Vladimir Nabokov's novel, "Lolita," must be kind of popular in Russia. I know of one Russian who taught herself English just to be able to read the original novel. That's understandable. It's a great novel, in many ways a masterwork. But that makes it difficult to transpose to the screen and none of the versions have been particularly good. Here, in print, is Humbert Humbert excoriating himself for having an affair with a pubescent girl: "I was a pentapod monster." Now, how do you translate that devastating comic comment to celluloid.
"Russian Lolita" is updated to the present, probably in order to save money because the budget is clearly not lavish. The performances vary. The characters of Humbert and Charlotte (with different names of course) are satisfying enough, but the director has allowed the Lolita character, Valeria Nemchenko, to overact outrageously, giggling, skipping, and sucking her thumb.
She's already too grown up, already into her growth spurt, so she's thin and gangly. Nothing wrong with that except that what made the novel so impressive was the fact that the young girl was REALLY young. Nemchenko looks as if she may already have been around. And THIS Lolita is far more deliberate in introducing the writer to the joys of sex, whereas the original was nothing more than the whimsical teasing of a child. Here, Humbert is not obsessed with Lolita. It's the other way round.
There's a good deal of nudity to liven up the film, enough to demonstrate that Nemchenko is past puberty. The character does retain some of the original's traits. Sex is sex but kissing is disgusting stuff, at least at first. The sex scenes are lengthy and there is female nudity but all the sex is simulated, as in a soft core love story.
I was able to follow the plot well enough because I'm familiar with the novel but it has to be admitted that I may have missed some cinematic grace notes because my command of Russian doesn't extend much beyond "cabbage" (kapusta) and "clown" (klun), and maybe a few remnants of Nadsat from "A Clockwork Orange." I don't think it matters much because I doubt anyone was expected to take this as a serious attempt to put "Lolita" on film. Instead, it's a parody of a parody. A man moves into a house with a plump mother and skinny daughter and it all ends up in a happy threesome.
No kidding.
"Russian Lolita" is updated to the present, probably in order to save money because the budget is clearly not lavish. The performances vary. The characters of Humbert and Charlotte (with different names of course) are satisfying enough, but the director has allowed the Lolita character, Valeria Nemchenko, to overact outrageously, giggling, skipping, and sucking her thumb.
She's already too grown up, already into her growth spurt, so she's thin and gangly. Nothing wrong with that except that what made the novel so impressive was the fact that the young girl was REALLY young. Nemchenko looks as if she may already have been around. And THIS Lolita is far more deliberate in introducing the writer to the joys of sex, whereas the original was nothing more than the whimsical teasing of a child. Here, Humbert is not obsessed with Lolita. It's the other way round.
There's a good deal of nudity to liven up the film, enough to demonstrate that Nemchenko is past puberty. The character does retain some of the original's traits. Sex is sex but kissing is disgusting stuff, at least at first. The sex scenes are lengthy and there is female nudity but all the sex is simulated, as in a soft core love story.
I was able to follow the plot well enough because I'm familiar with the novel but it has to be admitted that I may have missed some cinematic grace notes because my command of Russian doesn't extend much beyond "cabbage" (kapusta) and "clown" (klun), and maybe a few remnants of Nadsat from "A Clockwork Orange." I don't think it matters much because I doubt anyone was expected to take this as a serious attempt to put "Lolita" on film. Instead, it's a parody of a parody. A man moves into a house with a plump mother and skinny daughter and it all ends up in a happy threesome.
No kidding.
