"The trouble with censors is that they worry if a girl has a cleavage; they ought to worry if she hasn’t any." -Marilyn Monroe

It was a daring step for Stanley Kubrick in making the provocative novel Lolita into a film. However his film, Lolita (1962), is one of his masterpieces in true Kubrick taste. Kubricks trademark dark comedy carries the multi layered story of a middle-aged man infatuated with a teenage girl. He captures the complex story with intriguing camera moves, angles and lighting to create tension. His timing is done to compliment this, holding the camera onto the characters just long enough to give it that apprehension.

The holdings of censorship of the time obviously impacted on the deliverance of the story, however gives the story's taboo subject an intelligent subtleness. Kubrick gets around this censorship with the use of subtle symbolism and suggestive details of the more erotic and taboo subjects leaving these aspects up to the viewer's imagination. It is surprising in modern day cinema to believe Lolita was given a heavy rating originally and was still received as controversial in it's time. However this shows just how restricted film makers were with regards to censorship in the 1960's despite the loosening of censorship during this decade.

The acting is notable with each character challenging the actor often giving them multiple personalities. In the case of James Mason as Prof. Humbert, Mason captures both the obsessed, tormented middle aged man and the naive victim letting the audience feel his pain. While Sue Lyon's representation of Lolita is credible as the attractive and manipulative young teenager. Shelley Winters (Charlotte Haze) gives a remarkable performance letting the audience feel a variety of sensitivities towards her; humour, dislike, sympathy. Of course Peter Sellars' character, Clare Quilty, with it's multiple roles shows a typical Sellars showing off his ability to portray a variety of characters and accents which became known as his trademark comedic style.

All in all Lolita is a fantastic film to see for an example of Kubrick's and Sellars' work as well as the uncontroversial aspects to todays standards and Kubrick's job of avoiding the censorship with subtle suggestions.