Lolita (1997)

This movie deserves a 10 but loses two points for two specific reasons. The first reason is that Melanie Griffith was horribly, unbelievably and terribly miscast. I don't know why on God's green earth she was cast but she's all wrong for the role. Luckily, she doesn't "Nicolas Cage" this film (as in ruins it), but boy is she terrible and sticks out like a sore thumb in an otherwise well-cast and acted movie.The second reason the movie loses a point is that it tried way too hard to make Lolita childlike. Yes, children are immature, but c'mon...the way the movie made her act, Lolita wasn't just immature for her age; she was practically mentally disabled. Not even the girl she hung out with was that immature. I don't know what the point was but it was really over the top and made it seem as if Lyne was overcompensating for the fact that the actress was older than the character she was playing. In any event, it was really annoying, especially the scene when she gives Humbert breakfast in bed with only one shoe. (What kid would be so stupid and lazy as to not look for another pair of shoes?)With that, here's what I loved about the film. I absolutely hate the cult status surrounding Lolita. I read the book and saw the Kubrick film and saw nothing more than what it was, an average story about a pedophile's obsession with a young girl, nothing more, nothing less. But for some reason, people have elevated an average story to "classic literary" status, I guess because they equate taboo with "intellectual" and "high caliber." And so they've imbued this average story with a level of depth, intellectualism and sophistication that it never had. In other words, they've romanticized the story and the character itself.It's gotten to the point where people have made Humbert Humbert some kind of sympathetic Greek tragedy-type figure and painted his "love" for Lolita as "tragic" because, poor guy, he only fell for her because his childhood sweetheart died. Gimme a break. There was nothing ever more to this character than the fact that he was a creepy sociopath and pedophile. Hence why I love this adaptation. A lot of people hated it, and the reason why is that Lyne pulled no punches of stripping this "literary classic" of all the romanticizing heaped upon it by fans. Fans wanted a a sympathetic tragic hero that they could feel comfortable with and embrace, the guy we see in the first half of the movie, who always has this befuddled, dopey, deer-caught-in-the- headlights look about him that plays him up as an innocent victim swept by his desires. They wanted that Humbert, not the one who starts physically abusing Lolita when he can no longer control her, or the guy who breaks into another man's house and pumps him full of lead while he's sleeping in bed. (That whole sequence of Quilty running around in a bathrobe never happened; Humbert, in his delusion, dreamed that up.)Lyne exposed the character for what he was--a crazy, paranoid psychopath and a pathetic pedophile piece of crap who kept clinging to this unrealistic sexual fantasy of the nymphet (a docile, submissive, willing child-woman who can be screwed at his leisure and convenience without any problems), even as Lolita kept acting out with the mental and emotional capacity of a child (complete with temper tantrums, obnoxious pranks, crying jags, bratty behavior and neediness). The fact that everyone keeps complaining about the gruesome murder scene involving Quilty pretty much confirms that this is the opposite of what fans wanted in an adaptation, which was a romanticized version of a pedophile and cold-blooded murderer. Kudos for Adrian Lyne for attempting to finally strip away all the romanticizing that fans of Lolita have been doing with this character and book.As for other aspects of the film, the cinematography and art design is second to none. It really does look like its of its time and they did a bang up job getting all the details right, right down to the vintage "Camay Brides" ads that were plastered on Lolita's bedroom wall.So, an 8/10 for me, and only because of the poor casting of Melanie Griffith and the over the top childishness of Lolita.

To begin with, I will say that Adrian Lyne's one of my favorite directors. Whatever he does, he adds his unmistakable personal stamp on filming. The depth and detail are overwhelming. Each frame is a picture by itself. He is a master at creating atmospheres along with music and photography.He is also a provocateur, and he likes to be considered as such. One of the recurring subjects is the attraction between men and women, which can also be seen in "Unfaithful (2002)," "Indecent Proposal (1997)," "Fatal Attraction (1987)," "Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986) "" Flashdance (1983) "and" Foxes (1980) ".On "Lolita" The film seemed intense and intimate in equal measure. And even could say that is extremely private, as depicts personal feelings and sensations that could cause rejection or criticism.For me, there is nothing to criticize.The question of our capacity to empathize with Jeremy Irons role, arises.The psychological game between the two protagonists is as intense as unstable, and the roles of dominator and dominated are exchanged. We finally have a dramatic situation in which nobody wins, so it is as real as life itself.We stand before a, deeply and brutally honest movie.9/10

Was the name Humbert Humbert picked by Nabokov according to Linnaean taxonomy, as for instance a Northern Lapwing = Vanellus Vanellus, a binomial nomenclature? Lepidoptera love was the foremost pastime Nabokov knew (thaz right, Fkng butterflies). I just made this up but I never did quite find any explanation as to this double naming of pedophile Humbert Humbert (Hummingbird, Hummingbird).According to myth, Poseidon fell in love with the beautiful nymph Korkyra, daughter of Asopus and river nymph Metope, and abducted her. Poseidon brought Korkyra to the hitherto unnamed island and, in marital bliss, offered her name to the place: Korkyra (Corfu)."I was on my knees, and on the point of possessing my darling, when two bearded bathers, the old man of the sea and his brother, came out of the sea with exclamations of ribald encouragement, and four months later she died of typhoid in Corfu" ( Lolita, chapter 3)Could it be that those bearded men were Poseidon and his brother Hades? Because this one "abduction" seems the way Humbert Humbert feels about his childhood love taken from him. And also, something which I have never read elsewhere before is that Typhoid in etymology means a.o. things Hazy, a term that frequently in this book alludes to Lolita's last name Haze (or something that rhymes on it). Also again "Nymph" is mentioned in relation to Poseidon. There are more similar discrepancies/mysteries in this book that need solving.

Here was another remake, I enjoyed more than the original, this one would of really come well across the big screen. Perfectly filling the boots of the Lol real here, Swain is one hell of an acting revelation. She can act, but also as proved in this, can act younger than she looks. She's the whole package of Lolita: cheeky, innocent, flirtatious, and soon to be manipulated and corrupted, by a playwright/pedoarse, (Langella, hauntingly evil) who's a bad turn of fate upon Irons in the finale. Swain is up against some stiff acting competition, like her older lover, Irons, her strict and selfish mother, Griffith, really impressive, and of course Langella as I mentioned before, who cringes like a toad, for his sins, in the finale which I really liked. This time around, Lolita has been done more visually, with more plotting and life poured into it's characters, sorry Stanley, although that vivid sunbaking scene, to whet your whistle, I never got out of my head. It was easy to see, the controversy that burst out from the public, accusing it of promoting pedophilia, where there was one or two scenes with our leads stark, making love, that actually bordered on crossing that line. Adrian Lynne, of course renowned for that 86 hit, Nine And A Half Weeks (god that was a long time ago) has done us proud here, or remade us proud here. A must definitely watch: of course it's main reason, fresh new acting find, Swain.