Lolita Reviews

Another great film from master filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. This is obsession at its finest! Peter Sellers is the best character in the film!

The subject matter of Lolita naturally poses some problems for a director, but this adaptation has ultimately gone down as a victory for the censors. The original novel was almost entirely focused on the character of Humbert Humbert, his flamboyant obsession with a young girl and the increasingly ridiculous lengths he goes to in an effort to keep the object of his affections. The genius in Humbert's character was that despite the hopelessly immoral nature of his actions, the reader could always sympathise with the position he found himself in.

In the film this dimension is ultimately lost. James Mason makes an admirable attempt to play Humbert and Shelley Winters is perfect as the naive Charlotte, but divorced of its finest material the tale becomes a rather dry affair and were it not for the odd suggestive phrase now and then, you would be forgiven for thinking that Humbert was simply an overly conservative father figure. Worthy of mention is Peter Sellers who plays an amusing cameo-esque role, but it speaks volumes when the humour which was such a vital part of the novel is provided by a bit-part character (as Quilty was in the novel) and some rather absurd slapstick elements including a decidedly galling scene involving a fold out bed that could have come straight from Charlie Chaplin.

Overall, there are some good performances on display, but the film neither captures the genius of the novel nor does it provide any other motivation for the viewer to become engrossed in the plot.

Among all the masterpieces Stanley Kubrick has made throughout his prestigious career, this flick doesn't seem to get much love but I do believe that it is actually rather underrated. As usual with Kubrick’s work, even if the movie is nowadays almost 50 years old, it still feels really modern. I mean, can you imagine how it must have felt when the folks watched it 50 years ago ?!? Even though there is no sex scene, there is such a huge sexual tension and Kubrick dared to tackle here one of the biggest taboos in our society. Even though it is common practice to cast much older actors to play some teenagers, with the notorious example of 'Grease' with some actors well in their 30's portraying some 18 years old kids, Kubrick cast a young girl (Sue Lyon) who was just 15 years old during the shooting and it made the whole thing even more unsettling. Anyway, there was here some flawless directing, the acting was great and the story was just spellbinding to watch. I really need to re-watch this flick one day. To conclude, I think it is a great classic and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Kubrick's work.

Before the release of Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick gives us Lolita: a disturbing psychological romantic-drama involving a middle-aged professor called Humbert Humbert who meets Charlotte Haze. They get married but the real reason for that is so Humbert uses her by trying to get closer to her teenage daughter Dolores "Lolita" Haze and becomes obsessed and sexually involved with her.


The film has received criticism for its disturbing dialogue regarding the relationship between Lolita and Humbert because of child and sexual abuse. I mean, I did find the message in that very important; not only for children but also for the parents/guardians of the children too. This kind of disturbing sexual dialogue isn't the first time we have seen this in a Stanley Kubrick film. He returns to this 37 years later in Eyes Wide Shut. I mean, despite it is about a paedophile, that makes it an awesome film because he is a very gripping character and it makes the audience aware of what the consequences could be if he tries anything with Lolita.


The cast in Lolita is an absolutely awesome. All of the performances in Lolita were absolutely awesome! James Mason as Professor Humbert Humbert is one of those performances that I feel demonstrates almost perfectly how scheming and psychologically disturbed those kinds of people really can be. Peter Sellers perhaps stole the show so to speak with his excellent performance as Clare Quilty. He is also a conceited, avant-garde TV writer with a superior manner. In later scenes, he becomes the overbearing 'bad cop' on the porch of the motel where Humbert and Lolita are staying. The character’s role was greatly expanded from that in the novel and Kubrick allowed Sellers to adopt a variety of disguises throughout the film. Shelley Winters playing Charlotte Haze automatically revealed to the audience that Charlotte has major psychological issues especially towards her daughter Lolita and because she's a widow too. Sue Lyon was terrific as Lolita! Lyon was only 14 years old at the time of filming so I would say it was a pretty brave character to play when one is at that age and I have got to give good credit to Sue for that. Another bit of credit I've got to give her was part of the reason why she was chosen to play Sue was because of the size of her breasts.


Kubrick has always been a director, not only of creating different kinds of films in different genres but also a director that wants to always bring something new. I mean, before Lolita's release, we see the three Kubrick evil grins in three of his films (Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange, Jack Nicholson in The Shining and Vincent D'Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket). The screenplay was brilliant from Kubrick and co-writer Vladimir Nabokov (who wrote the novel). I mean, Kubrick wrote the script for pretty much every single film he made and he never fails at it! Lolita also became the first film where Kubrick began filming in England despite he was really American.


Overall, Lolita is another amazing, sophisticating Kubrick film that deserves its place as one of the best romantic dramas of all time. Pretty much every Kubrick film is disturbing in the slightest but Lolita obviously tells a story of a pedophile and Kubrick manages not to make it like ''disturbing so turn it off'' kind of disturbing but he made very gripping and grabs the audience by the throat for 150 minutes. Amazing film!