Spoilers herein.
Lolita is one of the most remarkable books in the world. It has lovely language in many different ways. But that's not what makes it novel. The cleverness, the art is in the shifting stance of the narrator -- sometimes delusional, often hyperdramatic, continuously obsessed with unusual elements of the world. You never know where you stand.
Almost impossible to translate to film, which of course is why Kubrick was attracted to the project. He had done `Killer's Kiss,' which experiments with surpressing the narrative to the cinematic vision. Then he got roped into `Spartacus,' which he hated. It focused on the characters, and the story was overly expository and preachy.
So how to do it? He has to find a place to move the slipperiness of narrative, and he selects to give this job to Sellers. Everything depends on the positioning of the characters. The wife is played by an actress that has the same consciousness in the world as in the film. The kid is a loss, but since we couldn't have a twelveyear old who seduces several, the role is placeholder only.
The whole revolves around us believing that Sellers is a sort of god in the machine. This is a noble experiment, which almost works. Sellers introduces himself as Spartacus from behind the curtain. Then we see how he has manipulated the last several years. He is turned into a filmmaker (to enhance the selfreference), who entices poor Loli into making a film, presumably this one.
I think it may be a long time before viewers can fully appreciate Kubrick's experiments in shifting the story to the vision by clever narrative folds. It all starts here.
Lolita is one of the most remarkable books in the world. It has lovely language in many different ways. But that's not what makes it novel. The cleverness, the art is in the shifting stance of the narrator -- sometimes delusional, often hyperdramatic, continuously obsessed with unusual elements of the world. You never know where you stand.
Almost impossible to translate to film, which of course is why Kubrick was attracted to the project. He had done `Killer's Kiss,' which experiments with surpressing the narrative to the cinematic vision. Then he got roped into `Spartacus,' which he hated. It focused on the characters, and the story was overly expository and preachy.
So how to do it? He has to find a place to move the slipperiness of narrative, and he selects to give this job to Sellers. Everything depends on the positioning of the characters. The wife is played by an actress that has the same consciousness in the world as in the film. The kid is a loss, but since we couldn't have a twelveyear old who seduces several, the role is placeholder only.
The whole revolves around us believing that Sellers is a sort of god in the machine. This is a noble experiment, which almost works. Sellers introduces himself as Spartacus from behind the curtain. Then we see how he has manipulated the last several years. He is turned into a filmmaker (to enhance the selfreference), who entices poor Loli into making a film, presumably this one.
I think it may be a long time before viewers can fully appreciate Kubrick's experiments in shifting the story to the vision by clever narrative folds. It all starts here.