About Lolita (1962)

  Stanley Kubrick created a film based on the novel Lolita, written by Vladmir Nabokov in 1955. The novel was one of the most controversial novels that came out during the 20th century and was banned in France and Britain, due to its content of a man being in love with a pre-teen girl. The first scene of this film shows a man, Humbert Humbert, shooting another man, Clare Quilty. The film then rewinds to 4 months ago, where Humbert Humbert moves to a small town and is looking for a place to stay. He goes to one house, where one sexually deprived and desperate woman, Charlotte Haze, is eager to let him stay. Humbert declines her offer until he sees her 14 year old daughter, Lolita, for the first time. From the moment he laid his eyes on her it was love at first site. After deciding to stay with them, Humbert keeps a close eye on Lolita. After a few months, Charlotte tells Humbert that she is madly in love with him and if he decides to continue to stay at her place, then he is accepting her love and willing to marry her. Humbert does this, all with the thought of Lolita in his heart. After a month of marriage, one day Charlotte finds out what Humbert’s true intentions are. She is outraged and ends up killing herself. Humbert picks up Lolita, tells her that her mom is sick, and takes her around America staying at different motels every night. Throughout their constant travel, Humbert notices that a car is following them. After a few months of constant traveling and sleeping at motels, the two began to form a sexual relationship. On the trip, Lolita gets sick and goes to a hospital. During her hospitalization, she is kidnapped by the person that was following them in the car.  Humbert does not find her, and hears nothing from her for a few months until one day he receives a letter from her. The letter stated how she was now married and was pregnant, and really needed financial help. Humbert shows up at the address and find his daughter happily married to a man named Dick, who she had met after she was kidnapped. Humbert brings a gun into the house, wanting to kill the man that kidnapped her from him. However, he does not find him, and finds that Lolita is happy. He asks Lolita who kidnapped him and he finds out that it was Clare Quilty. Clare was a famous playwright that Lolita had admired and loved for years. Humbert then tries to convince Lolita to leave Dick, and come back with him. Lolita reject Humbert’s requests and stays with Dick, while Humbert leaves emotionally. Humbert then finds Clare Quilty, and shoots him, which brings the viewer back to the first scene.

One characteristic that Kubrick employs in each of his films is classical music in the most important and dramatic scenes. In this first scene, when Humbert Humbert is shooting Clare Quilty, classical music is played beforehand.

This is a scene from the film when Humbert firsts meets Lolita.

While this film got a lot of controversy after its production, it received 7 major awards including and Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.