THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND "DR ZHIVAGO"

The moment I wrote the title for this one I heard the rustle of romantics everywhere reaching for their Kleenex. The epic love story of Dr. Yuri Zhivago and his Lara has now its own place among the literature’s truly great love affairs. But as famous as Boris Pasternak’s novel – and maybe even more so – is the MGM epic, one of the last great epics ever made, starring Omar Sheriff and Julie Christie. Emotions run so high and so much is at stake in this great adventure that even at three hours long the film seems to fly by… If we haven’t drowned in our own tears by the end like in Alice in Wonderland that is… =)
Dr Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago (played by Omar Sheriff – and ladies, you have to admit… he WAS a stunner in the true sense of the word…) is an orphan, brought up by family friends at the beginning of the 20th century. He is an idealistic young man with a warm heart and devoted to his trade, curing people. As they have grown love has blossomed between him and his adoptive sister Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin who I also admire greatly). Life seems to be treating him pretty well until the First World War and then the Russian Revolution changes their lives forever. Fate brings him together with Larissa on the front; he is a doctor and Larissa is a nurse. They are not complete strangers, their paths have briefly crossed before; but they are both married now and have young children. Even so, the bond between them is so strong that love blossoms despite their best efforts. But quite apart from the fact that they are both married the Revolution has changed their lives back home forever. Soon survival itself will become a serious issue, but is love stronger than this? More importantly will it support the two of them until better times when they can be together?
Of course this is one of the great epic love stories of the 20th century, of course Omar Sheriff with his legendary, shining eyes and expressive face coupled with the demure beauty of Julie Christie make for one of the most successful couples on screen but believe me when I tell you I have put this film in the “civil war films week” for a reason. The beauty of the film lays mainly in the fact that director David Lean has struck a great balance between the main love story and the effects of the civil war raging around them. For example, I was remarking to my mother that only in films of yore would you not be surprised to see that the main protagonists had not even met yet 70 minutes into the film (have a heart, it is 192 minutes in total). In a typical film, in a modern film in fact, the main action would be centered round the couple and all the bits of their lives that didn’t pertain to whether or not their love would survive would be elided or passed over quickly. Here the aim isn’t merely to present a love story. For example, after Yuri and Lara part company at the end of Russia’s involvement in the First World War, we follow Yuri back to Moscow. We see how life has changed there, how his wife and elderly father are surviving with the greatest difficulty and watch Yuri try to adapt to the new life. Of course the new life under Soviet rule was by no means easy; apart from the strictness, the censure on pretty much everything (stretching even to Yuri’s poems) famine and disease was everywhere, a fact we can witness thanks to Yuri’s job as a doctor. One could argue that these discomforts perpetrate Yuri and Lara coming back together again, but my point is that they could have been portrayed in a much more concise manner. Instead, David Lean (and Boris Pasternak) take the time to show us what life in the Soviet Union immediately after the revolution was like… The tragedy of Lara and Yuri is that they dream of building a new life together that would mean destroying their previous lives. This would have been difficult at best, but the new regime in Russia means their old lives are being destroyed anyway, and they are being destroyed in such a way that things may end up actually and physically destroying them and their loved ones. It is this pathos that makes Dr. Zhivago such a great story AND such a great love story…
Unmissable on many counts I’d say…

SAURA AND A DARK SPAIN : "CRIA CUERVOS"

Although he is a director of world-renown, I know very little indeed about the works of Carlos Saura before I watched Cria Cuervos. I knew he had done a lot of work about dancing, films about dancing and films with a lot of dancing in it but that was about it. So when I read the topic of Cria Cuervos on the internet I didn’t know what to expect – except that it probably wouldn’t contain much dancing that is). I can safely say that whatever else it does the film takes one by surprise. It also comes with a bit of a caution; it is not an “average” film, it leaves a lot of running to the spectator. But I found it worth it in the end. In the end is very much the key-word here, but let me get to the plot without digressing much further…
As for the plot, I don’t know how much to tell you or how to begin… After the death of their father, their only guardian their mother being dead, three sisters; Irene, Ana and Maite enter the custody of their aunt. Their aunt and their old grandmother come to live with them in their old house and a new period in their lives begin. Maite and Irene, the youngest and oldest respectively, get on with the business of living. Ana the middle child however, has a tougher time adapting. She lives literally surrounded by memories of the past and her childhood, the death of her father brining back memories of the death of their mother and of other times when she was alive, not such happy times either…
Ok, so as far as setting the mood is concerned the film goes straight to the top of the class. The film’s entire atmosphere is of one of those long, austere afternoons we all remember from our childhoods. Usually we are visiting somewhere, we don’t have much to do, and we want to go home. The afternoon stretches ahead of us, dark and unpromising… That’s what this film feels like. This is not a criticism in any way because this is exactly what the film is meant to feel like. Ana is not happy. She wants to go back “home” but home here is not a physical place; especially since technically she hasn’t left the house she grew up in. Home for Ana is a place where her mother is still alive. And her mother, played by a hauntingly beautiful Geraldine Chaplin, is present in her day to day life almost as if she were still alive. Be it flashbacks (that, by the way, are constructed in such a way that at the beginning one is often not sure whether what we are watching is “actually happening” or not) or her imagination her mother is always there. Her father, Ana is obviously less pleased with. But he “has his place” at home too. What Ana doesn’t want is to live with her rather overly austere aunt. And it is only when she actually takes action to do something about this state of affairs that we actually understand what the film has been about from the start… Now, is leaving the “surprise” so obscure right until the end a good thing or a bad thing? I couldn’t rightly say. All I can say is that I only watched until the end out of a sense of duty and then, only after I had the afore-mentioned “a-ha” moment did I appreciate the beauty of the film. So, if you want to watch something original, go for it. Be patient though. Saura doesn’t give a way an inch more than what is necessary; you will have to put two and two together for yourselves…