Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

[Peder]

Sshh, don't let it get out... but I'm defintely stepping in the right direction - just little itty bitty baby steps. But I'm finding it difficult with each passing day not to leap up and grab all the Nabokov I can lay my hands on. And the temptation..... Ya see I have a friend whose bookshelves are chockablock with the man himself and so temptation is getting the better of me - the wicked woman. Adding titles to my wishlist as we speak.

Breaca,
She is an infectious one isn't she ?
But resist all you can. That way you'll only end up with one copy of each book.

Peder

 

[pontalba]

I have only one, and its a verra serious question.................


When are ya goin' ta start the blooming thing Man!

Inquiring minds want to know....

 

[Peder]

Have to step out for a walk.
Then I'll try to do some magic.
CU'all soon,
Peder

Edit: Uh oh, I sense chafing at the bit!
But I'm gunna need some coffee for this
30 minutes?

 

[Breaca]

Breaca,
She is an infectious one isn't she ?
But resist all you can. That way you'll only end up with one copy of each book.

Peder

She's such a tease I wouldn't mind but she puts them in the most conspicuous space in the house - right by the chair where I sit and stare whilst sipping on a cup of tea

Resistence is futile

 

[pontalba]

Said the Borg Queen...........

 

[Breaca]

Cor blimey - sorry just shaking out the ears. Someone's getting impatient Er, we may have to look for that rehab centre sooner than we originally thought.

 

[pontalba]

I thought the icky green was particularly effective.....

 

[Breaca]

Mmm it would be rather nice having a 'one stop Everything Nabokov shop'. So you go right ahead girl (Pontalba) and shout some more

 

[steffee]

LOL at this thread!

Ooh, I can't wait for the knicker-bocker glories

 

[Peder]

To all,
OK, the thread is there! Open the flood gates!
Be still my beating heart.
Peder

 

[pontalba]

Nabokov at the Movies by Barbara Wyllie

Just a few things I found in the above mentioned [newly] aquired book.
p. 128-129

During their first year of travels Lolita and Humbert Humbert "[take] in, voluptuously and indiscriminately, ...one hundred and fifty or two hundred programs." This not only confirms the level of Humbert Humbert's exposure to contemporary American cinema, viewing, on average, a film every other day, but also suggests the degree to which the experience has saturated his consciousness. Particularly significant are the works he chooses to describe their movie-going--"voluptuous" and "indiscriminate"--which convey the notion of him allowing Lolita this indulgence in order merely to satisfy his own sexual cravings, giving him an opportunity to fondly her, anonymously, in darkened movie theatres. ...................Whatever his motives, it is evident that, far from regarding filmmaking as in inferior artistic endeavor, Humbert Humbert actively celebrates it, emulates and exploits it, recognizing its influence, acknowledging its codes, its definitions, its styles. It is misconceived to position Humbert Humbert in antipathy toward Charlotte, Lolita or Quilty because of their constant reference to and identification with film, for he demonstrates precisely the same level of deference to it. He is not alone even in his cynicism and thus is brought ever closer to Quilty.

!!!! Yet another instance of a common denominator with Quilty.

More is made of Humbert being European, but not looking down on American cinema, yada, yada, yada. But I thought y'all'd find the above interesting.

 

[pontalba]

Shelley II by Shelley Winters

When I saw this autobiography in the second hand store for $ 1.75!! I was compelled, yes compelled to buy it. Shelley was a pistol alright.

But for our very serious research purposes, here is a small exerpt. p.348

I think the role of Charlotte in Lolita is one of the best performances I ever gave in any medium. She is dumb and cunning, silly, sad, sexy, and bizarre, and totally American and human. Until I saw the whole film cut together, I did not realize the gift that Kubrick had given me. I was enchanted with Charlotte and very proud of her. Kubrick had the insight to find the areas of me that were pseudointellecual and pretentious. We all have those things in us.
I found Peter Sellers and James Mason to be the strangest actors I've ever worked with. James Mason was handsome and sexy and very, very intelligent, but most aloof and technical. Perhaps it was Humbert Humbert, the character he was playing. He always seemed outside of his role watching himself--and me.

She was the best Charlotte, no doubt in my mind! To me Charlotte was so unlikeable. And as good an actress as SW was, there was always something underneath that irritated me about her. And that "quality" certainly paid off in the role of Charlotte Haze, aka Big Haze etc.

 

[pontalba]

Strong Opinions -- regarding Lolita

The following was from questions submitted by Herbert Gold in 1966 appeared in The Paris Review of October, 1967. p.105 in Strong Opinions

Another project I have been nursing for some time is the publication of the complete screenplay of Lolita that I made for Kubrick. Although there are just enough borrowings from it in his version to justify my legal position as an author of the script, the film is only a blurred skimpy glimpse of the marvelous picture I imagined and set down scene by scene during the six months I worked in a Los Angeles villa. I do not wish to imply that Kubrick's film is mediocre; in its own right, it is first-rate, but it is not what I wrote. A tinge of poshlust is often given by the cinema to the novel it distorts and coarsens in its crooked glass. Kubrick, I think, avoided this fault in his version, but I shall never understand why he did not follow my directions and dreams. It is a great pity; but at least I shall be able to have people read my Lolita play in its original form.

I've read thru and skimmed the screenplay, and it would have been marvelous. There was even a "Hitchcock" moment. IOW, Nabokov would have appeared as a butterfly hunter in his own script that was asked for directions out West. Neat-o!

 

[steffee]

IOW, Nabokov would have appeared as a butterfly hunter in his own script that was asked for directions out West. Neat-o!

Hehe, yes!

Just resurrecting this thread for Ruby to join the discussion

 

[pontalba]

Yay!!

Jump in with both feet Ruby!

 

[pontalba]

Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years by Brian Boyd

I ran across this in Boyd's bio regarding Quilty. It sums up the character of Quilty. p.245

Quilty, we learn, is a successful playwright, a pretentious hack with a taste for drink, drugs, and underage dollies. He had been a guest speaker at Charlotte's club two years before Humbert reached Ramsdale and had even perched little Dolly Haze on his knee. He had been a guest at the Enchanted Hunters Hotel when Humbert registered, and knowing Lolita was not Humbert's daughter, had enviously divined the intentions of his fellow pervert. he writes a play inspired by the hotel's name, and when Lolita's school decides to stage it he visits to watch rehearsals. He recognizes the pretty teenager in the lead role, and finds out she knows of his penchant for pretty pubescence. They become lovers. They plan her escape from Humbert.

Whew! So straightforward.....isn't it.

Reading it like this ^^^, and actually reading the book are about as far apart as wording can manage to be! Clues hidden within layers upon layers.
What is the expression? A mystery wrapped in an enigma. Or is is a riddle? Hmmm...either way its Nabokov.

 

[Peder]

Well Pontalba,
I'll jump in with both feet!
Somehow I missed all those posts of yours from your recent readings. They are all fascinating, most especially the Wyllie paragraph because it seems so far from 'obvious' interpretation. I never suspected that any comparison could be made of the different characters different or similar attitudes toward movies; in fact I didn't even know they had any attitudes at all toward movies. Live and learn! Or at least, live and read!

It was also interesting to see that VN didn't necessarily begrudge Kubrick his interpretation -- just that it wasn't how he VN would have done it. But it was an extreme compliment, I thought, that VN noted that the poshlust which 'typically' filters into movies, was absent from Kubnrick's version. That sounds like very high praise, coming especially from VN as it does. It sounds like Kubrick must have done a lot of things right to escape with such minor damage from VN's judgements of his film, even though VN himself sounds inconsolable. But we have already read in the Pnin thread, I think, just how picky VN could be with respect to how the covers of his books should look, for example. So I think Kubrick got off easy.

Very interesting posts,
Peder

 

[pontalba]

I thought you'd enjoy reading about Shelley Winters and how she thought of the role of Charlotte. It was interesting to me that Kubrick used the perceived alienation of Sellars and Mason to give Shelley the "separated" feelings in the film itself.

Shelley was a pistol, no doubt about it!

 

[Peder]

I thought you'd enjoy reading about Shelley Winters and how she thought of the role of Charlotte. It was interesting to me that Kubrick used the perceived alienation of Sellars and Mason to give Shelley the "separated" feelings in the film itself.

Shelley was a pistol, no doubt about it!

Definitely yes, Pontalba,
It was pleasing to me that she regarded it as a major acting accomplishment of her career, especially since I don't recall that there is so much buzz about the film as such a great film (except among us). Maybe I'm just out of touch. But I would definitely agree that she was superb, and it is pleasing that she also was able to recognize that. It was also interesting to read that in a very real sense her Charlotte didn't all come together until it was actually all put together out of the individual scenes. A real tribute to Kubrick's vision of what he was trying to accomplish in shooting each of the scenes. Maybe that's somewhat analogous to VN saying that he has the entire book clear in his mind before he starts, which is why he can work on sections of it out of sequence, writing on index cards to help the reorganizing process. Quite like movie editing it would seem.
I also think it odd that I know Shelley Winters only through her role as Charlotte, and only from DVD. Somehow, somewhere there is a chunk of my life missing.
Peder

 

[StillILearn]

Shelley Winters was like a breath of fresh Hollywood air in many ways, or at least that's the sense I came away with after reading her memoirs. It appears that she was a courageous woman, and not at all the victim she so often played in her movies. She seems to have done what she felt like doing, and then willingly 'taking her lumps'. What do you think, pontalba?

I just went and took these quotes off a blog I found this morning - just for the fun of it:

For me, her greatest accomplishment is Charlotte Haze in Lolita. Every camera angle in that movie makes it obvious that the ever-icy Stanley Kubrick feels no more compassion for Charlotte than Humbert does. She's presented as blubbery, ridiculous, her middle-aged face cruelly contrasted with Sue Lyon's dewy features. And she still grabs our sympathy, because Winters doesn't condescend to Charlotte, even if Kubrick does. Her expression when confronted with Humbert's treachery is the most tragic moment in the movie.

My idea of a movie star is Joan Crawford, who can chew
up two directors and three producers before lunch.
--Shelley Winters

I saw Shelley Winters in A Place in the Sun. She gave a very moving performance, which surprised me, because Shelley is not a sensitive girl socially.
--Joan Crawford

Who the hell hasn't Shelley Winters slept with?
--Bette Davis, upon reading Shelley

Here is the real mystery woman:

Sue Lyon is sixty years old by now. I wonder how the making of that film ultimately affected her life?