Nabokov: "...A very good film, but it's not what I wrote."
If you'd like to find out what Nabokov did write, and why the last laugh is on us, read:
Appel, Alfred, Jr. (1991). The Annotated Lolita (revised ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-72729-9.
One of the best guides to the complexities of Lolita, especially Appel's Introduction and Nabokov's Afterword "On a Book Entitled Lolita".
Some choice Nabokov quotes:
"Lolita is a special favorite of mine. It was my most difficult book—the book that treated of a theme which was so distant, so remote, from my own emotional life that it gave me a special pleasure to use my combinational talent to make it real."
"I shall never regret Lolita. She was like the composition of a beautiful puzzle—its composition and its solution at the same time, since one is a mirror view of the other, depending on the way you look. Of course she completely eclipsed my other works—at least those I wrote in English: The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Bend Sinister, my short stories, my book of recollections; but I cannot grudge her this. There is a queer, tender charm about that mythical nymphet."
"I would say that of all my books Lolita has left me with the most pleasurable afterglow—perhaps because it is the purest of all, the most abstract and carefully contrived. I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don't seem to name their daughters Lolita any more. I have heard of young female poodles being given that name since 1956, but of no human beings."
Pff, so annoying. First it's Shelly Winters running around screaming like Kyle's mom, then it's Sellers rambling on in his annoying little way. None of the characters was een remotely believable, it didn't even bore me but just plain annoy me.
Stanley Kubrick's Lolita - and it is right to call it Kubrick's rather than Nabokov's, as it infamously doesn't follow the book nor Nabokov's screenplay - finds perhaps the only way to take the scandalous premise about a an older man who has an affair with provocative teenage girl and turn it into a film in 1962, and that's to turn it into a black comedy that suggests a sexual relationship but never shows it or truly says it. And so we have James Mason as a pathetic university professor, at first awkward, then paranoid the young Lolita will find someone age-appropriate, or that he will be caught by neighbors or police (which gives the comedy thriller elements). And of course, there's Peter Sellers, prefiguring his work on Dr. Strangelove with a lively, multiple performance. I'm sure this was all very risqué at the time (Lolita's Sue Lyon who played this at 15 wasn't even old enough to go see it!), but seems very tame now. I still enjoy the game of innuendo the director is forced into and don't need it to go farther. For all the comic malaise, it still manages to find a more universal truth in its examination of desire and jealousy.
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Neville
Nabokov: "...A very good film, but it's not what I wrote."If you'd like to find out what Nabokov did write, and why the last laugh is on us, read:
Appel, Alfred, Jr. (1991). The Annotated Lolita (revised ed.). New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-679-72729-9.
One of the best guides to the complexities of Lolita, especially Appel's Introduction and Nabokov's Afterword "On a Book Entitled Lolita".
Some choice Nabokov quotes:
"Lolita is a special favorite of mine. It was my most difficult book—the book that treated of a theme which was so distant, so remote, from my own emotional life that it gave me a special pleasure to use my combinational talent to make it real."
"I shall never regret Lolita. She was like the composition of a beautiful puzzle—its composition and its solution at the same time, since one is a mirror view of the other, depending on the way you look. Of course she completely eclipsed my other works—at least those I wrote in English: The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Bend Sinister, my short stories, my book of recollections; but I cannot grudge her this. There is a queer, tender charm about that mythical nymphet."
"I would say that of all my books Lolita has left me with the most pleasurable afterglow—perhaps because it is the purest of all, the most abstract and carefully contrived. I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don't seem to name their daughters Lolita any more. I have heard of young female poodles being given that name since 1956, but of no human beings."
LMTR14
only Kubrick film I don´t get anything whatsoever out ofHAL-9000
Sorry but it was a disappointment. Least liked film from the Maestro.Litso
Pff, so annoying. First it's Shelly Winters running around screaming like Kyle's mom, then it's Sellers rambling on in his annoying little way. None of the characters was een remotely believable, it didn't even bore me but just plain annoy me.The_Comatorium
STOP YELLING SHELLY WINTERS I'M RIGHT NEXT TO YOU.Siskoid
Stanley Kubrick's Lolita - and it is right to call it Kubrick's rather than Nabokov's, as it infamously doesn't follow the book nor Nabokov's screenplay - finds perhaps the only way to take the scandalous premise about a an older man who has an affair with provocative teenage girl and turn it into a film in 1962, and that's to turn it into a black comedy that suggests a sexual relationship but never shows it or truly says it. And so we have James Mason as a pathetic university professor, at first awkward, then paranoid the young Lolita will find someone age-appropriate, or that he will be caught by neighbors or police (which gives the comedy thriller elements). And of course, there's Peter Sellers, prefiguring his work on Dr. Strangelove with a lively, multiple performance. I'm sure this was all very risqué at the time (Lolita's Sue Lyon who played this at 15 wasn't even old enough to go see it!), but seems very tame now. I still enjoy the game of innuendo the director is forced into and don't need it to go farther. For all the comic malaise, it still manages to find a more universal truth in its examination of desire and jealousy.Lilirose
Great movie, wonderful characters and amazing actors.I liked especially the irony and detachment that permeate the whole movie
WilliamBravin
Excellent film - this will stay with me. Tragic.arielnano
Quite unsettling but still good.Fenring
Wait, script was written by Nabokov, didn't it?arunraj
whats there kubrick didnt do???????Dieguito
Polanski's dream executed by Kubrick! Wonderful movie!!ulysses
I hereby rightfully award this motion picture with the Roman Polanski Sign Of Approval.nicolaskrizan
implications and complicationshttp://1001movies.posterous.com/1043
Skyscore
http://www.afisha.ru/movie/169540/review/145957/