RF's View of Onegin (Mirror UK)

November 19, 1999

Ralph, 36, stars in and was executive producer of this screen adaptation of Pushkin's great Russian verse novel Eugene Onegin. Directed by his sister Martha, the movie also marks Ralph's debut as a behind-the-lens executive

I have a lot of anxiety about the film.

I'm quite anxious as a person and I get quite knotted up inside during filming about all sorts of things... the state of the weather, people on the set and things like that. I need to work with someone who can balance my anxiety with stoicism.

I'm a bit awkward about the title of executive producer. I had a lot of input and had final decisions on the script and the casting, but I had nothing at all to do with the financial aspect of it. It has been quite a bruising experience.

We had the most difficult time at a press conference in St Petersburg. Some people were very dismissive of the film. We were aware, for instance, that some of the music was anachronistic but one piece had Soviet associations which was inappropriate.

Many critics dismissed it as an endearing error. Others have attacked us for reducing it to a simple love story.

Russians say that to really understand Onegin you have to understand the Russian soul. Well, I can't really pretend to do that, but I think Onegin is very European - which I'm sure we can all relate to.