Front Row Transcript

November 18, 1999

Transcript from the BBC Radio 4 programme "Front Row"

FS: When I talked to RF, I asked him about the difficulties of translating a classic text for the screen

RF: People who are familiar with Eugene Onegin, of course they will not see Pushkin's EO but (hesitates) I'm torn.....I would heartily love to replicate it but I know that it can't..... (blusters) it sort of sinks if you do and you have to release yourself from it as adapters. You have to sort of say 'what is it' in film terms.

FS: But what kind of alteration or compromise do you have to make when you are taking a 19th Century work like that for modern sensibilities. I mean there are obviously changes in the duel (RF- uh-huh), Onegin doesn't fire first (RF- uh-huh), He fires in response (RF- uh-huh), erm, we don't have a dream of Tatiana (RF- uh-huh), What were your criteria for making those changes?

RF: We actually shot Tanyana's dream....erm...practically everyone who saw the cut with it in felt that it didn't work and that is a real case where you learn, where you have been true to the book and you learn in adapting. Then actually having chosen not to change, we actually budgeted for it, kept it in, shot in and then suddenly it might work only on the page or maybe we had not done it well enough or whatever reason, we had to let it go. In fact a lot of your adapting happens in editing. The duel sequence, we always scripted Lensky to shoot first.

FS: But did you think it would be beyond the sympathy of a contemporary audience to have him fire first in cold blood (RF- erm...) to have Onegin shoot first..

RF: Well, it is interesting because actually what we did debate was Martha edited at one point a long pause after Lensky fires which then also made Onegin seem very calculated and we tried different versions of it and I mean.......I think it still makes it tough for people, I mean he takes his time and he fires so either way whatever way we did it, in essence we have held true to the fact that Onegin still makes the decision to take aim and fire. I think it helps accept the antagonism if Lensky is seen to make a choice to fire first.

FS: Now the character of Onegin himself, obviously you have lived with him as an idea of since you read the verse poem but you are known for going for the physical aspects of the character, we see him at the beginning, we see him with all the paraphernalia of how a man of that age would have looked....the rags on his head to make the curls, and the corsets and all that stuff but the fascinating thing is that he seems to shrink as the film goes on

RF: (Sounding pleased) That was absolutely a choice. I mean, the cut of my clothes for the initial Onegin, the confidant Dandy, if you like, was that there was a cut to them that made him look bigger. They rounded and narrowed the shoulders deliberately for when he comes back having shot Lensky We changed the hair a bit so he is.....he is more diminished. I think something about him has shrunk. I think once he kills Lensky something inside him shrinks which is why he is someone wanting redemption. Which us why when he meets Tatyana, he wants her.

FS: What has the reception of Russian audiences been, I mean, this is after all, one of their best known, greatest loved works by the equivalent of their Shakespeare (RF - Yah), the founding father of modern Russian literature.....

RF: It's been mixed. It's been mixed....some people didn't like the film, thought it was not true to the spirit of Pushkin, didn't like it at all. They didn't like the idea it should be a film particularly made by English people, Westerners. Other people liked the film, liked it very much, were tolerant of perceived mistakes like music being from the 20th Century which we knew in fact (and made that choice anyway) but liked it and felt they recognized Onegin, Tatyana and some people said it seemed like a Russian film or else they said it doesn't seem to have had the Hollywood treatment, which I suppose sort of means... (blusters slightly) ...somehow sentiment it or giving it a more acceptable upbeat ending. I felt in St. Petersburg, they were more tougher on it and in Moscow, where we also had a screening, they were more accepting, and of course the thing here is the reporting here is 'was it a hit or wasn't it', 'did it go down well or didn't it'. The thing about the Russians is that they don't have that simplistic response to a piece of writing, music, anything. They are interested in the ideas that it contains. Has it been made with intelligence? With thoroughness? And with vigor? What is it saying about the characters? What is it saying about now? They are always equating now with the characters in literature and they talk about the characters Onegin and Tatyana. I have had discussions with people and they talk about the moral choices of the characters like the moral choices of the characters reflect their environment now and whether it is a hit or not is not the great priority in Russia.

FS" EO opens tomorrow. Cert 12.