WEEK 35

35. A MAN ESCAPED, dir. ROBERT BRESSON, 1956

LOLITA was even better and more darkly funny than I had remembered, and it is one of the few films I can think of that is perfectly cast. James Mason, yes, Sue Lyon, absolutely, and Peter Sellers, God yes--but today I find myself fixed on Shelley Winters most of all. I used to say that Lolita was my favorite novel--I hesitate to now, as it's been so long since I've read it--and from my experience of the book I cannot imagine anyone playing Charlotte as well as Shelley Winters did.* I feel this goes for everyone else in the movie, too; it's such a rare pleasure for an adaptation, especially of a book you love, to feel so satisfying and so right. Kubrick (and Nabokov) did that here.

This week: Robert Bresson. A filmmaker I've wanted to explore more deeply after having seen L'ARGENT some time ago.

*Certainly not Melanie Griffith. That remake just irritates me.