Notes on Nymphet Cinema
+ how reading Lolita turned me into a pre-teenage tramp (and cinephile) 🎀
At 12 years old, ‘Lolita’ initiated my love for the movies. Clinging to my holy copy of Nabokov’s inflammatory novel night after night, I would research nymphet-genre pictures with demure devotion to the task. In retrospect, the mythical Americana bubble of both 1962’s and 1997’s “Lo” with its vintage cokes & strawberry malts & Mad magazines & romance comic books, *did* strike me as aspirational during my early girlhood. Back then, whilst dreaming of a girly reality that would mend the lack & the filth of my miserable actuality, I would practice ‘nymphet hair tutorials’ from low-quality YouTube videos, suck on lollipops while waiting for the bus after school and collect dainty paraphernalia in pastel pinks in sad attempts to imitate my beloved, glittering old nymphets of the silver screen.
To this date, I remain captivated and mesmerized by the movies’ ineffable ‘nymphet’ archetype. From an aesthetical sense, I applaud and appreciate how before the 1990’s (excluding Adrian Lyne’s “Lolita” adaptation), the genre tastefully acknowledged how young girls do possess an early, enigmatic eroticism (a motif in the arts since ancient times) which they, after gaining awareness of, might try to leverage on older men to try exert control over them (an ill-fated plan, naturally).
Unfortunately I find that Lolita-informed explorations in the cinema that DARE address this fact while maintaining beautiful production values & bizarre storylines seem regrettably scarce in our coward, contemporary times. Though to be fair, it might not be so much that a self-censoring trend is at play as that, perhaps, the cinéma de notre temps is simply too tragically into dullness & documentarism to come up with Baby-Doll-(1956)-level stuff.
To me, Vladimir Nabokov with his exquisitely-written and unrivaled ‘Lolita’ causing quite the revolt within the ‘50s nuclear family perfectly exemplifies the kind of taboo-shattering AND talented artist I find so vital in society. While I detest provocations when the quality is blatantly *bad* or when it is clear they were merely manufactured as cheap grabs for attention, I do maintain that not a single topic is so unimpeachable that artists ought not to raise new questions about it. In fact, fundamental to the mystique that nymphet films had in pre-teen me was their refusal to be shrouded in modesty in spite of their subject matter.
Take the uncanny “Baby Love” (1968) for instance, where a teenage Linda Hayden seduces her adoptive parents after her mama (played by none other than U.K.’s Marilyn Monroe response, queen Diana Dors) commits suicide. If old nymphet pictures succeeded in being so alluring, it’s because the viewer was made to feel like they were peeking into something forbidden — a marvelous achievement which, I’d argue, feels particularly pleasurable to the (young, impressionable!) female spectator. By studying the sexual persona of the girl-child without negating its ambiguity and her ‘problematic’ psychology, early entries in the genre were so anti-formulaic one never knew what they were getting themselves into. I find this trait peculiarly refreshing among the modern, oversimplistic Lolita-esque pictures that feel predictably politicized the second they start.
Without a doubt, one of the most influential movies of my girlhood years was the controversial “Pretty Baby” (1978) starring a precocious (and nearly nude) Brooke Shields. Labeled as ‘child porn’ at the time of its release, the historical drama revolves around a male photographer who sets his eyes on both mother *and* daughter while shooting pictures at the brothel the two ladies live in. He ultimately marries and moves in with the latter thus the film is quite uncomfortable to see. By personal choice, I haven’t revisited it since I was twelve years old as I wish to preserve the memory of what it felt for a movie to shock me as much for the very first time.
Something so scandalous yet so visually delightful that features a real CHILD pursuing an older guy could never be released now. Unsurprisingly, as she’s always been so brilliant, Brooke Shields is one of the biggest defenders of the film and has stated even as of recent that it represents “the best creative project she’s ever been associated with” — I agree. Nonetheless, I resent how unthinkable it’d be for something as spooky & subversive to come out these days. I get the impression that a fancy new nymphet film would automatically lead letterboxd users to denounce the lavish production values as ‘romanticizing’ its topic, or to sassily question the moral ‘validity’ of the movie being made at this time. I have seen these kinds of reactions play out with Adrian Lyne’s wonderful adaptation of “Lolita” (1997) which, due to the literal cult it inspired on Tumblr for its striking aesthetics, has led many to (wrongly) condemn it as ‘popularizing’ pedophilia.
Anyway, I adore old nymphet pictures as they accompanied me while comprehending the nuances of my secretive 12-year-old sexuality + initiated my appreciation for the cinema as a serious art form. Promptly replacing my Disney DVDs for the likes of Tennessee Williams’ astonishing “The Night of The Iguana” (1964) or staying up all night trying to track down the eerie “Marie-poupée” (1976) constitute tender memories I don’t wish to ever forget.
And as much as I, like director Dennis Hopper of whom *I* consider myself an apostle, agree that the filmmaker does have a moral responsibility with what they show on screen, I *would* like to see a modern nymphet film that a) is glamorously constructed, b) creatively portrays the horrors amid age gap relationships and c) doesn’t put me to sleep! Though likely not directed by me as I am too BUSY lately working on my ‘50s women-in-prison flick (wrote a post about it here. also, found my screenwriting partner for it and you can read her brilliant substack here 💝).
Love this! I saw Adrian Lyne's Lolita when I was about 14-15. Soon after watched the original and got the book. It was quite special to me. You've named a couple other films I've got to seek out. I can't see a film like those being made today.