'Barry Lyndon' (1975) at 40

(Blog written Autumn, 2015)

(Barry Lyndon)

Heroic dedication was displayed on Saturday as me and Callum endured a bitterly colossal bus journey to London to watch the 40th anniversary screening of Barry Lyndon (1975) at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. This was followed by a special panel discussion with Richard Ayoade, Kubrick's brother in law Jan Harlan, and film scholar Maria Pramaggiore. They even flew in the original 35mm prints from the U.S held by Warner Bros'! At £12 a ticket, a madman would say no.

After waiting anxiously in the que, where Richard Ayoade gave us a cheeky nod, we were finally inside with Barry Lyndon's classical soundtrack swimming around the theatre. A satirical yet tragic study of the lives of English Nobility in the 18th century, it follows the rise and fall of Redmond Barry (Ryan O' Neal), aka Barry Lyndon, from an Irish 'nobody' to an English 'somebody', rising up the class ranks through gambling, misogyny, and sheer comical luck. Visually, it is one of the best looking films ever made, if not the best. Kubrick strenuously studied 18th century painting to achieve an absolutely perfect look. Like these paintings the film's emphasis was on natural and candle-lit light, with minimal electrical interference, and Kubrick also flattened the images creating a continual sequence of exquisite paintings, not crafted moments captured by a mechanical device. At times it made you feel as if you were not watching a film, but were fully experiencing the 17th century in all its foolish and lavish entirety. In that respect, possibly an influence from Altman's McCabe... is evident in this films look as Altman browned the image in his period piece so the film looked like a sequence of old photographs. Nevertheless, Barry Lyndon is a film of cinematic mastery, and to improve the visuals even further, the celluloid began to reveal itself with cigarette burns and grainy authenticity.

The unique nature of the films aesthetic is not it's only great achievement, but the character study of the titular character is a great feet in storytelling. A self-destructive force of unchecked power, Lyndon denies morality itself and embraces himself to achieve the rise to nobility. The traumatic experience of war has a huge influence upon him (a theme explored in Kubrick's other films) as he becomes separated from the positive and warm aspects of human nature, creating a person who only lives for the good of himself. The survival aspect of war embodies his life afterwards, as he becomes an exquisite soldier of class elevation, revealing the foul nature of 17th century society, where if you were not of high class, you may as well be dead. But the life that Barry builds all tumbles down in the latter half of the film with Lyndon becoming the victim of his own flaws, one being denying his step son any love or affection.

The negative aspect of the film, and this purely subjective to the spectator, is that some viewers may find the experience long and exhausting because of the films slow pace. However, this can draw attention much more to the films mise en scene, which is riddled with its own subtle and intelligent language. We did also feel pretty deflated after the experience as we were unable to watch the talk afterwards as our bus was set to leave. However, the experience was something I will never forget.