Lolita (1997 film)

Lolita is a 1997 American-French drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Stephen Schiff. 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. The film is about a middle-aged male professor, Humbert, who rents a room in the house of the widow Charlotte Haze and becomes sexually attracted to her adolescent daughter Dolores, also called "Lo" or "Lolita".

Lyne's film is more overt with many of the novel's darker elements compared to Stanley Kubrick's 1962 version, which used suggestion and innuendo for comic purposes (and was scripted by Nabokov himself).

The film had difficulty finding an American distributor and premiered in Europe before being released in America. The film was eventually 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. Lolita was met with much controversy in Australia, where it was not given a theatrical release until April 1999.

Plot

In 1947, Humbert Humbert (Jeremy Irons), a middle-aged 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 is romantically attracted to her 14-year-old daughter Dolores (Dominique Swain), also called "Lo", who he sees while touring the house. Obsessed from boyhood with girls of approximately her age (whom he calls "nymphets"), Humbert is immediately smitten with Lo and gets married to Charlotte only just to be near her daughter.

Charlotte finds Humbert's secret diary and discovers his preference for her daughter. Furious, Charlotte runs out of the house, when she is struck by a car and killed. Her death frees Humbert to pursue a romantic and sexual 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 and Lo begins attending an all-girls Catholic school. Humbert and Lo must conceal the nature of their relationship from everyone- strangers they encounter when traveling as well as the administration at Beardsley. They present themselves to the world as a father and daughter. Over time, Lo's increasing boredom with Humbert, combined with her growing desire for independence, fuels a constant tension that lead to a fight between them. Humbert's affection for Lo is also rivaled by another man, playwright Clare Quilty (Frank Langella), who has been pursuing Lo since the beginning of the pair's travels. Lo eventually escapes with Quilty, and Humbert's search for them is unsuccessful, especially as he doesn't know Quilty's name.

Three years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lo asking for money. Humbert visits Lo, who is now married and pregnant. Her husband, Richard, knows nothing about her past. Humbert asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. He relents and gives her a substantial amount of money. Lo also reveals to Humbert how Quilty actually tracked young girls and took them to Pavor Manor, his home in Parkington, to exploit them for child pornography. Quilty abandoned her after she refused to be in one of his films.

After his visit with Lo, Humbert tracks down Quilty and murders him. After being chased by the police, Humbert is arrested and sent to prison. He dies in November 1950, and Lo dies the next month on Christmas Day from childbirth complications.

Cast

Jeremy Irons as Professor Humbert Humbert
Ben Silverstone as young Humbert
Dominique Swain as Dolores "Lolita" Haze
Frank Langella as Clare Quilty
Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze
Suzanne Shepherd as Miss Pratt
Keith Reddin as Reverend Rigger
Erin J. Dean as Mona
Joan Glover as Miss LaBone
Ed Grady as Dr. Melinik
Michael Goodwin as Mr. Beale
Angela Paton as Mrs. Holmes
Emma Griffiths-Malin as Annabel Lee
Ronald Pickup as young Humbert's father
Michael Culkin as Mr. Leigh
Annabelle Apsion as Mrs. Leigh

Production

The first screen adaptation of the book, 1962's Lolita, was credited solely to Nabokov. although it was heavily revised by Stanley Kubrick and James Harris and was directed by Kubrick.

The screenplay for the 1997 version, more faithful to the text of the novel than the earlier motion picture, is credited to Stephen Schiff, a writer for The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and other magazines. Schiff was hired to write it as his first movie script, after the film's producers had rejected commissioned screenplays from the 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. Some of the filmmakers involved actually looked upon the Kubrick version as a kind of "what not to do." I had somewhat fonder memories of it than that, but I had not seen it for maybe fifteen years, and I didn't allow myself to go back to it again.

Schiff added that Kubrick's film might better have been titled Quilty, since the director had allowed the character of Quilty to "take over the movie".

Lyne states in the DVD commentary that he prefers location shooting even though it is more difficult in some respects; and that the home of Charlotte Haze was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Release

Due to the difficulty in securing a distributor, Lolita had a very limited theatrical run in order to qualify for awards. Accordingly, the film only took in a gross income of $19,492 in its opening weekend. Since the final domestic gross income was $1,147,784 on an estimated $62 million budget, the film was considered a flop at the box office.

Critical reception

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 68% based on 25 reviews. Metacritic reports an average score of 46 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

James Berardinelli praised the performances of the two leads, Irons and Swain, but he considered 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 July 31, 1998, with its critic Caryn James saying, "Rich beyond what anyone could have expected, the film repays repeated viewings...it turns Humbert's madness into art." Writer/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, in Salon, 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, Lolita's heart and soul."

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was composed by Ennio Morricone and released on the Music Box Records label. As the composer himself described the project: "With my music, I only had to follow on a high level the director's intentions to make Lolita a story of sincere and reciprocal love, even within the limits of the purity and malicious naiveté of its young subject."

All music is composed by Ennio Morricone