Lolita (1962)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Another controversial movie made in the early 60s involving incestuous pubescent love. It is an adaptation of a Russian story. Still, due to the sensitivities of the general public of that era, the screenplay had to be altered significantly, and many scenes were just suggestive dialogues left to the imagination of the viewer.
Humbert Humbert (James Mason) is a European 40 something divorced professor who has some time before starting his stint in the university. He rents a room from a promiscuous widow (Charlotte, Shelly Winters) just because he fancies the precocious teenage daughter (Lolita, Sue Leon). He gets along well with them while writing his book and joining in the family outings. The landlady forthrightly expresses her feelings to our professor while the daughter is sent off to a summer camp.
They marry. An argument breaks out when Charlotte reads his diary. Here, he had written his desires for his stepdaughter and had addressed his wife as a cow and other derogatory terms). Frustrated, she runs out in the rain to be hit by a car, fatally wounding her.
Humbert picks Lolita from the summer camp. Without telling her about her mother's demise, he takes an extended tour to the supposed hospital with suspicious characters (whom he thinks are the cops) following them. They have an incestuous relationship, and finally, he spills the beans about Charlotte's accident.
They move into the university town. He teaches in a university, and she studies in the school nearby. He becomes an over-protective parent and monitors her every move. She, on the other hand, plays truant. When the truth is known, and when Humbert realises that the neighbours are talking about their unusual father-daughter relationship, he takes Lolita on a road trip (for educational purposes).
Along the way, he encounters some suspicious characters. Lolita fell seriously ill and had to be hospitalised. As she gets better, she absconds from the ward and is never found.
3 years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lolita. She is now married to some guy, pregnant and was broke. Humbert takes a drive there to discover that all the while, he had been taken for a ride as well. The suspicious guy who was following them was her boyfriend (Peter Sellers, like a chameleon in many disguises). After running from the hospital with him, she followed him to Hollywood as he was a play-writer. The role that she was promised turned out to be for 'arty' films. And she left. She was 6 months pregnant and was to start life new in Alaska. Humbert leaves the scene...
The artist value of the film is commendable. Mason, the seasoned player, sets the mood for a broody insecure intellect. We feel pity for Shelley Winter gives a good account of a lady who tries to show her bourgeoisie and how she is laughed at subtly. Peter Sellers must have got the role for Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series after his excellence disguises here. Overall a good film if you are not judgemental of the moral aspects of how the story progresses.
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Another controversial movie made in the early 60s involving incestuous pubescent love. It is an adaptation of a Russian story. Still, due to the sensitivities of the general public of that era, the screenplay had to be altered significantly, and many scenes were just suggestive dialogues left to the imagination of the viewer.
Humbert Humbert (James Mason) is a European 40 something divorced professor who has some time before starting his stint in the university. He rents a room from a promiscuous widow (Charlotte, Shelly Winters) just because he fancies the precocious teenage daughter (Lolita, Sue Leon). He gets along well with them while writing his book and joining in the family outings. The landlady forthrightly expresses her feelings to our professor while the daughter is sent off to a summer camp.They marry. An argument breaks out when Charlotte reads his diary. Here, he had written his desires for his stepdaughter and had addressed his wife as a cow and other derogatory terms). Frustrated, she runs out in the rain to be hit by a car, fatally wounding her.
Humbert picks Lolita from the summer camp. Without telling her about her mother's demise, he takes an extended tour to the supposed hospital with suspicious characters (whom he thinks are the cops) following them. They have an incestuous relationship, and finally, he spills the beans about Charlotte's accident.
They move into the university town. He teaches in a university, and she studies in the school nearby. He becomes an over-protective parent and monitors her every move. She, on the other hand, plays truant. When the truth is known, and when Humbert realises that the neighbours are talking about their unusual father-daughter relationship, he takes Lolita on a road trip (for educational purposes).
Along the way, he encounters some suspicious characters. Lolita fell seriously ill and had to be hospitalised. As she gets better, she absconds from the ward and is never found.
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| Precocious imp |
The artist value of the film is commendable. Mason, the seasoned player, sets the mood for a broody insecure intellect. We feel pity for Shelley Winter gives a good account of a lady who tries to show her bourgeoisie and how she is laughed at subtly. Peter Sellers must have got the role for Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series after his excellence disguises here. Overall a good film if you are not judgemental of the moral aspects of how the story progresses.
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