Kubrick's Lolita

Amongst many famous and unforgettable movies made by the brilliant film director Stanley Kubrick, 'Lolita' made definite and positive mark in changing how cinematography dealt with eroticism in the film history, in the late 50's through to the early 60's. This problematic adaptation from the no less problematic novel of the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov, was about a middle-aged professor's obsession for a precocious, 13 year old teenager. This film was prohibited in the United States until 1958.

It was Nabokov himself, in his first and only time, took on the adaptation of his own book into a film script (which earned him a nomination for an Oscar) although, to avoid the very strict censorship and hypocritical views from certain sectors, he changed the age of the girl to a 16 year old. The erotic scenes in the book had also been mitigated and 'softened' (What a shame!).

Under his direction, the main characters were meticulously portrayed and splendidly acted by James Mason as the professor, Sue Lyon as Lolita (Whatever happened to that actress?) and the always fantastic and multifaceted actress Shelley Winters, as mistress of the professor and mother of Lolita. Peter Sellers was also in the cast and nothing less than brilliant as usual in whatever character he played.

This story of sexual obsession was picked up in a vacuum totally unnecessarily by Adrian Lyne in a remake, with Jeremy Iron in the role of the professor. Excellent dramatic actor as he always is, he was paled in comparison by Mason in my opinion.

There's a Spanish saying: 'Rizar el rizo', (literally to curl the curl) meaning if you have curly hair already why curl it? And I think this is exactly apt to describe remakes of outstanding films; most of them somehow not quite up to the scratch of the originals. How can one perfect perfection?

I saw the rerun of this film about 2 years ago, and for those who are interested, it will be on again tonight at the Spanish Channel 8TV. The films lasts 152 minutes. It's rather long, but to me, not a minute is wasted.

Tags:Kubrick,Lolita

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