(5 of 5)
How good will it be? "Having been so close to it, I have no idea," Lean confesses. "I'll know whether I like it the first time I see it with an audience. It doesn't have to be more than two people, and they don't have to open their mouths. I can just sense it." Moviegoers have already sensed that Zhivago will be good: advance sales now stand at $250,000. But just "good" will not be good enough for Lean. From the moment the film opens with its eerie long shot of a massive curved dam, along which a girl is seen approaching from a great distance, Lean's passion has been directed at sweeping up the spectator and holding him with an intensity and involvement that in cinematic form rivals Boris Pasternak's novel. For Lean, nothing less will do.