Following the collapse of his long-gestating Napoleon project, Stanley Kubrick turned to this lesser-known novel by the author of Vanity Fair, set at the time of the Seven Years War. Famed for his perfectionism, Kubrick went to extraordinary lengths to research and recreate the look of the period, taking inspiration from the era’s great visual stylists, painters such as Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth.

Determined to film by natural or historically accurate light sources, Kubrick and his cinematographer John Alcott acquired super-fast lenses to capture scenes lit only by candles. The pristine, painterly look of the finished film was decried by some critics, who found the amoral escapades of the title character (Ryan O’Neal) emotionally uninvolving. Barry Lyndon’s reputation has soared in the years since.

“Sublime and elusive, Barry Lyndon is Kubrick’s most sad, mysterious and misleading work – flickering like the candlelight by which some of it was famously lit.” Elena Smolina

“Mournful, funny and exquisitely beautiful, the film that puts the lie to the notion of Kubrick being cold and unfeeling.” Sean Hogan

“In Kubrick’s opulent presentation, Thackeray’s opportunist is not only a still-living caricature of many of us, but also, above all, a merciless image of a society based on innate and hereditary superiority.” Michal Kriz

“The most beautiful film about the triumph of human ambition and then its decadence, made by cinema’s mightiest hermit.” Michel Lipkes

Film	Year	Director
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest	1975	Milos Forman
Holy Motors	2012	Léos Carax
CODE INCONNU RÉCIT INCOMPLET DE DIVERS VOYAGES	2000	Michael Haneke
Barry Lyndon	1975	Stanley Kubrick
SÅNGER FRÅN ANDRA VÅNINGEN	2000	Roy Andersson
En KÄRLEKSHISTORIA	1970	Roy Andersson
Come and See	1985	Elem Klimov
A Woman under the Influence	1974	John Cassavetes
Raging Bull	1980	Martin Scorsese
Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie	1972	Luis Buñuel

Ruben Östlund

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