Lolita, Lo-lee-ta and American Beauty

1
Lolita, Lo-lee-ta and

American
Beauty

• Across Medium and Culture

2
The Story

• Troubled writer, Humbert, goes to America
• Falls in love with a pubescent girl - Lolita
• Marries girls mother to get close to Lolita.
• Mother dies, Humbert and Lolita embark on romance
  filled road trip
• Between protagonist they are lovers, for world
  they are father-daughter.
• Eventually Lolita, with the help of another older
  lover, Quilty, runs away and later marries a
  peer.
• Humbert learns of Quiltys relationship and
  murders him.

3
Main Points

• Transformation from literary to visual medium in
  Lolita deals with changing voice and
  perspective, and film censorship

• Implications of transformation
• from high to pop culture

4
Establishing a Foundation

• Opening credits play to image of Humbert painting
  girls toenails.
• Establishes Humberts fascination with and
  reverence of young girls
• Erotic

5
Visual Substitution for Background

• In novel
• Humbert is obsessed with his first sexual
  encounter at age of twelve.
• In Europe, he has a history with pubescent girls.
• Theory of Nymphets Between the age limits of
  nine and fourteen there occur maidens who, to
  certain bewitched travelers, twice or many times
  older than they, reveal their true nature which
  is not human but nymphic (that is demoniac)
• Erotic
• In movie
• Toenail scene hints at fascination with young
  girls.
• Not showing specific girl creates a general
  characteristic.

6
Eternal Recurrence beginning
at the end

• Movie begins with Humbert killing Quilty over
  Lolita
• Changes dramatic tension throughout film
• Humberts insanity in opening scene compensates
  for lack of explicit pedophilia
• Gives same shocking effect
• Giver characterization of spontaneity and
  impulsive.

7
Explicit Sex and Censorship

• Characters get what they deserve in movie
• Movie is vague but nuanced to allow extrapolation
  of explicitly stated elements in book especially
  regarding Humberts psyche.
• Uses double-entendres
• A game I learned at camp

8
Lolitas Characterization

• Kubricks Lolita is older, bigger and more
  developed
• Child aspect of character is lost to make room
  for sexuality less of a nymph more of a sex
  kitten.
• Makes Humbert more sympathetic character. Movie
  does not have Humberts internal justifications.

9
American Roadtrip

• In novel, year long across America roadtrip.
• I did my best for hours on end to give her the
  impression of going places, of rolling onto
  some definite destination, to some unusual
  delight.

• In movie, year trip reduced to view of their
  rear-windshield.
• - Suggests not going
  anywhere at all.
• Reality is impression and images

10

• Lester Burnham anagram of Humbert Learns
• Nod to Nabokovs word play (i.e. Vivian Darkbloom
  anagram of Vladimir Nabokov)
• Both dissatisfied with reality of life and seek
  ethereal substitute/imitation or
• escape from it.
• The escape is manifested in Angela/Lolita

11
Symbols

• Common Symbols
• Rose
• Feminine Mystique
• The Couch and Portraits
• Maintaining state of American perfection
• Marvelous skin oh, marvelous tender and
  tanned, not the least blemish(41)

12
Angela Hayes and Lolita Haze

• Visually very similar in both films
• Humbert perceives sex-kitten Lolita as innocent
  while Lester perceives the virgin Angela as
  sexually experienced. Both men fall in love with
  a fallacy.
• In American culture, image over substance

13
Transformation from Psychological to Cultural
Commentary

• Characters in American Beauty are more generic
  Americans whereas in Lolita the characters are
  extreme distortions of the generic American
• Lolita uses story of pedophilia to explore
  Humberts psyche while indirectly commenting on
  pitfalls of a consumer society while American
  Beauty uses pedophilia to comment on an emptiness
  in image driven suburban society.

14
Othello and Lolita

• Background to Cannon/Storm and Gun at Beginning
• Dramatic
• Background replaced by love-duet/toenail.
• Modern-day interpretation moves emphasis from
  psychological and character development to
  cultural
• O and American Beauty

15
A Progression from Psychological to Social

• As art moves from a literary to visual medium
  expository elements are transformed.
• As high art moves to contemporary culture,
  psychological character development is supplanted
  by cultural criticism.