How did they ever make a film of Lolita?

A controversial story for a plethora of reasons, Lolita has remained a cultural phenomenon to this day. The story centers around an old British professor, Humbert Humbert, and his obsession for twelve-year-old Lolita, the "nymphet" who he develops a sexual and emotional fixation on.

Though Humbert doesn't view himself as a predator, it is clear that he is a pedophile who prefers a very specific age range of prepubescent girls. In the film adaptations, both Stanley Kubrick in the 1962 version and Adrian Lyne used actresses who were over the age of twelve (14 and 15 respectively). This deliberate choice had to satisfy the production code in the case of Kubrick, and an actually pre-pubescent actress would've been very controversial in Lyne's case.

Both directors approached the representation of Lolita in polarizing ways. Kubrick chose Sue Lyon because she looked more mature and "developed" than other actresses her age, and dressed her in very adult clothing during the film, making her appear much older than 14. It seemed to almost function as a method of sympathy for Humbert--well she looks mature and she is sexually enticing, so my attraction to her is her fault, right? Poor Humbert, seduced and ensnared by the sex-pot teenager. (Gag.)

Lyne, in contrast, dressed Lolita down, frequently styling her hair in braids and pigtails, dressing her in young, girly clothing, and even giving her a retainer. It was his goal to make Dominique Swain appear to be as young as possible. This film is far more sexually explicit than Kubrick's, and here it almost seems to teeter on being aggressively pushing the limits while also glamorizing the content. There are scenes that are very "male-gaze-y" with body shots of water glistening off of Lolita's skin. Even the promotional ads were seductive and sultry, and Dominique Swain was dressed to be a sex symbol in her magazine editorials, once again making her physical beauty and budding sexuality an excuse for old men to desire her.

Lolita deals culturally with the gap in generations at the time of publication, 1955. With the modernization of culture and society, there seemed to be an inherent fear of youth among the adults of the time, and Lolita herself represents American Consumerism while Humbert represents the old, antiquated beliefs and culture of the older generation. With her loose sexual morals, bubble-gum chewing and heart-shaped sunglasses, Lolita embodied the fear of rigid morality giving way to a more open American culture.

Lolita was never given any sense of agency throughout the novel or either film. We never get a glimpse into her private world, hear her thoughts, or even her true opinions about the abuse that happens to her. The films stay locked in the toxic male gaze and force Lolita to be a complicit culprit in her own sexual abuse. Perhaps if a new adaptation is made, the filmmaker can decide to put the narrative back in its rightful shoes, the titular character and the victim.