Word: nabokovs
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...hype that surrounded its 10-month saga to find an American distributor, Lolita is, in the end, surprisingly tame; those expecting child pornography or a trenchant critique of pedophilia are bound to be disappointed. Still, Lyne has done an admirable job with the challenge of adapting Vladimir Nabokov's famous novel for the screen. Overwhelming us with a cascade of lovely images, Lolita succeeds in being tragically moving despite the unsavory plot...
...Humbert of Lyne's movie does not say very much, as opposed to the verbose Humbert of Nabokov's book. Indeed, Nabokov takes his book's basic plot and builds layer upon layer of meaning, drowning the story line in seductive word play which, amazingly, is able to lead the reader's attention away from the moral issues underlying the book. "Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth," Humbert says by way of indroduction in the book, providing us with a glimpse...
...seductive word play of the novel is clearly missing from the movie, but perhaps Lyne recognized that it would have been a near-impossible task to recreate Nabokov's words through the medium of film. Indeed, the reason why Lyne's film works is that it focuses upon the potential of film to beautify even the morally grotesque, ensuring that Nabokov's broader message about the power of art has not been lost, only translated to another medium. Visual images take over for book's words; for instance, the idea of "haze," a play off Dolores Haze's name which...
...much detail, from the making of an ice cream sundae to the zapping of bugs on a porch, as they might be in Humbert's fevered mind. Other times, the camera slows down Lolita's actions in running up the stairs, or playing tennis, in the same way that Nabokov's narrative draws out these occurrences in feverish detail through words...
11.Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov...