One of David Lean’s career-defining projects, Doctor Zhivago (1965), tells the doomed love story of a doctor/poet torn between his feelings for two women in the tumultuous climate of 20th century Russia, with the collapse of the Romanov Dynasty and the rise of a Soviet dictatorship. The film carried on the decades-long trend of creating epic, elaborate historical romances that began in the late 1930s with Gone with the Wind.
Adapted from Boris Pasternak’s 1957 novel, the story itself is a piece of moving history, as the manuscript was smuggled out of Russia to different parts of the world by Pasternak’s admirers after it was banned by the Soviet Union. Less than ten years later, it became part of “movie history” – a lavish and heartbreaking love story set amid the suffocations of Communist ideology and practice. With a first-rate cast, including Rod Steiger, Julie Christie, and Geraldine Chaplin, it is a timeless work of cinema and always a fan-favorite.
On August 2, 2020, FOLCS was joined by actress, Margarita Levieva (The Deuce, In From The Cold, Diary Of A Teenage Girl, Sleeping With Other People) for a Conversation.
This event was produced in partnership with the New York Film Academy (NYFA).
Watch Conversations on Essential Cinema: Doctor Zhivago here.
Margarita Levieva
Actress
Margarita Levieva can most recently be seen starring in the critically acclaimed David Simon HBO show The Deuce, opposite James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal. She can next be seen starring opposite Josh Hartnett and Bruce Dern in the independent film Inherit The Viper directed by Anthony Jergen. When shooting resumes in Spain, she stars in the Netflix show In From The Cold.
Margarita’s past film credits include: The Diary Of A Teenage Girl directed by Marielle Heller, Sleeping With Other People directed by Leslye Headland, James White directed by Josh Mond, For Ellen directed by So Yong Kim, The Lincoln Lawyer directed by Brad Furman and opposite Matthew McConaughey, and Spread directed by David MacKenzie. Margarita’s past theater credits include: Impressionism at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre opposite Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen and The Retributionists at Playwright Horizons opposite Adam Driver.
Margarita was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia where she trained as a dancer and gymnast. She immigrated with her mother to Brooklyn, New York at the age of 11. She received her bachelor’s degree in economics at NYU and completed the Meisner Training Program at the William Esper Studio in New York. As well as being an actress, she is an artist, and a professionally- trained dancer.