'Doctor Zhivago' turns 60: when Madrid became revolutionary Moscow during the Franco dictatorship

July 1965 will forever be etched in the history of Spanish cinema and also in the memory of the Spanish capital. Carlo Ponti , Italian producer and husband of the famous and voluptuous Sophia Loren, and David Lean , British director ( The Bridge on the River Kwai , Ryan's Daughter or Empire of the Sun ), chose Madrid to become one of the main locations for filming Doctor Zhivago , a blockbuster that had been born with the impossible dream of being filmed in the Soviet Union.

The Cold War thwarted that desire, but the Spanish alternative offered technical solidity, lower costs, and the possibility of recreating Moscow in the midst of the Franco dictatorship. With Ponti at the helm of production and Lean at the height of his career after filming Lawrence of Arabia , the Madrid shoot brought together a large group of Spanish technicians and extras who made it possible to magically transport the viewer to the heart of the October Revolution.

The Canillas neighborhood, then on the northern outskirts of the city, was transformed into a Moscow street stretching over 700 meters, complete with trams, shop windows, and an urban atmosphere reminiscent of pre-revolutionary Russia. Next door, Delicias station (inaugurated in 1880 as Madrid's first monumental station and closed in 1969 after the opening of Chamartín) became a Soviet terminal in the eyes of Lean and his team.

The novel and a Madrid-like Moscow

The story of Doctor Zhivago was born from the pen of Russian poet and Nobel Prize winner Boris Pasternak , who recounted in his novel the convulsions of the Russian Revolution through the life of the doctor and poet Yuri Zhivago and his passionate relationship with Lara. Set at the beginning of the 20th century, the plot intertwines romance and personal tragedy with the historical changes that shook Russia .

For Lean, the work was the best novel he had ever read. That's why he commissioned Robert Bolt , a screenwriter with whom he had previously collaborated, to adapt it for film. The result was a script that was meant to capture the harshness of the Russian winter , although reality forced him to improvise very different solutions during that hot Spanish summer: marble dust and salt were used as snow for the exteriors.

Canillas and Delicias were key pieces in the recreation of Moscow. Crowd scenes were filmed there that, seen sixty years later, seem impossible to have been shot during the Franco dictatorship . One of them, in particular, became legendary: 500 extras marching through the streets to the rhythm of The Internationale .

What seemed like a cinematic choreography had a great symbolic charge. Many of those extras were Spanish Republicans , veterans of the Civil War, who found well-paying work on film: up to 1,500 pesetas a day , a figure more than tenfold greater than the usual salary of an extra. While the Civil Guards watched over the set , they passionately sang the communist anthem , creating a most picturesque image of Spain under Franco's regime.

After a long and eventful shoot that concluded in October 1965, Lean accelerated the editing process to premiere it in New York in December and thus be able to compete in the 1966 Oscars (Spaniards were not able to enjoy this 197-minute feature film until October 1966). The effort was worth it: Doctor Zhivago won five statuettes , including adapted screenplay, photography, costume design, art direction, and the unforgettable music by Maurice Jarre.

The film, which cost the Italian $11 million to make, ended up grossing nearly $200 million worldwide , becoming Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's biggest hit after Gone with the Wind . Although some critics accused Lean of sugarcoating the Russian Revolution, time has cemented it as a classic in film history.

The exhibition at the Railway Museum

Six decades later, the Railway Museum is reliving that summer with the exhibition " Zhivago Station. 60 Years of an Epic Film Shoot " , which will remain open until 28 October . The exhibition brings together large-format photographs, many from the EFE Agency archive, documents from the period, press clippings, props and even Miguel Delibes' correspondence with the MGM studio , as the writer from Valladolid supervised the adaptation of the dialogues into Spanish.

The tour also includes a video with testimonies from experts and some of the people who participated in the filming, as well as pieces such as costumes and props used in the railway scenes. The exhibition can be visited every day from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. during the summer months. During the month of October, the exhibition is open Monday to Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Saturdays and holidays, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., and Sundays, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. General admission costs 7 euros and reduced-price tickets cost 4 euros.

The film won five Oscars and grossed $200 million worldwide.

The space will take center stage on September 11th at 8:00 p.m. , when the film will be screened at the museum itself . An event that pays tribute not only to the work of Lean and Ponti, but also to those days when Madrid dressed up as Moscow and hundreds of Spaniards brought one of the greatest blockbusters of the 20th century to life.