Todo Tiene Su Como-Se-Llama

I liked this play, too. Though I do like heroic and patriotic literature (the henry plays especially)and even movies they need to be kept in check by both lit critical of war and nationalism but also those that just make light. War and patriotism is too important to keep serious.

Also, I have restrained and restrained myself from commenting on Lolita but..........well let me put it this way.
#1- Look back at the movies you have ranked 96+ over the years...does it really rate 99?
#2- Can great writing and great filmmaking alone make a movie great if the theme or subject is less than great....even just gross?

Personally I have neither read the entire story nor seen the entire film (though I saw most of an earlier version...Brooke Sheilds at 13 was the love interest)but I find the tale a bit...unnerving. You might credit that to my age, but I am certainly no prude (though the fact that I have 3 daughters might be an influencing factor).

Stanley Kubrick is a great filmmaker but...you can dip a turd in 24 carat gold and it is still a turd. It will smell better and look better but....

You have something of a point. I think. BUT . . . The movie's themes are more complicated (and better) than the "gross" subject matter might imply. First of all, I'd have to say that everything in this movie is VERY tastefully done (presumably in order to meet the Production Code standards). A naive person would have no trouble watching the entire thing without knowing what it is about at all. The sexual nature of the illicit affair, far from being belabored, is implied once or twice and then left alone.

Now, aside from the care they may have taken in presenting such a sensitive subject, what is the value of watching a movie about this . . .?

I need to read the book, perhaps, and do a bit more independent study before I can answer that question adequately. However, over the course of a rather lengthy movie, as we see a well-balanced, calm, sane, highly-respected, normal intellectual spiral into obsession, paranoia, and neurosis because he has no self-respect or self-control in regards to his sexual appetites . . . He lies, steals, cheats, manipulates, backstabs and (in the end) murders in order to satisfy his own petty desires before finally dying a decidedly unglamorous death in prison . . . the viewer is finally left wondering what happened?!

Casting aside the brilliant technique, characterization, writing, acting, etc., plus the fascinating deeper level that everything operates on, I would say that the movie makes for a very scary cautionary tale . . . and offers a number of roads out (although our "hero" chooses to take none of them).

I'll go out on a limb by saying that I find it easy to identify with Humbert Humbert. We are all balanced on the edge of the pit, and depravity is never farther away for any of us than just the right temptation and a couple of bad decisions. That is what ultimately made the movie meaningful to me . . . although the stellar quality of the entire production is still what I enjoyed most of all.

You know....I think you may have a point.

Perhaps the thing that is so disconcerting in the movie and book IS my carnal nature and man's (meaning me too) proclivity for secret sin. As an educator of young people, some of them young women, I recoil from the consideration of "illicit love".I have to "flee" (even if my initial reaction is disgust)lest my resistence erode. I've seen to many teachers (and other adults...a former Governor of Oregon included) throw their lives away because they justified attraction to underage beauty.

Yet, I have a firm beleif as well that Art should consider difficult topics. That exploring man's nature, even his heart of darkness (perhaps especially), is one of the acceptable purposes of art. Lolita is troublesome because it treads such dangerous ground. The ground is dangerous A) because it is entertainment...the market cannot be trusted B)The stakes are high, young people must be protected C)Men and lust...always a trouble with balance.
I am a fan of DH Lawrence for instance,I don't consider his writing pornography, yet several movie makers and bookselers have treated and retold his books in such a way that are porn. The vary medium of film is so erotic (are so easily erotic for males) that I distrust it for tales such as these. In this case, Nabakov's tale, I think his exploration of his groanings is a bit overindulgent anyway, even though he acknowledges the damaging effects.

I also think that the love interest is painted as being so provacative that she shoulders much of the blame. In real life, I think this is seldom the case. I think men generally play the "she was coming on to me" card to diffuse their own sexual agressiveness. The power on adult male sexuality on a young lady, especially one who is raised disadvantaged is far stronger than the reverse. I think both the book and movie fail to recognize this. I think Humbert is portrayed as a victim of his lust rather than one who chooses to indulge his lusts which, in my opinion is much more the reality of the nature of man.An opinion based on my examination of my own depraved state as well as examples in the observations I noted above.

Well, if I remember right, I was a preview for the newer version of this movie several years ago. Most of the scenes I saw, or remember were sexual, although I must admit that it was obvious that some women (his wife?) didn´t agree with..what they were doing.
I´d probably have more of an opinion on it if I read the book or saw the movie... I don´t care enough to read the book, but perhaps I´ll watch the movie........but:

1) The movie will probably try to make the middle-school-aged girl sexually attractive........ I´m 21, but I´d hate to take the chance of liking middle schoolers...even if they are at least 13

2) That IS gross.....

3) Jared likes it. My dad says it is a turd....Should I risk tasting it?

4) Again, that IS pretty gross...

Well, I need to watch it before I can decide whether I like it or not. But I don´t know if I can watch it because of the impression I got from the preview. But maybe that´s just because I´m a gross guy...