I Didn't Find Delores Attractive.
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Lolita
highpriestess32 — 10 years ago(September 02, 2015 03:11 AM)
No disrespect to the actress Dominique Swain but There were vast differences between Annabel, Humbert's first love and Delores Haze. She had a lovely figure but when I speak of the word "attractive" I don't talk of external beauty, I talk of general attraction. She struck me as a brat and an irritating one at that. But I am a female of course so maybe guys will disagree.
I don't know if Lyne cast her well and I am a huge fan of his work (and this movie plus the novel). She may well have demonstated nymphette qualities in her screen test but her figure aside, she wasn't "dazzling" when she gave her first braced-toothed smile to Humbert.
Her character was annoying and Humbert was exceedingly tolerant for obvious reasons but lines such as "Don't tell mother but I ate all your bacon" made me want to discipline her!!
"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them" -
cobnut — 10 years ago(September 05, 2015 05:05 PM)
That's exactly what she's like in the novel. She isn't supposed to be likeable, she's supposed to be a normal pre-teen girl who had an unstable upbringing with no father figure and a somewhat stupid, self-involved mother.
Nymphets in Humbert's definition are 'little deadly demons', and are 'not necessarily the loveliest' in a group of girls their age. He finds ordinary well-behaved well brought-up little girls 'with their tummies and pigtails' just as cutesy and benign as a normal man would. To Humbert, a key part of a nymphet's charm is her swaggering, back-talking, disobedient arrogance.
The reason for that is likely twofold: firstly, it stems from his boyhood romance with Annabel, who despite being a well brought-up young lady was willing to disobey her parents and other adult supervision to sneak out and spend time with Humbert, and take the risk of allowing him to grope her in the sand dunes just out of sight of her ever-watchful parents. Secondly: disobedient, rebellious nymphets are easier for Humbert to lure away from their guardians and convince to engage in sexual activity with him.
Of course, all that backfires on him when he finally gets a nymphet in his clutches and Lo turns all that rebellion and disobedience upon him. Rebelling against his restrictions upon her, manipulating him for money, telling her friends about the nature of their relationship and threatening to tell the police, deliberately flirting with other men and scheming to escape with Quilty. By the end of the story he hates and loves her with equal measure, it's why he's in utter despair. If he didn't love her, he would've shot her dead, he says so himself.
The mirror it's broken.
Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel. -
highpriestess32 — 10 years ago(September 06, 2015 04:22 AM)
Yes, you make good points. I haven't been on the board for a while and it wouldn't surprise me if I have contradicted myself in other posts I have made in the past. If that's the case (I'm a huge fan of Lyne's film), it'll be because I must have watched it a dozen more times since then and that's the sign of a fan. But of course the flip-side to that is the fact that Lo's appeal starts to wane with every view. As in fact does Charlotte's. But one can see why Lo is the way she is when we see her scenes with her mother who is a nag but never follows through with her threats of discipline aside from her determination to send her off to camp which was more to suit her than her daughter so she could have Humbert to herself.
She definitely lacked guidance from a father figure but she redeems herself to a degree in the end. She grew up quickly after all she'd been through and seemed happy with her husband and new life in spite of their impoverished circumstances. She found the stability I think she so desperately needed. Shame it was not to last for very much longer.
"These days you have to boil someone before you can sleep with them" -
scndform — 10 years ago(September 07, 2015 11:27 AM)
In the beginning Humbert found anything and everything she did positively adorable when it was aimed at her mother. This view changed somewhat and there were times he did say that he got exasperated with her when she acted like a brat and threw tantrums aimed at him.
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ScottM2753 — 9 years ago(October 17, 2016 04:17 PM)
I found her to be very irritating to be honest, a totally unlikeable brat, but I think that was the way she was supposed to be in the novel. I read it but it's been a
very
long time ago. To be perfectly honest, I preferred the 1960's version to this one.
I wanted to be a stand-up comedian, but I prefer sitting -
lazarillo — 9 years ago(January 28, 2017 08:53 AM)
Ironically, she is supposed to be an ordinary-looking girl in the book, but Hollywood and cinema in general NEVER casts ordinary-looking girls in ANYTHING. If teenage girls in real life looked liked the ones that play them in the movies or TV (most "teen" actresses are actually over 18), I think ALL straight males would be in jail right now.
I think both Dominique Swain and Sue Lyon are TOO attractive for the role, and since they were both a mature-looking 15, they're definitely not believable playing 12-year-olds at the beginning of the movie. Humbert in the book is a genuine pedophile. Dominique Swain would certainly appeal to the so-called "ephebophiles", but I think ANY straight guy would be a little, uh, uncomfortable if she were sitting on his lap in the short-shorts or skimpy outfits, she's wearing in this movie.
But I think an actually FAITHFUL portrayal of the Lolita of the beginning of the novel would NOT be attractive to normal guys and would probably creep out a lot of people.
"Let be be finale of seem/ The only emperor is the Emperor of Ice Cream"