Review of Lolita (1962) by Josiah S — 07 Aug 2015

After the success of "Spartacus" and his falling out with Douglas, Kubrick made a contract with Warner Bros that gave him complete creative control and thus Kubrick-Harris decided make their last film together an adaptation of one of Kubrick´s favorite books: The highly controversial "Lolita".

In the 1950s, a 40 year old college professor named Humbert Humbert finds himself in love with the daughter of his landlord Charlotte Haze, the issue is that her daughter, Lolita Haze, is only 14 years old.

There are times that certain movies have spot on taglines and what better example than "How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?", as it is a story about a pedophile, but Stanley Kubrick could and he delivered another impressible addition to his resume. "Lolita" counts with impressive performances with newcomer Sue Lyndon being the greatest of them all and Peter Sellers completely stealing the film with his funny presence, the black comedy sections are hilarious and are the predecessors of "Dr Strangelove", the script is so well written that at times you actually feel for Humbert (who could make you feel bad for a pedophile?!), the characters are memorable, the cinematography is gorgeous (as always with Kubrick), the story is tamed and implies heavily but it works within the style of the film, music that isn't classical but it fits perfectly with the atmosphere crafted, the audience is always suspicions about the characters' motivations and their overall psyche, the character relationships are credible, Kubrick´s directing is arguably the most personal of his entire career, and this masterful moral ambiguity when you don't know who is the hero of the story and who´s the villain. The big issue this film has is censorship, as it took again some of the power of this adaptation by limiting Kubrick, but then again that isn't Kubrick´s or Nabokov´s fault and the finishes result is extremely impressive and memorable.

"Lolita" is another masterpiece in Kubrick´s resume. It is funny, dark, well written, and masterfully directed. While its subject matter will alienate some people but if you can handle it you will be rewarded. This is probably the most overlooked film in Kubrick´s catalog but it is one of the better ones (at least this is in the upper half of his resume).