Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0016446, Mon, 2 Jun 2008 14:14:36 -0400

Subject
SIGHTING? Truffaut's Day for Night (1973) and Lolita
From
Date
Body
I've just finished watching a DVD of Truffaut's "La Nuit Americaine" (
Day for Night, 1973) in which the stunt who was to arrive from England
was expected to be "a Lolita" and turned out to be a young man. The
reference is slight but the movie being shot is about the love-affair
bt. an older man and his daughter-in-law ( who dies in a car accident in
the story being filmed whereas the actor that plays her lover dies in
another car accident).
The actor who plays the treacherous father is presented as a don Juan
while he is a homosexual and in love with the young stunt. These
elements made me suppose that François Truffaut was referring to
Nabokov in more ways than one.
I googled "Truffaut Lolita" and found a reference to another link with
"Lolita": A few words more about Mrs. Humbert while the going is good
(a bad accident is to happen quite soon). I had been always aware of the
possessive streak in her, but I never thought she would be so crazily
jealous of anything in my life that had not been she. She showed a
fierce insatiable curiosity for my past in "François Truffaut's The
remains of the day for night. (Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (2) "I suppose I
expected the accident in a way," ... ), at
goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1562971/The-remains-of-the-day.html -
Barbara Wyllie connects the context of American cinema of the early
1970s to some of the choices made by Nabokov in "Transparent Things" to
describe Nabokov's "affinity with the work of New Hollywood directors",
among which she mentions Truffaut ( Nabokov at the Movies, pages
238-239). In this example we find Truffaut's influence on VN.

Jansy Mello

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/