897 Barry Lyndon

[therewillbeblus]

Well said, Walter Kurtz. Totally agree on the formalist technique lending itself to this relentless right-sizeness of the action and characters. Kubrick has always been on this wavelength but I think this is his best film that captures that proposed ethos. I recall reading a review of some Coen Brothers movie (I think A Serious Man) where the critic referred to the Coens as "Kubrick's children" and they do share this kind of philosophical worldview, in a micro-macro juggling approach with acidic bite about the Joke of Life. Whether one interprets these artists as laughing 'at' or 'with' or somewhere in between is where I think some people become repelled or attracted.

[TheKieslowskiHaze]

I agree with all that's been said. I'll add that Barry Lyndon is, for me, the subtlest and most interesting expression of one of Kubrick's pet themes: the tension between a rule-based society and the uncontainable ids of people within that society. It depicts a rigid world of rituals and manners that is constantly (and hilariously) undercut by characters' instinctive desires to fuck and kill each other. This is reinforced visually by cinematography that is usually formally impressive and precise (order) but is sometimes punctuated by handheld immediacy (disorder).

It might be my favorite Kubrick, though 2001 also has a solid claim to that title.

[therewillbeblus]

This is reinforced visually by cinematography that is usually formally impressive and precise (order) but is sometimes punctuated by handheld immediacy (disorder).

I can't think of any moments in the film (other than perhaps during the early battles?) that commit to the latter aside from when O'Neal attacks his step-son, unable to sustain his ego functions with will power, a primal explosion that self-sabotages his life from there on out. I'm not sure the film needs any other scene quite like this, because it's so incongruous with the rest of the formalist style that we jarringly comprehend this point off of one take. The first time I saw Barry Lyndon I didn't like it (now, like you, it's vying for a top spot) but I recall exactly where I was and how I felt when that scene erupted and urgently ousted me from my apathy.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Lady Lyndon's suicide attempt is also shot handheld, and the boxing match during Barry's military service.

[therewillbeblus]

Ah right, the boxing match was what I was thinking of- The suicide attempt is a fitting example that I'm struggling to recollect, which is as good an excuse as any to revisit this promptly

[therewillbeblus]

I also like Pauline Kael's blunt reading of "people are disgusting but things are lovely"

Thackeray wrote a skittish, fast-moving parody of romantic, sentimental writing. It was about the adventures of an Irish knave who used British hypocrisy for leverage. However, it must have been Barry Lyndon's ruthless pursuit of wealth and social position rather than his spirit that attracted Stanley Kubrick. His images are fastidiously delicate in the inexpressive, peculiarly chilly manner of the English painters of the period-the mid-18th century—and it's an ice-pack of a movie, a masterpiece in every insignificant detail. Kubrick suppresses most of the active elements that make movies pleasurable. The film says that people are disgusting but things are lovely. And a narrator (Sir Michael Hordern) tells you what's going to happen before you see it. It's a coffee-table movie; the stately tour of European high life is like a three-hour slide show for art-history majors.

Revisiting it tonight, the film plays more and more like a comedy every time, albeit an unsettlingly tragic one in its cool tone that strips our world of its meaning. Even when Barry wins the army brawl or fencing match (his only honest 'wins' in the film), the celebrations are neutered and we return to puritanical ceremonies whereby Barry is but a speck in the expansive shot

[Marwood]

The BFI have produced four very interesting but annoyingly uncredited video essays

The videos are voiced by the always charming and authoritative Neil Brand.

[flyonthewall2983]

Was the voice-over part of the shooting script, or was it devised in post-production?

[Roger Ryan]

Was the voice-over part of the shooting script, or was it devised in post-production?

Kubrick’s initial script used first person narration from Barry himself (as in the Thackeray novel). The script page samples excerpted in that big Taschen book on the director show that the narration hewed very close to what is heard in the final film with “I” replaced by “Barry” or “he”, but with the general tone and intent remaining more-or-less the same. If anything, much of the narration in the original script was trimmed way down.

[flyonthewall2983]

I was talking about this with someone on Letterboxd yesterday. He praised it as a comedy and I countered that it is all in the voiceover, that nothing on screen is funny without it. For far so many personal reasons that third act tension between Barry and his wife’s son was emotionally excruciating on an emotional level, something I could probably draw from every Kubrick I have seen, except Strangelove.

[Roger Ryan]

I would agree that most of the humor, or satire, comes from the juxtaposition of that matter-of-fact narration with the images it accompanies. However, moments like Sir Charles Lyndon’s seizure or Leonard Rossiter’s entire performance always makes me laugh out loud. I consider all of Kubrick’s films post-Spartacus to be satires; it’s just that some are drier than others. Lyndon is unique in that the second half has the most sustained emotional intensity of any of the director’s films, apart from Paths of Glory perhaps.

[therewillbeblus]

The voiceover helps, but the entire juxtaposition that that Kubrick draws between Barry's insignificance and his perceived significance- as well as his function as the central principal in a vast narrative- goes far beyond that surface-level narration. The film is a deliciously sick joke pointed at many specific characteristics and patterns in social dynamics, but more broadly it's targeting how unimportant we are and how the world doesn't give a shit about our expectations (Barry's fear-based borderline empathic/selfish gesture to not fire at the end doesn't wind up reciprocally serving himself as he anticipated, subverting his expectations about cultural etiquette or what he deserves from a Higher Power!) It's the Comedy of Life, and maybe exhibit A on why a local critic once declared the Coen bros "Kubrick's children"

[Quote Perf Unquote]

There's not a single post-Spartacus Kubrick film that isn't completely hilarious, whatever other dramatic qualities they possess. Lotta people tend to overlook his sly humor or can't accept the coexistence humor and drama, which no one does as well as K.

[yoshimori]

"I love the use of the color blue by the artist."

[yoloswegmaster]

Interesting comment I found on a Reddit thread about Scorsese's latest film:

I saw Fran Leibowitz last weekend. She said this is the best movie “Marty” has made and possibly the best movie ever. Debatable ofc but it’s what she said.

She also told a story about watching Barry Lyndon together. Scorsese invites a select few friends, colleagues and film buffs to watch a movie and drink champagne on New Year’s Eve every year. She wasn’t excited to watch this but did anyway. Someone there said they were watching Kubrick’s negative and she didn’t know what that meant and they explained that it’s the original film that was in his camera. She loved the movie in the end but my jaw dropped… can you imagine? Cool to know that it’s in great possession with Scorsese.

BRB, just gonna become a one of the greatest director's of all time just so I can have the clout to watch classic films directly from the original camera negatives.

[nicolas]

Interesting comment I found on a Reddit thread about Scorsese's latest film:

I saw Fran Leibowitz last weekend. She said this is the best movie “Marty” has made and possibly the best movie ever. Debatable ofc but it’s what she said.

She also told a story about watching Barry Lyndon together. Scorsese invites a select few friends, colleagues and film buffs to watch a movie and drink champagne on New Year’s Eve every year. She wasn’t excited to watch this but did anyway. Someone there said they were watching Kubrick’s negative and she didn’t know what that meant and they explained that it’s the original film that was in his camera. She loved the movie in the end but my jaw dropped… can you imagine? Cool to know that it’s in great possession with Scorsese.

BRB, just gonna become a one of the greatest director's of all time just so I can have the clout to watch classic films directly from the original camera negatives.

I don’t think she’s right there. The OCN surely is in Warner’s possession and stored in their vaults. I remember a picture of the late Leon Vitali when he was inside there and the Kubrick negatives were shown stored around him. I can’t imagine they let them out of sight especially as Dr. Strangelove’s negative has been thrown away in the 60s I believe.
For comparison, the 4K Godfather restoration was unprecedented due to the pandemic as the technicians had to take the negative reels home by car or to other facilities for scanning, inspecting etc. I’m not sure whether insurance agencies had the slightest ideas about that.

What’s more likely is that Scorsese has a 35mm (positive) print struck from the negative.

[yoloswegmaster]

Either that or they were playing Kubrick's personal print.

[nicolas]

Either that or they were playing Kubrick's personal print.

Good point!

[Tuppence]

Leibowitz is mistaken, or someone was having a joke on her. You cannot project a negative. Aside from anything else, there is no soundtrack on a camera negative. An answer print from the negative, perhaps Warner's own reference copy, seems the likeliest option.

[EddieLarkin]

Or they were just watching the Blu-ray (or more likely Kaleidescape, which Scorsese is known to use) which is certainly more like "watching the negative" than a print would be... (i.e. she misunderstood that the transfer was directly FROM the negative).

[Peacock]

I was there, and I’m fairly certain it was a VHS he was showing.

[therewillbeblus]

“Marty” is also my BFF and I can attest he’s got the good negs

[hearthesilence]

Leibowitz is mistaken, or someone was having a joke on her. You cannot project a negative. Aside from anything else, there is no soundtrack on a camera negative. An answer print from the negative, perhaps Warner's own reference copy, seems the likeliest option.

That would be hilarious if she added, "Why are the colors fucked up and why is this silent?" to which Marty replied "it's the original camera negative!"

[beamish14]

Leibowitz is mistaken, or someone was having a joke on her. You cannot project a negative. Aside from anything else, there is no soundtrack on a camera negative. An answer print from the negative, perhaps Warner's own reference copy, seems the likeliest option.

That would be hilarious if she added, "Why are the colors fucked up and why is this silent?" to which Marty replied "it's the original camera negative!"

I remember reading a profile of Steven Spielberg in a major magazine which mentioned that he was inspired to join the nascent Film Foundation after watching “the original negative of Jaws in 1989,” which shocked me, too. Aren’t there any fact checkers who are well-versed in film?

[MichaelB]

See also people - sometimes round here, although we’re generally better informed - who refer to “the source print” when talking about a Blu-ray transfer.

Sometimes a projection print is used because there genuinely isn’t an alternative, but for the most part this should be avoided, especially if the film is in colour; the contrast will generally be much too high. There’s a notorious release of Straw Dogs from Fremantle in the UK (Beaver) that’s a textbook example of the problem.

(Optimal sources are the original camera negative, the original interpositive or the original internegative. The OCN is notionally the best, but requires a full regrade, so sometimes the interpos just makes life easier. I remember one project where we went for the interpos because the cement used to hold the various bits of camera neg together was so brittle that we feared for the OCN’s integrity!)