Claim: Melanie Griffith is a person who acts.

Lolita is a 1997 American-French drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Stephen Schiff . It is the second screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov 's novel of the same name and stars Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain as Dolores `` Lolita '' Haze , with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze , and Frank Langella as Clare Quilty . The film is about a middle-aged male professor , Humbert -LRB- Irons -RRB- , who rents a room in the house of the widow Charlotte Haze -LRB- Griffith -RRB- , because he is sexually attracted to her adolescent daughter Dolores -LRB- Swain -RRB- , also called `` Lo '' or `` Lolita '' .   The film had considerable difficulty finding an American distributor and premiered in Europe before being released in America , where it was met with much controversy due to its use of a child molester as the main character , Humbert . The film was picked up in the United States by Showtime , a cable network , before finally being released theatrically by The Samuel Goldwyn Company . The performances by Irons and Swain impressed audiences , but , although praised by some critics for its faithfulness to Nabokov 's narrative , the film received a mixed critical reception in the United States . Lolita was met with much controversy in Australia -- it was not given a theatrical release in the country until April 1999 .