Lolita

Lolita is a 1997 drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Stephen Schiff. It is the second screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel of the same name and stars Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain as Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze, and Frank Langella as Clare Quilty. The film is about a middle-aged professor who is sexually attracted to adolescent girls he calls "nymphets". He rents a room in the house of a young widow to get closer to her daughter, whom he calls "Lolita". Obsessed with the girl, he eventually has her to himself after they embark on an all-American road trip together. Compared to Stanley Kubrick's 1962 version, Lyne's film is more overt with many of the novel's darker elements; Kubrick chose to use suggestion and innuendo for comic purposes. Although praised by some critics for its faithfulness to Nabokov's narrative and for the performances of Irons and Swain, the film received a mixed critical reception in the United States. The film premiered in Europe in 1997 before being released in the United States in 1998 because it had difficulty finding an American distributor. The film was eventually picked up by the cable network Showtime before finally being released theatrically by The Samuel Goldwyn Company. Similarly, Lolita was met with much controversy in Australia, where it was not given a theatrical release until April 1999. Plot In 1947, Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged European professor of English literature, travels to the United States to take a teaching position in New Hampshire. He rents a room in the home of widow Charlotte Haze, largely because he is sexually attracted to her 14-year-old daughter Dolores, also called "Lo", whom he sees while touring the house. Obsessed from boyhood with girls of approximately her age (whom he calls "nymphets"), Humbert is immediately smitten with Lo and marries Charlotte only to be near her daughter.