Barry Lyndon - Page 2

george kaplan · 01-31-2002, 07:16 PM

OK. I put in the Billy Wilder quote cause someone brought up the candles, and I thought his quote was funny. Some here have construed it as disrespecting Kubrick. So, in the interest of fairness I am including more. It would take way too long to type in the whole interview, but I hope people see that Wilder did think highly of Kubrick. BTW, this was prior to the release of Eyes Wide Shut.

Quote:

I love all his movies. Kubrick, he was a wonderful director...(more including the candle quote)...that's the only Kubrick picture that I did not like...The first half of Full Metal Jacket was the best picture I ever saw. Where the guy sits on the toilet and blows his head off? Terrific. Then he lost himself with the girl guerrilla. The second half, down a little. It's still a wonderful picture. You know, if he does a thing, he really does it. But this is...this is a career to discuss. Every picture, he trumps the trump. These are all pictures any director would be proud to be associated with, much less make...(discussion veers towards The Bicycle Thief, Wilder praising it, then he is asked about Dr. Strangelove)...
Oh, I love that. That's one of my favorite pictures, Dr. Strangelove...It was a wonderful picture, but so was Lolita. She was a little too old. He had to make a little sacrifice there. I hear they've remade it again, getting the character's ages closer to the book. I'm ninety-one, I'm the right age. (laughs)...
(he then tells a story that has nothing to do with Kubrick, but I'm going to include it anyway since I'm typing. He's talking about the preview cards for Ninotchka)...
We were previewing Ninotchka, and Lubitsch took the writers along too...outside in the lobby there, a stack of cards, with the audience invited to put down their thoughts...Lubitsch takes the cards...and he starts reading, "very good", "brilliant"...twenty cards. But when he comes to the twenty-first card, he starts laughing as hard as I ever saw him laugh...I have the card - "Funniest picture I ever saw. So funny that I peed in my girlfriend's hand."

Ken_McAlinden · 02-01-2002, 09:35 AM

The vibe I got from Barry Lyndon was that the ugliness was entirely in the actions/behaviors/minds of the characters, but the surface was like a beautiful painting. It sort of did for 18th century European nobility what David Lynch likes to do to 20th century small town America (Lynch's paintings were by Norman Rockwell

). The unwillingness/incapability of some characters to grasp this is what allows Barry to press his advantage at certain points.

Regards,

Mike Broadman · 02-01-2002, 01:32 PM

Quote:

The vibe I got from Barry Lyndon was that the ugliness was entirely in the actions/behaviors/minds of the characters, but the surface was like a beautiful painting.

Yeah, that's the kind of thing I was talking about.

Quote:

My take is that the garden scenes and the shots of Lady Lyndon's manor are stunningly gorgeous. And the gambling scenes, where everyone has the makeup on and all, are extraordinarily beautiful.

Of course. They had to be, in order to highlight the ugliness of people's nature. It's as if they're so beautiful, that it's ugly.

Like that scene where Mrs. Lyndon and her son discover Barry with the maid in the garden. Everything looks gorgeous: the garden, the sky, the people. Everything was classy, aristocratic, polite. Barry and the maid were in the distance, so it doesn't look sleazy. But it "feels" sleazy, and ugly.

See, this is why I don't write movie reviews. I just watch stuff and like it.

Jack Briggs · 02-01-2002, 02:33 PM

Mike, I'm finally getting a clearer picture (better signal?) of what you're saying. And I see your points. And once again, I must apologize for my misunderstanding. JB

andreasingo · 02-01-2002, 06:01 PM

Mike, that's exactly the same feeling I got. Just watch out for the scene where Barry tells his son those horrible bed-time stories...

Allen Skurow · 11-24-2002, 12:56 AM

Demanding satisfaction - canvassing Kubrick's 'Lyndon.

PART I

BY WHAT MEANS STANLEY KUBRICK
ACQUIRED THE STYLE AND TITLE OF
SOVEREIGN DE CINEMATIQUE

Scorsese couldn't do it. Spielberg? Nope. Kurasawa? Uh uh. Hitchcock,
negatory. What is it? The mastery of diverse movie genres.

So here you have it - often attempted, never duplicated -
Kubrick's septuple crown of cinema:

War - Paths of Glory
Sex - Lolita
Horror - The Shining
Crime and punishment - A Clockwork Orange
Science Fiction - 2001: A Space Odyssey
Comedy - Dr Strangelove

And

Period piece - Barry Lyndon - surely among the finest ever put to celluloid.

PART II

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE
FORTUNES AND ATTAINMENT
WHICH BEFELL 'BARRY LYNDON'

Herein Kubrick has assembled a dream team of production, costume, makeup, and set designers, cinematographer, editor, composer, and actors. Their contributions cannot be underestimated, as well as the skill with which they were assembled by producer Stanley. But, of course it's all for naught if you can't nail the shoot and carry it through to post. No problemo. Here S.K. is at the top of his game.

The film features scenes and shot sequences that are directly modeled after period oils by Gainsborough, Dayes, Hogarth, Watteau, and Fragonard, among other European masters. And one could easily imagine freezing dozens of the immaculately composed shots from the movie, and painting/framing/walling a museum wing with them (a well-deserved Oscar here for long time Kubrick cinematographer John Alcott.)

And indeed, the entire proceedings can be seen as the extrapolation of events before and after the stasis of an old photograph, drawing, etching, or painting. And it's from a formidable palette that the maestro applies his
brush-strokes. The understanding of scene subtext, nuance, pacing, and pitch is complete here...consummate, and he is able to hold a candle up to these character's hearts and souls. It's pure film making.

Highlights:

- Sublime narration, by Michael Hordern, conveys a
dispassionate, inevitable, melancholy to the proceedings.

- Brilliant contrasting of genteel, polite proclamation/interaction with seething rage, spattering resentment, and physical/ballistic violence is a masterstroke.

- Marisa Berenson lies languidly, semi-nude in a tub. Boredom, betrayal, resignation, and desperation freeze her face practically out of the plane of the film and into a two dimensional mask of stoic misery.

- A convivial cotillion of chamber music explodes into brutal chaos as Lord Bullington confronts Barry's treacherous, tyrannical patriarchy.

- An epiphanic, extended dueling set-piece in a barn. Powder white pigeons flit about the dusky autumnal dawn air. Their wings flutter a warning - their coos a prayer. Crucifixes carved in the masonry are naught but holes in the wall - for there is no sacrament here - no sanctuary. Draw your pistols and take your marks...exact your satisfaction or your severance...and the devil take you...the devil take you all...

And in a glaring omission, academy boobs snubbed Lycra Spandex's uplifting performance - in a dual role - as a push-up bra in the category of breast supporting actress.

EPILOGUE

IT WAS IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE BUSH THE II
THAT THE AFORESAID DIRECTORIAL PERSONAGES
LIVED AND QUARRELED; GOOD OR BAD, HANDSOME
OR UGLY, RICH OR POOR

THEY ARE ALL UNEQUAL NOW

John Watson · 11-24-2002, 09:16 AM

What, no western?

BarryR · 11-24-2002, 11:17 AM

Well, THE SHINING >did< have a passing reference to Indian attacks!

Evan Case · 11-24-2002, 12:24 PM

For the sake of argument regarding genres, check out the filmography of one Howard Hawks: Action, Sports, Comedy (some of the best of all-time), Crime & Punishment, Gangster (some of the best of all-time), Film Noir (some of the best of all-time), Musical, Western (some of the best of all-time), War, Romance, "Modern" Historical Epic, "Ancient" Historical Epic, Safari/Wildlife, and Science Fiction (allegedly, anyway). Perhaps others I'm forgetting.

For me, it's not genre diversification that makes a director great but rather what they do with their genres of choice. IMO, Kubrick does this better than any director in history, save one (Alfred Hitchcock).

Oh yeah, did I mention that Barry Lyndon might be the most beautiful live-action color film ever? Probably my second favorite Kubrick film.

Evan

Dome Vongvises · 11-24-2002, 12:34 PM

I tried watching Barry Lyndon once. I couldn't do it.....because school got in the way.

:p)

Seriously, I saw about fourty-five minutes and loved every single one spent. It was highly unfortunate I couldn't finish it because of one interference or another.

Jack Briggs · 11-24-2002, 02:21 PM

And Allen Skurow finally resurrects a thread worth bringing back to life. In this case, Allen, I agree with your assessment a hundred percent.