Onegin
On an episode of “The Big Bang Theory” I recently watched, the term “Weltschmerz” came up. Leonard’s crisis was probably something different from what I think Weltschmerz is (specifically, it was way too comical to be seriously qualified as such), but the term hits this version of Onegin pretty well.
To some degree, I am feeling some sort of Weltschmerz today, but strangely, just stating the problem exactly, as in admitting precisely what it is, was enough to realize how much these are bogus problems, ephemeral moods, no more. It did not really help much that I also watched a Eugene Onegin adaptation. There are some stories that I would watch over and over, starting with Shakespeare plays (specifically the Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and Macbeth), and whose stories I know by heart. I could even cite from some of them, and especially after this film, I am pretty sure I can cite some of the most memorable and dramatic lines from Eugene Onegin as well.
I have an obsession with the Midsummer Night’s Dream, but Eugene Onegin tops it all. I don’t think there is any story out there which I feel more empathic towards than this one. The most important elements here are the fact that Tatiana declared her love and that, at the end, she rejects him even though she loved him. Let’s start with the first, easier part. I do not know another woman besides myself who would declare her love for a man, let along write such a declaration of love – which, for me, is even stronger because if it is written down, you can never take it back. In today’s society, there is some female emancipation out there, but when it comes to this detail, women let men take over too often. In my experience, the first moments of a love story are crucial, and Onegin makes no difference in it. It is important that both Onegin and Tatiana fall in love with each other at first sight – this interpretation makes the failure of their love story so much more tragic. If we assume that there is honesty both in Tatiana and Onegin – that she didn’t fall in love with him because he was rich, exciting and new in town, and that he didn’t fall in love with her because she turned into an elegant princess – then the two of them exemplify the saddest “it could have worked out” type love story ever.
The end is even more exciting than that. To me, it always looked incredibly grand what she is doing. Continuing the assumption that she truly loved Onegin, but even if she didn’t, she manages to do something which a similarly passionate, loving person could probably never do – let go of the person you love, even though the feeling is mutual, no matter whether it is out of respect for a husband or for the sake of petty social norms. One might construe this as a weakness, the inability to step over the social bounds and morals that you were brought up with, but knowing how hard this is, I cannot help but view it as grandeur instead.
Onegin could be interpreted in a similar way. On the assumption that he loved Tatiana ever since the beginning, even if this love started off as something different than hers, he was indeed merely honest. He knew of his incapability to commit, so instead of compromising her honor and hurting her feelings by playing around with her and then leave her, he chooses not to take advantage of her feelings because they were deeper than his.
What I really liked about the film was how it emphasized on the duality between the main characters. Both Tatiana and Onegin say at some point in the film that their lives is hollow and empty, to be exact, Onegin does so at the beginning of the story and Tatiana does at the end. They are unable to act against what their torn society made them to be – Onegin is forced into the duel with Lenski and Tatiana is forced to marry another man and stay faithful to him. Both could have potentially said no at some point, but neither is capable to do so. In the film, their letters to each other are being shown almost one after another, showing how similar they are. Certainly Onegin’s letter is more verbose and more beautifully written, while Tatiana’s feels much more honest and truthful. But both show that they have a similar concept of love. They are both calling out for the other’s to respond favorably; they are both ashamed and in fear that the endeavor will be unsuccessful; both are aware that their letters are inappropriate, Onegin’s because he is writing to a married woman and Tatiana’s because she is a woman. Both declare that they cannot be without the other and in both cases it becomes clear that their lives will indeed remain empty throughout their lives, making them unrealistic novel characters as opposed to, say, Tatiana’s family.
At the end of the day, I watched the film partially because I also watched Tcherniakov’s production of Tchaikovsky’s opera, and I wanted to talk about it. The opera was great, in every sense, but I suppose what I wanted to talk about the most was the story itself. The biggest difference between the opera and the film is that Onegin’s declaration of love in the opera seems silly and superficial and puts him into a horrible light, whereas Tatiana’s passionate love letter takes up 1/4 of the whole opera. (Perhaps I am exaggerating but it certainly feels that way.) Liv Tyler’s Tatiana seems much, much less passionate, but feels more like the ice beauty who deeply suffers from the inside. Ralph Fiennes… I couldn’t quite care for him, though he made Onegin a much more likable person than the opera version. Liv Tyler did her role so much better than Ralph Fiennes, though their chemistry together was good, so I am not complaining.
There are many things I watch as a die-hard fan, and the Onegin film is definitely one of them. I love the story and it is very pleasant to see it in the context of these wonderfully pastel-colored, almost Sofia Coppola-like backgrounds. Everything – costumes, cinematography, lighting – I thought the film was a visual feast and transports its message quite well. The movie just looks awfully un-Russian and very, very British in its coldness, which is why I would absolutely discourage anybody of you to watch it, if you are not as much of a fan of the Onegin story as I am.