IMDb RATING
7.3/10
5.5K
YOUR RATING
Doctor Zhivago falls for Lara despite being engaged. Their forbidden love blossoms amidst the upheaval of the Russian Revolution, impacting his career and family.Doctor Zhivago falls for Lara despite being engaged. Their forbidden love blossoms amidst the upheaval of the Russian Revolution, impacting his career and family.Doctor Zhivago falls for Lara despite being engaged. Their forbidden love blossoms amidst the upheaval of the Russian Revolution, impacting his career and family.
- Nominated for 3 BAFTA Awards
- 5 nominations total
Browse episodes
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaKeira Knightley who was 17, lived on her own for the first time while filming for three months in Slovakia and Prague. She said her Prague flat was located in the center of the city's red-light district and the actress made friends with a local prostitute, who positioned herself directly under her window every night.
- Quotes
Yuri [to Professor]: I'll be a doctor for others, and a poet for myself.
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Story of the Costume Drama: The Greatest Stories Ever Told (2008)
- SoundtracksKorobochka
Russian traditional
At the wedding party of Zhivago and Tonya
Featured review
Another disappointing English adaptation of Dr Zhivago
Try to imagine two versions of a classic English novel filmed in Ukraine twice but never once in England and then maybe my criticism of this film adaptation be a little less unkind.
Firstly the actors: other users praise the acting abilities of Hans Matheson and Keira Knightley. OK, they both look good and Matheson looks totally right as Zhivago but in all honesty they are really not that exceptional. Looking decorative seems to have taken the place of the burning passion that an adaptation of this book needs. David Lean's film was equally guilty in this area.
What we really need is a full blooded Russian version of this novel. But with the current state of the Russian film industry and the decline of Russian culture in general, that is an unlikely prospect. Maybe this is finally an unfilmable book (lots of excellent books are).
Zhivago is a poet and in the book we read his poetry, so why isn't there any of his poetry in either film version? I'm sure a Russian director such as Tarkovsky could have achieved this and used the poetry to both literary and filmic effect. Sadly he's dead, and maybe he didn't want to do it anyway.
And what of Kris Marshall as Pasha? In the first episode he is an excellent actor and a very sexy one, but in Episode 2 we get a sequence where he appears as Strelnikov which to my eye seemed almost a direct copy of Lean's, the menacing train and then a cut from his hands to the deadly communist face of poor old Pasha. Not only does he visually change, but his acting plummets as well. I admit that years have passed and he has been through a war, but in film terms this just shows him as the same old evil communist stereotype we saw in David Lean's film.
The scenery is very pretty, but there again I'm not sure why we couldn't have gone to Russia itself. The Czech Republic though cheaper is not Russia.
Firstly the actors: other users praise the acting abilities of Hans Matheson and Keira Knightley. OK, they both look good and Matheson looks totally right as Zhivago but in all honesty they are really not that exceptional. Looking decorative seems to have taken the place of the burning passion that an adaptation of this book needs. David Lean's film was equally guilty in this area.
What we really need is a full blooded Russian version of this novel. But with the current state of the Russian film industry and the decline of Russian culture in general, that is an unlikely prospect. Maybe this is finally an unfilmable book (lots of excellent books are).
Zhivago is a poet and in the book we read his poetry, so why isn't there any of his poetry in either film version? I'm sure a Russian director such as Tarkovsky could have achieved this and used the poetry to both literary and filmic effect. Sadly he's dead, and maybe he didn't want to do it anyway.
And what of Kris Marshall as Pasha? In the first episode he is an excellent actor and a very sexy one, but in Episode 2 we get a sequence where he appears as Strelnikov which to my eye seemed almost a direct copy of Lean's, the menacing train and then a cut from his hands to the deadly communist face of poor old Pasha. Not only does he visually change, but his acting plummets as well. I admit that years have passed and he has been through a war, but in film terms this just shows him as the same old evil communist stereotype we saw in David Lean's film.
The scenery is very pretty, but there again I'm not sure why we couldn't have gone to Russia itself. The Czech Republic though cheaper is not Russia.
- How many seasons does Doctor Zhivago have?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origen
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Zhivago
- Filming locations
- Praha hlavni nadrazi, Wilsonova, Prague, Czech Republic(Railway station Moscow / Moskva)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content