1975 Directed by Stanley Kubrick
In the Eighteenth Century, in a small village in Ireland, Redmond Barry is a young farm boy in love with his cousin Nora Brady. When Nora engages to the British Captain John Quin, Barry challenges him for a duel of pistols. He wins and escapes to Dublin, but is robbed on the road. Without any other alternative, Barry joins the British Army to fight in the Seven Years War.
Ryan O'Neal Marisa Berenson Hardy Krüger Diana Körner Frank Middlemass Arthur O'Sullivan Godfrey Quigley Leonard Rossiter Philip Stone Patrick Magee Steven Berkoff Gay Hamilton Marie Kean Murray Melvin André Morell Leon Vitali Billy Boyle John Bindon Roger Booth Jonathan Cecil Peter Cellier Geoffrey Chater Anthony Dawes Patrick Dawson Bernard Hepton Anthony Herrick Barry Jackson Wolf Kahler Pat Laffan Show All…
Showed this to my mom today. She thinks 2001: A Space Odyssey is the most boring film of all time, she walked out of A Clockwork Orange and she never ceases to complain about every aspect in Dr. Strangelove.....
And yet, she was utterly entranced for every second of Barry Lyndon, laughing and crying along with the ravishing imagery and the remarkable storytelling.
Ladies and gentlemen, there's a Stanley Kubrick film for everyone.
I was twigged to re-watch Barry Lyndon by some recent great reviews here. My personal goal for this viewing was to try to reconcile why Barry Lyndon works. Not as a masterpiece, but rather how it works at all. After all, it’s a 3 hour and 4 minute period piece based pretty literally on a 19th century text ... that stars Ryan O’Neil.
Cinematography. Let’s get this out of the way first. Kubrick’s ... er, John Alcott’s photography is breathtaking. As beautiful as the paintings of the period. The use of technical and cinematic technique is well covered by some other great reviews here on Letterboxd. Does it make the film work? I don’t think so. It contributes to it…
"He wants to step into my shoes...
HE WANTS TO STEP INTO MY SHOES!"
Three hours of being absolutely fucking enthralled.
Why didn't anybody ever tell me how hilarious this movie is?
Ah, and I guess the cinematography was passable... haha.
In all seriousness though, this might be my favorite Kubrick next to 2001: A Space Odyssey. An altogether fun, enjoyable and immensely beautiful experience. An accurate aesthetic, a pitch perfect score, wonderful narration and the best performance of Ryan O'Neal's career contribute to making this an unforgettable masterpiece.
I maintain now and always that this is one of the great comedies, a slow burn of greed, cowardice and arrogance that depicts an aristocratic structure that creates arbitrary divisions among European nations united in the absurdity of their power hierarchies. The film suggests that the entire aristocracy of Europe is maintained by interbred families and brazen confidence tricks perpetuated by both pretenders and genuine members of the ruling class. Watching this, it's a wonder how WWI took as long as it did to break out. That it is one of the most rapturously photographed films ever made is almost a mere bonus.
Of all the classics that Stanley Kubrick enriched us with throughout his filmmaking career, Barry Lyndon is the only one I wasn't looking forward to with excitement. Period dramas aren't really my thing, for I find this genre far too preoccupied with its lush set pieces, period-specific make-up & antique costumes than the main story at hand, and while this film does checkmark all those elements, there is something about it that sets it apart.
From the moment the famous classical composition, Sarabande, by Handel opens the film by accompanying that Warner Bros. logo, Barry Lyndon had my attention. But what eventually left me absolutely spellbound was just how extraordinarily beautiful its images were from the first frame to the last.…
First time watches of 2018:
This has been on my watchlist for a good five or six years. I was always turned off by the length and the assumption that it'd be beautifully shot, but boring. I decided last night that I'd finally get around to it, expecting to watch it over two sittings. I found myself so immersed and entertained by Kubrick's tragicomedy that I watched all 3 hours in one night. This is easily in the Top 5 greatest films I've ever seen. Anyone who is familiar enough with the film to be reading reviews of it on Letterboxd will know that it has some of the greatest achievements of lighting and cinematography ever put to film. The…
The kind of book this film is sourced from was a dime a dozen in the time it was written. Had Kubrick stepped up to do a film like this with a text of actual interest or value like a Huysman, de Sade, or even maybe a Thomas Hardy work like Jude the Obscure, this would have been wonderful. Instead, we get an eternally dragging plot with some minor comedy and a few nice scenes. Cinematography isn’t anything mindblowing if you’ve seen actual art films from prior, but the lenses developed for this film are pretty nifty. Astoundingly aberrant piece of Kubrick’s filmography—it’s hard to believe the same man who had recently made 2001 and A Clockwork Orange thought that this was good to go.
I saw BARRY LYNDON screened at TIFF, and from now on I want all of the period dramas I see to use excessive zoom shots and natural lighting.
All in all this is an extravagant film. Notably long, hilarious, & I am happy I got to see this cinematography in a cinema. The lighting reminds me of autumns in BC, and summers in England; it's so breathtaking.
Finally watched at a packed screening of its recent digital restoration. The film has its merits: it's absolutely stunning, and was playful/gripping in its adventurous nature.
But what keeps me from bowling over like so many others is its lack of purpose. Barry Lyndon himself is just not compelling, and lacks depth of character. I found it hard to know if he was supposed to be a Lothario, a scoundrel, a hero, a likeable person in the slightest. Sure, he's aspects of all of these, but he doesn't carry the film as anything less than a worried-looking robot. His personal story lacked enough interesting points to make it worth telling, especially with an ending that doesn't add anything in the way of excitement, finality or emotion.
Overall enjoyable, but not worth its exceeding praise.
This epic by Stanley Kubrick is masterfully made. What could be a stodgy period piece is enlivened by his vibrant cinematography, production design, and deliberate yet hypnotic pacing. Yet its bland central character and inconsistent performances make this one easier to admire than to love. Definitely worth watching, but on first viewing something about it held me at arm's length.
Special screening at TIFF.
مع الوقت لاحظت ان أكثر الافلام الي اقع في حبها واعتبرها تعريف للكمال السينمائي ما اعرف أتكلم عنها ، بعد ثلث ساعة من محاولة كتابة شيء عن التحفة هذه ماطلع معي شيء.
lol i had this at a 9 what am i stupid this is genius and incredibly entertaining and beautifully shot and fantastically written and it has great performances and i love it so much and it’s in my top 20 now
happy 3 week anniversary steben
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