Barry Lyndon
At long last Redmond Barry became a gentleman—and that was his tragedy.
Country
Production
Budget
$11 000 000
Box office
$20 039 900
Director
Actors
Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton, Marie Kean, Diana Körner, Murray Melvin, Frank Middlemass
All actors and roles (10)
All actors and roles (10)
Scenario
Producer
Camera operator
Composer
Artist
Ken Adam, Bill Brodie
Audition
Editing
Tony Lawson
Whole Team (26)
Whole Team (26)
Short description
An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.
What's left behind the scenes
- Kubrick insisted on abandoning electric lighting during interior filming. Evening scenes in the film were the first in the history of cinema to be shot by candlelight without additional illumination, made possible by the use of ultra-fast Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 cine lenses, specifically designed for observing stars during NASA's lunar program. The production of each of these lenses cost NASA a million dollars, and three units were specially manufactured for Kubrick in a slightly cheaper version with reduced use of rare earth elements.
- In 1977, in an interview with «Sight & Sound» magazine, Steven Spielberg commented on the film as follows: “I really like ‘Barry Lyndon,’ but for me, it’s like walking through the Prado Museum without a lunch break.”
- The film was shot over approximately three hundred days, spanning two years.
- Kubrick always selected the music for his films himself. As a rule, he used well-known classics. For the soundtrack to "Barry Lyndon," he used Handel's "Sarabande," which had been forgotten by everyone.
- Kubrick worked on the screenplay independently. He finished the first draft in three months and subsequently revised it many times. About half of the episodes from the novel were not included in the screenplay, in particular, everything concerning Barry Lyndon's parliamentary career and his rivalry for the Countess's heart with Lord Poynings.
- A feature of Thackeray's novel was that the narrative was conducted from the perspective of the author of the memoirs, Barry Lyndon himself, who sought in every way to justify his actions and defend his good name. Kubrick decided from the outset to abandon the first-person narration, because in cinema events unfold before the viewer's eyes without the mediation of text. According to Kubrick, accompanying them with not particularly truthful comments from the main character would mean reducing the film to the level of a comedy, which was not at all in his plans.
- When filming interiors during daylight hours, the windows were covered with tracing paper, onto which beams of artificial light were directed from the outside. Kubrick often worked for days and weeks on a minute episode that did not play a significant role in the narrative. For example, Barry's baptism of fire in an unnamed skirmish of the Seven Years' War was filmed from the side by three cameras that moved along an 800-foot track on dolly tracks.
- A number of episodes (including a frank scene between Barry and Lady Lyndon) were not included in the final version of the film.
- It is a common opinion that the selection of actors for the main roles was motivated by advertising considerations. Hoping to recoup the expensive filming, the film company demanded that the role of Redmond be given to one of the ten most sought-after actors in Hollywood. Only two actors from this list had Irish roots and were suitable for the role by age – Robert Redford and Ryan O’Neal; the former refused to cooperate with Kubrick, so the latter played Redmond.
- Kubrick, who saw a commonality between the professions of director and investigator, considered comments regarding the scrupulousness of his historical reconstruction as compliments. He saw no point in making a historical (or futuristic) film if the director was unable to make the audience believe in the reality unfolding on the screen. Work on "Barry Lyndon" required him to immerse himself in the study of the daily life of European aristocracy in the eighteenth century. A whole year was spent preparing for filming. Kubrick compiled a weighty folder with reproductions of artworks from that period. He insisted that nothing created after the eighteenth century appear in the frame. Architecture, furniture, costumes, means of transportation – all these elements were found by him in the paintings and engravings of the recreated era.
- Production designer Ken Adam recalls that the task set before him by Kubrick was to recreate the scenery of an eighteenth-century aristocratic estate with documentary accuracy. The Countess’s house, according to Adam, should have given the impression of being an old building even by the standards of the eighteenth century. Having traveled all over England, the designer decided to combine in the image Castle Howard’s theatrical silhouette with the interiors of Longleat and Petworth and the park structures of Wilton House. Due to the poor preservation of Irish estates, it was more difficult to reproduce the setting of Barry’s ancestral home. The Potsdam scenes were filmed in East Germany by a separate team, which sent slides to the director in the UK, and he gave them instructions by phone. At Kubrick’s direction, the filmmakers had to study toothbrushes of that time, contraceptives, and a multitude of things that did not make it into the film.
- Kubrick approached the choice of musical theme with no less scrupulousness than he did the development of visual solutions. It was common practice for him to fit scenes to music selected in advance. He recalls that during the work on the film he listened to all the available records of music from the 17th and 18th centuries. The film features such rarely performed melodies as the Hohenfriedberg March, traditionally attributed to the Prussian king himself.
- After Kubrick’s death, retrospective screenings of "Barry Lyndon" were held in many cities.
- Such major directors as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese (who paradoxically defined it as "one of the most emotional films") count themselves among the admirers of "Barry Lyndon".
- Kubrick spent 42 days editing the duel scene between Barry and Lord Bulington.
- The film is based on William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel “The Luck Of Barry Lyndon” (1844).
- When asked about the reasons for turning to the picaresque novel genre of W. M. Thackeray’s “The Adventures of Barry Lyndon,” Kubrick quipped: “Try to explain why you love your wife – it’s a completely pointless exercise.” The fact that Kubrick chose a not particularly strong novel by a not particularly prominent Victorian English writer allowed Harold Rosenberg to reproach Kubrick in 1976 with ‘recycling literature no one reads.’ Deflecting accusations of indiscriminate taste, Kubrick noted that more profound novels could not be transformed into a two- or three-hour film without significant loss.
- When one of the critics came to Kubrick to discuss the film with a volume of Thackeray in his hands, the director remarked: "The most significant thing in the film cannot be retold or analyzed." He also promised that the screenplay for "Barry Lyndon" would never be published, because from a literary point of view it was of no interest.
- The figure of the unseen narrator, whose voice comments on the events unfolding on screen, sparked considerable debate among critics. Kubrick justified the need for voiceover by the necessity of conveying a large amount of extra-plot information to the audience. The narrator not only mocks Barry's motives but also predicts how events will unfold, preparing the viewer for them and giving them a sense of inevitability: «Barry Lyndon» is a story where there is no room for surprises. It's not what will happen that matters, but how it will happen,» Kubrick emphasizes.
- Following the films “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “A Clockwork Orange,” Kubrick set out to make a film epic about the Napoleonic Wars era. Initial plans to adapt Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” had to be abandoned due to the novel’s length, which was more suitable for a television series than a film. Gradually, Kubrick’s attention shifted to the figure of Napoleon; he was developing an idea for a biographical film. Kubrick wrote a 150-page screenplay for “Napoleon.” Jack Nicholson, Audrey Hepburn, Peter O’Toole, and Alec Guinness were invited for the leading roles in the blockbuster, but the box office failure of Sergei Bondarchuk’s “Waterloo” (which led to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refusing to finance the production) and the release of another version of “Vanity Fair” on television forced Kubrick to moderate his ambitions and turn to an earlier period of history. Thus, Stanley Kubrick began work on “Barry Lyndon.”
- Work on «Barry Lyndon» continued for more than two years in an atmosphere of such secrecy that even studio executives had little idea what Kubrick was filming. The triumph of Kubrick's two previous films convinced the bosses of Warner Bros. to take a risk and invest $11 million in his new project.
- This was Kubrick's last experience working outside of a studio during his lifetime. Filming, which began in December 1973, continued not only in England and Ireland but also behind the «Iron Curtain»—in socialist East Germany. This caused additional difficulties due to Kubrick's dislike of travel; instead of traveling to various corners of England, Ireland, and Germany himself, he sent assistants.
- The entire original negative of the film was shot with the then-newest filmmaking camera, the «Arriflex 35 BL», which subsequently became Kubrick's favorite camera.
- Kubrick believed that cinema, with much less expense and greater persuasiveness than other art forms, transported the viewer years and centuries back in time. He sought to demonstrate this ability with his film, insisting on the use of only authentic settings in which people from the mid-18th century could have operated. Despite all this, inaccuracies could not be avoided: the film mentions the “Kingdom of Belgium” (which arose after the Napoleonic Wars), Chevalier de Balibari stops at the neo-Gothic Hohenzollern Castle (an architectural fantasy of 19th-century romantic crowned heads), and in the corner of a map in the study of Lady Lyndon’s sons there is an image of a locomotive.
- Kubrick instructed the film crew to create a "documentary" about the morals and manners of the aristocracy of the previous century. Convinced of the impossibility of accurately recreating the atmosphere of the 18th century in modern conditions, the director deviated from his usual practice and insisted on a complete refusal of studio filming. The pursuit of authenticity required artist Milena Kanonero to create costumes completely corresponding to the Rococo era.
- Kubrick insisted on abandoning artificial studio lighting for interior shots. For the first time in cinematic history, evening scenes in the film were shot by candlelight without additional lighting, which was made possible by using ultra-fast Carl Zeiss Planar 50mm f/0.7 lenses, specifically designed for stargazing during NASA's lunar program. Each of these lenses cost NASA a million dollars, and three slightly cheaper versions with a reduced use of rare-earth elements were specially produced for Kubrick.
- In a 1977 interview with Sight & Sound magazine, Steven Spielberg remarked about the film: "I love 'Barry Lyndon,' but for me, it's like walking through the Prado Museum without a lunch break."
- Kubrick always selected the music for his films himself, typically using well-known classics. For the soundtrack to 'Barry Lyndon,' he used Handel's 'Sarabande,' which had been forgotten by everyone.
- When asked why he chose the picaresque genre of William Makepeace Thackeray's 'The Luck of Barry Lyndon', Kubrick joked: 'Try explaining why you fell in love with your wife—it's a completely pointless exercise.' The fact that Kubrick chose a novel that was not the strongest work by a not-so-prominent writer of Victorian England allowed Harold Rosenberg in 1976 to accuse Kubrick of 'recycling unread literature.' Dismissing the charges of poor taste, Kubrick noted that deeper novels cannot be converted into a two- or three-hour film without significant loss.
- Kubrick worked on the screenplay independently. He finished the first draft in three months and subsequently revised it many times. Nearly half of the novel's episodes were excluded from the screenplay, specifically everything concerning Barry Lyndon's parliamentary career and his rivalry with Lord Poynings for the countess's heart.
- The particularity of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel was that the narrative was delivered from the perspective of the memoirist himself, Barry Lyndon, who sought in every way to justify his actions and protect his good name. From the beginning, Kubrick decided to discard the first-person narrative, as events in cinema unfold before the viewer's eyes without the mediation of text. In Kubrick's view, accompanying them with the protagonist's not-entirely truthful commentary would have reduced the film to the level of a comedy, which was not at all his intention.
- When a critic came to discuss the film with William Makepeace Thackeray's novel in hand, the director remarked: 'The most significant parts of a film cannot be recounted or analyzed.' At the time, he promised that the screenplay for 'Barry Lyndon' would never be published, as it held no interest from a literary standpoint.
- The figure of the invisible narrator, whose voice comments on the action on screen, sparked great debate among critics. Kubrick justified the need for the voice-over by the necessity of conveying a large amount of non-plot information to the viewer. The narrator not only mocks Barry's motives but also predicts how events will unfold, preparing the viewer and lending them a sense of inevitability: '"Barry Lyndon" is a story in which there is no room for surprises. What matters is not what happens next, but how it happens,' Kubrick emphasized.
- Following the films '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'A Clockwork Orange,' Kubrick set his sights on creating a cinematic epic about the Napoleonic Wars. His initial plans to adapt William Makepeace Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair' had to be abandoned because the novel's length was more suited for a television series than a feature film. Gradually, Kubrick's attention shifted to the figure of Napoleon; he began developing a concept for a biographical film. Kubrick wrote a 150-page screenplay for 'Napoleon.' Jack Nicholson, Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, and Alec Guinness were invited for the lead roles in the blockbuster. However, the box-office failure of Sergei Bondarchuk's 'Waterloo' (which led Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to refuse to finance the production) and the television release of another version of 'Vanity Fair' forced Kubrick to temper his ambitions and look toward an earlier historical period. Thus, Stanley Kubrick began work on 'Barry Lyndon'.
- Work on 'Barry Lyndon' continued for over two years in an atmosphere of such secrecy that even the studio executives had little idea of exactly what Kubrick was filming. The triumph of Kubrick's two previous films convinced the bosses at Warner Bros. to take a risk and invest 11 million dollars in his new project.
- This was the last time in Kubrick's life that he worked outside of a studio. Filming, which began in December 1973, took place not only in England and Ireland, but also behind the 'Iron Curtain' in socialist East Germany. This created additional difficulties due to Kubrick's dislike of traveling; instead of going himself, he dispatched assistants to various corners of England, Ireland, and Germany.
- The entire original negative of the film was shot using the Arriflex 35 BL, which was the most advanced cinema camera at the time and subsequently became Kubrick's favorite camera.
- When filming interiors during daylight hours, the windows were covered with tracing paper, with beams of artificial light directed onto them from the outside. Kubrick often spent days and weeks working on a one-minute episode that played little role in the narrative. For example, Barry's baptism by fire in an anonymous skirmish of the Seven Years' War was filmed from the side using three cameras moving on dollies along an 800-foot track.
- Kubrick believed that cinema, with far less effort and greater conviction than other art forms, could transport the viewer back years or centuries. He sought to demonstrate this capability in his film, insisting on the use of only authentic sets in which people of the mid-18th century could have actually operated. Despite this, some anachronisms were unavoidable: the film mentions the "Kingdom of Belgium" (which emerged after the Napoleonic Wars), Chevalier Balibari stays at the Neo-Gothic Hohenzollern Castle (an architectural fantasy of 19th-century royal romantics), and a depiction of a steam locomotive appears in the corner of a map in the study of Lady Lyndon's sons.
- Kubrick spent 42 days editing the duel scene between Barry and Lord Bullington.
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