Barry Lyndon

Right Turn Clyde

I've just seen Barry Lyndon for the first time. Is it just me, or are the only frauds, cheats and swindlers in it all Irish. I'm thinking about Barry Lyndon, his mother and 'Chevalier de Balibari'? Was this inherited from Thackeray's novel?

I quite enjoyed the film, although I feel quite odd after it. Kubrick wasn't telling us how to view Lyndon. The narrator is slightly disparaging at times, but Kubrick himself seems to be holding back, even after the intermission when Lyndon becomes selfish and controlling.

I've read a lot about Kubrick's characteristic 'coldness'. I'm not sure I've seen that in his other movies (those that I've seen) but I certainly see it in Barry Lyndon. Even A Clockwork Orange is warmer and more emotional. At least that's how I read it.

Right Turn Clyde

Also, I thought Ryan O'Neal's dodgy accent actually added to his character, because right from the start he looks and sounds like an impostor, even amongst his extended family. He doesn't belong anywhere.

Arghus

I think Thackerey's view of human nature is pretty cynical and chimes in unison with Kubrick. His work can get a bit tiresome because nearly every character in his novels are either complete bastards, stupid and vain ego manics or innocents that get chewed up by life.

Cork boy 55

Never seen that film its never on TV
Where did you see it?

johnny_ultimate

What I wrote on this here forum when I first watched it a few years ago...

Painterly is the immediate word that springs to mind - a real richness of art design, production values and distinctive cinematography. Content-wise, I'm actually still trying to figure out my response to it. Almost every scene is brilliantly realised, and there are some of the most magnificent individual sequences in Kubrick's oeuvre (including probably a definitive cinematic battle scene in its sheer cynicism and critical distance). I absolutely failed to see the complaints about its supposed laboriousness, and surprised how darkly funny it all is (it is Kubrick so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised). I loved the sardonic voiceover, cheekily commenting on events on-screen and about to occur (a rare case of in-film spoilers ). Yet I was also distant from it, not quite having the same overwhelmingly emotive response to many great films. But I think that's Kubrick's intention - to get us to admire the artistry, to unemotionally critique the events on-screen, to create a world of spiraling cruelness that refuses to grant us the payoffs we expect, to present us with an infuriating protagonist. Its brilliantly calculated, cold tone is exactly what makes it so effective.

Cork boy 55 wrote: »

Never seen that film its never on TV
Where did you see it?

It's readily available on DVD, Blu-Ray and VOD. Just don't get the DVD, it's an old transfer and does the film a disservice.

e_e

It's also playing in Savoy Screen 1 as part of JDIFF next month.

Eugene Norman

Scene by scene it's great. Not, for some reason, the sum of its parts.

e_e

I'm of the unpopular opinion that Barry Lyndon and Eyes Wide Shut are the best of Kubrick's post-2001 movies.

Right Turn Clyde

e_e wrote: »

I'm of the unpopular opinion that Barry Lyndon and Eyes Wide Shut are the best of Kubrick's post-2001 movies.

I was about to tell you that Kubrick died in 1999. Thank god I didn't. I'd have had to delete my account out of embarrassment.

FloatingVoter

e_e wrote: »

It's also playing in Savoy Screen 1 as part of JDIFF next month.

Nice one. This is one movie I always wanted to see on the big screen. Funny feeling I won't be the only one though.

Catcher7791

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Nice one. This is one movie I always wanted to see on the big screen. Funny feeling I won't be the only one though.

It showed in the IFI a fortnight ago, with a nearly full house, and looked great.

duckworth

e_e wrote: »

I'm of the unpopular opinion that Barry Lyndon and Eyes Wide Shut are the best of Kubrick's post-2001 movies.

I think they are his two best full-stop. My favourites anyway.

spurious

Beautiful film to watch.

Sad Professor

As much as I want to love Eyes Wide Shut, it’s incomplete. Contrary to the story Warners ran after his death, Kubrick had not finished the film at the time of his death. He hadn’t even started the sound and music mix and planned to cut another 20 minutes. The editors did the best they could with what they had.

happysunnydays

Haven't seen BL in two decades but I rem. it being a quality watch like all the Stanley films really. Fine finish and detailed period like I come to expect. Must watch it again soon! .....And Stanley?
Well, he's quality right? Yes, last of the great inspiring artistic type film makers, so methodical and super detailed, students love the guy!.......but slow, I mean real slow. So slow, it pissed a lot of actors off, I mean jeepers Stanley do you really need 100 takes of camera moving on the dolly through that corridor. You gotta turn this around, it shouldn't take you 4-7 years to make a picture.
Anyway, in the end he was so slow he died while finishing a picture, and his stressful film making ground down the Cruiser alliance so now he's a home wrecker too :pac:
But don't get me wrong, I miss that crazy guy, his cool beard and his films.

Pronto63

FloatingVoter wrote: »

Nice one. This is one movie I always wanted to see on the big screen. Funny feeling I won't be the only one though.

Big screen is the only way to watch any of Kubricks work!