Very uncomfortable watching this
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kolinos4 — 15 years ago(May 26, 2010 10:05 AM)
This is adaptation of Nabokov's novel.
This was confusing, so in the middle I had to stop watching and check how old was Lolita at the time they shot the film.
After that it was okay for me. Obviously, they had the actresses pass psychological tests and so on to see how mature was she for the role.
As for the story, the issue was and is very actual, because shows that peoples mental trauma can be for life You can see that Humberd narrated the story himself, and this way of portraying shows us his mind, do you catch it? As well as the gyu from Clockwork orange narrated itself, these people do not think this is abnormal. They just do not realise And all is the resut of unperfect personality. Just think how many mentally sick people are there They better watch porn than do this in real life. -
pogostiks — 14 years ago(July 21, 2011 02:10 PM)
Ummm just exactly what was the "trauma?
The one who really ends up destroyed is Humbert Humbert, mainly by the manipulations of Lolita herself. She knows VERY well what she is doing, almost throughout the entire film.
In today's world we INSIST that there is trauma, so that we can then scream hysterically and make sure that there will BE trauma.
Why am I saying such a thing?
Experience.
Here's MY story - true to the last detail.
At 9 years of age I went to see a Tarzan film with a cousin. We decided to stay and watch the beginning again, but someone sat in front of me and so I moved one seat overit looked like I was alone. When the film started up again, I didn't immediately notice that a man of about 24 had sat down beside me. What made me notice him was that suddenly his hand was on my knee.
I thought this was funny, as I believed it was because he was so excited about watching Tarzan wrestle with a python that he had missed the arm-rest and grabbed my knee instead by mistake.
I turned towards him - and he pulled his hand away like it was burned!
Still thinking this was funny, I leaned over to tell my cousin about the man who had mistaken my knee for an arm-rest, but my cousin replied "What man?" He was gone.
In a flash I realized that it had NOT been an accident, and I realized EXACTLY what he had wanted.
Now, according to modern standards, everyone will think that I was frightened and traumatized by this incident.
In fact not. I already knew that I was attracted to my own sex, and when I realized what this young man had wanted, my first reaction was DISAPPOINTMENT that he had left! I was totally intrigued by the idea of maybe "fiddling around" with him
Now, the REAL problem is that every time I tell this story, people INSIST that I was traumatized.
I tell them no.
But they NEED me to be traumatized, because if I wasn't, then their entire world-view has to be changed from the knee-jerk reactions that everyone expects.
Some will say" Oh, well, that's gays for you!"
But I have heard enough stories to know that one doesn't have to be gay to be attracted to an older person and be curious.
But once the adults find out about this, they have such incredibly violent reactions to all of it that the kid invariably realizes very quickly that he(she) BETTER feign "trauma" or they are going to be in real TROUBLE! The parents will panic, send them to the psychiatrist, yell at them "What's WRONG with you?" and punish them in any and every way imaginable until the "child" admits that he was "scared, didn't know what to do, " and begins to play the victim. Then the parents and other adults calm down and concentrate on getting the adult and throwing him in prison; The world order has been upheld.
BUT human beings are far too complex to fit into boxes, especially when it concerns sexuality.
If you read a lot of the reports (especially with teenage boys, rather than with girls - their reactions ARE different) very often the sexual events took place for MONTHS before someone finds out about it, and suddenly the kid starts telling everyone he was "too scared" to stop. Well, he realizes VERY quickly that if he admits that he was HAPPY to be there, he is going to be in deep doo-doo. So he lies
I'm done; I just want to say that I fully realize that some children are raped, forced and are truly victims. I do not deny this, and I find it totally unacceptable, like ANY rape of ANY person at ANY age.
But it must be known that sometimes the child is NOT unhappy, NOT traumatized, and often quite willing.
I prefer the truth to lies; I felt I had to set the record straight. -
lavinder11 — 14 years ago(January 16, 2012 09:02 PM)
Eh, nice anecdote. I'm sure most children can account to sexual curiosity (it is natural) with adults. However, the story of Lolita is told through Humbert's point of view. Whatever we see/read is skewed in his favor.
My word is my beep bond!
-I Love You Phillip Morris -
kayaker36 — 15 years ago(June 18, 2010 11:41 AM)
OF COURSE this is an uncomfortable movie.
It's an artfully photographed, well acted, skillfully directed story of sexual perversion told from the perpetrator's viewpoint. The pedophile always imagines his victim is flirting with him, is actually the initiator of the sexual contact however absurd that may be. Never can he think of himself as a bad person.
In this story, the girl is quite the sexpot at age twelve and does very blatantly flirt with this man. He is not a criminal but a civilized, sensitive intellectual plunged in an America of uncultured philistines and morons. He is handsome, well spoken, dresses well. And he's a victim of a childhood tragedy. So what happens can't be his faultnot really.
Today people are much more aware of pedophilia, perhaps too much so, but even in the early fifties this was dangerous stuff.
["We have all strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others./"]
La Rochefoucault -
kayaker36 — 14 years ago(January 24, 2012 11:24 AM)
It has been some time since I saw the movie. I cannot recall the "hurt".
I do recall Lolita demanding money at the hotel, turning Humbert to a John, and a dupe, and making their intimacies mere acts of prostitution.
Certainly Humbert isn't legally innocent. Lolita is underage but only chronologically. Morally speaking, he is the more innocent of the two the way Nabokov would have it.
["We have all strength enough to bear the misfortunes of others./"]
La Rochefoucault -
Ninja_Kitty — 15 years ago(August 14, 2010 02:27 AM)
[
Watching Dolores tease and cajole throughout the movie felt unnatural
Unnatural? If you read a biology book, you will realize that the age of reproduction begins during adolescence, this
fact
of nature indicates also that for biological and reproductive purposes in order to perpetuate the species a person on those ages is commonly sexually desirable.
In other words, it is more unnatural to feel the way you did than the opposite.
You felt that way because of the way your society has brainwashed you and led you to believe. You live in a society that is adamantly paranoid and full of tabooes about sex and uncapable to recognize a child from an adolescent. Which is the reason why the so called pedophilia is 21st century's witch hunt in some countries (mainly in America).
Nevertheless, if you research the ages of consent of different countries around the world you will be incredibly surprised.
Life is precious, and its our own - not any gods. -
k434 — 15 years ago(August 14, 2010 02:42 PM)
Yes it is a very disturbing movie (barely legal?) and i felt the same watching it for the firsth time. In the book she is 12!!!!! that is realy bad, this guy must be locked up big time. But in the movie she is 17 so you are not disgusted by watching it in the same way.
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dolores_medina — 14 years ago(May 12, 2011 12:01 AM)
"Yes it is a very disturbing movie (barely legal?) and i felt the same watching it for the firsth time. In the book she is 12!!!!! that is realy bad, this guy must be locked up big time. But in the movie she is 17 so you are not disgusted by watching it in the same way. "
In the new testament based On the social mores of the time.. it is believed that Mary, the Mother of jesus, was 14 or 15, when she married Joseph, who was believed to be in his mid 20's to early 30's In other words the step Father of our savior, had he come calling on mary today, would be on "To catch a Predator"
Not saying that it is ok for a 30 year old to have sex with a 12 year old, Just saying that different cultures have different beliefs at different times.
We are supposed to be uncomfortable as we watch Lolita, we are supposed to find Humbert a disgusting individual. Obviously his depiction of Lolita is self serving, because if for one Moment hye actually saw his actions for what they were, instead of for what he wished them to be he would have killed himself. -
galaxy7 — 15 years ago(February 17, 2011 05:59 PM)
I can see why you felt uncomfortableafter all it's a tragedy, so it's natural that you feel sad.
I have a great taste for art movies,
but I'm afraid this is waters Hollywood should never tread.
Then you should stay away from "Death in Venice", I was literally boiling over with rage when I was watching this one, seriously..if something like that happened to me or to a member of my family I would have beat the beep out of the guy!