Nabokov s prescription applies more to Hollywood, this great infernal Jacuzzi of ours, where if a sexually explicit script lands in Development Hell, it will sink to Dante s deepest circle and be frozen forever in the bosom of Lucifer. The remedy is hidden in the mists of collaboration. And here, as in so many instances, Chinatown provides a decisive key. What has been understated is that these battles were never matters of ego. The beauty of Chinatown , and its subtle erotic power, is the fruit of two well-matched intellects whose shared goal was the best result.
Sex is like that.
If collaboration kills nuance, the good news is that sex is often at its best a collaboration-the right partners can always agree to make nuance rise from the dead.