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Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov

Writing

Biography

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1899-1977) was a Russian-born multilingual novelist, poet, translator, critic and entomologist considered the foremost of the post-1917 émigré authors. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian while living in Berlin. He achieved international acclaim and prominence after moving to the United States, where he began writing in English. Nabokov was a professor of Russian literature at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959, before returning to Europe in 1961, where he settled in Montreux, Switzerland. Beginning with King, Queen, Knave (1928), his writing began to feature intricate stylistic devices. His novels are principally concerned with the problem of art itself, presented in various disguises, as in Invitation to a Beheading (1938). Parody is frequent in The Gift (1937–38) and later works. His novels written in English include the notorious best seller Lolita (1955), which brought him wealth and international fame; Pale Fire (1962); and Ada (1969). His episodic novel about an émigré professor of Russian in the United States, Pnin (1957), is to some extent based on his experiences as a literature professor. His critical works include a monumental translation of and commentary on Aleksandr Pushkin’s Evgeny Onegin.

Known For

Apostrophes
8.5

Apostrophes was a live, weekly, literary, prime-time, talk show on French television created and hosted by Bernard Pivot. It ran for fifteen years (724 episodes) from January 10, 1975, to June 22, 1990, and was one of the most watched shows on French television (around 6 million regular viewers). It was broadcast on Friday nights on the channel France 2 (which was called "Antenne 2" from 1975 to 1992). The hourlong show was devoted to books, authors and literature. The format varied between one-on-one interviews with a single author and open discussions between four or five authors.

Apostrophes

1975
Russian Lolita
5.2

Very loosely based on Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’, this is the story of a writer renting a room at a single mother’s house that starts an affair with the daughter of her.

Russian Lolita

2007
Lolita
7.1

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.

Lolita

1997
Lolita
7.3

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.

Lolita

1962
The Luzhin Defence
6.2

Based upon the novel by Vladimir Nabokov, a chess grandmaster travels to Italy in the 1920s to play in a tournament and falls in love.

The Luzhin Defence

2000
The Event
N/A

In the center of the painting is the story of the artist Troshcheikin, his wife Lyuba, her mother and sister. They live abroad, in a provincial small town populated by compatriots. The unexpected return to the city of a certain Barbashin turns the life of the family upside down. Five years ago, in a fit of jealousy, this man shot at Troshcheikin and his wife, wounded them and, after going to prison for six years, promised to return and finish what he started…

The Event

2009
Despair
6.5

Berlin, 1930, during the rise of Nazism. Hermann Hermann, a Russian emigrant and chocolate manufacturer, married to the capricious Lydia, loses his temper more and more every day when dealing with his workers and other businessmen; until he meets Felix, a vagrant, who seems to be physically identical to him; a disconcerting fact that leads Hermann Hermann to plot a particular way out of a fake world he actually hates.

Despair

1978
Mademoiselle O
10.0

About a young boy growing up to become a great artist. Set basically in St. Petersburg and a country dacha in Vyra during the aftermath of the 1905 Russian Revolution.

Mademoiselle O

1994
Longing for Sandy Bay
5.1

Workaholic geologist Timothy Deveraux is estranged from his wife, psychotherapist Antoinette. She seduces the big doctor, Dr. Sam Long, before telling him that she is married. The two share a close bond with ecological conservation, so when an arson incident comes up, Timothy feels compelled to destroy the mining company of his new Australian employer.

Longing for Sandy Bay

2011
King, Queen, Knave
4.5

Based on a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, this English-language satirical drama details the experiences of Frank (John Moulder Brown), a young orphan who finds himself deep in the romantic clutches of his uncle's sensual wife. After Frank's parents die, he goes to live with his aunt Martha (Gina Lollabrigida) and uncle Charles (David Niven). Sexy Martha entices Frank into her embrace then wants him to kill her husband so that they can live off of his money. Frank wouldn't mind so much, but he really likes his uncle.

King, Queen, Knave

1972
No image
N/A

Follows an extraordinary weekend in the not-so-extraordinary life of Jinho. The story unravels around the fatalistic pattern of our meek hero's existence-where a chance meeting with the devil offers Jinho an escape hatch to his daily humdrum, and a shot at his greatest fantasy: a night of unbridled passion with all the women of his choosing as his personal sex slaves. Jinho's shy and idiosyncratic character, however, belie the true greed and foolery of his own desires-and steeped in his "Sysphus-esque" lack of self-knowledge, he falls prey to the glitter of the forbidden fruit.

A Nursery Tale

1999
Mashenka
N/A

Berlin, the 1920s, a boarding house where Russian immigrants live. One of the characters in the film, waiting for his wife's arrival, shows her photo to a neighbor at the boarding house, who recognizes her as his first love, Masha.…

Mashenka

1991
Maschenka
9.0

Film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's debut novel, 'Mary'.

Maschenka

1987
And the Line Doesn't End
N/A

The film is dedicated to the development of culture in Russia. The musical basis of the film is Alexander Gradsky's suite "Nostalgia", written on poems by Vladimir Nabokov.

And the Line Doesn't End

1989
Lolita : méprise sur un fantasme
7.5

A fresh new look at Lolita, the famous and controversial novel published in 1955 by Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov (1891-1977), a masterpiece of English-language literature that has been constantly misinterpreted by countless readers who have mistakenly turned its young heroine into an erotic icon.

Lolita : méprise sur un fantasme

2021
Laughter in the Dark
4.3

Swinging London in the 1960s. Deals with the affection of a middle-aged man for a very young woman, resulting in a mutually parasitic relationship.

Laughter in the Dark

1969
Набоков, Машенька
N/A

In a Berlin rooming house filled with an assortment of seriocomic Russian émigrés, Lev Ganin, a vigorous young officer poised between his past and his future, relives his first love affair. His memories of Mary are suffused with the freshness of youth and the idyllic ambience of pre-revolutionary Russia. In stark contrast is the decidedly unappealing boarder living in the room next to Ganin's, who, he discovers, is Mary's husband, temporarily separated from her by the Revolution but expecting her imminent arrival from Russia.

Набоков, Машенька

2001
Razor
N/A

The Second World War is over. But after each war the human destinies are left. This film is about two of them. The former officer of the Wehrmacht. The former prisoner of the Nazi concentration camp.

Razor

2014
Invitation to a Beheading
N/A

Cincinnatus C., a thirty-year-old teacher, has been found guilty of the crime "gnostical turpitude", and will be executed in twenty days' time.

Invitation to a Beheading

1973
An Affair of Honor
8.0

Hendrik is a responsible public servant who is deeply in love with his beautiful wife Evelin. Evelin, however, finds their protected life boring; she wants Hendrik to do something more exciting. When he returns from his business trip, Hendrik will find his schoolmate Berg in their balcony and will furiously throw his gloves to Berg's face. Soon it will turn out that this has been the challenge accepted.

An Affair of Honor

1999