I saw this picture a couple of nights ago. I remember 10 years back I was running a film night and I selected this film. I knew a chap named Raymond then. He is the godfather of my baby now. Anyhow, I did not know Raymond well that time. We took money at the door. We showed, Onegin = my choice. Raymond and I fell into conversation. We discovered that we had a common interest, Carolyn Duffy’s cleavage. Because I stayed out gassing with Raymond I never went in to see the film. Ray is a Conservative now but back then he was a Labour man.
Anyhow, Eugene Onegin is a cynical Russian of noble stock. He is in his 30s and unmarried, without romantic attachments though he is hetero. His uncle dies. He inherits an estate. He is happy for this reason that his uncle has snuffed it. He inherits souls – that is to say the serfs on the estate.
He spent some time in th country. Liv Tyler plays a girl of 16 or so who falls in love with him. Onegin spurns her as her family is gentry but not nobility. There is a duel over some insult later. Onegin kills a kindly youth in this. Onegin’s persona changes. He goes in a Grand Tour in the west. Some years later he returns. His cousin has married, but whom? He has wed Liv Tyler. Onegin finds that he himself has fallen for her. He has become of man of emotional depth. Liv Tyler has the title princess as her husband in a prince. Many people in Tsarist Russia had the title prince who wer not part of the imperial family. I say many by which I mean several families. Onegin pleads Liv to leave her husband and shack up with him – he loves her. She rejects him.
The film was marvelously shOT. i THOUght one house was Stowe but it was not. The outdoor scenes are gorgeous and the clothes are so stylish. The pristine snow background brings out the colours all the more vividly. It is visually very gratifying. The poor are ignored. The tale closely mirrors the life of Pushkin who wrote it as an epic poem. FEINNES give a great performance in this film directed bu his sister Martha. A directorial debut. Feinnes is just the right man toi play the part. GE SEEM CALLoUS, COLD, he is haughty and effete. He has no swagger but is somehow menacing. He is calculating but not reticent. He exudes a sense of superiority.
It is wirht your while to watch it.
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