by Luben Omaiski
VERGE
Vol 1 Issue 5
December 2000



Martha Fiennes' "Onegin" is probably the most under-appreciated movie released in 2000. It had a short-lived, limited theatrical run and then it quickly became available on video. The sad truth is that it's the best film of the year and completely worthy of Oscar attention, which, if judging by its current state of obscurity, it won't get.

"Onegin", starring Ralph Fiennes [the director's brother] and Liv Tyler, is based on "Evgeny Onegin", the classic novel by Alexander Pushkin, written in the mid-nineteenth century, also known as the "Russian century" due to the incredible output of great literature by Russians during that time. The book is among the greatest ever written and if you have read it you probably agree.

Faithful to the novel, the movie centers on the life of the title character [played by Ralph Fiennes] - a disillusioned and cynical nobleman, bored by the sophistication and snobbery of life in the city and amused by the eagerness of the provincial aristocracy to reach the level of fakeness of their city counterparts. When Onegin's uncle dies, he becomes the sole inheritor of a rather large feudal estate in the country, lands and serfs included. He takes over the property and plays with the idea of tasting life in the country for a while, a notion, that horrifies even his city accustomed personal servant. Onegin makes his acquaintance with a local young poet, who's engaged to one of the neighboring family's two daughters. Being a nobleman from the city, he causes quite a stir among his new wealthy but provincial neighbors and becomes a target for their dinner and party invitations.

And this is how Onegin meets Tatyana [Liv Tyler], the neighbors' other daughter, who unlike her sister is a sensitive and well-read girl comfortable with life in the country. Tatyana is immediately fascinated by the honesty with which Onegin, being the kind of man never to hold back, expresses his contemptuous opinions regarding city life snobbery. Remember, this was a time when it was a sign of fine manners to converse in French when one found oneself in appropriate circles.

Tatyana's declaration of love is quickly rejected by Onegin's cynical arguments: Love leads to marriage; love is short-lived and then is replaced by deception. Then quite unintentionally, Onegin, always brutally honest in his speech, hurts the pride of the overly sensitive young poet and is challenged to a duel which results in the latter's premature death. Shaken by the waste of life, Onegin decides to travel the world.

Cut to six years later. Onegin has returned to Saint Petersburg where he finds Tatyana, now married to a prince and herself a princess, transformed into a stunning society lady. Obsessed with her new image and social status, he professes his love for her, only to be given a hard proof that deception does not always exist in marriage, even if it's a loveless one. Even in the name of a greater love. The irony of broken hearts...

The performances by both Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler are sumptuous and the best of their careers. The screenplay by Michael Ignatieff and Peter Ettedgui is a first class version of the novel. Martha Fiennes's direction is classy and sure-handed and it marks the arrival of a director whose future work is to be looked forward to