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"Lolita"

The fascination of bringing Vladimir Vladimrovich Nabukov brilliant novel to the screen for the second time around is the challenge that Adrian Lyne took, and his version is slightly glossed over in gossemer It has a very veiled look, which should indicate a sense of haunting. What it does it seems diluted in the intent of the author.

Jeremy Irons, as Humbert Humbert, isn’t the Humbert that James Mason played so effectively. His pedophilia seems more urban, his obsessiveness with Lolita, played by Dominique Swain, childlike, innocent and terribly tiresome. Many will say that children are like that but do we have to grin and bear it? Why there has been so much to do about the sex in this movie is beyond my understanding, as most of it is just suggested. By our moral standards of today, or lack of them they could have released this movie sooner instead of all the hesitation that attended it. Irons has the right lust for his subject, depraved and yet erudite, but again it gets tiresome to watch. Melanie Griffith displays many costumes and hats for the short time that she is on the screen, which only reminds us how great Shelly Winters was in this role. Frank Langella, one of my favorite actors, unfortunately is over the top in his performance of Quilty, Peter Sellers made it more memorable. Langella death scene is ludicrous and a bit of scarlet violence.

Director of photography Howard Atherton, excels in the many dingy motels and actual country and desert vistas of our country. Ennio Morricone has composed a score that matches some of the rural beauty. The movie longs for controversy, unfortunately it falls very short of it . You do long for the heart shape red kid glasses that Sue Lyons wore in the original. Some movies should not be remade. To many excellent comparisons. Now for Andre Previn’s opera of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

 
Reference:
Lolita
Pathe - production

Jeremy Irons
Dominique Swain
Melanie Griffith
Frank Langella

Directed by: Adrian Lyne
Produced by: Mario Kasar, Joel B. Michaels
Edited by: Julie Monroe, David Brenner
Director of photography: Howard Atherton
Screenplay by: Stephen Schiff
Based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov
Rated R