Stanley Kubrick

I saw Lolita for the first time today. It was the ninth Kubrick film I’ve seen (out of 12), and it prompted me to realize an overarching trend in Kubrick’s movies:

They’re a little bit too long.

I’m not saying that Lolita isn’t good. In fact, I really liked it. I wouldn’t say I loved it, but I am comfortable in saying that I really enjoyed watching it. However, it seemed that there was just too much downtime / repetition between major plot points.

I think Lolita and Barry Lyndon are the prime examples of his films that just seem to drag on a bit, but you could probably throw in 2001 and The Shining in there as well. Out of the four of these, though, Barry Lyndon is the only one I wouldn’t want to watch again. I think that’s a testament to his filmmaking, or at least his selectivity in the stories he tells.

I’m usually pretty patient when it comes to watching movies. At no point today did I think to myself, Man am I bored… I should turn this off and watch something else. I was immersed in the film throughout most of it, but it was that remaining bit of the film that just seemed to drag that kept me from loving it from start to finish.

I think that the plot was great as it was, and that adding more may have made it seem too eventful. I guess I just felt there was too much filler. I know that he wants to make it clear just how deep Professor Humbert’s affection for Lolita runs, but I thought that could have been accomplished in less time. Though he took his time to establish this, it didn’t tarnish the movie for me – it just made me a bit more hesitant to want to watch it again.