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Ralph Fiennes: Yes, I read it when I was a drama student in English and I just became very intrigued by it. The character of Onegin, he's a complex character, a dandy, a cynic and he's set up opposite this young girl, Tatyana, who writes him this very openly emotionally courageous love letter, and that starts this unpeeling of him - eventually into a man who is torn apart by emotion.
He's cynical, world weary and sophisticated and has to convey all this with surprisingly little dialogue.
Martha, my sister who directed the movie, and I deliberately went for restrain. We didn't want a wordy script at all and I hope we've got some succinct kind of dialogue in which short sentences carry some weight and undertone and sub-text. You can say, "Your suit is great Jonathan, it's great", and convey a slight undercurrent that you might not like it very much. That's not the case by the way!
Pushkin is revered in Russia, and you chose to hold the premier in St. Petersburg. How did the Russians take to it?
They had a very mixed response. They were in a state of shock. Even Russians wouldn't dare film Eugene Onegin, and they were in a state of shock that English westerners would dare to make the film. I think the Soviets have made Pushkin sacred, that you can't touch him, he is untouchable. But when I read it I had no idea how Pushkin was regarded - ignorance is bliss I suppose. Martha, my sister and I just went in and said we'll do this, we'll create these scenes, and as we were working on it dawned on us quite what we were taking on. But I still thought that we should take it there, and it happened that the film was finished to chime in with the bicentennial celebrations of Pushkin's birth. It was extraordinary the response. There were purists who didn't like the film. You can't film Pushkin, you can't film Onegin, and we took out Tatyana's famous dream sequence and we took out the voice of the author, which is really central to reading it. But there are other people who really warmed to it and they seemed to feel that it was an English version, definitely English, it wasn't how the Russians would do it, but despite that it was honourable and it had integrity to the source and they liked it.
What prompted you to film most of it here?
Finances really. When we started off I wanted to film every frame in Russia, I thought it would be great to go right to the vast rural wastes of Russia and shoot some of those country scenes, but it's very expensive there they don't have a strong infrastructure for movies there at all. We shot one week in St. Petersburg and we got some key footage of the streets of St. Petersburg and one vast open, snowy landscape which opens the film and then we had to look for locations here that could believably be Russia, and shoot them from certain angles. We created one St. Petersburg scene in Levesdon in Hertfordshire, using exaggerated perspectives and using very short people from a far distance against a painted backdrop, but to the naked eye, from a distance of a quarter of a mile it looks like you're looking across to the Hermitage.
The ice skating scene - and you pull it off fabulously well.
Even some of the Russians when they saw it thought that it was St. Petersburg.
Tell me about working with your sister.
People keep asking me what it was like, and asking her what it was like, as if they expected us to be having sibling spats all the time, but we didn't. Any clashes we had were ones to do with the script, to do with choices with the film, and we resolved them. We had so much discussion beforehand on the dialogue and scenes - she did a lot of the screenplay herself - that by the time we got to shooting it we had a strong foundation of common understanding between us.
This is another film for you set in the past with a different pace of life. Is there something in you that is attracted to that?
Yes, I think when I'm not filming I go to where it's simple and uncomplicated - or I'm just drawn to certain kinds of parts.
You get to wear some fantastic clothes in this movie. Are they accurate to the style of the period?
They're completely accurate. And the cult of the dandy is very strong. It started here with Beau Brumel and Prince Regent - very Y shaped, like a cocktail glass. Very broad on top, narrowing, tapering right down to the legs. Very flattering for men, less flattering for women. We had two brilliant costume designers working together - John Bright and Chloe Evalenski. John Bright runs Cos Prop here, which does mostly all the period dramas. He has a profound knowledge of the detail of it and Chloe brings her own particular flair and perfectionism, so together they created an amazing wardrobe for the characters. Onegin has to have incredible top hats, worn at a tilted angle.
You look very good in a top hat - you carry it off. Casting must have been very difficult. I think Liv Tyler was excellent as Tayana, but some think she didn't have the maturity necessary.
She's somewhat idealised, Tatyana, but she has to have an internal life and an internal innocence, you have to sense there's something in the purity behind her eyes, some untouched quality that's truly innocent, not in a lightweight, fey way, but almost a transcendent innocence about her. And strength of mind about her. And it was a quality I think that couldn't really be acted, the actress had to possess it innately. We looked at a number of really good people who were all very good, but when the camera was on her, Liv Tyler had this quality of internal stillness and integrity and we were all unanimous that it should be her. And in Russia there was one review that had a few quibbles about everything else in the film, but he picked her out as "being the Tatyana we know - it is her."
Your brother Magnus did the music and it's a very strong score. How was it working with him as a producer?
I didn't have much to do with Magnus in the working process, I was out of the country when Martha was finishing the film, but we were very wary about bringing in another sibling. Martha had worked with Magnus many times on commercials, he produced music for her, and she was being steered away from making another sibling choice, and in the end she said to me I'm sorry, I just know that the music I want and I feel Magnus will understand. He will get it. He will get what I want, and so I said - great that's what we have to do. And I think it's a great score.
Is there a special understanding between siblings.
There is that, but also I think a little goes a long way with family. I think it would be tough to do it all the time. I wouldn't say once is enough, but I think it will be a long time, certainly for Martha. If I was her, I would want to be away from that. I think it was hardest for her because I've been in a few films and had my opinions and ideas and it was hard for her to have me slightly over her shoulder sometimes. She showed extraordinary calm and patience. All the crew adored her. She's fine without her brothers too.
Let's go from top hats to bowler hats and The Avengers. That is one of the worst films ever made - and yet perversely enjoyable. What did you think?
I loved making it. I had a great time. Of course I was disappointed that it was taken to the cleaners in the way it was. I can understand, because with hindsight I think if you're going to tackle The Avengers, you should probably re-invent it in a big way. We had lots of people working on it who really loved the original and we wanted to honour the original series in tone and in style and we may have been over faithful. I've had lots of criticisms for looking terrible in a bowler hat.
I think you looked great, I just think the script was a little clumsy.
Yeah - it didn't work and I think Patrick McNee is the only Steed, but I had a great time pretending to be John Steed. I liked the nonsense aspect of the Avengers, the idea that he should come out of every fight immaculate and never bat an eyelid. Never be fazed by anything, and I thought that would be a great thing to play. But it didn't come off and I'm sorry about that. Jeremiah said this is your chance to play someone who when he walks into the room, likes who he is. And I enjoyed attempting that, even if it didn't work.
Well Onegin is a successful, triumphant and delightful viewing experience, what's the next film we can look forward to?
I finished last Spring shooting The End of the Affair which is an adaptation by Neil Jordan, directed by Neil Jordan, of the Graham Greene novel with Julianne Moore and Stephen Ray and Ian Hart. It's an adulterous love affair, another struggle with Catholicism, God being the real competitor.
I look forward to seeing that, and once again, congratulations with
Onegin, which I enjoyed and admired tremendously.
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© EL STEPHO
Added to the RF Reading Room on January 7, 2000
EL STEPHO