Stanley Kurbrick directed this, and I think this it is his best! It was controversial because a man marries a woman to be close to her daughter-who is 14-and after the Mom kills herself(I won't tell you why) he has sex with her. As shocking as this is, I don't see it as a movie to avoid-read my review of American Beauty for an example of why. It's 2 1/2 hours long but it flies by. I personally think this was 1962's best movie. It's much more entertaining than Lawrence of Arabia.

LOLITA is a black comedy drama, which, in an unserious way, examines serious psychological problems. It is based on the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov.The film begins with the verbal conflict between the two men. One man is drunk and maybe stoned, his opponent is desperate and angry. Their conflict has ended with a tragic outcome. The film then flashes back to events four years earlier. A distinguished professor arrives in Ramsdale, New Hampshire, intending to spend the summer before his professorship begins at Beardsley College, Ohio. He has found a room to rent at a house of a cloying and sexually frustrated widow. The professor becomes infatuated with her overly flirtatious daughter. He has married a frustrated widow, in order to stay close to the object of his desire. However, their "daughter" is in a summer camp for girls. He lives with her mother, forced to fulfill his conjugal duties. He becomes more withdrawn, and his brassy wife more whiny. She discovers his diary entries detailing his passion for her daughter...This film can be seen as a sort of a social incident. This should not be reduced to the relationship between a perverse underage girl and middle-aged man, who has disturbed libido. All characters are somehow disturbed and unhappy. That is perhaps more important for this story. It is very difficult to recognize the love and passion as emotions among the main protagonists. Simply, this is a tragedy with comic and ironic reflections on a very important psychological problems, which are a reflection of a subjective society.This is not a shameful review of something disgusting. This is an inappropriate fun, which is decorated with a very strange styles and a pretty good acting. Characterization is very good.James Mason as Humbert "Hum" Humbert is mentally unstable and obsessive-minded man, who comes from the quiet love phase to the phase of the jealousy, confusion and despair at the end. Sue Lyon as Dolores "Lolita" Haze is a spoiled and lonely brat, who has to grow up very quickly. Her feelings are absolutely vague. She, practically, is not ready for some major life decisions, even though Mr. Kubrick has made, from that fact, a contrast with her stepfather at the end of the film.Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty is a cunning and dark artist. He is a disturbed reflection of Humbert's character. His mystical and patchy appearance is almost outstanding. He is a thread that connects a killer and a victim in one figure.Shelley Winters as Charlotte Haze-Humbert is an unhappy mother, a widow ... wife. She is a woman who looks for love at the wrong address. It was obvious from the start.This is too serious to be fun, but it's fun.

Stanley Kubrick's Lolita will for many (over 50 years on from its original release) seem safe and quite possibly routine. This though is simply not the case. At the time it was seen to be racy and in poor taste, so much so that the MPAA demanded that Kubrick made cuts to the film, otherwise they would deny him releasing it to the public. However, even with these restrictions in place Lolita works astoundingly well and even on many more levels if you try to view it with the mind-set of the general public in the 60s. Then it's all too obvious that Lolita is a daring project, beautiful to look at and yet remains a wonder that it ever saw the light of day at all.Humbert Humbert (James Mason) having recently entered America has moved into a house in Ramsdale residence of Mrs Haze. Originally only moving in so that he can become a college Professor - Humbert becomes undeniably infatuated by Mrs Haze's daughter; Lolita, oozing sexual confidence and spark. Who can blame him? Well other than the fact that he is in his fifties and she in this adaptation fourteen. So of course it is this area of the film that has sparked up controversy ever since 1962. The line "I'm going to take your Queen" possibly causing the most outrage – played over a game of chess. Though, the controversy of Lolita unlike 1971's A Clockwork Orange is hard to believe. In this day and age its relatively tame when compared to 1999's American Beauty a film that shares certain similarities with Lolita to say the least. Lolita for one has no nudity unless you count an underage girl clad in a revealing bikini and I for one don't. Any sexual references are low key and any moment proceeding intercourse is cut short. So you really have to play it out in your mind more than anything else. Though for me this is beneficiary to the picture, characterising Lolita's innocence, deep insecurity and tendency to shy away at the more intimate moments. Sue Lyon in her first role is positively enlightening. This is for sure a hard role to "get right". You have to know how to play the different characteristics of Lolita for a start and portray her vibrancy with the needed enthusiasm. But, Lyon handles it well, so well in fact that you'd swear she'd been in show business for a lifetime or at least a good handful of roles. James Mason on the other hand as Humbert Humbert is treading thin ice; yet, he manages to do the trick. The fact that we actually sympathise with a character this conniving and want to watch him on screen is a testament to Mason's staying power as an actor of rare talent, rarely seen nowadays, if at all. Peter Sellers as Claire Quilty is a different matter entirely and yes, I mean that as a compliment. Sellers just goes for it! Wacky, brilliant, witty and insane all these adjectives actually apply. But even the use of mere words cannot describe how funny he is in each situation, that's because Sellers understands what makes humour work. Edging the line between camp and utter silliness, Sellers is definitely a key factor as to why I adore Lolita so so very much.A picture like Lolita makes me look at films in an entirely different light. That wasn't a pun. Yet I must talk about the lighting. This is a film that is dazzling to view, and if you think that because its Black and White it cannot look this good, then I'm afraid you are sorely mistaken. Every shade of black and white is honestly a marvel and reminds me that splendid cinematography is about lighting, composition and framing, not different hues of a wide range of colours.Lolita is the sort of film Hollywood does not make anymore; witty, campy, fun, interesting, daring and never self-serious. This is a film without the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, before the advent of CGI, where characters took centre stage, not action or flashy special effects. Watching Kubrick's Lolita is like watching a by- gone age of cinema where story and characters were key to a film's success, not flashes of colour and the rising sound of a fireball. A+

I watched this for the first time recently. I can't say I'd ever had the desire to watch it previously but from the first scene it draws you in and you want to know what happens. It's a long film and at time it seems a little too slow moving at times but a first rate cast make this a must watch film. James Mason is simply outstanding as Professor Humbert who quickly becomes infatuated with Shelly Winters young teenage daughter Lolita. Sue Lyon is superb as the young temptress Lolita and it's a surprise she didn't go onto better things. There is a typically surreal but nonetheless impressive performance by Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty. Although this tackles paedophilia it's done in a very understated way with everything very much implied rather than shown. This if anything adds rather than takes away from the films effect. This is rightfully classed as a classic being beautifully filmed, scripted and acted. A must watch for anyone with an interest in movies.