Camera obscura in Latin translation - "darkroom". The nature of the amazing optical phenomenon is the basis of this ancient prototype of the camera. It is absolutely isolated from the light box with a tiny hole in one of the walls through which an inverted image of what is located outside is projected onto the opposite wall.
Camera obscura ... Nabokov used it as a central metaphor in the novel of 1933, bearing the same name.
The action takes place in Berlinend of the twenties. With a successful specialist in the field of art, and in particular painting, Bruno Kretschmar had a banal story - he was swallowed by a passion for sixteen-year-old Magda, a girl from a dysfunctional family with a dark past. The feeling so captivated him that he leaves the family, leaving his wife and daughter.
After the wife of Anneliese is inferior to her husbandyoung lover, the couple moved to live in the Krechmarov's house. In addition, Bruno invests money in a questionable film project, in which Magda receives a secondary role.
Soon, Magda accidentally meets the first,abandoned her once lover, the young cartoonist Horn, to whom it is still not indifferent. She begins to meet secretly with Gorn, deceiving, but still using Kretschmar's money, especially since the Thirty-year-old Horn has no money, but a lot of debts.
Krechmar with Magda go to the cara trip to Europe, as a driver with them goes and Horn. They continue to cynically deceive Bruno, lulling his jealousy with the false homosexuality of the cartoonist.
Soon Krechmar accidentally learns about the treachery of Magda andin a fit of jealous rage trying to kill her. The girl calms him down, but Bruno insists on an immediate departure, without waiting for the Horn. On the road Krechmar does not cope with the management, which is the cause of the accident, in which Bruno blinds.
Horn wrote Bruno an offended letter in whichconfirmed once again his homosexuality and said that he was going to America, although in fact he continued traveling with Magda and Kretschmar. After discharge from the hospital, the blind Bruno was prescribed by doctors to rest, which is what the criminal duo use. They shoot in Switzerland, in a mountainous remote area, a mansion and live in it three together, and the presence of Horn is a secret for the blind Bruno.
По мере обострения всех органов чувств, в том number and hearing, Kretschmar has painful suspicions, but Magda and Horn cynically mock him. Exhausted and desperate with jealousy Bruno rescues Max, brother-in-law. He returns it to Berlin to the first wife of Anneliese, who loves him as before.
But having learned that Magda is coming to Berlin for things, Krechmar, offended by her treason, is trying to kill her. Magda takes away his pistol, during the short struggle a shot sounds, and Bruno drops dead.
Владимир Набоков («Камера обскура»), inspired by an artistic experiment, he tried to create a work devoid of edification and moralism, which is not characteristic of literary works of Russian literature. The author coldly and impartially depicts the distorted perception of the hero, seized by passion.
The first meeting of the heroes took place in the velvettwilight cinema. The light of the flashlight fragmentarily snatched the glitter of the eye, then the gently outlined cheek of the girl, which reminded him of the paintings of the old masters. Do not forget that Krechmar - art critic.
The dark hall of the cinema - this is the camera obscurathe hero. Being in the wrong world, turned upside down, he is forced to submit to his distorted logic. Sensual blindness lasts so long that it eventually turns into physical blindness. Remaining blind literally, Krechmar, whom the obscura released only before dying, finally “saw” the world as it is.
