Lolita

I unexpectedly stumbled upon this on TCM, some 20 minutes into the movie. The 'Info' button said it was Stanley Kubrick's black, humourous take on Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel 'Lolita'. Of course, I had heard about the novel and the movie - but the Jeremy Irons one, which I had seen bits of. Didn't realise there was a Stanley Kubrick version. Must admit that I had no clue about the story-line, or how path-breaking the novel was, nor the differences between the Kubrick and the Jeremy Irons version.

As I watched I wasnt really sure if it was based on the original novel or a spoof - as it was hilarious. There was no overtness of the whole sexual theme of what I had considered was the whole deal of the story, from what I remembered from the recent version. The dialogues were hilarious and so were the characterisations - the black-humourous impact of Stanley Kubrick, I suppose. I realise that its a very complicated movie and much masturbation has gone into interpreting the novel.

Great performances - the best dialogues are with Peter Sellers (playing the other pedophile in the movie, Clare Quilty). An interesting & interestingly made movie.

There is an interesting review, with details (and dialogues) of the opening scene of the movie here.

Rating: * * *