Beneath its seemingly classical structure, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Nabokov’s novel unveils the self-destructive obsession that runs through his entire body of work. From his collaboration with James B. Harris to Peter Sellers’ performance, Lolita already carries the themes and stylistic choices that would shape the director’s career.
At first glance, the film may appear to follow a traditional structure, yet it conceals within it many of Kubrick’s signature themes, including that tension between Eros and Thanatos which he would explore in an even more emblematic way more than thirty years later, in his final, posthumously released work. At its core lies the depiction of a self-destructive obsession. Still tied to his production partnership with James B. Harris and fresh from the popular success of Spartacus (1960) – which he directed after taking over from Anthony Mann, dismissed by Kirk Douglas – Kubrick took on Nabokov’s twisted love story, reshaping it according to his own vision. Of the screenplay Nabokov himself adapted from his novel, very little made it to the screen: as was often the case, Kubrick diverged significantly from the script, guided instead by last-minute intuitions and improvisations.
Adapting Vladimir Nabokov’s famous, controversial, and scandalous novel for the big screen while escaping the crossfire of censorship was a colossal challenge. Kubrick, with the (meta-ironic) collaboration of Nabokov himself on the screenplay, shaped the film as a drama susp...
L’età della protagonista viene alzata e la sessualità esplicita messa da parte, non tanto per autocensura quanto perché Kubrick non ha mai mostrato particolare interesse nella rappresentazione del sesso nei suoi film. L’erotismo è stilizzato e sussurrato, con sequenze dal forte valore simbolico: Humbert che applica lo smalto al piede di Lolita nei magnifici titoli di testa, o il gioco delle mani nel “ménage à trois” all’interno dell’auto durante la visione orrorifica al drive-in. Il grande Peter Sellers, nella parte dell’enigmatico Clare Quilty che si traveste da improbabile psicologo dal nome di Dott. Zempf, ci dà un assaggio del futuro Dr. Stranamore, ancora in forma embrionale. In Lolita si colgono dunque tutte le tracce autoriali che Kubrick svilupperà, con crescente radicalità, nel corso della sua sfolgorante carriera.
