Subject
Entertainment Weekly LOLITA (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Andy Shaindlin <shain@umich.edu>
Entertainment Weekly LOLITA article 11/20/96
I just read the article on the web at
http://pathfinder.com/@@09piXwYAhkkbuQ79/ew/960809/features/lolita/339-lolita.html
and was surprised at director Adrian Lyne's comment about the screenplay of
the original "Lolita" film:
"Nabokov's screenplay is as bad as his novel is magnificent...He murdered
his book."
Having just read Nabokov's (admittedly-revised) own screenplay, and some
descriptions of the changes wrought by Kubrick before filming (including
Schiff's comments), I am surprised that Lyne would refer to the filmed
version as "Nabokov's screenplay." Does anyone else find this surprising?
Also, doesn't he sound disingenuous when he says "If people don't have a
problem with the book, why would they have a problem with the movie? This is
a *classic*..." The answer to me seems to be two-fold: 1) the visual impact
of actual sex scenes in the film, as opposed to the imagined images of the
more subtle Nabokov text in a reader's mind, and 2) it's the book that's a
classic, not his film.
Andy Shaindlin
shain@umich.edu
Entertainment Weekly LOLITA article 11/20/96
I just read the article on the web at
http://pathfinder.com/@@09piXwYAhkkbuQ79/ew/960809/features/lolita/339-lolita.html
and was surprised at director Adrian Lyne's comment about the screenplay of
the original "Lolita" film:
"Nabokov's screenplay is as bad as his novel is magnificent...He murdered
his book."
Having just read Nabokov's (admittedly-revised) own screenplay, and some
descriptions of the changes wrought by Kubrick before filming (including
Schiff's comments), I am surprised that Lyne would refer to the filmed
version as "Nabokov's screenplay." Does anyone else find this surprising?
Also, doesn't he sound disingenuous when he says "If people don't have a
problem with the book, why would they have a problem with the movie? This is
a *classic*..." The answer to me seems to be two-fold: 1) the visual impact
of actual sex scenes in the film, as opposed to the imagined images of the
more subtle Nabokov text in a reader's mind, and 2) it's the book that's a
classic, not his film.
Andy Shaindlin
shain@umich.edu