Find this Hilarious...Is it supposed to be? - Lolita (1962) Discussion

[–] bworm76 12 years ago

It's such a disturbing subject that I feel guilty finding it funny. For some reason, the whole scene with Humbert in the tub cracks me up. He's gone from the absolute panic of being discovered to all his problems being solved in one fell swoop. The music that's playing, the fact that he's having a celebratory drink but pretending to be upset, even the guy offering to pay for the funeral and neighbors reminding him that Lolita is now his sole responsibility. But yes, I definitely felt that it was filmed in a way that makes it more of a comedy. Twisted, I know.

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[–] grady_tuck 12 years ago

The movie's hysterical. Shelly Winters was amazing and James Mason.. I wanted that guy to really get his. That preening pervert. Those neighbors and Clare Quilty as all those characters.. hilarious and disturbing. Not many movies get to be hilarious and yet disturbing. It's a fabulous combination.

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[–] bossf51 12 years ago

There are so many funny moments...how about him trying to set up the cot in the motel room? He's trying to be quiet and the thing collapses. Other parts too. I was mostly wondering if this was intentional or not? But for sure it was funny.

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[–] TheDelusionist 12 years ago

Knowing Kubrick's work he loved to have this specific brand of humor that you're referring to. Peter Sellers was pretty obviously a comedic actor and of course little bits of dialogue seem to suggest that he wanted to film to be darkly funny, ironic even.

So it is supposed to be and I laugh every time!

For relaxing times, make it Suntory time.

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[–] shesamazingnyc 12 years ago

I always laugh when Charlotte dances with Quilty at the high school dance.

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[–] jcshetler 12 years ago

how dumb are people to not know this is a comedy?

The Dumbing-Down of America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbing_down

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[–] jcl2 12 years ago

It was meant to a be a comedy. A very dark comedy, but a comedy none the less. I still grin from ear to ear when James Mason is laughing at the letter that Shelley Winters writes to him. His laughter always gets me.

You just handle the justice, and I'll handle the revenge myself. - Foxy Brown

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] dingduder 11 years ago

One of the funniest and most brilliantly written books I've ever read. But he never makes you feel sympathy or condones Humbert's actions.

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[–] tenletters-1 11 years ago

THIS. So funny, so disturbing, so fantastically written.

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[–] FilmMuscle 11 years ago

You people really have a strange sense of humor. I don't think Lolita was ever meant to be written as a comedy. Gotta love the hipster sense of humor...

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[–] scndform 11 years ago

Lolita is a combination of a comedy, tragedy, and mystery all wrapped up in one and yes, despite the subject matter it is intentionally quite humorous- as well as often disturbing. As others have said it is brilliantly written and you will never read another book like it.

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[–] Lester_Burnham_Risen 11 years ago

As others have said it is brilliantly written and you will never read another book like it

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yes indeed and the really scary bit that should be a HUGE WARNING in the current American Beauty is this bit:

Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.

Nabokov, Vladimir (2012-07-27). Lolita (p. 7). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

the colloquial term is WILD OATS and American kids are now denied that in favor of brain conditioning by the small f feminist education system, the breeding ground for all the perverts, high school massacre perpetrators and general geeks of the American Beauty as we now know it.

http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/

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[–] thomas-begen 10 years ago

Well, Mr. Burnham, I don't know what you're getting at but I will say that in my opinion reading "Lolita" was a huge waste of time for me. The second half of the book is especially annoying and needlessly long. Because of that, as well as other reasons, it makes a much better film than a novel, with the problem that it's impossible to cast a twelve year-old as Lolita. Excuse me for making a distinction, but there's a big difference between a twelve year-old and a sixteen-year old. As for "American Beauty," Angela "Haze" is possibly a high school senior, seventeen or eighteen, just for the record.

Again, I don't know what the hell your last paragraph is supposed to signify, but since you seem to "know" everything that needs to be known about the cause of school shootings and many other social problems, perhaps you can put your vast knowledge to better uses.

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[–] thomas-begen 10 years ago

Actually, dingduder, the story has no meaning unless the consumer sympathizes with Humbert. That's the point even though Nabokov himself despised Humbert. As monstrous as Humbert is he's certainly not as bad as Quilty and the fact he gives Quilty what he had coming to him redeems Humbert to degree. More important, however, is that he gave Lolita a large sum of money. It was the ultimate expression of his genuine love for her even though his relationship was predatory and marked by obsession, not love, like so many people have claimed.

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[–] archer1949 11 years ago

The "Grieving Widower" in the bathtub" scene had me rolling.

This movie is brilliant.

"Nope, Hipster nonsense. I'm out."

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