Lolita (1997 film)
Encyclopedia
Lolita is a 1997 French-American drama film
directed by Adrian Lyne
. It is the second screen adaptation
of Vladimir Nabokov
's novel of the same name
and stars Jeremy Irons
as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain
as Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith
as Charlotte Haze, and Frank Langella
as Clare Quilty.
With the central theme of Humbert's hebephilia
, the film had considerable difficulty finding an American distributor and premiered in Europe
before being released in America, where it was met with much controversy. The film was picked up in the United States by Showtime, a cable
network, before finally being released theatrically by The Samuel Goldwyn Company
. The performances by Irons and Swain impressed audiences, but, although praised by some critics for its faithfulness to Nabokov's narrative, the film received a mixed critical reception in the United States
. Following its theatrical release, the film was distributed on VHS
and DVD
by Pathé
, both of which are now out-of-print.
), a European professor of French literature
, travels to the United States
to take a teaching position in New Hampshire
. He rents a room in the home of widow Charlotte Haze (Melanie Griffith
), largely because he sees her adolescent daughter Dolores (Dominique Swain
), also called "Lo", while touring the house. Obsessed from boyhood with girls of this age (whom he calls "nymphets"), partly because of a boyhood sexual experience and subsequent tragic loss, Humbert marries Charlotte for the sake of access to her daughter.
Later in their marriage, Charlotte becomes furious after she, by way of reading Humbert's secret diary, discovers Humbert's preference for her daughter. Moments after, Charlotte goes to the mailbox to mail some letters when she is struck by a car and killed. Her death frees Humbert to pursue a sexual and emotional relationship with Lo, whom he nicknames "Lolita". Humbert and Lo then travel the country, staying in various motels before eventually settling in the college town of Beardsley, where Humbert takes a teaching job. However, Lo's increasing boredom with Humbert, as well as her growing desire for independence, fuels a constant tension between them. Humbert's desperate affections for Lo are also rivaled by another man, playwright Clare Quilty (Frank Langella
), who has been pursuing Lo since the beginning of their travels. Quilty's name and identity are at first unknown to Humbert, and when Lo runs away to him, Humbert's search for her is unsuccessful.
Three years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lo asking for financial help. Humbert visits Lo, who is now married to another man and pregnant. Humbert, who still loves Lo, asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. He relents and gives her a substantial amount of money and information about her inheritance from her mother. Lo also reveals to Humbert how Quilty actually tracked young girls her age and took them to Pavor Manor, his home in Parkington, to film the girls performing various sexual acts with the help of his assistant Vivian.
She also tells him about how after being taken from Humbert, Quilty tried to film Lo performing sex acts in a group settings. When Lo refuses and prefers Quilty to be like a father to her, Quilty leaves Lo on her own. After his visit with Lo, Humbert tracks down Quilty and kills him. After being chased by the police, Humbert is arrested and sent to prison. He dies in November 1950, and Lo dies on Christmas Day in childbirth.
.
The screenplay for the 1997 version, more faithful to the text of the novel than the author's adaptation, is credited to Stephen Schiff
, a writer for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair
, and other magazines. He was hired to write it as his first movie script, after the film's producers had rejected screenplays commissioned from more experienced screenwriters and directors James Dearden
(Fatal Attraction
), Harold Pinter
, and David Mamet
.
According to Schiff, "Right from the beginning, it was clear to all of us that this movie was not a 'remake' of Kubrick's film. Rather, we were out to make a new adaptation of a very great novel." Schiff stated that "Some of the filmmakers involved actually looked upon the Kubrick version as a kind of 'what not to do'" and quipped that Kubrick's film should have been called Quilty, due to the prominent role of that character.
praised the performances of the two leads, Jeremy Irons
and Dominique Swain
, but he considered Melanie Griffith
's performance weak, "stiff and unconvincing"; he considered the film better when she no longer appeared in it and concluded: "Lolita is not a sex film; it's about characters, relationships, and the consequences of imprudent actions. And those who seek to brand the picture as immoral have missed the point. Both Humbert and Lolita are eventually destroyed—what could be more moral? The only real controversy I can see surrounding this film is why there was ever a controversy in the first place."
The film was The New York Times
"Critics Pick" on 31 July 1998, with its critic Caryn James championing it and saying, "Rich beyond what anyone could have expected, the film repays repeated viewings...it turns Humbert's madness into art."
Writer and director James Toback
lists it in his picks for the 10 finest films ever made, but he rates the original film higher.
Commenting on differences between the novel and the film, Charles Taylor observes that "[f]or all of their vaunted (and, it turns out, false) fidelity to Nabokov, Lyne and Schiff have made a pretty, gauzy Lolita that replaces the book's cruelty and comedy with manufactured lyricism and mopey romanticism." Extending Taylor's observation, Keith Phipps concludes: "Lyne doesn't seem to get the novel, failing to incorporate any of Nabokov's black comedy—which is to say, Lolitas heart and soul."
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne
Adrian Lyne is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for directing films that focus on sexually charged characters and often uses natural light, a fog machine and other effects to create eroticized atmospheres...
. It is the second screen adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...
of Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
's novel of the same name
Lolita
Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris and 1958 in New York, and later translated by the author into Russian...
and stars Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain
Dominique Swain
Dominique Ariane Swain is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as the title character in the 1997 film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, and as Jamie Archer in the film Face/Off.- Early life :...
as Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
as Charlotte Haze, and Frank Langella
Frank Langella
-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
as Clare Quilty.
With the central theme of Humbert's hebephilia
Hebephilia
Hebephilia refers to the sexual preference for individuals in the early years of puberty . Girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11; boys at age 11 or 12...
, the film had considerable difficulty finding an American distributor and premiered in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
before being released in America, where it was met with much controversy. The film was picked up in the United States by Showtime, a cable
Cable
A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...
network, before finally being released theatrically by The Samuel Goldwyn Company
The Samuel Goldwyn Company
The Samuel Goldwyn Company was an independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., the son of the famous Hollywood mogul, Samuel Goldwyn, in 1979.-Background:...
. The performances by Irons and Swain impressed audiences, but, although praised by some critics for its faithfulness to Nabokov's narrative, the film received a mixed critical reception in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Following its theatrical release, the film was distributed on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
by Pathé
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various French businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France.-History:...
, both of which are now out-of-print.
Plot
In 1947, Humbert Humbert (Jeremy IronsJeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
), a European professor of French literature
French literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
, travels to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to take a teaching position in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
. He rents a room in the home of widow Charlotte Haze (Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
), largely because he sees her adolescent daughter Dolores (Dominique Swain
Dominique Swain
Dominique Ariane Swain is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as the title character in the 1997 film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, and as Jamie Archer in the film Face/Off.- Early life :...
), also called "Lo", while touring the house. Obsessed from boyhood with girls of this age (whom he calls "nymphets"), partly because of a boyhood sexual experience and subsequent tragic loss, Humbert marries Charlotte for the sake of access to her daughter.
Later in their marriage, Charlotte becomes furious after she, by way of reading Humbert's secret diary, discovers Humbert's preference for her daughter. Moments after, Charlotte goes to the mailbox to mail some letters when she is struck by a car and killed. Her death frees Humbert to pursue a sexual and emotional relationship with Lo, whom he nicknames "Lolita". Humbert and Lo then travel the country, staying in various motels before eventually settling in the college town of Beardsley, where Humbert takes a teaching job. However, Lo's increasing boredom with Humbert, as well as her growing desire for independence, fuels a constant tension between them. Humbert's desperate affections for Lo are also rivaled by another man, playwright Clare Quilty (Frank Langella
Frank Langella
-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
), who has been pursuing Lo since the beginning of their travels. Quilty's name and identity are at first unknown to Humbert, and when Lo runs away to him, Humbert's search for her is unsuccessful.
Three years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lo asking for financial help. Humbert visits Lo, who is now married to another man and pregnant. Humbert, who still loves Lo, asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. He relents and gives her a substantial amount of money and information about her inheritance from her mother. Lo also reveals to Humbert how Quilty actually tracked young girls her age and took them to Pavor Manor, his home in Parkington, to film the girls performing various sexual acts with the help of his assistant Vivian.
She also tells him about how after being taken from Humbert, Quilty tried to film Lo performing sex acts in a group settings. When Lo refuses and prefers Quilty to be like a father to her, Quilty leaves Lo on her own. After his visit with Lo, Humbert tracks down Quilty and kills him. After being chased by the police, Humbert is arrested and sent to prison. He dies in November 1950, and Lo dies on Christmas Day in childbirth.
Cast
- Jeremy IronsJeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
(Ben SilverstoneBen SilverstoneBenjamin Maurice Silverstone is an English barrister and former actor. He has one sister and one brother. He studied English at Cambridge University and law at the LSE.-Career:...
, young) as Professor Humbert Humbert - Melanie GriffithMelanie GriffithMelanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
as Charlotte Haze - Dominique SwainDominique SwainDominique Ariane Swain is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as the title character in the 1997 film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, and as Jamie Archer in the film Face/Off.- Early life :...
as Dolores "Lolita/Lo" Haze - Frank LangellaFrank Langella-Early life:Langella, an Italian American, was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of Angelina and Frank A. Langella Sr., a business executive who was the president of the Bayonne Barrel and Drum Company. Langella attended Washington Elementary School and Bayonne High School in Bayonne...
as Clare Quilty - Suzanne ShepherdSuzanne ShepherdSuzanne Shepherd is an American actress and theater director. She is best known for her portrayal of Karen's overbearing mother in the film Goodfellas, and Carmela's overbearing mother in the television program The Sopranos. Shepherd studied acting with Sanford Meisner, and later went on to teach...
as Miss Pratt - Keith ReddinKeith ReddinKeith Reddin is an American actor and playwright. He received his B.S. in 1978 from Northwestern University and then went on to attend The Yale University School of Drama until he received his M.A. in 1981....
as Reverend Rigger - Erin J. Dean as Mona
- Joan Glover as Miss LaBone
- Pat Pierre Perkins as Louise (as Pat P. Perkins)
- Ed Grady as Dr. Melinik
- Michael GoodwinMichael GoodwinMichael Kemper Goodwin was an important architect in the Phoenix, Arizona area. He also served two terms in the Arizona House of Representatives in the 1970s.-Early life:Michael Andrew Goodwin was born in San Antonio....
as Mr. Beale - Angela Paton as Mrs. Holmes
- Ben SilverstoneBen SilverstoneBenjamin Maurice Silverstone is an English barrister and former actor. He has one sister and one brother. He studied English at Cambridge University and law at the LSE.-Career:...
as Young Humbert Humbert - Emma Griffiths MalinEmma Griffiths MalinEmma Griffiths Malin is an English-born actress and film director. She was raised by her parents in west London. Her grandparents are the actors Mark Eden and Joan Le Mesurier....
as Annabel Lee (as Emma Griffiths-Malin) - Ronald PickupRonald Pickup-Life and career:Pickup was born in Chester, England, the son of Daisy and Eric Pickup, who was a lecturer. Pickup was educated at The King's School, Chester, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and became an Associate Member of RADA.His television work began with an episode...
as Young Humbert's Father - Michael CulkinMichael CulkinMichael Culkin is a British theatre, film, and television actor probably best known for his role as Judge Buller in the BBC drama Garrow's Law. Among his other credits include a role in the children's drama M. I. High as Millionaire Flatley, and Hugo Blandford in Doctors. He also had a role in the...
as Mr. Leigh - Annabelle ApsionAnnabelle ApsionAnnabelle Apsion is an English actress, best known for playing Monica Gallagher in the hit television comedy-drama Shameless, which she played intermittently between 2004 and 2006, before becoming a regular cast member for the show's fourth series in 2007. She left the show in 2008 in order to...
as Mrs. Leigh - Don Brady as Frank McCoo
- Trip Hamilton as Mr. Blue
- Michael DolanMichael DolanMichael Dolan, born June 21, 1965, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is an American theatre and film actor, director and educator.-Acting career:...
as Dick - Hallee HirshHallee HirshHallee Leah Hirsh is an American actress known for her roles as Daley in the children's series Flight 29 Down and as the second actress to portray Rachel Greene on ER...
as Little Girl in Bunny Suit - Scott Brian Higgs as Policeman (accident)
- Mert Hatfield as Policeman (accident)
- Chris JarmanChris JarmanChris Jarman is a stage and television actor.-Work:-References:...
as Policeman - Hudson Lee Long as Elderly Clerk
- Jim Grimshaw as Policeman
- Lenore Banks as Nurse at Hospital
- Dorothy Deavers as Receptionist
- Donnie Boswell Sr. as Taxi Driver (as Donnie Boswell Sr.)
- Judy Duggan as Solo Singer / Piano Player
- Margaret Hammonds as Nurse
- Paula Davis as Motel Clerk
- Tim Gallin as Hospital Orderly
History of the screenplay
The first screen adaptation of Lolita (1962) was written by Nabokov and directed by Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
.
The screenplay for the 1997 version, more faithful to the text of the novel than the author's adaptation, is credited to Stephen Schiff
Stephen Schiff
Stephen Schiff is an American screenwriter and journalist. He grew up in Littleton, Colorado and began his writing career at The Boston Phoenix, where he became the chief film critic and film editor , and hired and trained such critics as Owen Gleiberman and David Edelstein.In 1983, he was a...
, a writer for the New Yorker, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, and other magazines. He was hired to write it as his first movie script, after the film's producers had rejected screenplays commissioned from more experienced screenwriters and directors James Dearden
James Dearden
James Dearden is an English film director and screenwriter, the son of acclaimed English film maker Basil Dearden. He directed seven films between 1977 and 1999...
(Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction is a 1987 American thriller blended with horror, directed by Adrian Lyne and stars Michael Douglas, Glenn Close and Anne Archer. The film centers around a married man who has a weekend affair with a woman who refuses to allow it to end, resulting in emotional blackmail, stalking...
), Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
, and David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
.
According to Schiff, "Right from the beginning, it was clear to all of us that this movie was not a 'remake' of Kubrick's film. Rather, we were out to make a new adaptation of a very great novel." Schiff stated that "Some of the filmmakers involved actually looked upon the Kubrick version as a kind of 'what not to do'" and quipped that Kubrick's film should have been called Quilty, due to the prominent role of that character.
Critical reception
Many critics evaluated the film highly and appreciated aspects of it, though some tended to qualify their positive comments. For example, James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
praised the performances of the two leads, Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
and Dominique Swain
Dominique Swain
Dominique Ariane Swain is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as the title character in the 1997 film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, and as Jamie Archer in the film Face/Off.- Early life :...
, but he considered Melanie Griffith
Melanie Griffith
Melanie Richards Griffith is an American actress. She is an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner for her performance in the 1988 film Working Girl...
's performance weak, "stiff and unconvincing"; he considered the film better when she no longer appeared in it and concluded: "Lolita is not a sex film; it's about characters, relationships, and the consequences of imprudent actions. And those who seek to brand the picture as immoral have missed the point. Both Humbert and Lolita are eventually destroyed—what could be more moral? The only real controversy I can see surrounding this film is why there was ever a controversy in the first place."
The film was The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
"Critics Pick" on 31 July 1998, with its critic Caryn James championing it and saying, "Rich beyond what anyone could have expected, the film repays repeated viewings...it turns Humbert's madness into art."
Writer and director James Toback
James Toback
James Lee Toback is an American screenwriter and film director.-Early life:Toback was born in New York City. His mother, Selma Judith , was a President of The League of Women Voters and a moderator of political debates on NBC. His father, Irwin Lionel Toback, was a stockbroker and former...
lists it in his picks for the 10 finest films ever made, but he rates the original film higher.
Commenting on differences between the novel and the film, Charles Taylor observes that "[f]or all of their vaunted (and, it turns out, false) fidelity to Nabokov, Lyne and Schiff have made a pretty, gauzy Lolita that replaces the book's cruelty and comedy with manufactured lyricism and mopey romanticism." Extending Taylor's observation, Keith Phipps concludes: "Lyne doesn't seem to get the novel, failing to incorporate any of Nabokov's black comedy—which is to say, Lolitas heart and soul."
Box office
Lolita took in a gross income of $19,492 in its opening weekend. The final domestic gross income was $1,147,784.External links
- Movie stills from Lolita
- Zembla – The "official site of the International Vladimir NabokovVladimir NabokovVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was a multilingual Russian novelist and short story writer. Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian, then rose to international prominence as a master English prose stylist...
Society"