Videos:

DVD

VHS

CDs:

BEHIND THE SCENES * CUT SCENE

STORY:
Rise and fall of Irish rogue in 18th century Europe.

BACKGROUND:

Barry Lyndon was filmed entirely on location in Ireland, England, and the Continent.

Kubrick wrote the screen adaptation alone, the first draft of the script taking 3 to 4 months to complete, but according to Kubrick, writing, as always, continued throughout the shooting of the film. He changed the first-person narration of the novel to third-person in the film because he felt the first-person unreliable narrator style worked well for comedy but not drama.

Similar to his use of architectural magazines for finding locations on A Clockwork Orange, on this film Kubrick used art books as references to make suitable clothes, furniture, hand props, vehicles, architecture, etc. Actual antique clothing was acquired and studied so that new clothes could be made using the same methods as the originals. 35 seamstresses and tailors worked for 6 months before filming began.

Insisting on shooting with natural light whenever possible, Kubrick shot all of the night interiors solely by candelabras and oil lamps. This was accomplished by pushing (over developing) the film stock and employing specially adapted low light lenses originally developed by NASA. These lenses had such a shallow focus range that, according to Marisa Berenson, the actors often couldn't move forwards or backwards during certain close-ups or they would go out of focus. Modern film emulsions now make this early 1970s technology obsolete.

For the music, Kubrick listened to every available recording of 18th century music, but found that there were no tragic love themes in that period, so he used Schubert's Trio in E Flat, composed in 1828. Since Kubrick also found 18th century music was generally not very dramatic, he brought in Leonard Rosenman to create more appropriate orchestrations of the period music selected for the film.

Originally budgeted at $2.5 million, Barry Lyndon reportedly shot for between 250 and 300days and ended up costing $11 million.

TRIVIAL TIDBITS:

• William M. Thackery's novel Barry Lyndon first appeared serialized in Frasier's Magazine in 1884 under the title "The Luck of Barry Lyndon." When it was later published as a novel it was re-titled The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. Written by Himself.

• The final duel scene between Barry and his stepson reportedly took 42 working days to edit.

• Ryan O'Neal took sword-fighting lessons for months in preparation for the film.

• Lady Lyndon's castle was actually composed of scenes shot in 4 different mansions.

American trailer for Barry Lyndon

CREDITS:
Production Company -- Warner Bros./Hawk Films
Producer -- Stanley Kubrick
Director -- Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay-- Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by William Makepeace Thackery
Cinematographer -- John Alcott
Editor -- Tony Lawson
Music -- Adapted by Leonard Rosenman
Production Designer -- Ken Adam
Art Director -- Roy Walker
Costumes -- Ulla-Britt Soderlund, Milena Canonero
Sound -- Robin Gregory, Rodney Holland
Cast:
Barry Lyndon -- Ryan O'Neal
Lady Lyndon -- Marisa Berenson
The Chevalier -- Patrick Magee
Captain Potzdorf -- Hardy Krueger
Nora -- Gay Hamilton
Captain Crogan -- Godfrey Quigley
Lord Bullingdon -- Leon Vitali
Captain Quinn -- Leonard Rossiter
Highwayman -- Arthur O'Sullivan
Reverend Runt -- Murray Melvin
Barry's Mother -- Marie Kean
German Girl -- Diana Koerner
Graham -- Phillip Stone
Sir Charles Lyndon -- Frank Middlemass
Lord Wendover -- Andre Morell
Lord Ludd -- Steven Berkoff
Lord Hallum -- Anthony Sharp
Narrator-- Michael Hordern
Running time: 185 minutes
Distributor: Warner Bros.

back to filmography
back to biography
home