Barry Lyndon

The period drama has become a stagnant and tired genre. It’s become a boil-in-the-bag, easy-to-use concept which has sadly become a staple of the melodrama and romance genres. Barry Lyndon is the ultimate exception to this. In a sense it is the period drama film. The film, like all of the other Stanley Kubrick films, carries itself with such a huge amount of grace that it almost becomes the pinnacle of that genre.

Barry Lyndon is the epic tale of Redmond Barry who lies, cheats and steals his way to becoming a part of the upper-class aristocracy. The three hour story is unlike others of the same vein as the way in which Kubrick moves the camera round the images and characters is an absolute turning point in cinematic history.

I’ve always thought of Kubrick as being the one director who actually knows how to move a camera and actually understands the importance of the camera. He never seems to move the people around the camera, which is often a fundamental mistake most directors make, but rather he manipulates the camera around the people. This is not to be seen as a bad thing, but rather a genuine stroke of genius; a way of drawing the camera and subject together.

The film uses a huge amount of natural light, which although may seem a pretty obvious choice, it seems to leave such a lasting impression on you once the film is over. It is not the daylight shooting that makes the film’s authenticity seem to bloom; it is the interior night shooting that is the film’s strong point. The use of candle lighting is something that is challenging as it produces such a warm and rounded image which is absolutely mesmerising. It also adds to the romance and flamboyancy of the costumes and sets that the characters are in. It also seems to draw focus to the characters and to the settings, as it only illuminates the area very close to the light source itself so essentially there are large sections of the frame that are encased in darkness and it is this contrast of light and dark within the frame that arguably makes the way the film has been made so utterly appealing.

The use of the camera itself is always the defining point in a Stanley Kubrick film and in Barry Lyndon he uses a lot telephoto shots which give the film a very flat and drained look and at times it also seems fuzzy. It this that gives the film a total sense of authenticity and it actually feels like the grand paintings that you often see in large stately homes. There is also a large amount of steadicam and tracking shots, which is always something that I’ve admired about Kubrick because it seems to leave the people the focus of the film, rather than detracting from them. These two techniques also make it seem that Kubrick is moving the camera around the people and the settings, allowing them to move as they normally would. It also makes it seem that he is documenting the actions rather than directing the actions for the sake of the camera.

I’ve always felt that Stanley Kubrick’s films look and seem timeless, they never seem to age or look dated, which also makes it interesting to work out when the events are supposed to have taken place. Even The Shining looks like it could be in a form of futuristic dystopia. Barry Lyndon however is the total opposite to this rule: it took us way into the past and showed us what it would be like to live in a historic dystopia where nothing is easy and we must try and keep trying to get what we want. The film is totally ambitious, daring and ruthless and it exploits this to largest degree and it does it very, very well.