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[NABOKOV-L][QUERY] Kubrick's Lolita - more portraits
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In "Selling (Out) Nabokov: A humorless new Lolita mistakes satire for tragedy." (originally published in the October/November 1998 issue of Boston Review), Alan A. Stone states that: "Kubrick had the sly wit to put a conspicuous but unidentified picture of Nabokov on the wall in the scene of the fatal confrontation between Quilty and Humbert. This is exactly the kind of literary allusion that Nabokov worked into every page of his novel. And like most of Nabokov's readership, James Mason as Humbert does not get it. In a supremely Nabokovian touch, Kubrick's camera moves in on Humbert as he quizzically eyes the photograph, obviously failing to recognize who it is. To enjoy the humor of this moment, you must know Nabokov's face. But, then, it is a stretch for most people to recognize any humor at all in a movie about a middle-aged man having a sexual relationship with his 12-year-old stepdaughter."
JM: I watched the DVD with the scene where there should be a "conspicuous picture of Nabokov on the wall". Unless my copy has been edited and Kubrick's original movie altered, there is no picture of Nabokov anywhere in this sequence. Can anyone confirm A.A.Stone's information?
Checking other reviews I found a 1962 review ("Great Films") by Tim Dirks. According to him, Nabokov's picture hangs on Charlotte's wall, above the urn with her husband's ashes. He describes the events: "She points toward her husband's picture [a serious portrait which looks like a photograph of a young Nabokov, the novel's author] - and her prized materialistic possession: "He was a lovely human being. A man of complete integrity....(Humbert touches a black vase beneath the picture, not realizing that it is Mr. Haze's cremation urn.)...Those are his ashes." Humbert recoils his hand away."
I photographed the scene and got a closer look at Mr. Haze. I could find no similarity with the man in the portrait and young Nabokov from the other photographs of Nabokov that I've seen.
A.A.Stone is so positive about his vision and adds to it such an important place in his commentary that I'd be thankful if some Nab-L participant could confirm or deny his assertion.
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JM: I watched the DVD with the scene where there should be a "conspicuous picture of Nabokov on the wall". Unless my copy has been edited and Kubrick's original movie altered, there is no picture of Nabokov anywhere in this sequence. Can anyone confirm A.A.Stone's information?
Checking other reviews I found a 1962 review ("Great Films") by Tim Dirks. According to him, Nabokov's picture hangs on Charlotte's wall, above the urn with her husband's ashes. He describes the events: "She points toward her husband's picture [a serious portrait which looks like a photograph of a young Nabokov, the novel's author] - and her prized materialistic possession: "He was a lovely human being. A man of complete integrity....(Humbert touches a black vase beneath the picture, not realizing that it is Mr. Haze's cremation urn.)...Those are his ashes." Humbert recoils his hand away."
I photographed the scene and got a closer look at Mr. Haze. I could find no similarity with the man in the portrait and young Nabokov from the other photographs of Nabokov that I've seen.
A.A.Stone is so positive about his vision and adds to it such an important place in his commentary that I'd be thankful if some Nab-L participant could confirm or deny his assertion.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
