Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #1,121
Written 1/18/00, Revised 7/8/08
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Buy it... only if you are familiar with the film itself and are
seeking the intelligent collection of Russian folk and classical pieces
used as source material in the story.
Avoid it... if you are taking a blind shot in the dark at Magnus
Fiennes' score, a contribution that is largely inconsequential on the
album.
Onegin: (Magnus Fiennes) Based on famed Russian
poet Aleksandr Pushkin's "Yevgeny Onegin," the 1999 arthouse film
Onegin is a predictable tragedy involving mistimed, unrealized
love. Its setting in 19th century Russia is the most interesting aspect
of the production, with values in cinematography and other technical
elements that are extremely well presented. The film was the ultimate
family affair; it represents the directorial debut of Martha Fiennes,
who cast her star brother, Ralph Fiennes, in the title role of this film
and asked her other brother, Magnus Fiennes, to write the score and, in
turn, her sister Maya Fiennes performs the piano solos for that score.
The story of Onegin is well known and won't rattle the cages for
anyone still unfamiliar with it. A Russian aristocrat meets a girl in
the countryside. Girl falls for boy. Boy rejects girl because he's not
ready for marriage. Several years later, they happen upon each other
again. Boy falls for girl. But girl is married and rejects him. It's the
type of plotline that is so old by now that it alone cannot sustain a
feature film. Thus, the Fiennes family attempted to make Onegin
into a piece of art in each of its other parts, including its music. The
director decided early not to attempt a conventional score for
Onegin, instead using a combination of three elements to
accentuate the basic emotions of mostly the film's setting: source music
from the era, ambient sound design, and minimal original score. Because
the director wanted to utilize music for the location that is as
accurate as possible, a variety of period classical and folk pieces by
Russian composers is scattered amongst original orchestral and
electronic compositions by Magnus Fiennes. Some of the original Russian
melodies have been arranged specially for performance in Onegin,
while Fiennes' score offers just enough material in between to link the
traditional themes together. Those traditional pieces were selected
early in the process for actual usage within the film.
With the score and sound design weaving in and out
occasionally throughout the film and its soundtrack album, the
traditional classical elements quickly take charge. Fiennes' score was
created with the intent of providing an aural atmosphere for the moods
of the scenes (rather than taking part in portraying the setting or
specific actions). In these regards, the score flows seamlessly with
little interruption. Unfortunately, it also lacks much character. The
piano performances of the title theme (along with string variants
thereafter) have little personality, and the orchestra never captures
the intensity or complexity of typical, emotionally challenging
atmospheric scores. Thematically, the work is extremely subtle, and
textures are what ultimately define it. Accents ranging from the
regionally-specific duduk and balilika to an acoustic guitar are joined
by thumping synthetic heartbeat effects and general synthetic droning in
both the bass and treble regions in some cues. These latter elements are
definitely out of place with the strong sense of the region and time
conveyed by the remainder of the music. Only in the final regular score
track, "Rejected," do the players of the orchestra begin to build a
satisfying mood of significant emotional weight. When combined with the
highly energetic Russian folk and classical pieces, the score is mundane
and drab, causing the album to be disjointed when experienced from start
to finish. Although not a negative characteristic in many cases,
Onegin takes too long to get started and could very well bore the
listener in its minimalistic string meanderings. Even in "The Devil's
Trill," a piece with which the director and composer were painstakingly
true to the young age of the performer, is a shatteringly unsettling
listening experience by comparison. It is no surprise that with so much
attention given to the functionality of individual moments within the
picture, the album is less cohesive than it might have been. For Magnus
Fiennes, a general ambivalence towards
Onegin in critical circles
didn't help his career blossom much due to this opportunity from his
family.
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