I guess a lot of you have heard Mackenna's (sp?), (I'm not even going to try to spell her first name) recording of the Molly Bloom soliloque.It's magic..

I just watched the original The Thomas Crown Affair. Starts off well, with a smattering of mod style, but finishes up devoid of interesting plot and degenerates into a string of high-class '60s ads for dune buggies, designer sweaters, and various tourist boards.

It's a novel, with a poem as the center piece. He's playing with form. It looks like an annotated poem, but it's actually a novel. I'm not crazy about it, but then I've never cared for Nabokov (great stylist; but I think it's all on the surface).

You mean Fionnula Flanagan, in the film James Joyce's Women? I saw it twenty years ago, and didn't like it. The script is a bastardized version. Bad enough to edit words, but to add them?? Besides, the soliloquy is of Molly masturbating, and it just doesn't translate to the screen. The images (not that they're graphic) detract from the words.

Of course it (Pale Fire) is a novel, but told in the most ingenious of ways. I think it's also much more than style and surface. IMO it's one of the most deeply profound books I've ever read, a profundity only enhanced by the fact that it's a truly enjoyable read.

Anywhere you would like to elaborate on this, I would like to read it. Most likely in Books?

Of course it (Pale Fire) is a novel, but told in the most ingenious of ways. I think it's also much more than style and surface. IMO it's one of the most deeply profound books I've ever read, a profundity only enhanced by the fact that it's a truly enjoyable read.

I've never seen a film based on Joyce. Sounds diifficult to get
language and inventiveness into a visual medium such as film.

Pale Fire would be a bitch, if not impossible, to make a good film of.

In other news, Criterion will be releasing ACE IN THE HOLE (aka The Big Carnival) on Dvd this July. It's also showing on TCM in a few days (March 17th I believe). Looking forward to this. Not sure why it's been so neglected on video.

I think he probably means Siobhan McKenna. Where she played Molly I don't know. Flanagan played the role in the movie of Ulysses, too.

Billy, yes that's who I was talking about. And I don't think she played Molly, I believe that it was just a recording she made of the soliloquy. (thanks for the correct spelling yambu.)

I first became aware of Pale Fire when I was living in Paris and ended up at a cafe around 2 AM. After lying in bed, stoned and having a mental battle between going to sleep, (I was sleepy) or getting up and getting dressed and going for something to eat, (I was starved, grass will do that). Eating won. I think it was the NYT Sunday Book Reviews that I took with me to read. At the cafe I read Mary McCarthy's review of Pale Fire. She felt the same way about it that you do Billy.