Subject
Re: Nabokov and films (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Svetlana Polsky.
> I would like to address Peter
> A. Kartsev's question about films based on Nabokov's works. I happened to
> record a film 'Mashen'ka' [Mary] (with Jurij Jakovlev as Podtiagin) that
> was shown on Russian TV three or four years ago. About the same time the
> same Russian TV showed 'Izobretenije Val'sa [The Waltz Invention]'; I
> think, the play was staged in Riga (?).
Peter Kartsev's reply: I am very grateful to Svetlana Polsky for this
information and for the curious bit about VN's possible marginal influence
on such an unlikely film as "The Silence of the Lambs" (a rather mediocre
thriller in all respects but one, I think). The original query, by the
way, came not from me, but from Christopher Riley.
"The Lambs" got me thinking about films which may not have been directly
influenced by Nabokov, but which treat Nabokovian themes in a more or
less Nabokovian way. So far I've been able to come up with two: Nicholas
Roeg's "Don't Look Now" (1973, actually based on a short story by Daphne
Du Maurier) and Jaco van Dormael's "Toto le Heros" (1991). Both deal
with a curious pattern of fate which becomes discernible at the last
moments of the protagonist's life; both imply an otherworldliness
("potustoronnost'") which manifests itself in this pattern. Both, by
some coincidence, throw in another important Nabokovian theme, that of
tragic loss of a child (although in the latter film the child is the
protagonist's sister). In both cases the treatment of the idea is visual
and uniquely cinematic. The former film goes for a shock horror effect
in the end, the latter's general tone is wistful, gently ironic, the
narrative by turns comic or tragic. Both films are, in my view,
superlative examples of cinematic art, and the more I think of it, the
more it seems that these films are more Nabokovian, in a way, than
Kubrick's "Lolita" (which I rather like, but as something quite apart
from Nabokov's original).
I don't know whether this topic may have general interest for members of
this list, but if anybody else has any ideas about other strikingly or
vaguely Nabokovian films, I'd appreciate their suggestions.
--
Peter A. Kartsev
Moscow, Russia
Phone: (095) 471-5457
E-mail: petr@glas.apc.org
> I would like to address Peter
> A. Kartsev's question about films based on Nabokov's works. I happened to
> record a film 'Mashen'ka' [Mary] (with Jurij Jakovlev as Podtiagin) that
> was shown on Russian TV three or four years ago. About the same time the
> same Russian TV showed 'Izobretenije Val'sa [The Waltz Invention]'; I
> think, the play was staged in Riga (?).
Peter Kartsev's reply: I am very grateful to Svetlana Polsky for this
information and for the curious bit about VN's possible marginal influence
on such an unlikely film as "The Silence of the Lambs" (a rather mediocre
thriller in all respects but one, I think). The original query, by the
way, came not from me, but from Christopher Riley.
"The Lambs" got me thinking about films which may not have been directly
influenced by Nabokov, but which treat Nabokovian themes in a more or
less Nabokovian way. So far I've been able to come up with two: Nicholas
Roeg's "Don't Look Now" (1973, actually based on a short story by Daphne
Du Maurier) and Jaco van Dormael's "Toto le Heros" (1991). Both deal
with a curious pattern of fate which becomes discernible at the last
moments of the protagonist's life; both imply an otherworldliness
("potustoronnost'") which manifests itself in this pattern. Both, by
some coincidence, throw in another important Nabokovian theme, that of
tragic loss of a child (although in the latter film the child is the
protagonist's sister). In both cases the treatment of the idea is visual
and uniquely cinematic. The former film goes for a shock horror effect
in the end, the latter's general tone is wistful, gently ironic, the
narrative by turns comic or tragic. Both films are, in my view,
superlative examples of cinematic art, and the more I think of it, the
more it seems that these films are more Nabokovian, in a way, than
Kubrick's "Lolita" (which I rather like, but as something quite apart
from Nabokov's original).
I don't know whether this topic may have general interest for members of
this list, but if anybody else has any ideas about other strikingly or
vaguely Nabokovian films, I'd appreciate their suggestions.
--
Peter A. Kartsev
Moscow, Russia
Phone: (095) 471-5457
E-mail: petr@glas.apc.org