"R" for Onegin?

Having just finished watching a movie at 12:30 am, I would normally go to bed. However, I'm a bit perplexed.

I watched Onegin with Ralph Finnes, Liv Tyler, and Toby Stephens. According to the slipcase, the movie was rated "R" for brief violence and a sexual image. OK, big hairy deal. Finnes probably shows his bum again (who hasn't seen it yet?) and, having read a bit of Pushkin before, you know that Lensky dies in the duel. Pretty graphic, right?

Wrong. Lensky dies in the duel - head shot and you don't see much except a blood pool. And the sexual image? Tatyana seduces her husband while wearing a nightdress - this is tame; all you see of her husband is his bare chest. They don't even make it to second base before the camera cuts. Who rates this stuff? This is PG at most, except most kids wouldn't make it five minutes before getting bored. Still, great movie.

Speaking of Lensky, I stayed up until 4am last night to watch the Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Jane Eyre - Toby Stephens plays Mr. Rochester and a wonderful job he did of it, too. I think he's a bit young for the part, being not yet 40, but he was so gruff around the edges and his eyes are gorgeous. Ruth Wilson was a perfect Jane and through just her face and eyes able to convey so much of Jane's thought process, a piece of the novel often lost in the transition from 1st person to 3rd person. I cried and cried when the wedding was thwarted by Mason and Jane ran away (I am rediculous). The writers also neatly inserted flashbacks (while Jane is at the Rivers') where we see Rochester trying to convince Jane to run away with him; a much weaker woman would have caved. Beautiful adaptation.

Current book-in-progress: Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom; also peeked through the Johnston translation of the Pushkin and my three copies of Jane Eyre keep making eyes at me.
Current knitted item: Eeyore #2; still have to seam and stuff both before April 1.

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