Subject
Re: Kubrick's LO.
Date
Body
From: Matt Morris - Forsyth Technical Community College
<mmorris@riscy.forsyth.tec.nc.us>
At the risk of turning this into a Kubrick discussion, I wanted to reply
that yes, I find all of Kubrick's films, from Killer's Kiss to Full Metal
Jacket, to reek of poshlost. Stylistically, Kubrick is an imitator of the
much greater Max Ophuls. I am surprised that so many Nabokovians find
things to like in his cardboard films. Surely Nabokov would've found little
to like in the vulgar, violent, and obvious Clockwork Orange, to take but
one example; to say nothing of the stilted and boring Barry Lyndon, or the
two-dimensional war drama Full Metal Jacket. And Strangelove, with all of
its phalluses and Freudian humor should appeal to Pynchon fans everywhere;
but for the life of me, I can't see what a good Nabokovian would see in this
Sigy Mondieu-Mondieu stuff.
And while we are discussing K's Lolita, was anyone else appalled by the way
Kubrick completely ruined a beautiful--and for me, psychologically
complex--moment in the novel, when Humbert drinks scotch in the bath
following Charlotte's untimely demise? In the book, while it is clear that
Humbert is on one level inwardly rejoicing at his good fortune, on another
there is a touch of compassion that complicates things greatly--"I cried
dear reader. I cried." Kubrick plays all of this for laughs only--there is
no compassion, even a flicker of it, as in the book, just a drunken James
Mason--thus, spoiling the moment. But he spoils many splendid scenes in
Lolita (I say again--look at that preposterous porter scene in the Enchanted
Hunters!! Plays like a very bad Three Stooges short!!)
<mmorris@riscy.forsyth.tec.nc.us>
At the risk of turning this into a Kubrick discussion, I wanted to reply
that yes, I find all of Kubrick's films, from Killer's Kiss to Full Metal
Jacket, to reek of poshlost. Stylistically, Kubrick is an imitator of the
much greater Max Ophuls. I am surprised that so many Nabokovians find
things to like in his cardboard films. Surely Nabokov would've found little
to like in the vulgar, violent, and obvious Clockwork Orange, to take but
one example; to say nothing of the stilted and boring Barry Lyndon, or the
two-dimensional war drama Full Metal Jacket. And Strangelove, with all of
its phalluses and Freudian humor should appeal to Pynchon fans everywhere;
but for the life of me, I can't see what a good Nabokovian would see in this
Sigy Mondieu-Mondieu stuff.
And while we are discussing K's Lolita, was anyone else appalled by the way
Kubrick completely ruined a beautiful--and for me, psychologically
complex--moment in the novel, when Humbert drinks scotch in the bath
following Charlotte's untimely demise? In the book, while it is clear that
Humbert is on one level inwardly rejoicing at his good fortune, on another
there is a touch of compassion that complicates things greatly--"I cried
dear reader. I cried." Kubrick plays all of this for laughs only--there is
no compassion, even a flicker of it, as in the book, just a drunken James
Mason--thus, spoiling the moment. But he spoils many splendid scenes in
Lolita (I say again--look at that preposterous porter scene in the Enchanted
Hunters!! Plays like a very bad Three Stooges short!!)