Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000954, Mon, 12 Feb 1996 21:08:38 -0800

Subject
Re: VN audio & video (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Dean Farwood <farwood@sirius.com> for the
first item below. Some comments and additions to the "audio-visual" list
will follow as they become available. PLEASE SEND IN FURTHER MATERIAL.

This message was originally submitted by farwood@SIRIUS.COM to the NABOKV-L
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Commercially available TAPES.

1. Nabokov: LOLITA and Poems. Read by Vladimir Nabokov. 1983
Spoken Arts, INC. Box 289. New Rochelle, NY 10801

Side One: Lolita (Part Two, Chapter 35)
Side Two: The Ballad of Longwood Glen; Rain; Lines Written in Oregon;
On Translating "Eugene Onegin"; An Evening of Russian Poetry;
The Swift; The Discovery

2. "Vladimir Nabokov at Harvard." Nabokov reads excerpts from PALE FIRE,
LOLITA and his own poems and translations of Russian poets. Selected and
edited by Stratis Haviaras & Michael Milburn. Poetry Room, Harvard
University. Recorded 1946, 1952 19564. A set of two tapes. $24 at the
time of purchase perhaps five years ago.
-------------------------------------
FILM/VIDEO.

The only item that I presently know to be available (although there may be
others) is the 1966 Robert Hughes interview done for WNET. It is described
in Brian Boyd's biography II, pp. 501-3. This interview is available for
rental at $12.15 from Indiana University, Instructional & Support
Services, Franklin, Room 0001, Bloomington, Indiana 47405-5901. Phone:
1-800-552-8620. A copy can be purchased for $250. As I recall, the film runs
upwards of 30 minutes.

This is an excellent interview in which VN is shown in his daily
activities in Montreux as well as reading his work and commenting on it
and much else. A very partial text of the interview may be found in
_Strong Opinions_, but it is a pale shadow of the full filmed interview.
The 16mm film copy I have seen is, however, in very poor condition.
Although visually adequate, the sound track was sometimes virtually
unintelligible. I am told that a recent video version is of better
quality, but I have not seen it. It is not yet certain that the video
version is for sale.

Michael Juliar's VN Bibliography lists a number of interviews that were
filmed but it is not clear that they are availble.