![]() ![]() But as one of his first conditions, told Ponti that he didn’t want Sophia Loren for the lead role of Lara in the film. Since he had already read the book, Lean agreed. However, the studio was concerned about the scope of the production and told Ponti they would only consider backing the film if he could talk David Lean into directing it. Ponti bought the rights, and took the project to MGM in Hollywood in the hope of securing the needed financing. There, a copy found its way into the hands of film producer Carlo Ponti, who thought it might be an ideal vehicle for his wife, Sophia Loren. His previous two works had been promptly banned by Soviet authorities for their “nonacceptance of the socialist revolution.” Wanting to avoid that fate for his latest novel, Pasternak gave it to friends who smuggled it out of the country and found a publisher for it in Italy. Pasternak took ten years to write the book, but when he had finished, knew it would never be published in his own country. Written by a Soviet writer named Boris Pasternak, Zhivago was an epic novel in the truest sense of the word, and had a tumultuous history all its own. ![]() It was a novel called Doctor Zhivago which described an unusual love triangle set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. One of the books Lean read on that particular voyage had won the Nobel Prize for Literature back in 1958. After that production, Lean knew he was in dire need of a vacation – and as part of his mental recuperation, took an ocean cruise so he could relax, de-stress, and catch up on his reading. Perhaps he was thinking of his experience making Lawrence of Arabia… which despite all the pain and suffering it had caused, had left him lauded as a cinematic giant. I make them with 150 of my worst enemies.” Lean wasn’t impressed, and was said to have responded: “I don’t make my movies with 18 close friends. First, he said he would gather 18 or so of his closest friends together, and they’d make their movie in a true spirit of friendship and collaboration. During their meeting, Bergman described how he made his films. Toward the end of his life, David Lean had an opportunity to sit down and chat with another of the world’s greatest filmmakers: Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Welcome to the fourth and final post in this particular series. ![]()
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