Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001684, Mon, 10 Feb 1997 08:13:49 -0800

Subject
Re: Kubrick's Lo(w) (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Matt Morris - Forsyth Technical Community College
<mmorris@riscy.forsyth.tec.nc.us>

In my opinion, the anti-Kubrick rhetoric is long overdue--Kubrick is a
vastly overrated director, with limited talents.

I am curious: have the supporters of Kubrick's Lolita actually seen the
movie recently? It's perfectly awful. The gym scenes, to take but one
example, show Kubrick's visual style for what it really is--a
pseudo-Ophulsian approach to tracking shots that doesn't work at all.

And that scene involving the porter in the Enchanted Hunters hotel is on a
sub-Mack Sennett level; truly embarrassing stuff.

Alfred Hitchcock, who communicated with Nabokov in the 60s, would've been a
much better choice for director of Lolita. There are scenes in his Psycho,
particularly in the early sections, when Marion is driving through small
towns in Arizona, that have much more of a Lolita-like tone to them than
anything that is to be found in Kubrick's highly British version.