Lolita (1997) - A film directed by Adrian Lyne.

 

Jeremy Irons & Dominique Swain - Lolita

I never thought that Melanie Griffith's was a particularly good actress but I'm sure that increasing use of drugs and alcohol, wouldn't have helped her career. She's the daughter of Tippi Hedren and the mother of "Fifty Shades of Grey" star, Dakota Johnson. She played the part of Charlotte Haze in the 1997 film 'Lolita' directed by Adrian Lyne. It was considered a controversial and deeply disturbing film because it deals with the subject of paedophilia. The film also stars Jeremy Irons who plays Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged European professor of English literature.

The film is based on Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel of the same name. Humbert rents a room in the house of a young widow called Charlotte Haze (Melanie Griffith), after seeing her 12-year-old daughter, Dolores Haze, also called "Lo", while touring the house. Dolores is played by the actress Dominique Swain. The professor is attracted to adolescent girls who he calls "nymphets." He becomes obsessed and sexually attracted to Dolores who he nicknames "Lolita." Humbert marries Charlotte so he can be near to her daughter and control and groom her. One day, Charlotte finds Humbert's diary and discovers that her marriage is a sham and that it's her daughter that Humbert is attracted to and not her. In anger she runs out of the house and gets struck by a car and killed. This leaves Humbert free to sexually exploit Dolores.

After her mother's death, Humbert and Dolores travel the country before settling in the college town of Beardsley where Humbert takes a teaching job. There is a creepy character in the film called Clare Quilty, who is played by the actor Frank Langella. Quilty, a playwright, seems to suspect the real nature of the relationship between Delores and Humbert after meeting them in a hotel where Humbert has taken Delores to rape her. He then follows the pair across the country. Delores eventually runs away or escapes with Quilty and Humbert's search for them is unsuccessful.

Several years later, Humbert receives a letter from her asking for money. He discovers that she's married and pregnant. Delores tells him that Quilty had took her to his home to be exploited for the purposes of child pornography, but had abandoned her, when she refused to be in one of his films. Humbert tracks down Quilty and shoots him to death in his home while chasing him around the house. This part of the film is particularly gruesome. Humbert is arrested and sent to prison where he dies. A month after his death, Delores dies from childbirth complication.

The film met with much controversy in Australia and had difficulty finding an American distributor. Some critics did, however, praise the film and in particular Swain and Irons for their performances in the film, which they thought remained faithful to Nabokov's narrative. Dominique Swain was chosen to play the role of Dolores when she auditioned in 1995, with 2,500 other girls, when she was aged 15.