'Lolita': a journey with Nabokov and Kubrick from the page to the screen

This paper could just as easily have been called Lolita: or how I learned to stop worrying the film wasn't like the book. When watching a film based on a novel or play most people compare it to the original work but should we be considering the film in its own right as a creative output? After all the film does not change the book nor it's creative nature. In 'Lolita' we have three creative elements: the novel, the script and the film. We have two main creative personas (or authors) Vladimir Nabokov and Stanley Kubrick. By understanding the creators and their contribution we can better understand the film as a work. In order to analyse the script it is impossible to look at the full screenplay. Therefore, I am going to concentrate on the presence of Clare Quilty and the characterisation of Lolita. I shall then look at Calder Willingham as a co-writer: Kubrick commissioned Willingham to write a full screenplay in 1959.