Sandy Klein sent: Brian Cox plays Humbert Humbert
in Lolita found in
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article6813294
August 29, 2009, by Valerie Grove
( excerpts from
Klein's very complete commentary): "The Nabokov prose style, which Cox
describes as “flirtatious”, is extravagant, parodic, allusive, full of Joycean
word-games: it “rushes up on the reader like a recreational drug”, as Martin
Amis wrote...Previous Humberts were played as English gents. But Humbert is a
European, born in Paris, fond of mock-genteel French phrases such as entre nous
soit dit. He is “a salad of racial genes”. So Cox (“100 per cent Celtic”) has
adopted a hybrid Anglo- French-Viennese voice based on Michel Lonsdale, the
veteran actor who was the French detective in The Day of the Jackal. “I wanted
to get this European feel of over-correct vowels, strange misplaced
‘r’s”.'
JM: Hi, Sandy. Your contribution was a
treat [there's even a hint of hope for diabetics who want to drink champagne:
"lunch on grilled zucchini and crispy Parma
ham, his choice dictated by the fact that he is diabetic and follows the
Montignac GI diet (never mixing proteins and carbs) with its promised reward of
Brut champagne at the end of the day", as a side plate].
I also enjoyed the
proffered summary of the nabokovian prose-style (
flirtatious...extravagant, parodic, allusive). I took exception only to "Joycean
word-games".
In my opinion, both Nabokov and Joyce drank from the same
source, but this is all. No Lafontaine priorities, wolfs or lambs
here.