comment #1

lazarus says ...

Sellers is entertaining, that's for sure. But as someone who's a huge fan of the source material, I was offended that he was allowed to go so far off the rails, and turn Nabokov's humor into slapstick.

Kubrick's worst film, in my opinion. Lyne's version probably wasn't funny enough, but at least it hit the tragic notes and had a fucking heart.

comment #2

Joshua Mooney says ...

"You have a most intr'sting face-good-night."

Nurse that tooth.

comment #3

Craptastic says ...

It sounds like Sellers is doing an impersonation of Kubrick.

comment #4

Balthazar says ...

Mason, as always, holds his own through all of it

comment #5

austin111 says ...

Sellers was indeed most amusing in this. However, Mason was also terrific, especially in his earlier scenes with Shelly Winters, who was fabulous. Sue Lyon seemed out of her element here but I suppose she had a perfect sort of vapidity for the role.

comment #6

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

Lolita is one of my favorite Kubricks. Brilliant example of the non-faithful adaptation which captures the essence of the book better than a slavish adaptation. We used to watch it every Christmas day in my family. It took years to stop saying "Quilty!" every time I entered an empty house, too.

comment #7

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

Other things we say in my family:

We're very broadminded.

You must be Australian, or a German refugee. We're all gentiles here.

Even in the most harmonious of households such as ours, not all the decisions are made by the female!

If you were in my class I would give you an A-plus.

comment #8

Craig Kennedy says ...

There's no way he could've done a slavish adaptation of that novel at the time. Lyne had the benefit of the current age and he didn't come close to capturing the spirit of the novel.

comment #9

GlassFamily says ...

@MGMax: Even though it's one of my least favorite Kubrick films, Shelly Winters' refrain of "I'm Lonesome!" is probably quoted between my wife and I at least once a day. Has been for years.

comment #10

hiviper says ...

weakest part of this otherwise excellent movie was Sellers's nonsense as shown here. If that's Seller's ad-lib, then he should've been scripted. I'm a die-hard Kubrick fan, but this dragged a great movie down.

Strangelove was another story indeed..

comment #11

Edward says ...

This is brilliantly shot scene. Most directors today shoot too many angles and then cut too much between them for no stylistic reason. There seems to be little understanding in the power of framing and cutting for moving the story. Kubrick, like all talented directors knew when to cut or move the camera.

comment #12

Marty Melville says ...

Thanks, Wells.

This is my favorite Kubrick film... from (usually) my favorite book.

From Nelson Riddle's mock-soap operatic theme playing over the title sequence (Saul Bass couldn't have captured the essence of the movie better) to Seller's protean work (here in the Enchanted Hunter's moment plus just about every other scene he's in, including the brilliant "roman ping, roman pong" opener... another bit of ad-lib).

Plus Mason's perfect performance... he was born for this role (check out his work in the hospital near the end as he tries to explain himself to the doctor... that's where the comedy turns to tragedy.)

I love this movie (as much as I despise the remake)... I think it's the best book-to-film ever.

Hey, and Mgmax, we forget about politics and suddenly, you're a genius! Salud!

comment #13

atticusrex says ...

Marty Melville: "I love this movie (as much as I despise the remake)... I think it's the best book-to-film ever."

Um, I think that the best adapatation ever was for Sin City and The 300. Another one was The Shawshank Redemption.

I do not want to take anything away from Lolita but he does allow for many changes just like he did with the Shining. Kubrick was famous for taking other material and making it his own.

comment #14

Rich S. says ...

Mason's performance is fascinating here. As the scene progresses, you can sense, more than see, him getting more and more uncomfortable. He's maintaining that whole British "stiff upper lip" thing, but the tiniest cracks are beginning to show. The best thing is, I think he's only half acting.

comment #15

Rich S. says ...

Oh, and Marty Melville? I think you'll find that if you ignore the political posts (or take them with a heavy dose of salt), this site becomes much more enjoyable. When the real movie lovers get together and have a ho-down, it's a rare thing of beauty.

I invite you to join us for one of our 200+ post roundtables on 80s cinema.

comment #16

atticusrex says ...

Rich S.: What roundtables on '80's cinema? For me while yes there were great movies released in the '80's I still think of that decade as much of a wasteland of film as it was to music.

What films do you guys discuss other than the obvious ones like Blade Runner, Aliens, Road Warrior, Raiders and Raging Bull?

comment #17

Craig Kennedy says ...

Atticusrex, you had to be there.

Too bad several of the people who actually like movies were banned for speaking their minds and another batch left in frustration.

comment #18

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

"Mason's performance is fascinating here. As the scene progresses, you can sense, more than see, him getting more and more uncomfortable. He's maintaining that whole British "stiff upper lip" thing, but the tiniest cracks are beginning to show. The best thing is, I think he's only half acting."

That's exactly one of the reasons I think it's one of Kubrick's best films-- is there any other movie where acting styles are SO different from character to character, in a way that so richly and directly encapsulates the film's themes? Mason's continental smoothness (which starts out seeming decadent but ends poignantly; part of the point, of course, is that he's the real innocent and the only one whose love is true), Sellers' sinister Martian weirdness, Winters' blowsy American horniness and bourgeois conventionality, Lyons' affectless surfer girl blankness-- they embody Nabokov's themes of the clash of Europe and America so perfectly. Certainly from an acting point of view, it's by far Kubrick's best film, and makes you regret the way he irons out all the acting in his later films to achieve that sort of uncomprehending-chimp blankness from all characters.

comment #19

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

"Um, I think that the best adapatation ever was for Sin City and The 300. Another one was The Shawshank Redemption."

Sigh.

Things to put in Atticus Rex's Netflix queue:

The Leopard
The Asphalt Jungle
Chimes at Midnight
Double Indemnity
In Cold Blood
Great Expectations (1946)
Diary of a Country Priest
etc.

comment #20

cinefan says ...

"Certainly from an acting point of view, it's by far Kubrick's best film."

I would go with Dr. Strangelove as Kubrick's best instead, in terms of the acting. Strangelove is remarkable because one could argue that Sellers, who is hilarious and distinctive in three separate roles, gives only the third best performance in the film behind Scott's and Hayden's.

comment #21

Count Thread says ...

The only issue I have with this-- and it's a big issue-- is that Sellers, as brilliant as he is, in that scene is playing someone who, had you met him in real life, you'd either punch raw in his face until he shut up, or walk away from as quickly as possible.

Seriously, the only people I've ever met who speak like that are mentally retarded (and clinically so). And sympathy for their plight aside, you don't want to be around them.

comment #22

Edward says ...

The Kubrick film I probably love more than any other is Barry Lyndon, but I really don't care for Ryan O'Neil, the guy just doesn't have the acting chops to carry off the role. Of course you can argue that Kubrick intended him to be bland, but his casting still bugs me.

comment #23

Count Thread says ...

The reason Ryan O'Neil works great in Barry Lyndon is that I'm convinced he didn't get the joke.

comment #24

Edward says ...

Did he ever get it?

comment #25

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

But Count Thread, it's not a realistic film, it's a comic nightmare.

I don't know, I see your point, but I guess it works for me because the whole crux of this part of the film is Humbert's increasingly frayed impersonation of normalcy, and so seeing it crack under the pressure of trying to be polite to a madman is right in line with the comic exaggeration of the whole thing.

comment #26

George Prager says ...

The only Kubrick I have on DVD is BARRY LYNDON.

As for 200+ posts on 80s movies...how about EUREKA? My favorite scene is when Rutger Hauer goes batshit crazy with all those voodoo people.

comment #27

Marty Melville says ...

And speaking of Lolita... where's the anamorphic version on dvd... better yet, where's the anamorphic Blu-ray version?

comment #28

Arizona Joe says ...

Lazarus said, "I was offended that he was allowed to go so far off the rails, and turn Nabokov's humor into slapstick."

As the story goes, Nabokov wrote the original screenplay, but it was much too long and too literary. Hence, Kubrick threw most of it out, and developed a new screenplay. Nabokov was taken aback.

But after seeing the final product, (and I am paraphrasing) Nabokov said, "It was a wonderful film played by magnificent actors." He realized that books and films are different media, and they should be judged on their own merit.

If the master was not offended, then no one else should be, especially by this literary material, which "could make a past master smile, and a Post Master frown."

I always thought, Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty: an absolute tour de force.

comment #29

T. S. Idiot says ...

While amused by Sellers here, the opening scene of Lolita is one of my 25 favorites and the my favorite Sellers scene. Named my late cat Quilty because of it.

comment #30

atticusrex says ...

MgMAX: Your list...

The Leopard: Boring
The Asphalt Jungle: Greatness
Chimes at Midnight: Don't remember
Double Indemnity: Genius
In Cold Blood: Brilliant
Great Expectations (1946): Not for my tastes
Diary of a Country Priest: Don't know this one.

Anyhow, Cold Blood is the only book I've read from your list.
So the 3 newer films I mentioned I had read their source material. I also forgot another modern movie masterwork that was dang close 'enuff to the novel: No Country For Old Men.

I was thinking of books whose film translations were as exact as possible. Oh another one: Glen Garry Glenross. Best acted film of it's time. That had only one new scene not in the original material.

comment #31

Mgmax, le Corbeau says ...

I'm not really sure what useful comment I can make in response to such in-depth analyses, A.R., but you might look at the fact that the only thing you seem to be able to relate to is film noir and comic books, and try to expand your horizons.

Oh, and really, what IS the deal with Shawshank Redemption? I saw it, great cast, mildly clever, fairly dishonest (as Anthony Lane said, any prison movie that ends on a beach is fundamentally misguided), and a one-watcher at best. Why is it WORSHIPPED as if it was any deeper than Robbins' poster of Rita Hayworth? I can think of 20 better movies about prison. Made by Warner Brothers. In 1934.

comment #32

Craig Kennedy says ...

Mgmax, it's disorienting to be agreeing with you in one post after the other.

TS, I love how the ending wraps back around to the terrific beginning, but cuts it off at Mason calling out for Quilty. One of many superb Kubrick endings.

comment #33

atticusrex says ...

MgMax: Hmm... Yes I love Film Noir and Crime/Heist movies. I also read mostly Noir, Hard Boiled Detective and Crime fiction. As for comics... You read the source material of the 3 Graphic novels that make up Sin City and the 1 GN that is The 300 and tell me if they are not panel by panel translations.

Now about my expanding horizons... Yes I'm a sucker for any film by P.T. Anderson, The Coens and even Tarantino. I also admire and love most of Hitchcock and Kubrick. But I also love Indies... like Priest, Sweet Hereafter, Breaking the Waves and Don't Come Knocking. I also like some epics like Lawrence of Arabia and Zulu. I like 'out-there' films like Run Lola Run, Matrix and even Across the Universe.

My fave flicks of the '90's for instance were Fargo, L.A. Confidential, Pulp Fiction, The Insider, Magnolia, True Romance and Hard Eight.

I do concur that most 'classics' and love stories are not usually up my alley as movie entertainment goes. Doesn't mean they are bad or anything. I liked Million Dollar Baby, Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, Crash, Hustle and Flow but for some reason movies like The English Patient, Cold Mountain, Atonement don't do it for me... though I really did dig last years Michael Clayton and Eastern Promises. Best movie I've seen this year so far is In Bruge.

So yes I guess I am a little low brow... But hey... I think what I do love is still pretty dang good cinema.

I know there are plenty of other titles I could have thrown out there.... but I'm sure I've already bored most everyone here.

Peace Out

comment #34

George Prager says ...

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION was the longest trailer I've ever seen. I can't wait to see the actual movie.

comment #35

atticusrex says ...

George and MgMax re Shawshank: I have two words for you about why Shawshank is so fantastic a movie... and it has nothing to do w/prisons or posters of Hayworth or Welch for that matter. The 2 words?

Morgan Freeman

comment #36

hiviper says ...

George Prager says ...
The only Kubrick I have on DVD is BARRY LYNDON.

wow - that's fascinating, Can you spare us your inane comments now?

comment #37

Rich S. says ...

"The only issue I have with this-- and it's a big issue-- is that Sellers, as brilliant as he is, in that scene is playing someone who, had you met him in real life, you'd either punch raw in his face until he shut up, or walk away from as quickly as possible."

That's exactly my point above. And I think James Mason the person is feeling the same way as that scene unfolds. But, his character being a proper Englishman, he must retain decorum.

There's also the fact that Mason's character recognizes that Quilty suspects, or outright knows, the truth of what is going on and should he confront Quilty, the whole house of cards is coming down.

comment #38

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