miless wrote:The NW Film Center, here in Portland Oregon, just announced its schedule for showing a Kubrick retrospective ...
I hope (but do doubt) that this means new restorations of The Killing, Paths of Glory and Killer's Kiss.
So far I've seen 2001, Paths of Glory, and Lolita at this series. The 2001 print was less than stellar, obviously not restored, and they seriously botched the intermission. Of course, it was still great to see it on the big screen. A writer from The Oregonian introduced the film and then hosted a Q&A afterwards, with only about 30 people sticking around. He started out the Q&A by saying he doesn't like interpretations of the movie and he prefers it to be mysterious, enigmatic, and beautiful (apparently these things are incompatible with narrative interpretation). I should've walked out, but I stayed and at least a couple people in the audience disagreed with him.
As for Paths of Glory, it looked pristine and sharp, with amazing grain and sharpness. There was text after the screening that said it was restored by the UCLA film archive, which as far as I can see happened in 2005. I'd like to see this print on DVD! One of the film's primary methods is texture, comparing the smooth and ornate decorations in Menjou and Macready's dwellings with the dirt and mud of the trenches. On the big screen, the film plays much better, although I think it was pretty clear that Kubrick's narrative skills were lacking - certain scenes are jammed right next to other scenes with no skill, but then each scene will contain some of the most beautiful staging and lighting this side of Lolita. Kubrick's skill at choreography and camera movement are clearly present, and it's safe to say that Spielberg drew a lot of his inspiration for the D-Day invasion in Saving Private Ryan from this film's awesome battles, though Kubrick's are more like perfectly timed tragic ballet.
Since I was indifferent to Paths of Glory before the screening, I was hoping I'd have a similar experience with Lolita. Unfortunately, I think the film is worse on the big screen, perhaps because its true moments of comedy are so few, and the rest of the film feels lacking. (It could also be because I've seen the film so many times, each time hoping to find more than is probably there.) The movie flits between so many different modes it's dizzying, but my favorite parts are when Kubrick treats the romance between Humbert and Lolita as totally normal, even romantic, like the famous shot where Lolita runs up the stairs to hug Humbert goodbye, and his only response is to fall on her bed and cry. Later when the film becomes tragic, as when Humbert discovers the pregnant Lolita who won't run away with him again, Kubrick achieves a similar romanticism. In the middle of the film, though, Kubrick focuses mainly on the suspense plot and the many distracting impersonations of Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty. I don't think Humbert's fear of the police is warranted at all, traveling beyond bizarre paranoia and into random plot device. (Although, the best example of his paranoia is when Humbert attacks a nurse and must be held down in the hospital where Lolita was abducted - this scene has almost noir lighting and very violent choreography that approaches a pseudo-realism, especially after so many moments of fantasy.)
On this viewing of Lolita I was much more interested in how there is really a dividing line between the couple's father/daughter relationship, and their sexual relationship. The movie doesn't come right out and say it, but it's pretty clear, especially in the final scene when Humbert pleads with Lolita to come back to him. Overall, I think the failings of the film aren't in the removal of sex or intimacy between the two characters, but rather the weird shifts in tone, with Sellers apparently included to ensure box office appeal and some yucks in between the actual movie.
One interesting thing I noticed: just like Bill in Eyes Wide Shut, many people react to Humbert sexually. The Farlows make it clear they are interested in swinging with Humbert and Charlotte, and Mrs. Starch asks for a date of sorts. With Charlotte, that makes three middle-aged women who want Humbert, and he only goes for Lolita. There was also an odd scene where Quilty and his mysterious companion seem to be hitting on Mr. Swine, the hotel receptionist, something I haven't read a lot into before, but now seems to be an invitation to a threesome.
This print, which was not restored and looked overly gray, was missing that one excised bit where Lolita crawls up on Humbert to tell him more about the game she played with Charlie at Camp Climax. All of the DVDs of Lolita are missing this scene, but an old VHS I rented from Blockbuster in 99 or 2000 definitely had the extra bit. Any chance the new SE will have this extra 10 seconds of dialogue? I don't know why it hasn't been included when its removal was the result of censorship.
