lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
Easily his worst film. I'm bewildered by its defenders, many of whom like to talk about how Nabokov wrote the script. As if being a brilliant novelist makes you a great screenwriter, or that scripts emerge intact in the finished film.
Regardless, I blame Kubrick alone for focusing on the black comedy and losing all the pathos and tragedy of the novel. And for letting Peter Sellers just run amok with no leash (what worked in Dr. Strangelove definitely does not here).
As cinema it's nothing special, either.
If you want to see its antithesis, I highly recommend Adrian Lyne's 1997 adaptation, which definitely suffers from not enough humor, but really nails the poignancy of the source material. Jeremy Irons is fantastic, and the girl playing Lolita is really great as well. Shamefully it was prevented from a theatrical release (ridiculous that this puritanism was still happening in the late 90s), but it has many defenders. Gorgeous photography and a Morricone score.
Here's a recent write-up from when it played here in L.A. at Tarantino's revival theatre:
Adrian Lyne’s Lolita | New Beverly Cinema
Regardless, I blame Kubrick alone for focusing on the black comedy and losing all the pathos and tragedy of the novel. And for letting Peter Sellers just run amok with no leash (what worked in Dr. Strangelove definitely does not here).
As cinema it's nothing special, either.
If you want to see its antithesis, I highly recommend Adrian Lyne's 1997 adaptation, which definitely suffers from not enough humor, but really nails the poignancy of the source material. Jeremy Irons is fantastic, and the girl playing Lolita is really great as well. Shamefully it was prevented from a theatrical release (ridiculous that this puritanism was still happening in the late 90s), but it has many defenders. Gorgeous photography and a Morricone score.
Here's a recent write-up from when it played here in L.A. at Tarantino's revival theatre:
Adrian Lyne’s Lolita | New Beverly Cinema