Barry Lyndon
1975, Stanley Kubrick, UK/USA
| Director: Stanley Kubrick Producer: Stanley Kubrick Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, from the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray Cinematography: John Alcott Production Design: Ken Adam Editor: Tony Lawson Music: Leonard Rosenman | Ryan O’Neal (Barry Lyndon) Marisa Berenson (Lady Honoria Lyndon) Patrick Magee (The Chevalier du Balibari) Hardy Kruger (Captain Potzdorf) Leonard Rossiter (Captain John Quin) Michael Hordern (Narrator [voice]) |
Rating: PG low level violence Runtime: 185 minutes plus a 15 minute Intermission
Special encore screening!
Our opening night screening of Barry Lyndon was an amazing success – so popular we had to turn members away – we announced soon after this that we had decided to arrange a special one-off encore screening to ensure as many people as possible get a chance to see Stanley Kubrick’s stately, sumptuous drama on the big screen, where it belongs.
Released in 1975, Barry Lyndon is Stanley Kubrick’s take on a period drama, an adaptation of the novel The Luck Of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray (best known for Vanity Fair). It follows Irish upstart Redmond Barry as his fate rises and falls in the setting of 18th Century Europe.
Among the many notable elements of the film, its production design and cinematography are especially outstanding. Kubrick channelled the years of research spent on his abandoned Napoleon project into Barry Lyndon. The film is full of beautifully composed shots that echo painting of the period. Always a technical innovator, Kubrick wanted to shoot this film without electric light so he worked with NASA to access camera lenses that would enable him to shoot in such low light environments.
The acclaim for Barry Lyndon has increased in recent decades, previously seen as a lesser work from the man who made 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange, it is now widely regarded as one of Kubrick’s masterpieces.
It’s a film that is truly worth seeing in the cinema and we know it will look incredible in the Embassy Theatre. It’s a long film, at just over three hours, and comes with an intermission which we will be taking advantage of to give everyone a chance to stretch their legs and restock on drinks. Many thanks to the wonderful team at the Embassy Theatre for allowing us to screen a longer film than usual on this occasion.