R.I.P. Lizabeth Scott: Noir Feeling Closer to Reality

Lizabeth Scott, who played an aloof and alluring femme fatale in such film noir classics as I Walk Alone, Pitfall and Dark City, has died. She was 92. Scott, who also starred as a gangster's wife opposite Humphrey Bogart in Dead Reckoning (1947), died Jan. 31 of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, her friend Mary Goodstein told the Los Angeles Times.

Scott, a sultry blonde with a smoky voice in the mold of Lauren Bacall, played nightclub singers in 1947's I Walk Alone opposite Burt Lancaster and in William Dieterle's Dark City, a 1950 release that marked Charlton Heston's first major Hollywood role.

In Pitfall (1948), she was a fashion model that married man and insurance investigator Dick Powell could not resist. And in Too Late for Tears (1949), also starring Dan Duryea, Scott killed not one but two husbands. (The poster for that movie proclaims, "She got what she wanted … with lies … with kisses … with murder!")

She made her film debut in You Came Along (1945) opposite Robert Cummings — Ayn Rand was a co-writer of the screenplay — followed by The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), with Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas and Van Heflin.

Her other films included Desert Fury (1947) with John Hodiak, Easy Living (1949), Paid in Full (1950), The Company She Keeps (1951) — as an ex-convict — The Racket (1951) with Robert Mitchum, Stolen Face (1952), Bad for Each Other (1953) and The Weapon (1956).

Asked in a 1996 interview why film noir had become so popular, Scott said: “The films that I had seen growing up were always, ‘Boy meets girl, boy ends up marrying girl, and they go off into the sunset,’ ” she said. “And suddenly [in the 1940s], psychology was taking a grasp on society in America.

That’s when they got into these psychological, emotional things that people feel. That was the feeling of film noir. … It was a new realm, something very exciting, because you were coming closer and closer to reality.” Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

"The privilege of being a screen actor is having the opportunity of seeing yourself as others see you. Believe me, it is very traumatic. When I saw myself, I thought: Get a train ticket and leave." -Lizabeth Scott

Born Emma Matzo, the daughter of a Slovakian mother and an Italian father in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Lizabeth Scott evidenced an affinity for theater when she was a child. In the 1930s, many parents believed that the only way their children could escape from coal towns like Scranton was to speak properly. It was not that Scrantonians spoke poorly; it was that they carried the baggage of their grandparents' or parents' immigrant past with them.

Lizabeth Scott could have had a future as a model, especially after she began appearing in the pages of Harper's Bazaar at the same time as Betty (Lauren) Bacall. Elizabeth Scott considered herself an actress; her first dramatic lead was Sadie Thompson, Jeanne Eagels's signature role, in W. Somerset Maugham's Rain. Since Rain was performed in what was then the equivalent of off Broadway, it went unreviewed. Elizabeth had no thought of giving up; she had a face, a figure, and a talent, and if theatergoers could not experience it, magazine readers would. Irving Hoffman, who worked for columnist Walter Winchell, was impressed by her range.

Elizabeth Scott was another matter; to Hoffman, she was class. Eager to introduce her to those who could further her career, Hoffman arranged a twentyfirst-birthday celebration for her at the Stork Club - Walter Winchell's favorite nightclub, where he had his own table. It was September 1943, and Hal Wallis, who visited New York at least once a year to check out the current crop of plays, happened to be there that evening. Hoffman introduced Elizabeth to Wallis, who sensed enough potential to suggest a screen test. After seeing the test, Jack Warner was characteristically blunt: "She's a second lead, and we have enough of those."

Although Wallis considered Lizabeth Scott his personal discovery, she came to Hollywood through a circuitous route that owed less to him than to circumstances over which he had no control. In Hollywood, the agent is usually the liaison between artist and producer. Bacall's case was different; it was Nancy Hawks, a former model herself, who brought Betty Bacall to her husband's attention. Lizabeth's Hollywood entree was more typical; talent agent Charles Feldman spotted her picture in Harper's Bazaar. Lizabeth's original contract (June 1944) guaranteed her $150 a week for a minimum of twenty weeks; by January 1945 it was $200 for twenty weeks; by July 1945, $300 for not less than forty weeks. A year later, Lizabeth was making $750 a week.

After You Came Along, Wallis decided to feature Lizabeth in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), with Barbara Stanwyck in the title role and Academy Award winner Van Heflin (for best supporting actor in Johnny Eager) as Martha's childhood sweetheart, who reenters her life. Lizabeth's part may have been peripheral, but the English did not think so. When she arrived in London for the British premiere of Martha Ivers, the moviegoers were so taken with her performance and her physical presence that they started to mob her. Graciously, she thanked them and was then escorted through the back door of the theater.

Lizabeth Scott became an obsession with Wallis. He had the power to authorize the kinds of products she would endorse in magazines and the interviews she would grant. Ads for Lux soap, Chesterfield
cigarettes, designer clothes, and soft drinks were acceptable, but not endorsements for pressure cookers and dime store cosmetics.

An editor from Conde Nast, struck by Lizabeth's publicity shots, advised Wallis that she was "something special ... a new type of movie girl ... potentially a fine, fine actress ... what every man in
uniform wants his girl friend to look like."' Wallis knew even earlier that Lizabeth should not be subjected to the kind of portraiture that would make her look exotic but unreal: "I think the best way to shoot this girl is without makeup, except possibly for lipstick.... She seems to be the type that should go for this natural quality."

Wallis thought he had a star in Lizabeth Scott; what he had was an talented actress whose range was never fully exploited, partly because Hollywood's postwar obsession with film noir darkened many of her films, which, ordinarily, would just have been considered crime movies or melodramas. Thus, while Lauren Bacall never became a noir icon (having never become a real femme noire), Lizabeth Scott did, joining the pantheon that included Marie Windsor, Ann Savage, Jane Greer, and Beverly Garland. In fact, according to Film Noir: An Encyclopedia Reference to the American Style, seven of her twenty-two movies qualify as film noir: Martha Ivers, Dead Reckoning (1947), I Walk Alone (1948), Pitfall (1948), Too Late for Tears (1949), Dark City (1950), and The Racket (1951). Ironically, the best -Dead Reckoning, Pitfall, and Too Late for Tears were loanouts.

When Wallis loaned her to producer Samuel Bischoff for Pitfall, her salary was $7,500 for ten weeks' work; and for RKO's Easy Living (1949), she was guaranteed a minimum of $75,000. While neither was a major film, each succeeded on the B-movie level because of the professionalism of its director (Pitfall's Andre de Toth, Easy Living's Jacques Tourneur) and costars (Dick Powell and Jane Wyatt in Pitfall, Lucille Ball and Victor Mature in Easy Living). Although Pitfall now ranks as classic noir (French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier considers it one of the genre's masterpieces), Wallis could not have known that in 1948; he simply believed that Lizabeth's appearing opposite Dick Powell, who showed his macho side in Murder, My Sweet (1944) and Cornered (1945), was right for a movie about a woman who ensnares a respectable married man in a web of deception and murder. Despite her excellent performance, Pitfall did not enhance her appeal to audiences, particularly women.

She was a homewrecker in Pitfall, a murderer in Dead Reckoning, and the self-absorbed wife of a football player with a heart condition in Easy Living. Typecast as the dark lady, Lizabeth Scott never had the chance to display her gift for comedy, which was evident in The Skin of Our Teeth. But that was theater, not film. And theater was the medium for which she was yearning, as one movie role dissolved into another and all the characters merged into one. -"Hal Wallis: Producer to the Stars" (2004) by Bernard F. Dick

Jake Gyllenhaal in "Nightcrawler" (most shocking Oscar snub)

The most shocking shock of the 2015 Academy Award nominations is Jake Gyllenhaal not being acknowledged for the year's best performance from a male, which he delivered in Nightcrawler.
Gyllenhaal's performance in Nightcrawler being the best of the last year isn't a leftfield opinion. It's agreed upon by many. It got nods from the Golden Globes, BAFTAs, SAGs, Spirits, Gothams and many critics groups around the world. If someone believes Bradley Cooper is better in American Sniper than Gyllenhaal is in Nightcrawler, they have some major judgement issues. Source: www.3news.co.nz

Watch a Video clip featuring some scenes from "Nightcrawler" (2014) directed by Dan Gilroy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton and Rick Garcia

Anyone could tell Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), the focal point of Nightcrawler, is stone crazy after spending thirty seconds with him. It’s in his eyes, and in the staccato, wired vocal delivery that reminds us of a shock radio jock in the early a.m. slot... something’s wrong in the opening minutes, after filmmaker Dan Gilroy’s dazzling hi-def montage of nighttime Los Angeles scenes wears off and we’re left alone with our boy. Lou is trespassing in a deserted railroad yard when we first meet him, looking to steal copper, wire fencing, manhole covers, etc. Soon, he discovers it’s easier and more profitable to sell video footage of traffic accidents to TV broadcasters, and so begins a tenuous but long-running relationship—according to his fly-by-night standards—with Nina (Rene Russo), news director of KWLA, the city’s lowest-rated station.

Their friendship is a little peculiar, as is Lou’s working partnership with his scatterbrained assistant Rick (Riz Ahmed), the classic dim-witted accomplice (and fall guy) to a string of felonies. First-time director Gilroy, screenwriter of The Bourne Legacy, keeps a number of hot-topic burners going as we follow Lou’s opportunistic career. Evidently the move from scrap-metal thief to crash-and-crime video ghoul is as natural for Lou as the decision to upgrade his equipment and adopt a “managerial voice” with his flunky. Crime sells on TV. Ambitious Nina recognizes Lou’s footage as sensational and is willing to pay handsomely for it: “If it bleeds, it leads.” But Lou is unwilling to settle for merely chasing police scanner squawks in his search for ever more lurid images.

Nothing stands in his way, not even rival video hound Joe Loder (Bill Paxton), who at first mocks Lou’s crummy camera but comes to marvel at his Weegee-like talent for capturing the jugular shot. He may speak like a robot but he has the eye. Lou’s standard line is that he never had much schooling but picked up things on the internet—concepts like “branding” and “market share.” Is he a raging capitalist or a psycho criminal? Rearranging bodies at a fatal accident to make a better shot comes easily for him, just like picking up your wallet if it fell on the street in front of him.

Nina shares some of Lou’s stop-at-nothing drive, but from an older, more worldweary perspective. Ethics? She’s heard of that. But most of all she admires his instinct for “news.” We’ve seen thrill-peddling characters similar to Lou, Nina, Rick, and Joe in numerous Southern California crime-in-the-sunshine films. What Gilroy brings to the discussion is the 21st-century obsession with instantaneous
voyeuristic gratification. The POV is endlessly topical.

Nina craves images of urban crime creeping into the suburbs—it’s what’s selling now. Lou essentially wants his own production company and a fleet of vans. In both instances, LA can provide. The action scenes have a snap, crackle, and pop to compare with any modern urban thriller, but with the vital cooled-out, realistic touch. At its core, despite the grisly trimmings and Gyllenhaal’s unhinged performance as Lou, Nightcrawler is coldly analytical and dry as a bone. Says Nina: “I think Lou is inspiring us to reach a little higher.”One day, if your luck fails, he might even be your boss. -"Nightcrawler: It Bled and It Led" by Kelly Vance (Noir City, Winter 2015)

"American Sniper" and the Philosophy of War

-“The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it.” -John F. Kennedy

-“I don’t regret any ot it. I’d do it again. At the same time, war definitely changes you.” -Chris Kyle (American Sniper)

American Sniper ('Movie of the Year' AFI Award winner) has become a true phenomenon after surpassing the $250 million box office mark, its political repercussions being agitatedly discussed. Even First Lady Michelle Obama has joined the debate, commenting on the movie’s “wrenching stories” and “complex journeys.” Despite of being the recipient of irate attacks and polemic diatribes, Clint Eastwood insists his film was conceived as a character-study, chronicling real Navy SEAL veteran Chris Kyle’s experiences (a sniper who boasted a record of over 160 confirmed kills during his 4 tours on Iraq, author of the bestselling memoir American Sniper published in 2012).

Touching barely on the political issues, Eastwood’s film is a thrilling biopic which doesn’t shy away from showing us the darkest physical and psychological effects suffered by Kyle and his fellow soldiers, although, according to its detractors, it doesn’t fully answer the total implications that could have been explored in the wider sociological, doctrinal and military context. Although we see the conservative faction gleefully enjoying the celebration of the film's pro-American angle, the oppressive and austere tone from several thought-provoking scenes will be valued on the left side of the spectrum.

Jason Hall (who wrote the American Sniper screenplay) points out in Rolling Stone: “The beautiful part is that while everyone on the left is arguing with everyone on the right, and they seem to get further and further apart, it’s the guys in the middle that this was for. It’s hitting them in the exact right spot.”

Chief Chris Kyle’s memoirs are laid out in a fervent, prideful style in fourteen chapters with titles like Takedowns, Five Minutes to Live, Sniper, Dealing Death, Family Conflicts, The Punishers, The Devil of Ramadi, Man Down, Mortality and Home & Out, whereas the style from the film is predominantly restrained and somber. Even the long action scenes in Iraq lack the typical gung ho approach so many Middle East blockbusters use to build up the adrenaline highs during the battle.

Carrying a surplus 40 pounds, Bradley Cooper embodies the controversial figure of Chris Kyle, the son of a church deacon and a Sunday school teacher, who grew up developing an instinct for protecting the “sheep.” Shooting guns and riding horses were the early passions of this Texan ‘cowboy at heart’ turned decorated sniper. While having a blast in the saddle bronc bustin’ circuit, he attracted attention from the rodeo groupies or ‘buckle bunnies’ (there is a dramatized scene in the first part of the film when Chris confronts a cheating girlfriend).

In San Diego, after finishing his BUD/S training at the Navy, Chris meets Taya Renae (whom he defines in his autobiography as ‘the love of my life and better half’) at a bar, translated on screen in a very effective scene made memorable by an inspired Sienna Miller, when Kyle unveils the chinks in Taya’s armor during a funny banter session about beers, rednecks and American ideals.

Deployed in Nasiriya (Iraq) in 2003, Chris executes his first target about 50 yards away (his record would reportedly be 2,100 yards). He continues his mission with a overzealous faith towards his duty, although in the film we witness Chris’s increasing anguish when his threats on Iraqi ground happen to be children and women (in contrast with his more blunt “I deeply hated the evil that woman possessed” remark from the book). Later Chris is sent to Fallujah, Ramadi (where he’s tagged ‘the Devil of Ramadi’ by enemy forces who offer a bounty on his head) and Baghdad, the conflict escalating all over and the individual losses of his platoon more frequent.

Chris becomes ‘the Legend’ within the SEALs due to his devoted and fearless nature. In the film, Marc Lee (Luke Grimes) asks him: “You got some kind of saviour complex?” and Chris replies: “No. I just want to get the bad guys, but if I can’t see them I can’t shoot them.” But the dark effluviums from the conflict left behind are as viscous like oil, as wasted like blood, and can annihilate the combatant’s spirit even entrenched in safety back home.

Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle & Kyle Gallner as Goat-Winston 

Some viewers may believe Steven Spielberg, who was originally going to direct the film, might have handled the ideological subtext better, but I find many of the charges of ‘propaganda’ against the film preposterous, since it’s clearly devoid of self-congratulation and it never feels frivolous — no chirpy soundtrack or banal Hollywood camaraderie.

While it’s not unusual to interject  sexual references into a bellicist epic, usually raunchy stuff, here this material is more sensitively displayed, following the traditional meet-cute path and featuring a tender courtship with nuances of intimacy between Chris and Taya.

I think one great difference between American Sniper and other contemporary war films as Black Hawk Down, Jarhead and The Hurt Locker is the romantic relationship between Chris and Taya, the underlying warmth at the core of American Sniper, which allows us to feel empathy without ever losing our critical eye. One example is Taya warning her husband: “If you think that this war isn’t changing you you’re wrong. You can only circle the flames so long.”

The impression Chris Kyle gives in his book, of being a gun-obsessed, resilient, judgemental war professional, is quite different from his filmic counterpart. Bradley Cooper’s outstanding performance forges a portrait of a fundamentally good-natured, compassionate and vulnerable man who loves his country and its foundational principles that he’ll defend until death. The real Chris had an eccentric side, sometimes replacing his official headgear for an old Longhorns baseball cap and customizing his uniform; he could be idealistic (“Helping each other out – that’s America”) or borderline fanatical (“Everyone I shot was evil. They all deserved to die”); he was a fan of John Wayne (“Rio Bravo may be my favorite”) and Clint Eastwood. The duelo scene between Chris and Iraqi sniper Mustafa pays homage to the Western genre in renewed fashion through a portentously shooting sequence.

What Cooper prodigiously attains is a balanced sense of right and wrong, love and hate, family and duty, projecting a personality the real Chris probably imagined in himself at times, a noble, superior warrior with a golden heart. Cooper hits all the right notes —macho swagger, anger, PTSD-laden hero— so it’s heartbreaking when the camera, playfully but ominously, frames Chris Kyle’s final moments in company of his wife and kids. Bradley Cooper won the 20th Critics’ Choice Award as ‘Best Actor in an Action Movie’ and has been nominated to an Oscar. He’s not the Academy Award front runner but I wouldn’t be too surprised if he pulled an upset. “Something about him was beautiful,” Cooper says of Chris Kyle (from whom he gleaned “a real authenticity” during their only phone call) in a NPR ‘Fresh Air’ interview, highlighting “the fact that 22 veterans commit suicide each day.”

British humanist John Stuart Mill wrote: “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks nothing is worth a war is worse.”

Another British philosopher, Roger Scruton, in his essay “Immanuel Kant and the Iraq War” (2004), contemplated: “We are confronted with a state that is manifestly despotic. Suppose there is a larger power, motivated perhaps by some version of the Ideal of Reason that Kant puts before us in ‘Perpetual Peace.’ Suppose this larger power is confident it can destroy the despotic state… then ask Kant the question: would it be right to go to war? There is no question of having to prove the existence of weapons of mass destruction, or anything else beyond the known facts about the despotism’s past behaviour. The US is of course not a fully achieved republic in Kant’s sense — but as Kant would have been the first to admit, nothign created from the crooked timber of humanity is a fully achieved anything, still less an instance of what is, after all, an Ideal of Reason.”

Harking back to Plato’s Laws (360 B.C.E), we find: “in reality, every city is in a natural state of war with every other, not, indeed, proclaimed by heralds, but everlasting. All men everywhere are the enemies of all, and each individual of every other and of himself.” In Plato’s Thrasymachus (Republic Book I), we are told “justice is the interest of the stronger,” an argument which could be aducced by those who condemn unfair military interventions or the imperialistic ambitions of America’s oligarchy.

Let’s finish our ruminations about the philosophy of war with the persuasive words of George Washington (first President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War): “To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.”

Article first published as Chris Kyle and ‘American Sniper’ – The Book, the Movie, and the Philosophy of War on Blogcritics.

Note from Weirdland: Jason Hall, the screenwriter of "American Sniper", messaged me saying my article was "a great piece, with a deep insight, in the same league than Richard Brody's for The New Yorker", I'm very flattered, because I loved Jason's fantastic job at translating Chris Kyle's memoirs to the screen.

Ida Lupino's Anniversary, Oscar Race, Lolita's Anniversary, Bradley Cooper video

Happy Anniversary, Ida Lupino!


A&E Biography Of The Great Ida Lupino. Featuring Interviews with Roddy McDowall, Gena Rowlands & other Friends & Family. Narrated By Peter Graves.

Ida Lupino, promotional portrait for Woman in Hiding (1950)

Nineteen fifty was a phenomenal year for Lupino. With the release of Not Wanted, Never Fear, Outrage, and Hard, Fast and Beautiful, she became Hollywood's golden girl again, as she had been a decade before. As recognition of her new industry status, she was asked to present the Oscar for best director at the 22nd Academy Awards ceremony. Applause swept over her as she stepped to the podium. She announced Joseph Mankiewicz as the winner for A Letter to Three Wives. Said Mankiewicz: "Miss Lupino is the only woman in the Directors Guild, and the prettiest." The press hailed her extraordinary talent. Holiday magazine gave Ida a special award in recognition of her artistic courage: "To the woman in the motion picture industry who has done the most to improve standards and to honestly present American life, ideals and people to the rest of the world."  -"Ida Lupino: A Biography" (1996) by William Donati

Ava DuVernay got sensational reviews for Selma but she did not make the list of nominees for Best Director. However, she did make Oscar history as the first African American woman to direct a film nominated for Best Picture. David Oyelowo, who amazingly played Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma and also got sensational reviews, did not get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In over 80 years of the Academy Awards, less than 10 women have been recognized in the category of Best Director.

Let's talk Hollywood history and another trailblazing woman: Ida Lupino. She directed films and TV shows after establishing herself as one of Hollywood's best actresses. Back in the late 1920s and the 1930s, there was one female director in Hollywood. She was Dorothy Arzner. She was the first woman to direct a performer to an Oscar nomination.

Actress Ruth Chatterton, known to many classic film fans as the actress who played the vain, exasperating wife in William Wyler's Dodsworth (1936) was a Best Actress nominee for 1930's Sarah and Son, directed by Ms. Arzner and co-starring Fredric March.

Then came actress Ida Lupino. She started making Hollywood movies in the 1930s. Although she slammed across some solid screen performances, she was never nominated for an Oscar. Although she was a pioneer for women in the field of television as a director, she never received a Lifetime Emmy. She opened the door for future actresses who also became directors. Women such as Barbra Streisand, Jodie Foster and Penny Marshall. Ida should've been given a Lifetime Emmy. She was an actress, scriptwriter, director and a producer. I still feel a film/TV scholarship award for women should be named in Ida Lupino honor. Source: bobbyriverstv.blogspot.com

Bradley Cooper believes the debate surrounding American Sniper is a good thing; Eddie Redmayne's Golden Globe was stopped during baggage check at the airport; and Patricia Arquette felt like a grown-up at Disneyland when she heard she was nominated for an Oscar.

These are just some of the insights and anecdotes shared by the Best Actress and Best Actor hopefuls before they entered the annual Oscar Nominees Luncheon on Monday afternoon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Reese Witherspoon and nominees from all 24 categories caught up with each other at the luncheon Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

"There is a realistic chance that American Sniper could ambush the Oscars," says Tom O'Neil of awards website GoldDerby.com. Because it broke into the race late, no one knows Sniper's strengths yet. But Saturday's Directors Guild Awards will be a great test for whether it can emerge victorious Oscar night, O'Neil says. If Eastwood wins best film, "then Sniper could emerge as the front-runner."

Dave Karger says it's conceivable that Cooper could "pull off an Adrien Brody". However, Golden Globe winners Michael Keaton (Birdman) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), who also won a SAG award, are possibly a little too far ahead.

Actor Eddie Redmayne won a SAG Award, and if history is any judge, it makes him a strong contender for a best actor Oscar. O'Neil sees a chance for Cooper, however, because he has all the Oscar elements important to win: He portrays a real-life person, plus there's an impressive physical transformation involved. "He put on 40 pounds, facial hair and a Texas twang. He has a lot going for him."

Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock says the actor category is the best chance for a Sniper upset, mostly because of Cooper's two previous nominations for Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. "I can't imagine it gets shut out," he says of the movie. "That'd be a pretty sweet reward." Source: www.usatoday.com

Bradley Cooper reading "Lolita" to Suki Waterhouse in a Parisian park, August 2013. Cooper is 17 years older than his girlfriend British model Suki.

60th Anniversary of Lolita (1955) - Nabokov finished Lolita on 6 December 1953, five years after starting it. The manuscript was turned down, with more or less regret, by Viking, Simon & Schuster, New Directions, Farrar, Straus, and Doubleday. After these refusals and warnings, he finally resorted to publication in France. Lolita was published in September 1955, as a pair of green paperbacks "swarming with typographical errors". Eventually, at the very end of 1955, Graham Greene, in the (London) Sunday Times, called it one of the three best books of 1955. This statement provoked a response from the (London) Sunday Express, whose editor John Gordon called it "the filthiest book I have ever read" and "sheer unrestrained pornography." Today, Lolita is considered one of the finest novels written in the 20th century. In 1998, it came fourth in a list by the Modern Library of the greatest English-language novels of the 20th century.(Wiki)

What makes Lolita “flame” is first of all a love affair with the real America. (“Nothing is more exhilarating than philistine vulgarity…. ”) It is an America where language and event make a seamless web of wonders, terrors, revelations, and portents. English, for Mr. Nabokov, is an instrument for the wildest and most mysteriously fitting shifts of tone, the most cheerfully extroverted, slang-relishing, literate verbal tomfoolery. Lolita’s chief actor, Humbert Humbert, a Swiss “salad of racial genes,” is afflicted with about equal degrees of wit, ennui, taste, and a hideously overt form of nympholepsy; the disease of Ruskin and Lewis Carroll given free and tender rein in a wilderness of American motels, suburbs, and progressive institutions. Lolita is a burlesque of Freudianism that Freud would have had to enjoy. I am inclined to think that the burlesque takes one more turn, at least, than we would expect of any previous example of the “confessional novel” or “roman noir” (Mr. Dupee’s terms). All Mr. Nabokov has to confess, I think, is imagination enough to project the charms of a Phedre or Cleopatra into the skin of an odious suburban bobby-soxer. Source: www.newrepublic.com


Bradley Cooper (You're the Reason) video featuring pictures and stills of Bradley Cooper, with his co-stars Heather Graham, Jennifer Connelly, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Sienna Miller, with girlfriend Suki Waterhouse, etc.