Lolita (1962)
Composite Score: 81.9
Starring: James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon, Gary Cockrell, Jerry Stovin, Diana Decker, Marianne Stone, and Peter Sellers
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Writers: Vladimir Nabokov, Stanley Kubrick, and James B. Harris
Genres: Crime, Drama, Romance
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Box Office: $4,631 worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Lolita is the film adaptation of the highly controversial 1950s novel of the same name about a French professor who sexually abuses his American stepdaughter, adapted for the screen by Stanley Kubrick and the novel’s author Vladimir Nabokov. The film undoubtedly looks fantastic and is well-acted all around. It features diabolically unlikeable characters throughout its entirety, with no true heroes, just villains and victims. It handles the sexual nature of its subject matter with extreme tact and nuance, layering implication on entendre on facial expression to communicate the lascivious nature of its plot. All told, it certainly stands up decently as one of the greats.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Like the novel it is based on, Lolita fails to grant much agency at all to its female characters and often treats them with the same flippant attitude taken by “protagonist” Professor Humbert. Lolita’s mother Charlotte takes on the persona of equally overbearing and permissive mother, existing only to bring trouble to Humbert and Dolores, rather than the sympathetic and manipulated character that she truly is – the victim of an incredibly perverted suitor. Likewise, because of the implicit nature of the abuse in the film, Lolita comes across at first as intentionally seductive and eventually unreasonably vengeful, rather than simply a youthful victim of a child predator. The treatment of Lolita as almost a femme fatale, causing the decline in health and morals of a previously “respectable” professor, detracts from the film’s true message of critiquing such sexualization and condemning the actions of the professor. Because of how despicable we know this character to be, there is no need to justify the actions of the professor, nor to vilify the victim, Dolores.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
Because of the aforementioned criticisms, it is important to approach Lolita with eyes wide open and not become sympathetic toward the film’s unreliable narrator. With that said, the performances in this film should be celebrated. Due to the sexual nature of basically everything in this film, most of the actual story is told implicitly through the expressions and statements of its characters, and that part is done unbelievably well. James Mason’s Professor Humbert is fascinatingly despicable and manipulative, in similar fashion to Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck in Joker or Edward Norton’s Narrator in Fight Club, not a hero by any means but compelling, nonetheless. Shelley Winters as Dolores’s mother Charlotte delivers a tragically lovelorn performance, portraying desire and then heartbreak with equal skill. The young Sue Lyon shines as Lolita, particularly in her earlier scenes as the dominating temptress, filling in the role of femme fatale convincingly – flawed though such a portrayal may be. Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty might be the true star of the film, though. Opening as a deeply drug-addled murder victim, he then turns in scene-stealing performance after scene-stealing performance as the villainous writer/child predator who hounds Dolores and Humbert across America.
Problematic though it undoubtedly remains, Lolita’s strong performances coupled with its ultimate condemnation of the predatory nature of both Humbert and Quilty help make its place among the Greatest Films of All Time feel less controversial. Its issues crafting strong female characters certainly make it one that merits watching with a critical eye, but it is certainly still a film worth watching. If you’re interested, it’s currently streaming on HBO Max.
