Eugene Onegin: The Classic Motion Picture With The Bolshoi Opera
by Roman Tikhomirov
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ariadna Shengelaya, Vadim MedvedevDirector: Roman Tikhomirov
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Russian (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 106 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: KULTUR VIDEO
Movie Reviews of Eugene Onegin: The Classic Motion Picture With The Bolshoi Opera
Movie Review: The most beautiful Eugine Onegin and the others.
Summary: 5 Stars
I was so lucky to find this extraordinary production purely by chance; to start with, it is done in the most faithful and lavish Luchino Visconti style, with utmost attention to detail, beauty of the voices and actors; it is even more striking that young men - Onegin and Lenski - are exceedingly handsome; much more than the heroines Tatiana and Olga. While Onegin is a stunning cold blond beauty in Byron/ Childe Harold -style, Lenski is a passionate romantic beau, appropriately a brunette with long tresses, looking rather as Goethe or dark Schiller. This is all completely in accordance with Pushkin's lines, and illustrates the marvelous juxtaposition, just as Pushkin describes the two friends:
"They struck a friendship; storm and silence,
Prose and poem, flame and iceberg
Could not be different enough".
And this is just the beginning; as the film proceeds, more amazing images enfold, eventually making an informed viewer (meaning the one who knows and loves Eugine Onegin as Pushkin's poem) believe that this movie is the exact pictorial reincarnation of what Pushkin had imagined for his characters, scenery and every possible nuance. It must be said that the same result simply cannot be achieved in an opera house, because here in the film all the actors are gorgeous or truthful to their description in the poem, and plus all scenes are filmed in the authentic Russian environment - be it a summer field, or a frozen snow-covered duel spot, the nabk of Neva river in St-Petersburg, or the ball. Cinematography is at highest quality here.
It is astonishing to see how much thorough preparation work had been done, and how much respect for the works of art had been paid. One thing that strikes the viewer immediately is that Tatiana looks exactly as in Pushkin's own sketches to Eugine Onegin! And so does her nanny. Olga (Svetlana Nemolyava) is also a portraiture of Pushkin's description - blond and a little plump; here she act as flippant and emotionally dumb to poor Lenski as Pushkin intended for her - a shallow, empty and opportunistic character - a total opposite of Tatiana, of course. Tchaikovsky musical genius did not measure up to Pushkin literary one and he failed to reflect that difference in the young ladies music, although Olga does not have much music in the opera anyway. Certainly, however, on cannot say that Tchaikovsky's music to Eugine Onegin is the best ever written by a Russian composer, while Puskin's poem is still an unsurpassed masterpiece of Russian language.
However, the music makes its best in a film like this - so opulently, devotedly and exceptionally done. The singers are also excellent, and it helps immeasurably that they are all native Russian speakers. Galina Vishnevskaya (Rostropovich's wife later) is splendid in singing Tatiana.
Watching and listening to this film/opera, I suddenly realized that Pushkin had described his own death at a duel in graphic details, only that he, contrary to Lenski, did not die immediately. Also, what a witty reference to Werther in Lenski's image! It is another sign of Pushkin's incredible sense of humor and intelligence; no wonder that eventually he had become so isolated - who could rival him in his imagination, coupled with such wits?
It seems to me, especially after re-reading the poem after watching this film, that Pushkin actually expresses himself via the pensive and passionate Tatiana and the romantic dreamer Lenski, while at the same time ridiculing himself though Onegin's eyes, with Onegin representing rationality and reason. It is worth much contemplation to note that at the end of the poem/opera/film, no one wins.
The end of the opera is anachronistic compared to the actual poem; in original poem, Tatiana ends her conversation with Onegin with the most famous, immortal words in Russian literature :
"I love you (I am not beguiling),
but to another I belong,
and will be his my whole life long".
After this words, she exits, and the poem finishes. This to me in poetry akin to the great baroque/classical tradition of music - splendid discipline of form; expression is strong, short and powerful, concentrated and targeted. However Tchaikovsky, who is already a contemporary of Wagner and the romantic period with it endless formless boundless puddle, has created a continuation of the scene, where Onegin implores Tatiana to flee together; which of course resonates more with Tchaikovsky own times - we can see Liszt and Countess d'Agoult here, or Anna Karenina and Vronsky, or Emma Bovary and Rodolphe Boulanger. But here one can appreciate once more the immense magic of Pushkin's true genius versus mysoginy of Tolstoy, who made Anna karenina an incurable hysteric; or we can admire the elegance of aristocratic Pushkin versus soupy melodrama of bourgeois romantic realism of Flaubert - Tatiana is not Anna Karenina or Emma Bovary; she is too sane for the former and too clever for the latter - and how she rebuffs Onegin! Only if Emma Bovary and Gustave Flaubert had the insight and intelligence of Tatiana Larina and Alexander Pushkin. Alas, Tchaikovsky fell victim to the fashion of his times, with the cult of vulgarity gradually taking hold. He should have finished the opera where the poet did. However, Tchaikovsky in many other works seems to have a great difficulty to end an opus, just as his contemporaries; Eugene Onegin musically is not his highest achievement, yet in this film the music lends itself pleasantly.
Needless to say, the debate about "Eugine Onegin" continues from the day it was published to this very day, as this is one of the most fascinating works written in Russian and world literature; many interpretations are given to explain the characters and their actions, and even when I was a schoolgirl in Moscow, in 7th grade we were discussing in class whether Tatiana did the right thing or not by rejecting Onegin.
For a Russian, this story is an eternal enigma. Why did Tatiana leave Onegin? Why did she not escape with him - with a man she presumably loved so passionately only a few years ago and according to her own words, still loves him? Onegin is obviously not a Rodolphe Boulanger; he did indeed behaved nobly, not taking advantage of Tatiana's passion for him; he cautioned her against ruinous mistakes, so in fact he acted as a gentleman. Why is she so stern with him now -she loved him so madly! Could it be that she has become a marital martyr, intoxicated of her own virtuousness? Or is she now a hypocrite and conformist, bound by social conventions and afraid to follow her love? Or maybe she simply does not love Onegin anymore, despite her words - after all, she was a young virgin then, and now is a mature woman, possibly enjoying intimacy of her husband, while Onegin brings back only unpleasant memories of humiliation and rejection she had suffered with him? Maybe she now has another secret lover and does not want Onegin at all, while letting him suffer more by speaking her love for him? Or is she a revengeful fury, who takes more pleasure in humiliating her offender than to pursue happiness with the man she actually loves, unable to forgive and forget? Or maybe ... this is not the end of their love story? There are many indications that Pushkin intended to write the next chapter; but... it never happened.
Through Pushkin's unparalleled genius, Eugene Onegin poem stirs the mind and imagination today as it did in Pushkin's and Tchaikovsky's own times - major Russian literary critics, as Herzen or Belinsky, devoted numberless pages to the work. And in me, this film provoked all these and many more thoughts and ideas, but in this review format it is not possible to discuss in detail the pinnacle of Russian literature and a high mark of Russian music; naturally, I give it five stars for the excellent overall quality. Just to think that post-war USSR was in ruins, with people desperately lacking in everything, and yet such a grandiose production had been made to assert the spirit of Russia and her omnipotence, power and might, is impressive.
Such films are not made anymore; it is a true rarity. Definitely the sound quality is reflective of the date it was made - in the 50s, but this should not detract a thoughtful and appreciative viewer from the beauty of this masterpiece.
Highly recommended.
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