Post 4: Researching Short Film Content (2)

We as a group decided to look into possible films or stories that could help us with the point of view of the paedophile, following advice of an English Teacher we looked into the book ‘Lolita’ by Vladimir Nabokov. The plot line of the story is, the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor Humbert Humbert is obsessed with the 12 year old Dolores Haze (who he privately calls Lolita), with whom he becomes sexually involved with after he becomes her stepfather. The book itself is known for its writing style, the narrative is highly subjective with Humbert employing a sophisticated prose style, while attempting to gain the reader’s sympathy through his sincerity although near the end he refers to himself as a “manic”.

Our group did a bit more research and later found out that the book had been adapted to film by Stanley Kubrick in 1962, and again in 1997 by Adrian Lyne. So we decided to watch the Stanley Kubrick 1962 version and take notes. 

This storyline is extremely helpful to our plot line as we were struggling to create the groomer's point of view so this book gave us some useful techniques when it came to understanding the mind of a sexual groomer. Both the book and film gave us inspiration to progress with ideas for our character and also for script drafts. By being able to see the film we got an understanding of how the steps of grooming were put into place and exactly how old our characters should look to give it a more realistic feel. Almost everyone we spoke to who had read this book told us that it was horrible as they found themselves feeling sorry for the groomer and understanding his logic. This was a key thing for us as we didn't want our audience to know straight away what was happening, instead we focused on the subtle things between Humbert and Lolita which slowly showed their relationship. We also took notes on the relationships between the characters, trying to find some way that 'Alan' could appropriately see 'Sophie' without getting caught, in the same way as Humbert when he married Charlotte to be close to Lolita. This was helpful as it made us think more about the characters and their background which would be beneficial for our actors later on.

Below is the trailer to Lolita (1962) by Stanley Kubrick 

When our group finished watching Lolita we talked about how it could influence our storyline in various ways. For example Lolita is seen as a flirt in the very beginning of the film yet her and Humbert are subtle with how they show their emotions. Lolita does subtle actions like grabbing his hand during a scary movie, whispering in his ear and also giving him a long good night kiss on his cheek this suggests to the audience that Lolita wants Humbert almost as badly as he wants her.

The obvious similarity is that the film Lolita is told in the point of view of the groomer, Humbert which is exactly what we wish to do, hoping to get the audience to have empathy for the groomer although they know they shouldn't. Overall this film is extremely helpful for my group as we can refer to Lolita when it comes to the behaviour of our victim, the subtle attraction between the two characters and how the story is told from our groomer's point of view.