September 2011 Film You Should Know But Probably Don't

Barry Lyndon

Yes, the secret is out. I'm a Stanley Kubrick fan. And fuck everyone who says Ryan O'Neil's accent sucks in this. There is so much more to enjoy about this movie! 

The main thing you should incredibly impressed by is how freakin' gorgeous the cinematography is. The entire film looks like a damn oil painting. This was achieved through the use of natural light and ONLY natural light. Kubrick had to design/steal from NASA/request a special camera lens just in order to pull off shooting with such low light (candles don't exactly stand up to your 10k lamps). There are a lot of fun Hollywood rumors and theories as to where the lens came from and how he got it. As best I understand it, there was a bit of construction by Kubrick himself using NASA lenses. But my favourite is my old cinematography teacher's theory:

"NASA gave Kubrick the lens in exchange for shooting the moon landing."

I absolutely love the idea behind that but let's all face reality. The moon landing footage would look so much better if Kubrick had made it. It was probably Roger Corman. 

Back to the film. For those of you who don't know, Barry Lyndon is the assumed name of a drunk Irish asshole who keeps getting himself into duels and other types of trouble. He's forced out of his Irish village in the beginning and slowly makes his way to France where he tries to squeeze every penny out of anybody he can.

There's a rather fantastic use of narration - the narrator gives away everything before it happens. Kubrick played with narration similarly in his earlier film The Killing (featuring Sterling Hayden). It's that kind of self-awareness and utter command of the film medium that lifts this film from being merely good and nice looking to truly great and utterly stunning. 

Some people knock the acting. I say they probably have an extra chromosome. Ryan O'Neil is fantastic and I won't believe otherwise. Also, a very young Leon Vitali pulls off an extraordinary performance as the slighted step-son. Vitali would go on to become Kubrick's personal assistant through the rest of his film career and play the Red Cape in Eyes Wide Shut.

Remember to keep a sharp eye out for some of Kubrick's favourite players who tend to appear in his films time and time again such as Steven Berkoff and Patrick Magee. Make sure you aren't watching it on some 2-inch screen off your iPhone - it's probably best if you have the lights off as well, really get that full effect. Right. Enjoy.