WHAT I’VE BEEN WATCHING: Lolita
1 Comment | Posted: July 26th, 2011 | Filed under: What I've Been Watching
Since today was Stanley Kubrick’s birthday — he would have been 83 — I decided to watch Lolita for the first time since I was closer to Humbert’s age than Lolita’s. It was just as good as I remember, but there’s a few things that I appreciate more now that I have a few more brain cells to scrape together.
1.
James Mason was a wonder, wasn’t he? Alternately pugnacious and charming, he really occupied his role perfectly. It’s remarkable how sympathetic I found myself, really, because he’s more than a bit of a bastard.
2.
Sue Lyon. Golly, is that uncomfortable or what? Even with her having 2 years on the novel’s version of the character, she’s so very charming and sweet and real and boy I feel creepy just typing that.
3.
Oswald Morris’s photography takes all the cinematic tropes of the time and uses all of its tricks to his advantage. I love how subversive this film feels in this aspect, something that reminds me very much of the much-more-modern Burn After Reading.
4.
I genuinely forgot how funny the movie was, and not just in the uncomfortable, black manner. The scene with the cot builds to a comedic crescendo that rivals Some Like It Hot for slapstick comedy, even as it reinforced our protagonist’s predicament.
5.
Every year I get closer to inevitable death, I appreciate Peter Sellers more. Can we retroactively give him all the Oscars? Please?
6.
Let’s not ever discuss the Adrian Lyne version. Ever.
WEIRD. I’m in the middle of a Lolita reread, and have already finished the art for the Lolita-based next English Majeure strip. GET OUT OF MY MIND, CHURCH.
Even though I love the book and love Kubrick, somehow I’ve never seen Kubrick’s Lolita (I’m ashamed to say I saw the Lyne version in the theater when it came out). I need to.
And:
It’s remarkable how sympathetic I found myself, really, because he’s more than a bit of a bastard.
It’s interesting, I think that’s Nabokov’s big trick, making you wake up and realize you’re rooting for a monster. Of course Kubrick would pull it off as well.