MovieChat Forums > Broken Flowers (2005) Discussion > Lolita was naked because....

Lolita was naked because....


This is an awakening self reflection of a lonely man. The outside world sees him as a success, he is rich, has lots of ladies, and is very smart and he is to them Don Johnson, with out the T.

It is only he who realises his life is empty; he sees his neighbours life as full and successful with love and children. It is with his neighbour’s help he goes on a journey of self discovery.

As he walks down memory lane he finds a metaphor of his life played out in stages from youth to death. This walk though his life is a daunting downward spiral into the reality of a lonely life and love lost. This journey is played out in chronological order through each of his five past lovers.

1st Lover: Lolita is the shadow of what was once Sharon Stone. Lolita represents his early stage of life where sexual energy and wanton passion drives his forming of relationships. Youthful feminine beauty, the prospect of easy titillating adventures, propel his search for meaningless sexual liaisons. This leads him down a path in life as a Don Haun.
2nd lover: The once great passions of youth that could have been lovers forever are now lost memories in a life that has becoming sterile, asset building, and functional. The loss of his first and most fond love has been settled for second best in sad quest to avoid loneliness.
3rd lover: Is the denunciation of traditional love to seek desperate refuge in our own idiosyncratic peculiar insanities to the extreme of forming relationships with the absurd. The rejection of being hurt to many times, acceptance that love can only be found in dependable objects and in being cynical of what once was.
4th Lover: represents all the cold brutality that life hits you with in old age, the impossibility of forming new meaningful relationships when you are old. The ugly cruelty of age hits him hard, he is alone.

- Interlude of Flower Shop Girl: She is his caring nurse, almost a reflection on a retirement home, only cares out of pity for him. She nurses him through to death.

5th Lover: She is death.... in the grave….where he laments, alone, and cries.

It is only at the end of his journey, on finding death, that he is sad. But it is only when he thinks hes found his son, does he realise that he is truly lonely.

The biggest irony of this film is actually in these posts. All of you who are visually excited by the nakedness of Lolita, are invariably the ones that will read this post. Which is why I named it “Lolita was naked because.... “
I will suggest be careful because you are loitering around the 1st Lover stage…..

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[deleted]

excelent post. i just saw this film, and rated it 6 as it left me scratching my head wondering what was it all about. your clarifications on the 5 stages that this film illustrates, also leave me thinking about the production process that obstructed this effort.
i mean like:
1. the 4th lover was the most fit and young and rebellious and good looking one - she couldn't possibly represent cruel old age.
2. the flower shop girl was too nice and young and caring and available - she couldn't possibly represent a nurse in a retirement home.
3. annoying pink and flower bouquets and tombstones hugging fetishisms distracting me from a very interesting subject.
4. preeety discouraging and deterring and frustrating Bill Murray, move a muscle on that petrified face of an actor, please...
and more. that being said, it's no wonder that Lola's scene is the only one worth remembering. i sure hope there will be another, more coherent attempt at illustrating those 5 stages you presented.

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[deleted]

Well said. I think your note also explains why the movie is a Buddhist tale, of sorts (the youth even asks if it is). In fact, the letter may not have been from anybody, but just from the world asking Don to look to other young men as his son(s). The youth he talks to at the end tells Don, after Don has his enlightenment sitting under a tree, that he doesn't give B.S. advice, he gives just good, plain, and honest advice.

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Read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, its all about the journey...My all time favourite. Siddhartha meets Buddah during the storey but at the end he becomes Buddah. Funny thing though is that Hermann Hess is a German and Siddhartha is a storey based in India.

Maslows Hierachy of needs. Satisfying your physical and spiritual needs until one reaches the pinicle of self actualisation. Fantastic.

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Do you think with Lolita the director was referring to the actual story from Nabokov's Lolita?

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Absolutly, Lolita represents an emergence of sexuality in youth. In the directors use of her he has set the scene as the begining of Dons sexual journey as he entered his teens. Lolita is possibly a female mirror of himself at the same age.

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I like your outlook on the movie ... its very clear but still he could have made the ending a little better.

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that is an brilliant interpretation. I love it! :)

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Of course we were excited by that scene! We're guys! Good interpretation. I think i felt let down at the ending, but the more I reflect on the movie as a whole, it seems like a perfect ending.

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Who here has seen Stanley Kubrick's Lolita? It's quite funny because before we even learn of Lolita's name I was thinking how much she reminded me of the Lolita character from Kubrick's movie... and then she said he name was Lolita and I laughed my ass off.

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"Lolita" is a novel by Vladmir Nabokov.
Great interpretation though, OP. I was very confused of the film's meaning after even my second watching.

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you..are amazing. wow..

- Wendy

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I love when I read a post that makes me want to watch a movie a second or third time. You have conveyed the mystery that lies beneath our daily choices as we move through our lives. I can understand this in more personal terms as I chose not to have children, a decision that I never second-guessed and knew was the right thing for me to do. But... I do feel a bit of sadness now when I see my friends with their children, young people in their 20's. Who will weep for us when we die?

Ssssshh! You'll wake up the monkey!

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