A little while ago I saw Stanley Kubrick’s “Lolita” on TCM. I haven’t seen the remake – I don’t want to see the remake. Why is there a need to remake something anyway when it has been so well done before? I haven’t read the Nabakov book so can’t compare the book to the movie. Except that I have read that Lolita was 12 in the book, 14 (looking more like 16/17 in the movie) so as to be a little less shocking. And of course the suggestions of a sexual relationship were rather less emphasised in the movie, which was made in 1962. Kubrik had since said if he could do it again he would make it more erotic.
It was an excellent movie, a very black comedy, though there was not one likeable character among them — it was impossible to sympathise with anyone. The cast was superb but I disliked the characters (as I was meant to). Except for Peter Sellers. He was utterly brilliant as Quilty and in my opinion stole the show. Shelley Winters was fantastic as the shrill, desperate middle aged woman. James Mason was a very good Humbert Humbert, but he absolutely disgusted me.
It wasn’t just the fact that here was a middle aged man obsessed with a teenage girl … though I find that distasteful enough. It was that he was sick in his obsession, to the point of using any means necessary (and any person necessary) in pursuit of his obsession. He was thoroughly contemptable. He was totally caught up in his own solipsism, his obsession was sick … everything about the character made me want to shudder. He was an utterly rephrensible, self serving, filthy ‘old’ man.
Middle aged men falling in love with teenage girls? You cannot tell me it can be anything than straight out physical lust. There can not be any chance of intellectual, emotional, spiritual stimulation with a 17 yo girl. Hell, even a 20 year old girl for that matter. They are still immature and have little life experience. Yet there are plenty of middle aged men out there who prefer to have ‘relationships’ with much younger women than someone closer their own age.
Why? Is it purely the physical they are obsessed with? How fucking shallow, excuse me for saying so. Is their self esteem so low they can’t handle a relationship with a mature woman? You can spout the biological reasons for men wanting younger women to deposit their seed into to procreate and spawn children but honestly, it must go deeper than that. It has to be more than just the shallow reason of wanting as young, firm, perky and tight a body to fuck as possible.
Is it trying to recapture youth? Is it about male insecurity? I can understand an age difference of say 20 years when we are talking about, for example, a 35yo and a 55yo … both are fully grown adults at that stage and age, apart again from the purely physical aspect really does mean nothing then. But the 20 year age difference when it comes to, for example, a 19 yo and a 40 yo is just ridiculous. A 19 yo is just not a mature adult. Yes … physically they are, but those of us who have already been there, and are honest about it, know that 21, “the” age we reach adulthood, is not that far removed from being a silly teenager. A 19 yo is still immature, no ifs or buts about it. So it must be all about an obsession with simply fucking a younger person rather than honestly falling in love with the person’s soul, which hasn’t even had time to develop yet.
And I’m not even talking about how disgusting it is to be pursuing a relationship with girls even younger than that. As we all know how wrong that is.
I must stop. Because now I’m seriously irritated and in danger of going off on a fully-fledged rant. These middle-aged men obsessed with pursuing barely adult girls and unable to get it on with women their own age make me sick. Beneath my contempt. Seriously.
First, bravo, and yes horrid.
I’ve read Lolita though I’ve never seen the movies, so I’ll say that there in not a single sympathetic character in the book, not one and Lolita while is at times a victim she is also a grand manipulator and as twisted as her mother was before her. There is some question as to whether Charlotte cared more for what Humbert planned to do to Dolores/Lolita or was insane with jealousy that he didn’t want her. The book is an amazing read.
Now, as for these real life idiots that decide they want the ripe perfection of youth over the seasoned intellect, well they are vapid and moronic. They want the constant ideal of perfection because they are growing older, because they need to be reminded of their own virility and masculinity. They look for women without a fully formed sense of self because these women (only in age) are easier to mold and form and shape into what they want and need. They are like the men that seek out damaged women under the guise of loving them in all their imperfect glory when really the very damage these women have suffered they often use as leverage to keep them down, keep them in “their place” which in turn makes these assholes feel superior. My God it’s like these men walk around their whole lives trying to recreate the enormous power of orgasm without the sex. I think I’m pissed and possibly not making sense.
When you’re dealing with a 40-year-old and a 17-year-old it is disgusting, but even a thirty year old with a twenty year old isn’t there for her dazzling intellect and wisdom formed from a life lived. I know these men, I’ve been that girl. I’m going to stop before I say some really obnoxious things.