Lolita

Kubrick created a jet-black satire from Vladimir Nabokov’s reputedly unadaptable and highly controversial novel. With an Oscar®-nominated screenplay by Nabokov himself, Kubrick turns the story of an obsessive paedophile into the comedy of a frustrated and manipulated lover played with desperate pathos by James Mason. Peter Sellers as Quilty, the rival for the titular underage love object, begins his inspired collaboration with Kubrick, his performance elevating the dark scenario to a kind of absurd genius. (British Film Institute (BFI))