before their departure, Yuri and Lara fall in love. Yuri must remain loyal to Tonya, whom he already married.
After the war, Yuri returns to his wife Tonya, son Sasha, and Alexander, whose house in Moscow has been divided into tenements by the new Soviet government. Yevgraf, now a member of the CHEKA, informs him his poems have been condemned by Soviet censors as antagonistic to Communism. Yevgraf arranges for passes and documents in order for Yuri and his family to escape from the new political capital of Moscow to the far away Gromeko estate at Varykino, in the Ural Mountains. Zhivago, Tonya, Sasha and Alexander now board a heavily guarded cattle train, at which time they are informed that they will be travelling through contested territory, which is being secured by the infamous Bolshevik commander named Strelnikov.
While the train is stopped, Zhivago wanders away. He stumbles across the armoured train of Strelnikov himself sitting on a hidden siding. Yuri recognises Strelnikov as the former Pasha Antipov. After a tense interview, Strelnikov informs Yuri that Lara is now living in the town of Yuriatin, then occupied by anti-Communist White Army. He allows Zhivago to return to his family, although it is hinted by Strelnikov's right-hand man most people interrogated by Strelnikov end up being shot.
The family lives a peaceful life in Varykino until Zhivago finds Lara in nearby Yuriatin. At which point they surrender to their long repressed feelings. When Tonya becomes pregnant, Yuri breaks off with Lara, only to be abducted and conscripted into service by Communist partisans.
After two years, Zhivago at last deserts, trudging through the deep snow to Yuriatin, and finds Lara. After six months, Lara reveals a letter from Tonya, in which she tells Yuri that she, her father, and Sasha have been deported to Paris, and had met with Lara while searching for the long-lost Yuri.
One night, Komarovsky arrives and informs them they are being watched by the CHEKA due to Lara's marriage to Strelnikov and Yuri's "counter-revolutionary" poetry and desertion. Komarovsky offers Yuri and Lara his help in leaving Russia. They refuse. Instead, they go to the isolated Varykino estate, where Yuri begins writing the "Lara" poems, which will later make him famous but incur government displeasure. Komarovsky reappears and tells Yuri that Strelnikov committed suicide while being taken to his execution. Therefore, Lara is in immediate danger, as the CHEKA has only left her free to lure Strelnikov into the open. Zhivago sends Lara away with Komarovsky, who has become an official in the Far East. Refusing to leave with a man he despises, Yuri remains behind.
Years later in Moscow, during the Stalinist era, Yuri sees Lara while travelling on a tram. Forcing his way off the tram, he runs after her, at which point he suffers a fatal heart attack. Yuri's funeral is well attended, as his poetry is already being published openly due to shifts in politics. Lara informs Yevgraf she had given birth to Yuri's daughter, but lost her in the collapse of the White-controlled government in Mongolia. After vainly looking over hundreds of orphans with Yevgraf's help, Lara disappears during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, and "died or vanished somewhere...in one of the labour camps," according to Yevgraf.
While Yevgraf strongly believes that Tonya Komarova is Yuri's and Lara's daughter, she is still not convinced. Yevgraf notices that Tonya carries with her a balalaika. Finding Tonya learned to play the balalaika by herself, he smiles, "Ah, then, it's a gift," thereby implying she truly must be their daughter after all.
Cast[edit]
Geraldine Chaplin as Tonya Gromeko
Julie Christie as Lara Antipova
Tom Courtenay as Pasha Antipov / "Strelnikov"
Alec Guinness as General Yevgraf Zhivago
Siobhan McKenna as Anna Gromeko
Ralph Richardson as Alexander Maximovich Gromeko
Omar Sharif as Dr. Yuri Zhivago
Rod Steiger as Victor Komarovsky
Rita Tushingham as Tonya Komarova / "The Girl"
Adrienne Corri as Amelia
Bernard Kay as Kuril
Geoffrey Keen as Prof. Boris Kurt
Klaus Kinski as Kostoyed Amoursky
Jeffrey Rockland as Sasha
Gerard Tichy as Liberius
Noel Willman as Razin
Production[edit]
This famous filmed version of Doctor Zhivago by David Lean was created for various reasons. Pasternak's novel had been an international success, and producer Carlo Ponti was interested in adapting it as a vehicle for his wife, Sophia Loren. Lean, coming off the huge success of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), wanted to make a more intimate, romantic film to balance the action- and adventure-oriented tone of his previous film. One of the first actors signed onboard was Omar Sharif, who had played Lawrence's right-hand man Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia. Sharif loved the novel, and when he heard Lean was making a film adaptation, he requested to be cast in the role of Pasha (which ultimately went to Tom Courtenay). Sharif was quite surprised when Lean suggested that he play Zhivago himself. Peter O'Toole, star of Lawrence of Arabia, was Lean's original choice for Zhivago, but turned the part down; Max von Sydow and Paul Newman were also considered. Michael Caine tells in his autobiography that he also read for Zhivago, but (after watching the results with David Lean) was the one who suggested Omar Sharif.[3] Rod Steiger was cast as Komarovsky after Marlon Brando and James Mason turned the part down. Audrey Hepburn was considered for Tonya, while Robert Bolt lobbied for Albert Finney to play Pasha. Lean, however, was able to convince Ponti that Loren was not right for the role of Lara, saying she was "too tall" (and confiding in screenwriter Robert Bolt that he could not accept Loren as a virgin for the early parts of the film), and Yvette Mimieux, Sarah Miles and Jane Fonda were considered for the role. Ultimately, Julie Christie was cast based on her appearance in Billy Liar (1963), and the recommendation of John Ford, who directed her in Young Cassidy.



 The initial and final scenes were shot at the Aldeadávila Dam between Spain and Portugal.
Since the book was banned in the Soviet Union, the movie was filmed largely in Spain over ten months,[4] with the entire Moscow set being built from scratch outside of Madrid. Most of the scenes covering Zhivago and Lara's service in World War I were filmed in Soria, as was the Varykino estate. Some of the winter sequences were filmed in Spain, Finland, mostly landscape scenes, and Yuri's escape from the Partisans. Winter scenes of the family travelling to Yuriatin by rail were filmed in Canada. All the trains used in the film were Spanish trains like RENFE 240 ex 1400 MZA and Strelnikov's armoured train towed by the Renfe 2–8–2 class Mikado. The "ice-palace" at Varykino was filmed in Soria as well, a house filled with frozen beeswax. The charge of the Partisans across the frozen lake was filmed in Spain, too; a cast iron sheet was placed over a dried river-bed, and fake snow (mostly marble dust) was added on top. Some of the winter scenes were filmed in summer with warm temperatures, sometimes of up to 25 °C (86 °F).Other locations include the Estación de Madrid-Delicias in Madrid and El Moncayo. The initial and final scenes were shot at the Aldeadávila Dam between Spain and Portugal. Although uncredited, most of the scenes were actually shot on the Portugal side of the river, overlooking the Spanish side.
Reception[edit]
The film was entered into the 1966 Cannes Film Festival.[5]
Despite being a spectacular box office hit, Doctor Zhivago received mixed reviews at the time of its release. It was criticised for its length and overly romantic depiction of the affair between Zhivago and Lara. Film critic Roger Ebert, while liking the film, said of Doctor Zhivago that "it lumbers noisily from nowhere to nowhere", and that Omar Sharif's performance was "soulful but bewildered". In general, the film's critics have found Doctor Zhivago too overly romantic and almost at the level of soap opera, with the (in their view) syrupy Lara's Theme at the top of their complaints. (The song was a major hit when it was released on record.)
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times said that Zhivago and Lara are "possessed by a strange passivity".[6] Sometimes those same critics who found the length of the film overbearing also found the depiction of historical events too facile.
The final scene, in which a rainbow appears over a dam as the final credits were rolled onscreen, was criticized as being "pro-Soviet" by more conservative critics, who felt it was signifying that the Soviet Union had a bright future. Screenwriter Robert Bolt, who adapted the novel, was a one-time member of the British Communist Party (leaving the Party in 1947[7] ) and well-known leftist who was prominent in the nuclear disarmament campaign, itself seen as a surrogate of the Cold War struggle between the West and the Soviet Bloc.[8] Since director David Lean was apolitical, the shot likely was created due to the beauty of it image, not as political symbolism. (Director of Photography Freddie Young won an Academy Award for his color cinematography.)[9]
On the plus side, most critics acknowledge that film addresses such grand themes as a dramatic period in world history, the ascendance of life over death, the struggle of the individual against the state, the triumph of the heart over the mind, and the way good intentions can go terribly wrong. One of the strongest points of Doctor Zhivago is the startling visuals, with Bosley Crowther calling the photography "brilliant, tasteful, and exquisite as any ever put on the screen.[6] Rod Steiger's role as Victor Komarovski is a memorable acting tour de force.
Though the film takes the viewpoint of the dreamy poet Zhivago, the physician side of Zhivago is rarely in evidence. Critics also carped that the film, unlike the book, was shorn of the actual poetry that was in a supplement at the end of the novel, and that showing a writer at work was inherently boring. Zhivago writes poems for Lara near the end of their relationship, but the poems are never heard by the audience.
The film left an indelible mark on popular culture and fashion, and to this day remains an extremely popular film: Maurice Jarre's score—particularly "Lara's Theme"—became one of the most famous in cinematic history. Over the years, the film's critical reputation has gained in stature, and today Doctor Zhivago is considered to be one of Lean's finest works and is highly critically acclaimed, along with Lawrence of Arabia, Brief Encounter, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and A Passage to India.
As with the novel itself, the film was banned in the Soviet Union. It was not shown in Russia until 1994.
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 85% 'Fresh' rating.[10]
American Film Institute recognition[edit]
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies – No. 39
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions – No. 7
AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – Nominated[11]
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated[12]
AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Epic Film[13]
Awards[edit]
The film won five Academy Awards and was nominated for five more:[14][15]
WonBest Art Direction (John Box, Terence Marsh, Dario Simoni)
Best Cinematography (Freddie Young)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Bolt)
Best Costume Design
Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre)
NominatedBest Picture (Carlo Ponti)
Best Supporting Actor (Tom Courtenay)
Best Director (David Lean)
Best Editing
Best Sound (A. W. Watkins, Franklin Milton, MGM Sound Department)
The film was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, and won in every category. It is tied with Love Story, The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and A Star Is Born for the most wins by a film
WonGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture (David Lean)
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (Omar Sharif)
Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay (Robert Bolt)
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (Maurice Jarre)
Home video[edit]
On 4 May 2002, Warner Bros. released the 35th Anniversary version of Doctor Zhivago on DVD (two disc set), and another Anniversary Edition in 2010 on Blu-ray (a three-disc set that includes a book).[16] The two-disc set consists of a double-sided DVD for the main film (wherein the DVD has to be flipped for part 2 of the film), and a one-sided DVD for the extras.
See also[edit]
BFI Top 100 British films
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "Doctor Zhivago". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 20 January 2010. Adjusted for inflation as of January 2010, this is $912 million, the 8th highest lifetime domestic gross of any film.
2.Jump up ^ "Doctor Zhivago". Orthodox England: Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia: Diocese of Great Britain and Ireland. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
3.Jump up ^ Michael Caine: The Elephant to Hollywood
4.Jump up ^ Geraldine Chaplin appearance on the What's My Line?, episode 814. Originally aired 2 January 1966 on CBS. Viewed on 10 September 2007.
5.Jump up ^ "Festival de Cannes: Doctor Zhivago". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
6.^ Jump up to: a b http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173CE367BC4B51DFB467838E679EDE
7.Jump up ^ Chambers, Colin. "Bolt, Robert Oxton [Bob] (1924–1995)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
8.Jump up ^ Calder, John (23 February 1995). "OBITUARY : Robert Bolt". The Independent (London). Retrieved 14 September 2013.
9.Jump up ^ "Awards for Doctor Zhivago (1965): Academy Awards". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
10.Jump up ^ Doctor Zhivago at Rotten Tomatoes
11.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees
12.Jump up ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) Ballot
13.Jump up ^ AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot
14.Jump up ^ "The 38th Academy Awards (1966) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
15.Jump up ^ "NY Times: Doctor Zhivago". NY Times. Retrieved 26 December 2008.
16.Jump up ^ "DVD & Blu-ray cover art release calendar- May 2010". dvdtown.com. Retrieved 17 May 2010.[dead link]
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Doctor Zhivago (film)
 Wikimedia Commons has media related to Doctor Zhivago (film).
Doctor Zhivago at the Internet Movie Database
Doctor Zhivago at the TCM Movie Database
Doctor Zhivago at allmovie
Doctor Zhivago at Rotten Tomatoes
Doctor Zhivago at the British Film Institute's Screenonline


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Doctor Zhivago (TV miniseries)
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Doctor Zhivago
ZhivagoDVD.jpg
DVD cover

Genre
Drama
Directed by
Giacomo Campiotti
Produced by
Anne Pivcevic
 Hugh Warren
Written by
Andrew Davies
Starring
Hans Matheson
Keira Knightley
Sam Neill
Kris Marshall
Music by
Ludovico Einaudi
Editing by
Joe Walker
Budget
£7 million [1]
Country
United Kingdom
 United States
 Germany
Language
English
Original channel
ITV
Original run
24 November 2002  – 8 December 2002
Running time
225 minutes
No. of episodes
2
Doctor Zhivago is a 2002 British television miniseries directed by Giacomo Campiotti and starring Hans Matheson, Keira Knightley and Sam Neill. The teleplay by Andrew Davies is based on the 1957 novel of the same title by Boris Pasternak.
The serial is the second English-language screen adaptation of the book, following the 1965 feature film. It was produced by Granada Television, with co-funding from the American PBS station WGBH Boston and the German company Evision. It was first broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom, beginning on 24 November 2002. In the United States, it aired as part of Masterpiece Theatre on 2 and 9 November 2003.


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Critical reception
5 Awards and nominations
6 DVD release
7 References
8 External links

Plot[edit]
The story begins in Tsarist Russia in the early 1900s and is set primarily against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War of 1918–1921. At its core is Larissa Guishar Antipova, a young woman from Moscow who has a profound effect on three men who become enamored with her.
Victor Komarovsky, an unctuous, wealthy businessman with political connections, is involved in a casual affair with Lara's bourgeois dressmaker mother Amalia, who encourages her teenaged daughter to accept his invitation to dinner in an attempt to retain his financial support of her household. Initially Lara is repelled by the thought, but she finally accepts and eventually uses her sexual power to seduce and ultimately control him.
Idealistic student Pasha Antipov marries Lara, and the two have a child. It is assumed he is killed in World War I, but he embraces Bolshevism and later emerges as Strelnikov, an infamous Red Army general who seemingly has no concern for his family.
The title character is poet and doctor Yuri Zhivago, who first sees Lara from the window of a café. The two meet when he and his mentor are called to minister to Amalia after she attempts suicide in response to her daughter's relationship with Victor Komarovsky, and encounter each other again when Lara tries to shoot Komarovsky at a Christmas party. Zhivago eventually marries his cousin, Tonya Gromeko, with whom he was raised after his father, who was involved in shady business dealings with Komarovsky, killed himself. He and Lara are reunited in a makeshift field hospital, where she is serving as a nurse while searching for her missing husband. The two fall in love but do not consummate their relationship until after the war, when Zhivago and his family move to his uncle's family estate near Yuryatin, a remote village in the Ural Mountains where Lara is living with her daughter.
Zhivago is captured by red partisan fighters who need him to be their medic. Lara is called to serve as the midwife when Tonya is ready to deliver her second child, and Tonya realizes who she is. When it becomes clear they are fighting a lost cause, Zhivago abandons the red partisans and treks across the mountains to Lara's house, where she nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, Tonya, her children, and her father have returned to Moscow. Pursued by Komarovsky, now a leader in the Communist party, Zhivago, Lara and her daughter flee to Varykino. Months later Komarovsky, still obsessed with Lara, arrives and offers them safe passage out of Russia. They initially refuse, but Komarovsky persuades Zhivago it is in Lara's best interests to leave because of her connection to Strelnikov, who has fallen from grace and lost his position in the Red Army. Zhivago convinces Lara, who is expecting their child, to leave with Komarovsky, telling her he will follow her shortly.
Strelnikov, now a hunted man, arrives at Varykino in search of his family soon after they leave with Komarovsky. Zhivago assures him Lara and his daughter are safe, and Strelnikov kills himself.
Zhivago returns to Moscow and learns his wife, son, and father-in-law were removed from their home and their location is unknown. Several years later, while sitting in a café, he sees a young boy who reminds him of himself as a child passing on the street with his mother, who he realizes is Lara. Before he can reach the pair, he suffers a fatal heart attack. Lara brings young Yuri to view his father's body, and as the two near their home, she realizes that Joseph Stalin's NKVD is waiting to place her under arrest. Pretending they're playing a game, she urges her son to run away as quickly as he can before she surrenders to the authorities.
Cast[edit]
Hans Matheson ..... Yuri Zhivago
Keira Knightley ..... Lara Guishar Antipova
Sam Neill ..... Victor Komarovsky
Kris Marshall ..... Pasha Antipov/Strelnikov
Alexandra Maria Lara ..... Tonya Gromeko Zhivago
Bill Paterson ..... Alexander Gromeko
Celia Imrie ..... Anna Gromeko
Anne-Marie Duff ..... Olya Demina
Maryam d'Abo ..... Amalia Guishar
Hugh Bonneville ..... Andrey Zhivago
Gregg Sulkin ..... Sasha
Production[edit]
In discussing adapting the Boris Pasternak novel for television, screenwriter Andrew Davies revealed the task was "daunting because the book is reckoned to be a masterpiece and the film is a great movie and one that I admire very much. Robert Bolt is the king of epic screenplay writers in my book. But as I got further into the book I kept thinking that I didn't agree with Robert Bolt about how to tell the story... and I began to feel much more excited." He added, "It was also a relief to find so much in the book that hadn't found its way into the first movie and could make great drama.... I thought the film does the spectacle really well. Rather surprisingly, it also explains the politics very well, but I thought it could do a better job on the relationships. It's probably a bit controversial, but I thought we could say more about Lara and Yuri and how they get together; about Lara's extraordinary situation at the beginning of the story and Yuri having a dreadful start to his life with his parents dying. None of these things really came out in the movie, but they are there in the book. I think that if they look at both versions now, people will probably think that this version in a lot of ways works better for our time. It's more contemporary. I think they'll find the performances are more subtle yet speak to us in our time. Maybe my script will seem out of date in 20 years time because a lot of them do, but watching the original film, I think the central performances look stilted and dated now."[2]
Initially Davies and director Giacomo Campiotti clashed about how to present the material. Davies recalled, "The first couple of weeks after Giacomo joined this project were horrendous for me because Zhivago has always been one of his very favorite books. He has always dreamed about filming it and has his own interpretation in his head. I can actually remember thinking after one long, long day, where we just didn't agree about a single thing, that it wasn't going to work—it's either got to be him or me. Somehow, we arrived at a compromise and I have almost forgotten what we were arguing about now, as now we are both very pleased with the script. I always knew that he would make it look beautiful because he has got a poet's vision and now, having seen the rushes and some cut footage, I feel like he is my favourite director of all time. Everything is delightful now... Giacomo Campiotti's direction makes it extraordinary."[2]
Because so much of the story is set in the winter, it was crucial to film the series where it was likely snow would be available. Due to budget constraints, Russia, Norway, and Finland were deemed too expensive. Alberta, Canada was considered until the producers learned the previous year's snowfall had been minimal. Other Canadian provinces were rejected because the production crew was told it would be too cold to operate the needed equipment. Slovakia, where a 95% chance of snow was predicted, was selected for the March filming, and there was a blizzard two days before shooting began. But it quickly melted, and eventually the scenic designers had to utilize 1000 bags of artificial snow. Producer Hugh Warren recalled, "We had all the expense of going to Slovakia as well as the trouble of crossing the border, and then there was no snow. It was more than a little ironic."[2]
Costume designer Annie Symons and her staff of thirty had to create more than 3000 costumes and 35,000 individual items of clothing for the cast. The characters of Zhivago and Lara each had at least 90 costume combinations, and six other principal characters had an average of fifteen changes each. By the time principal photography ended, a total of 984 yards of fabric, 300,000 yards of thread, 1 million buttons, and 7,000 safety pins were used.[2]
Critical reception[edit]
Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times said, "By trying so hard for authenticity, this Doctor Zhivago drains the story of much of its lyricism.... Mr. Lean's grander, glossier version was a closer match to the romantic spirit of the novel's hero.... The Davies version is engrossing but more for the harrowing scenes set in the civil war after the revolution than for the novel's legendary love triangle. Black-and-white archival photographs - Moscow slums, newspaper shots of soldiers marching off to World War I - are interspersed throughout the film and slowly bleed into a scene of the television show. The visual trick gives the series a quasi-documentary feel and is quite effective. Yet Mr. Davies takes the same liberties with Pasternak's text as the original film did, focusing on the love story and discarding a lot of the politics, secondary plots and literary sidetracks.... This Doctor Zhivago can be watched as a useful history lesson and as a cautionary show business tale: it is a lot easier to adapt a Jane Austen novel than it is to remake a film by David Lean."[3]
Brian Lowry of Variety observed, "Some will rightfully pine for Maurice Jarre's Oscar-winning score, Julie Christie and Omar Sharif, yet this somewhat less epic take on Boris Pasternak's book is a creditable version, featuring outstanding performances and considerable romance. And hey, kids, it sure beats reading the Cliffs Notes."[4]
Tom Jicha of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel called it "a stunning success" and continued, "Davies' screenplay is involving, the cinematography is captivating, the costuming and set designs evoke a sense of time and place, and the top-of-the-marquee performances are world-class." He concluded, "Doctor Zhivago is a hefty production, which demands a four-hour, commercial-free commitment from its audience. But the reward is a richly layered character study and love story, worthy of the franchise under which it airs."[5]
Melanie McFarland of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer graded the series B+ and commented it "manages to maintain true to the main story line, streamlining incidental characters to keep the film from becoming too unwieldy, which takes some effort considering the book's rich language and numerous characters.... Even so, this version, though a little better paced than the original, is still fairly sluggish. Given the book, perhaps that's unavoidable."[6]
Awards and nominations[edit]
In the UK, the serial was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Drama Serial but lost to Shackleton. Giacomo Campiotti was nominated Best New Director and Annie Symons was nominated for Best Costume Design.
In the US, the serial was nominated for the Satellite Award for Best Miniseries but lost to Angels in America.
DVD release[edit]
Acorn Media released a Region 1 DVD on 4 November 2003. It is in anamorphic widescreen format with an English audio track and subtitles. Bonus features include extensive interviews with the cast and crew, a photo gallery, a biography of Boris Pasternak, and cast filmographies.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ The Guardian, 10 January 2002
2.^ Jump up to: a b c d Behind the scenes of Doctor Zhivago at PBS.org
3.Jump up ^ New York Times review
4.Jump up ^ Variety review
5.Jump up ^ South Florida Sun-Sentinel review
6.Jump up ^ Seattle Post-Intelligencer review
External links[edit]
Doctor Zhivago at the Internet Movie Database
Masterpiece Theatre website
Interview with Hans Matheson
Cast and crew comments


[hide]
v ·
 t ·
 e
 
Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago


Characters
Yuri Zhivago
 

Adaptations
Doctor Zhivago (1965 film) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2002 TV miniseries) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2011 musical)
 

Music
"Lara's Theme"
 

Related
"Torn Between Two Lovers"
 

 


Categories: English-language films
British drama television series
Period television series
ITV television programmes
Films shot in Slovakia
Screenplays by Andrew Davies
2002 British television programme debuts
2002 British television programme endings
Television shows set in Russia
Television programs based on novels





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Doctor Zhivago (musical)
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Doctor Zhivago

Music
Lucy Simon
Lyrics
Michael Korie and Amy Powers
Basis
Based on the novel by Boris Pasternak of the same name
Productions
2011 Lyric Theatre, Sydney
Doctor Zhivago is a 2011 musical composed by Lucy Simon, lyrics by Michael Korie and Amy Powers, book by Michael Weller; it is based on Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel Doctor Zhivago.


Contents  [hide]
1 Production
2 Roles and original cast
3 Musical numbers
4 Recordings
5 Awards and nominations
6 References
7 External links

Production[edit]
It originally premiered as Zhivago at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2006 where Ivan Hernandez played the title role.[1] It was revised and premiered as Doctor Zhivago at the Lyric Theatre, Sydney on 19 February 2011 with Anthony Warlow as Yuri Zhivago, Lucy Maunder as Lara, Taneel Van Zyl as Tonia and Martin Crewes as Pasha. The production was directed by Des McAnuff. The show received positive reviews.[2][3]Doctor Zhivago ran from 19 February until 3 April 2011 in Sydney[4] before travelling to Melbourne in April until 29 May.[5] From there it had a limited run in Brisbane from 6 July to 31 July.[6]
Composer Lucy Simon has stated she always had Anthony Warlow in mind for the role of Yuri, after seeing him as Archibald Craven in the 1995 Australian production of her first musical, The Secret Garden.[7]
Roles and original cast[edit]
The cast for the Australian premiere of Doctor Zhivago, at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney[8]
Anthony Warlow (Yurii Zhivago)
Lucy Maunder (Lara)
Taneel Van Zyl (Tonia)
Martin Crewes (Pasha Antipov/Strelnikov)
Bartholomew John (Viktor Komarovsky)
Peter Carroll (Alexander)
Trisha Noble (Anna)
Tony Cogin (Priest)
Caitlin Berry
Johanna Allen
Gavin Andrew
Todd Goddard
Natalie Gamsu
Frank Hansen
Scott Hili
Glenn Hill
 Anton Berezin (Gints)
Luke Joslin (Liberius)
Annie Stanford (Gulyobova)
Todd Keys
Ben Lewis
Elise McCann
Kathleen Moore
Shaun Murphy
Chris Scalzo
Belinda Wollaston
Jamie Ward

Musical numbers[edit]
Act ITwo Words - Ensemble
Komarovsky's Toast - Komarovosky, Alex, Anna and Ensemble
Who is She - Yurii
Wedding Vows - Priest, Pasha, Lara and Ensemble
Its a Godsend - Pasha and Students
When the Music is Played - Lara
Watch the Moon - Yurii and Tonia
Forward March for the Czar - Gints and Soldiers
Something in the Air - Lara, Yurii, Tonia and Nurses
Blood on the Snow - Soldier and Ensemble
The Perfect World - Gulyobova, Shulygin, and Ensemble
Komarovsky's Toast (reprise) - Komarovosky
A Man Who Lives up to his Name- Yurii
In This House - Sasha, Alex, Yurii, Tonia and Ensemble
 Act IIWomen and Little Children/He's There - Ensemble and Lara
No Mercy at All - Strelinikov
In This House (reprise) - Alex
Love Finds You - Yurii, Lara, Strelnikov, Komarovsky and Tonia
Nowhere To Run - Liberius and Partisans
It Comes as no Surprise - Tonia and Lara
Watch the Moon (reprise) - Tonia
On The Edge of Time - Lara and Yurii
Now (reprise) - Lara and Yurii
Blood on the Snow (reprise) - Red Army
On The Edge of Time (reprise) - Katarina, Lara,Yurii and Ensemble

Recordings[edit]
An Australian cast album was planned but not released in 2011, with two songs by Maunder and Warlow eventuating.[9]
Now
On the Edge of Time
Awards and nominations[edit]

Year
Award
Category
Nominee
Role
Result
2011[10] Helpmann Awards Best Musical John Frost, Anita Waxman/Tom Dokton, Latitude Link, Power Arts, Chun-Soo Shin, Corcoran Productions  Nominated
2011[10] Helpmann Awards Best Direction of a Musical Des McAnuff  Nominated
2011[10] Helpmann Awards Best Choreography in a Musical Kelly Devine  Nominated
2011[10] Helpmann Awards Best Male Actor in a Musical Anthony Warlow Yuri Zhivago Nominated
2011[11] Helpmann Awards Best Female Actor in a Musical Lucy Maunder Lara Nominated
2011[10] Helpmann Awards Best Male Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical Martin Crewes Pasha Nominated
2011[10] Helpmann Awards Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical Taneel Van Zyl Tonia Nominated
2011[12] Green Room Awards Design Nick Eltis  Nominated
2011[13] Sydney Theatre Awards Judith Johnson Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical Lucy Maunder Lara Nominated
2011[14] Sydney Theatre Awards Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical Martin Crewes Pasha Won
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "La Jolla Playhouse premieres stirring, haunting Zhivago" by Charlene Baldridge, San Diego Community Newspaper
2.Jump up ^ "Dr Zhivago" by Jason Blake, The Sydney Morning Herald (21 February 2011)
3.Jump up ^ "Review of Dr Zhivago – a new musical at Sydney's Lric Theatre" by Alex Lalak, The Daily Telegraph (22 February 2011)
4.Jump up ^ David Kary (22 February 2011). "Dr Zhivago A New Musical". Retrieved 7 October 2013.
5.Jump up ^ Jo Litson (2 May 2011). "Dr Zhivago: the great Australian musical". Lime Light Magazine. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
6.Jump up ^ "Musical Doctor Zhivago opens in Brisbane". The Courier Mail. 5 July 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2013.
7.Jump up ^ Doctor Zhivago – The Show
8.Jump up ^ "Doctor Zhivago cast announced". Australian Stage. 30 October 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
9.Jump up ^ Simon Parris (7 June 2011). "No Recording for Zhivago". Theatre People. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
10.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Helpmann Award Nominees 2011". Helpmann Awards. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
11.Jump up ^ "Helpmann Awards (2011)". Live Performance Australia. Retrieved 27 January 2013.
12.Jump up ^ "2011 Green Room Award Nominations". Australian Stage. 20 February 2012. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
13.Jump up ^ "2011 Sydney Theatre Awards nominations announced". Australian Stage. 19 December 2011. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
14.Jump up ^ Ian Nisbet (17 January 2012). "2011 Sydney Theatre Awards Announced". Theatre People. Retrieved 2 October 2013.
External links[edit]
drzhivago.com.au
Dr. Zhivago on Floormic.com


[hide]
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 e
 
Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago


Characters
Yuri Zhivago
 

Adaptations
Doctor Zhivago (1965 film) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2002 TV miniseries) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2011 musical)
 

Music
"Lara's Theme"
 

Related
"Torn Between Two Lovers"
 

 


Categories: 2011 musicals
Musicals based on novels




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Yuri Zhivago
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Question book-new.svg
 This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2011)
Yuri Andreievich Zhivago is the protagonist and title character of the novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak.
Yuri Zhivago, a physician and poet, is sensitive nearly to the point of mysticism. Zhivago's idealism and principles stand in contrast to the successive brutality of World War I, the February and October Revolutions, the subsequent Russian Civil War, and the Red Terror. A major theme of the novel is how mysticism and idealism are destroyed by both the Bolsheviks and the White Army alike, as both sides commit horrible atrocities.
In popular culture[edit]
Yuri Zhivago has been portrayed by actors Omar Sharif, Hans Matheson, and Oleg Menshikov.


[hide]
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Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago


Characters
Yuri Zhivago
 

Adaptations
Doctor Zhivago (1965 film) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2002 TV miniseries) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2011 musical)
 

Music
"Lara's Theme"
 

Related
"Torn Between Two Lovers"
 

Stub icon This article about a character from a novel is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




 


Categories: Fictional doctors
Fictional poets
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Characters in Russian novels of the 20th century
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Lara's Theme
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 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2010)
"Lara's Theme" is the generic name given to a leitmotif written for the film Doctor Zhivago (1965) by composer Maurice Jarre. Soon afterward, it became the basis of the song "Somewhere My Love".[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Original composition
2 Variations
3 Vocal recordings
4 References
5 External links

Original composition[edit]
While working on the soundtrack for Doctor Zhivago, Maurice Jarre was asked by director David Lean to come up with a theme for the character of Lara, played by Julie Christie. Initially Lean had desired to use a well-known Russian song but could not locate the rights to it, and delegated responsibility to Jarre. After several unsuccessful attempts at writing it, Lean suggested to Jarre that he go to the mountains with his girlfriend and write a piece of music for her. Jarre says that the resultant piece was "Lara's Theme", and Lean liked it well enough to use it in numerous tracks for the film. In editing Zhivago, Lean and producer Carlo Ponti reduced or outright deleted many of the themes composed by Jarre; Jarre was angry because he felt that an over-reliance on "Lara's Theme" would ruin the soundtrack.
Jarre's esthetic fears proved unfounded commercially, however, as the theme became an instant success and gained fame throughout the world. By special request of Connie Francis, Paul Francis Webster later took the theme and added lyrics to it to create "Somewhere My Love". Francis, however, retired from the project when the lyrics were presented to her because she thought of them as too "corny". A few weeks later, Francis reconsidered her position and recorded the song nonetheless, but by then Ray Conniff had also recorded a version of his own, reaching #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1966. Conniff's version of the song also topped the "Easy listening" chart in the U.S. for four weeks. Despite Conniff's success, Francis also had her version released as a single, and although it failed to chart in the US, it became one of her biggest successes internationally, becoming one of the "Top 5" in territories such as Scandinavia and Asia. In Italy, her Italian version of the song, "Dove non so", became her last #1 success.
Various other versions of it have since been released. Italio-American tenor, Sergio Franchi covered the song as "Somewhere, My Love" in his 1967 RCA Victor album From Sergio – With Love.[2] "Lara's Theme" remains to this day one of the most recognizable movie themes ever written. A music box plays Lara's Theme at the beginning of the film The Spy Who Loved Me.
Variations[edit]
On the soundtrack album for Zhivago, there is no one track listed as "Lara's Theme". A variation of the piece appears in numerous sections, however. Some tracks briefly cite it, while others are composed entirely from the motif. The orchestration is varied, most notably with balalaika and orchestra.
One of the main reasons the theme is featured in so many tracks is that Lean had hired an impromptu balalaika orchestra from several Russian Orthodox Churches in Los Angeles; the musicians could only learn 16 bars of music at a time, and could not read written music. Although never credited, Edgar Stanistreet, a street musician of Philadelphia,[3] claimed that he was asked to play the song over the phone to an MGM executive, and was later taken into the studio to record.
Tracks which feature it include (from the 1995 Extended Soundtrack release):
1) Overture – a fast-paced march version of it plays during part of the pre-credits overture
2) Main Title – a significant portion of the Main Theme is devoted to "Lara's Theme"
3) Kontakion/Funeral Song – briefly cited at the end of the piece
12) After Deserters Killed The Colonel – again, a brief "quote" from it appears at the end of the song
14) Lara Says Goodbye To Yuri – The first extensive use of "Lara's Theme" is a sad version played with heavy balalaika and violin sections
23) Yuri Follows the Sound of the Waterfall
24) Tonya and Yuri Arrive At Varykino – briefly cited in the middle of the track
27) Yuri and the Daffodils – plays during the "changing of seasons" part of the film, the montonous winter theme builds into a full-fledged rendition of "Lara's Theme"
28) On A Yuriatin Street – a complete rendition with full orchestral backing
29) In Lara's Bedroom
30) Yuri Rides To Yuriatin
33) Yuri Is Escaping – a gloomy military march is punctuated by a quote from "Lara's Theme" which ultimately turns into a climax
37) Yuri Is Trying To Write
39) Lara Reads Her Poem
42) Then It's A Gift (End Title) – very similar to "On A Yuriatin Street", a complete, triumphant final rendition of the song
This soundtrack also includes jazz, rock 'n' roll, and swing versions of "Lara's Theme" which were performed by the MGM Studio Orchestra between takes.
Vocal recordings[edit]
Vocal versions include recordings by Connie Francis (in English as Somewhere, My Love, in Spanish as Sueño de Amor, and in Italian as Dove non so), by The Ray Conniff Singers (in English as Somewhere, My Love), by Karel Gott (in German as Weißt du, wohin), as well as by Tereza Kesovija, who sang it first in France, and then by John William and by Les Compagnons de la Chanson (in French as La Chanson de Lara). Tereza Kesovija also recorded Lara's Theme in Yugoslavia as Larina pjesma. Andy Williams released a version in 1967 on his album, Born Free.
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 6th Edition, 1996
2.Jump up ^ http://www.discogs.com Sergio Franchi
3.Jump up ^ " One of the great things about the lessons, in fact, is the stories he tells. He goes back a long way. Some of his traveling stories, of course, not everyone necessarily believes:" Peter Taney, in interview, 1978 An Interview with Peter Taney by John McLaughlin
External links[edit]
Main Title of "Doctor Zhivago" (Rhapsody) Only available to United States Internet users.
Preceded by
"The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" by Jack Jones Billboard Easy Listening Singles number-one single (Ray Conniff & The Singers version)
 July 30, 1966 (4 weeks) Succeeded by
"I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" by Petula Clark


[hide]
v ·
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 e
 
Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago


Characters
Yuri Zhivago
 

Adaptations
Doctor Zhivago (1965 film) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2002 TV miniseries) ·
 Doctor Zhivago (2011 musical)
 

Music
"Lara's Theme"
 

Related
"Torn Between Two Lovers"
 

 


Categories: 1965 compositions
Songs with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster
Songs with music by Maurice Jarre
Andy Williams songs
Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one singles
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Torn Between Two Lovers
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For the Mary MacGregor album, see Torn Between Two Lovers (album).


 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

"Torn Between Two Lovers"

Single by Mary MacGregor

from the album Torn Between Two Lovers

B-side
"I Just Want to Love You"
Released
1976
Format
7" single
Recorded
1976
Genre
Pop
Length
3:40
Label
Ariola America
Writer(s)
Peter Yarrow
 Phillip Jarrell
Producer
Peter Yarrow
Barry Beckett
Mary MacGregor singles chronology

 "Torn Between Two Lovers"
 (1976) "The Girl (Has Turned Into a Woman)"
 (1977)

"Torn Between Two Lovers" is the title of a pop song written by Peter Yarrow (of the folk music trio Peter, Paul & Mary) and Phillip Jarrell. It was inspired by Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel, Doctor Zhivago, which featured a man in love with two women. Yarrow originally intended the song to be sung by a man. Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio by Mary MacGregor in 1976, "Torn Between Two Lovers" reached #1 on the U.S. pop chart in February 1977 and the easy listening chart in the final week of 1976 and first week of 1977.[1] The song also peaked at #3 on the country charts.[2] "Torn Between Two Lovers" inspired the title of a television movie aired in 1979, starring Lee Remick, George Peppard, and Joseph Bologna, in which the song is played.
"Torn Between Two Lovers" has also been recorded by Johnny Rodriguez for his 1977 album Practice Makes Perfect, Anna-Lena Löfgren for her 1979 album Lev Som Du Lär and Anita Meyer for her 1984 album Face to Face. Connie Francis recorded "Torn Between Two Lovers" for her 1989 album release Where the Hits Are which was recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and contained a number of songs whose original versions were Muscle Shoals recordings.
"Torn Between Two Lovers" has been rendered in a number of languages including German: "Zwischen Zwei Gefühlen" by Penny McLean, Portuguese: "Só, Entre Dois Amores" by Celly Campello (pt), Dutch: "Hulpeloos verloren" by Conny Vandenbos and Swedish: "Ge Mig Dina Tankar" by Wizex.
Chart performance[edit]

Chart (1976/1977)
Peak
 position

Canadian RPM Top Singles[3] 1
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary 1
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 3
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1
U.S. Billboard Easy Listening 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 3

See also[edit]
List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1976 (U.S.)
List of Hot 100 number-one singles of 1977 (U.S.)
List of RPM number-one singles of 1977
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 152.
2.Jump up ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944-2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 211.
3.Jump up ^ 26 1977&type=1&interval=24&PHPSESSID=4dp17sl7hp9qmhhj3vmcenr836 RPM Volume 26 no.22



Stub icon This 1970s pop song-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.




 


Categories: 1976 singles
Mary MacGregor songs
Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles
Billboard Adult Contemporary number-one singles
RPM Top Singles number-one singles
RPM Adult Contemporary number-one singles
1970s pop song stubs





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