Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0005364, Wed, 12 Jul 2000 17:25:28 -0700

Subject
Re: Pnin into Film (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Mark Bennett <mab@straussandasher.com>

A Coen Brothers Pnin? Now there's an idea


***Glad you like it :) GD***


-----Original Message-----
From: Galya Diment [mailto:galya@u.washington.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 5:08 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: Pnin into Film (fwd)


Let me suggest -- since _Pnin_ is so dear to my heart -- that Lynch's
"strangeness" is totally of a non-Pninian kind -- and, for what it's
worth, I think that even someone like Ethan Coen would be closer in his
sensibility to the material in Pnin than Lynch.

Galya Diment

> From: Paul Sonnenburg <rover@cais.com>
>
> >Juan Martinez <jmm80625@mail.ucf.edu> speculated,
>
> > [David] Lynch ... could be fantastic with something more gentle:
> > "Pale Fire"? "Pnin"?
>
> The Northern Hemisphere's dog days having allowed us the harmless
diversion
> of speculating on novels and their bumpy relationship to film, Mr.
Martinez's
> nod to _Pnin_ raises the matter of interiority, so often the film maker's
> impenetrable barrier but a sine qua non for Nabokov.
>
> What a challenge _Pnin_ poses to a sufficiently imaginative director
(and
> casting director), and what a splendid opportunity for the right ensemble
of
> actors, not to mention an art director worth the title. Nabokov's
unsurpassed
> utilization of the visual moment as companion metaphor to deep emotion
seems
> almost unavoidably cinematic. Was there, for example, ever better filmic
> material than Pnin's party, ever a more affecting visual/interior moment
than
> the broken/not broken punch bowl in the sudsy kitchen sink?
>
> In their earliest effort, _Shakespeare-wallah_, (c. 1965) James Ivory
and
> Ismail Merchant revealed a sensitivity to Nabokovian-like subtlety and
visual
> nuance, but I've seen too little film recently to know who might presently
be up
> to _Pnin's_ inviting potential. And unfortunately it's too late to cast
Lee J.
> Cobb or George C. Scott, but maybe Albert Finney, say, or Anthony Hopkins
could
> be persuaded to polish their Russian accent. . . .
>
> > PS
> Washington, D.C.
>
>
>