9.09.2019

Bilitis 1977 French film by David Hamilton ἔφηβος Lolita

    • Bilitis is a 1977 French film directed by photographer David Hamilton with film score by composer Francis Lai. It stars Patti D'Arbanville and Mona Kristensen as the title characters Bilitis and Melissa respectively.

    • The Songs of Bilitis /bɪ’li:tis/ (Les Chansons de Bilitis; Paris, 1894) is a collection of erotic poetry by Pierre Louÿs (1870-1925).

    • The book's sensual poems are in the manner of Sappho; the introduction claims they were found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus, written by a woman of Ancient Greece called Bilitis, a courtesan and contemporary of Sappho, to whose 'life' Louÿs dedicated a small section of his book. On publication, the volume deceived even the most expert of scholars. Though the poems were actually clever fabulations, authored by Louÿs himself, they are still considered important literature.I think the mood and atmosphere of the visual style of Bilitis is present in these later films:

    ἔφηβος Lolita

    The term faunlet, also coined by Nabokov and used by Humbert Humbert, is used to describe the young male counterpart of a nymphet, in the same way that the mythological fauns were the counterpart of the nymphs. The term appears in the novel twice:Nabokov borrowed the term nympholept, a rare, archaic term meaning a person seized by emotional frenzy, as if enchanted by nymphs. The word is found with this meaning in the poetry of Lord Byron: "The nympholepsy of some fond despair."

  • Nabokov used the word to describe one who could "discern" nymphets from other girls. In Humbert's own words:
    The "half-your-age-plus-seven rule" is a rule of thumb used by some in Western cultures defining a mathematical formula to judge whether the age difference in an intimate relationship is socially acceptable

  • In the marketing of legal pornography, lolita is used to refer to a neotenic female, frequently one who has only recently reached the age of consent, or appears to be younger than the age of consent. Usually overlaps with 'barely legal'.

  • Ephebophilia is a word indicating sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents. In research environments, specific terms are used for chronophilias: ephebophilia to refer to the sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents, hebephilia to refer the sexual preference for pubescent persons, and pedophilia to refer to the sexual preference for prepubescent persons. The term pedophilia, however, has also been used colloquially to refer broadly to all three of these preferences (that is, any sexual interest in minors), regardless of their level of physical development. Clinically, ephebophilia is rarely regarded as a mental disorder unless it affects the ephebophile's life in a destructive way. Ephebophilic relationships are illegal in some circumstances.

  • The term originated in the 1955 novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov where it was the nickname given to the young girl, Dolores, with whom the narrator, Humbert, is obsessed. In the book itself, "Lolita" is specifically Humbert's nickname for Dolores, and "nymphet" is the general term for the type of young girl to whom Humbert is attracted, Dolores being one of them.

  • In the novel, Humbert defines nymphets as being between the ages of nine and fourteen.
    In music:

  • * Ditta Zusa Einzinger (born 1931), Austrian pop singer who records under the stage name Lolita
    * Lolita de la Colina, popular singer/songwriter from the 70's based in Mexico
    * Lolita Flores (born 1958), Spanish actrees and singer, daughter of Lola Flores
    * Lolita Milyavskaya (born 1963), Russian singer, actrees, TV presenter and film director
    * "Moi… Lolita", 2000 debut single by French singer Alizée
    * "Lolita", a song by Eric Von Schmidt from his 1969 album, The Folk Blues of Eric Von Schmidt

  • Lolita (1997) specially the scenes of Humbert Humbert remembering his childhood
    The Virgin Suicides (1999)

  • These ones take scenes directly from the movie:

  • Stealing Beauty (1996) Liv Tyler kissing the mirror

    La Nuit des traquées (1980) A Jean Rollin film with a lesbian scene similar to the one in Bilitis between Patti D'arbanville and Mona Kristensen. 

    Patti D'Arbanville, born May 25, 1951, in New York City, New York, is the daughter of Jean née Egan, an artist, and George D'Arbanville, a bartender. D'Arbanville attended PS 41 on Eleventh Street. Growing up on the corner of McDougal Street and Bleecker Street, she found the Figaro, a club that was just across from her home. After asking permission to "stay out until midnight", not having any real expectations, she was surprised to find she was permitted to go because of its proximity to her home. 

    The result, she said, was that she did it every night, and then stretched the time limit to 1:00 AM. Because of this, she fell asleep in school to the point where she finally quit when she was 14 after threats that if she didn't come more often she'd be taken away from her parents.

  • Discovered by Andy Warhol, during a gig as a club disc jockey at age 13, she acted in her first film in 1960; a New York University student film Tuesday And Blue Silk in 1960. Having been raised in New York's Greenwich Village, D'Arbanville had dropped out of school at 14 and traveled around the country. Andy Warhol eventually cast her at age 16 in his 1968 film Flesh.