----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri Nabokov
To: 'D. Barton Johnson'
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 5:14 AM
Subject: Comment on posts of the two Yuris, Leving and Dashevsky

I found both posts interesting, particularly with regard to Alexei Balabanov. Before he starts "adapting" Camera obscura (Laughter in the Dark), I strongly recommend that Mr. Balabanov have a good talk with my agent.     DN
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----- Original Message -----
From: "yuri leving" <
leving@usc.edu>
>


> The recent issue of a popular Russian men’s magazine, Medved’ (“A Bear”),
features an interview with Alexei Balabanov, the celebrated creator of such
post-Soviet blockbusters as “Brother” and “Brother 2”. Balabanov reveals his
artistic plans (among other things, such as hatred for Hollywood and the
West in general).
>
> Balabanov: “I have five or six ideas [for new movies]. The first would be
to adapt Nabokov’s “Camera obscura” (Laughter in the Dark – Y.L.)”
> Interviewer: “A girl betrays a blind man, who is unaware of the betrayal?”
> Balabanov: “Yes. And then there is the scene with the two adjacent hotel
rooms that share a single bathroom. This is the most cinematic piece in the
Russian literature!”
> (# 70, July-August 2003, P. 27).