31 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
31 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
" when will the devil take me ? " he asks rhetorically in lulling voice over .
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the spoiled title character of _onegin_ ( pronounced oh-negg-in ) is waiting on death to relieve him after a lifetime of rapacious behaviour .
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martha fiennes' debut feature is ( quite literally ) filmed poetry ( it's based on an epic russian poem by alexander pushkin ) , a profound study of regret , of how we confuse shame with guilt .
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when we first meet eugene onegin ( ralph , acting for his sister ; another brother , magnus , composed the score ) , a philandering aristocrat from st . petersburg , he has just inherited his uncle's estate .
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with plans to sell it , onegin pays a summer visit to the manor , which is located in an underpopulated russian countryside , and not long into the trip he meets a neighbouring family of blue bloods .
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smitten with olga larina ( headey ) , he befriends olga's fianc ? , vladimir lensky ( stephens ) , while olga's sister , tatyana ( tyler ) , romanticizing his flippant attitude ( he's a nineteenth bad boy ) , falls for onegin .
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in one sweaty , inky torrent of passion , tatyana writes him a love letter .
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he is at least intrigued by the note but rejects her affections , it is implied , because he can .
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soon after , tragedy strikes , and onegin makes himself scarce .
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when we catch up with him , six years later , he has just returned to st . petersburg , where at a grand ball he discovers that an old friend ( donovan ) has married a more womanly and wordly tatyana .
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this time , onegin finds her irresistable .
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what is most amazing about ralph fiennes' performance is his subtle physical transformation from dashing snob to miserly grouch .
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overwhelmed by a top hat , the onegin who pines for tatyana seems smaller in stature than the one who brushed her off , an ebeneezer scrooge trapped in christmas past .
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the actor has been constricted playing heroes for too long now-there's room to breathe in a role that's made up of shades of gray like " onegin " .
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petula clark sang of a universal phenomenon in " parking lot " : " you don't know what you've got ? til it's gone . "
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onegin's about-face on tatyana speaks for those of us ( read : most of us ) who need confirmation that someone or something is wanted by others before we want it as well .
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what the character feels is not jealousy but remorse , embarrassment , even , at having let her go .
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out of identification we feel empathy for onegin , a callous bastard .
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tatyana's emotions echo a thousand ditties , but that makes them no less vital .
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she changes , too , from a girl in crush to a woman with divided loyalties .
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tyler acquits herself surprisingly well among her uk co-stars , filling in sketchy gaps by expressing base sentiments in a series of wanton stares .
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they both have faces , mr . fiennes and ms . tyler , capable of conveying archetypal russian misery .
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_onegin_ could have added up to little more than a distinguished episode of " masterpiece theater " , even with its current cast of thoroughbreds intact , were martha fiennes not at the helm .
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an mtv background ( she cut her teeth directing rock videos for xtc and others ) has positively influenced her sense of pace ( though , thankfully , not her shot lengths-no spasmodic cutting here ) ; at just over 100 minutes , _onegin_ clicks along like a brisk walk through valleys of despair .
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the film has an atypical period look , as well .
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absent are the sumptuous tableware and antique furnishings that stand in for plot and character in those drippy merchant ivory productions .
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the sets are almost expressionistically bare , echoing the loneliness of the protagonists .
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( cinematographer remi adafarasin often allows space to engulf them ; i'm reminded the climax , which unfolds in a sea of white . )
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martha fiennes has a clear command of cinema , and her spare , often painfully human visual presentation of " yevgeny onegin " is arguably the most lucid translation of pushkin's difficult text yet .
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ms . fiennes may be the most exciting female presence behind a camera since jane campion .
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