 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
 |
|
Ralph Fiennes, last seen sporting a bowler and a pained look in The Avengers, could soon be stirring those lustful period embers as the frock-coated, piercing-eyed Evgeny Onegin in lush new adaptation of the Russian poem.
However, quite what his female fans will make of him in a corset remains to be seen. It is a distressingly feminine intrusion into what would otherwise be the very embodiment of the stereotype Byronic hero - dark, handsome, enigmatic, tragic.
But in keeping with a man of his social class he is also a dandy who pays as much attention to his hair and dress as a 20th century It girl.
The classic piece of literature has haunted Ralph since he was a drama student. "The idea of playing Onegin struck me very strongly," he said. "The narrative symmetry, Pushkin's visual detail. I thought it would be a great role to play. It just sat in my head until I suggested it to Martha".
Martha being Martha Fiennes, an accomplished pop video and commercial director, and yet another of the artistically inclined Fiennes siblings - brother Magnus also composed the music.
Onegin marks her film directing debut and is a rich chocolate boxy affair, with stunning snow covered scenery, swooping camera work and smouldering glances.
The Fiennes' attempts to transfer the novel in verse caused some stirring in Russia where Pushkin is regarded as a literary deity. "We were both ignorant of his standing in Russia at the time," said Ralph. "There people regard him with a sense of wonder and some of them were appalled anyone should try to film his work."
The film's premiere in St Petersburg met with a predictably mixed response.
"Some people were quite snotty about it. I would say 70 or 80 per cent respected the film and thought we had treated the material with some integrity.
"No Russian director would dare to touch it, it is so sacred, They're quite elitist and nationalistic about their culture so some people were quite impatient about it."
American actress Liv Tyler plays the lovelorn Tatyana whose affections are so cruelly rejected. Despite her youth and lack of professional training, the Fiennes felt she possessed the natural grace that the part required.
"One of the reasons we wanted Liv was there was a quality in Tatyana we felt couldn't be acted," explained Ralph.
"In her tests this inner sense of poise was very, very strong. The other actresses were trying to act poise and I don't think you can. It's an inner serenity, a sense of an inner world,
"I learnt a lot from her. She is incredibly natural in front of a camera. She instinctively seems to now what it needs and does things that other actors take a long time to learn.
"In the same way a theatre actor senses the audience, a natural screen actor senses the camera. It's intuitive. I don't mean they pose to it or they show off to it, they are just aware of it. It was that combined with this inner world she seems to have behind her eyes. She was a delight."
With the exception of Strange Days, which was set in a futuristic 1999, Ralph seems to have been firmly shackled in period clothes of one kind or another since his chillingly memorable debut as the camp commandant in Schindler's List.
"That's really just coincidence. I'm quite open to doing non-period film. I just haven't come across anything that has made me go 'I must do this'."
He has also scorned obviously commercial ventures in favour of more cerebral choices that have sometimes met with lukewarm financial and critical success.
"I feel there's less pressure on me (to do American films) than there was early on. I just want to do the parts, the films and the plays that I have an instinctive gut response to.
"I find it harder to make choices because of some supposed map of a career. That this would be a good thing to do because it's this big a budget, it's this studio and it'll do this for my profile. I don't find that a helpful approach.
"I think I've been quite lucky in that the films I've made with American money, including Schindler's List and Quiz Show had very strong directorial control.
"Spielberg and Redford were doing the films they wanted to do and were tough enough in their standing to say no. The fact Robert Redford cast me in Quiz Show when there were a lot of Americans who could have played my character, shows that."
This is the second time that Ralph has worked with Martha, after she cast him in one of her early commercials.
Her description of her bashful brother's role as a "chic, tousle-haired, good looking person waking up" had him lunging to cover the mike in embarrassment.
Despite the occasional artistic spat they both enjoyed the experience of making Onegin enough to want to repeat it, and have even considered bringing actor brother Joe in on the act.
"I think the assumption was that if you scrapped and fought and argued as children that could transfer into an adult working relationship," said Ralph.
"Of course we had disagreements but only about the work and what would make it a better film. We resolved those things. Maybe one of us is living with a choice they would have preferred to have done differently. But on the bigger scale, 99 per cent of things were decided in harmony. Then there was a healthy one per cent where we had to compromise.
"We worked incredibly closely on this project and I have a feeling we will work together again, I'm also sure we would like to do something with Joe, just not immediately.
"If I was Martha I think I'd want to make a film in a different context and
without my big brother standing right next to me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
© EL STEPHO
Added to the RF Reading Room on November 26, 1999
EL STEPHO