Post 4: Researching Short Film Content (2)

Watching previous films or reading previous books that are based on the topic of sexual grooming is another form of research that we can carry out in order to again get a better understanding of the topic and how the sexual groomer and victim are portrayed. One media product that touches upon this subject is the novel (and film) Lolita.

Lolita (1962 Film)

Lolita is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov, this novel is about sexual grooming but tells the story from the sexual groomers point of view. We watched the film that was based on the novel, from 1962 by Stanley Kubrick, in order to see how a sexual groomer would operate and get the trust of their victim.

The film Lolita is about a middle aged man, Humbert, who is seeking somewhere to stay the summer before he begins his career at Beardsley College. He finds the house of Charlotte Haze, at first he is in decline until he finds out she lives with her daughter. He daughter, Dolores, is an over flirtatious teenage girl affectionately called Lolita, who Humbert falls in love with.

The film develops when Charlotte takes Lolita to an all girls camp for the summer, Charlotte leaves Humbert a note saying that when she returns if he wants to stay at the house he must marry Charlotte. Humbert does so, but after their return from the honeymoon Charlotte discovers Humbert's diary that holds all of his secrets and the truth about his feelings towards Lolita. Charlotte is distraught by the discovery and threatens to take Lolita far away from Humbert forever, but unfortunately as she runs out the house she gets hit by a speeding car and ends up dead. Humbert sees this as his opportunity to pick up Lolita from camp and take her into his care with the 'special relationship' they have. They proceed with their lives as Humbert enrolls Lolita into the school he is beginning work at, but this arises problems as many people there are creating questions about Humbert and his 'over-protected daughter'.

The plot ends up with Lolita running away from Humbert, then to three years later Lolita getting into contact with Humbert asking for some money to provide for the baby she's going to be giving birth to. Humbert finds Lolita and demands to know who took her away from him three years earlier, she confesses and says it was Clare Quilty. This leads back to the beginning of the film where Humbert is about to kill Clare Quilty for 'abusing' Lolita.  




After watching the film Lolita, I think this will influence our own short film in many ways.
The first being that the story is in fact seen through the point of view of Humbert, the male sexual groomer. This is similar to our storyline as we want our film to be telling the story through the sexual groomer's point of view.
The second way Lolita will help in influencing our film will be that at the beginning of the film both Humbert and Lolita are subtle with their feelings towards each other. They tend to not give much away, except for the fact that Lolita is her overly flirtatious self. Simple things such as whispering in his ear and giving subtle hints to Humbert throughout the film could even show the audience that Lolita wants Humbert just as much as he wants her.
My group and I can refer to Lolita when making our own short film as it works well in telling the story from Humberts point of view and also how subtle the characters are being with each other.