Scheduled film for 4 December 2009

LOLITA

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Lolita (Stanley Kubrick, 1962) was a controversial film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel about a pedophile's relationship with a 12-year-old girl, whom he nicknamed a "nymphet," a word coined by Nabokov that is now part of the language, as is the title name ("Lolita" is now used of an attractive young girl). In fact it's been argued that mothers rarely name their children "Lolita" (a diminutive of "Delores") anymore, due to the erotic associations of that name following the fame of Nabokov's novel.
    In view of Hollywood's censorship codes at the time, the film could not show a 12-year old in a sexual relationship with a man, so a few years were added to the girl's age (15). Moreover, Sue Lyon, who played Lolita, was specifically chosen because she did not look like a young (=undeveloped) girl.
    But there were other changes. Explicit sex could not be shown or hinted at. The most explicit suggestion of sex occurs after the pedophile, Humbert Humbert (his chosen double name is also suggestive) lies on the cot and Lolita whispers something in his ear, followed by an unusually long fadeout, which may be an "in" joke on censorship itself.
    Thus the film is an interesting model for a study of the translation of a book into film in view of both the different means of the two art forms as well as the more restrictive codes in place for films as compared to novels.
    But the film is also a test case to study tone, or (in literature) register. The novel is complex because of its so-called "unreliable" narrator; that is, we don't know how to evaluate what the narrator (Humbert Humbert) says. The same can be said of the film's tone.
    The mise-en-scene, for example, is filled with oral sex symbols, including food, drinks, bubble gum, bottles, cigarettes, even speaking itself (as in Humbert's voice-over narration and the sensuous pronunciation of Lolita's name in variant forms (Lola, Lo, Lolita, Delores). The dialogue is often oral in its sexual subtext (see Study Pictures). Other parts of the mise-en-scene that suggest sex include props (tennis racket, gun, diary, champagne), set design (bed, bathroom), or an automobile that roars down the road after Humbert is kissed by Lolita.
    Thus the film depends almost entirely on its mise-en-scene for its sexual subtext; while the characters themselves are never shown in sexual intimacy. Whether from design or censorship, the film becomes a satire on sexual frustration.
    In fact, Humbert's "Double," Clare Quilty (also a pedophile) acts out the sexual conquests Humbert longs for. Thus the contrast between the set design of Quilty's disordered mansion and the domestic order of the worlds Humbert lives in. Since both characters die, neither film nor the novel on which it was based can be said to endorse their sexual obsessions.

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