Vintage Love
I've been terribly inconsistent as of late, as filing deadline for Edge Magazine loomed on top of my new day job eating up the time I haven't spent in rehearsal for Jane Eyre: The Musical (which isn't as strange as you might think). The beginning of the year, as is often the case, turns out to be a lousy time to see movies unless you're going to festivals. Speaking of, I'm going to be hitting South by Southwest this year with my pardner Kirk, of Eclectic Boogaloo fame. Expect a series of snippets leading up to the festival itself.
It pains me to admit kinship with Must Love Dogs, a movie last year I hoped I would fall in love with but knew I would probably never call back. John Cusack's character made part of his measure of a woman hinge on whether or not she liked Doctor Zhivago, David Lean's classic film about love, loss, and revolution in early 20th century Russia.
The story of the doctor-poet (or poet-doctor, depending on your perspective) still resonates today, as does Lean's Lawrence of Arabia. Themes of political bodies invading lives violently and unnaturally carry through both films, but the greatest difference between the two is the epic love story of Zhivago, rarely paralleled even today, over forty years later. In Zhivago, love is messy, complicated, and not remotely easy by any stretch.
FSU's Student Life Cinema presented the film this past Sunday (2/12) as the latest in their Silver Screen Sundays series of classic films, which have included everything from Singin' in the Rain and The Wizard of Oz to the original 1954 Godzilla and the aforementioned Lawrence of Arabia. Upcoming films in the series include Alred Hitchcock's Rear Window and the James Dean career-defining Rebel Without a Cause.
The hundred or so people there with me last night were half of the reason to go see it, aside from the "first time on a big screen" factor. Sitting with a modern audience and gathering their reactions on a forty year-old movie is an absolutely priceless experience.
The parallels between the way the Reds were referring to the White Guard as "counter-revolutionaries" was strikingly similar to the "insurgents" we hear about on the news. The short, bitter ideological debate between Zhivago and Strelnikov was still stirring, representing the two major viewpoints in world politics: the clenched fist and the open hand. The tender, passionate exchange between Yuri and Lara still envelops you the moment she reads the poems and says, "This...this is not me, it's you" and he corrects her by pointing at the verse's title. Kamarovsky's return was greeted with a healthy snicker from the audience, and the Balelaike reveal produced the delighted chuckle I remember from the first time I saw the film.
The story was remade as a British TV miniseries a few years ago with Keira Knightley in the Lara role. Though I haven't seen it, I've heard alternatively that it's horrible and that it's better than this movie. Knightley's okay, but no one will outdo Julie Christie...she owns Lara. Lara is the definition of that irresistible woman with a thousand problems. The one that it makes no logical sense to pursue in a world that makes no logical sense in the first place. The one who has used men and been used herself to the point that she wants to "just live" and be happy.
There's always been a desperate shortage of Lara's in the world, and there always will be. Women, just as men do, too easily fall into the trap of masking their feelings and desire with propriety. Human beings as a species are social creatures, and the easy choice is always to conform to the social mores that surround you. True bravery comes in being bold enough to take the risks inherent in being with someone else, whether from a different social class, or race, or sex than people expect or approve.
The time Yuri and Lara had was comparatively brief, but rewarding and fulfilling, more so than the long stretches of time they spent thinking about each other and "going through the motions". If you give a thought to Valentine's Day this year, choose to be passionate, reckless, and irrational, but most importantly, be honest.