#897: KUBRICK, Stanley: Barry Lyndon (1975)

KUBRICK, Stanley (United States)
Barry Lyndon [1975]
Spine #897
Blu-ray


Stanley Kubrick bent the conventions of the historical drama to his own will in this dazzling vision of a pitiless aristocracy, adapted from a novel by William Makepeace Thackeray. In picaresque detail, Barry Lyndon chronicles the adventures of an incorrigible trickster (Ryan O'Neal) whose opportunism takes him from an Irish farm to the battlefields of the Seven Years' War and the parlors of high society. For the most sumptuously crafted film of his career, Kubrick recreated the decadent surfaces and intricate social codes of the period, evoking the light and texture of eighteenth-century painting with the help of pioneering cinematographic techniques and lavish costume and production design, all of which earned Academy Awards. The result is a masterpiece — a sardonic, devastating portrait of a vanishing world whose opulence conceals the moral vacancy at its heart.

185 minutes
Color
Monaural
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2017
Director/Writers


Based on the novel by William Makepeace Thackery.

A

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Forty-two page booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and two pieces about the look of the film from the March 1976 issue of American Cinematographer.

Commentary

None.

Documentary

Featuring cast and crew interviews as well as audio excerpts from a 1976 interview with director Kubrick.

Program 1

About the film’s groundbreaking visuals, featuring focus puller Douglas Milsome and gaffer Lou Bogue as well as excerpts from a 1980 interview with DP John Alcott.

Program 2

Featuring historian Christopher Frayling on Academy Award-winning production designer Ken Adam.

Interview 1

With editor Tony Lawson.

French television interview

From 1976 with Ulla-Britt Söderlund, who codesigned the film’s Oscar-winning costumers.

Interview 2

With critic Michel Ciment.

Interview 3

With actor Vitali about the 5.1 surround soundtrack, which he cosupervised.

Piece

Analyzing the fine-art-inspired aesthetics of the film with curator Adam Eaker.

Trailers

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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