How timely was my last post I ask you? Just after I rave about British actors they go and sweep the Golden Globes. Then there's also the question of Jeremy Irons. I blog about him and suddenly everywhere I look - he's there! For one I’ve been trying to get my hands on Brideshead Revisited (to no avail) and he’s in that. I saw the Merchant of Venice day before and he played Antonio. And then he was at the Globes where he won for Elizabeth I. I haven’t seen the series but that didn’t stop me from cheering and saying “He totally deserved that!” But that’s only because he is always good.
Interestingly, he was wearing a Chinese shirt with red buttons, a pattern of red roses and sleeves that were much too long. When I saw that I was quite sure he would make it to gofugyourself.com’s list of offenders (he hasn’t yet). Oh dear, I thought. Sir, I love you and all but red roses? Really?? Oh well, who am I kidding, he still looked totally hot.
Right. And then in the library I stumbled upon this little gem. The audio book version of Lolita. No prizes for guessing who it’s been narrated by. (For the record, Irons was also in the 1997 movie of the book.) I didn’t hear the whole thing (its eleven hours long!!), but just listening to Irons’ voice as he read Nabokovs prose lends a completely different perspective to the book. I have read Lolita, but I just had to read it again, and I am. It’s even better than I remembered. And like all truly great literature there are tiny details, nuances you missed the first time, what you make of certain lines changes.
The opening paragraph of Lolita is not only one of my favorites but also one of the most beautiful I have ever read. And now all I hear when I read it is Irons’ voice narrating it with such love, passion and sadness all at once. The beauty of it just breaks my heart.
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.”
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8 comments:
yes that audio book is a classic. he is far better than he was in the movie version which is not to say that he was any bad but still the audio book is superb.
he is in the recent david lynch movie inland empire too but disappointly doesnt have anything to do in it.
and yes plays M. Swann too in one of the proust adapatations which was critically panned. i have been dying to get my hands on the dvd for some time. it is another role made for him.
I haven’t seen Lolita. Just a few clips of it and he did seem rather good. Though I did read somewhere that playing Humbert wasn’t the best move for him career wise. I see the point there - he hasn’t had a lot of great roles since. Though he was quite excellent in The Merchant of Venice.
Swann in Love is available on Amazon I think, though you probably wouldn’t want to buy it! I just ordered Brideshead and Elizabeth I (with Helen Mirren and Irons) there. Can not wait to recieve them :P
Of course, the movie version of Lolita to watch is Kubrick's 1962 classic, with Peter Sellers as Quilty.
Hmm that seems curious. He has always been playing the same decadent intellectual romantic aristocratic character. Humbert is a nice parody of one such extreme. I think he got good notices in it. The film was also a mild success I think.
He has played some very difficult roles before. I remember David Cronenberg's Dead Ringers in which he plays twin gynaecologists who are both a little screwed up in the head. I am sure he must have freaked out many of his fans from the opposite sex :) he was nominated for an oscar I think for this film...
Falstaff: That version of Lolita I have seen. It's really good of course, especially considering the kind of constraints Kubrick faced.I do, however, feel that Irons would make a perfect Humbert so the curiosity to see the other version.
Alok: Hmmm....from what I know, the film didn't even get a wide opening and was a box office super bomb. And Irons at that time went around making politically incorrect statements making matters worse. Though I have only read good things about him in the movie.
And, oh yes, Dead Ringers! He is spooky in that! But he wasn't nominated for an Oscar for that. But when he won for Reversal of Fortune he said he probably wouldn't have won had people not really praised his work in Dead Ringers and thought he had been robbed when he wasn't nominated for that.
Ok, I have no idea why I know all this - I really have too much junk in my brain.
oh that man makes me cry. why you ask? because he isn't in my life and thus it shall forever be empty.
i think he did an audio book of 'the lord of the rings'. the man's voice is like honey on gravel and better. loved him, his character in the lion king and then he goes and pulls of a die hard with a vengeance as well. he's amazing!
I totally agree with you :P Irons has acted in some really strange movies. Forget 'Die Hard With A Vengeance' there is also 'Dungeons and Dragons'. Hehehe...
Don't know about the LOTR audio book but I think that's McKellan - luff him also.
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