Cast your mind back a few years – to 1844, when Thackeray’s The Luck of Barry Lyndon came out. I may have started it years ago but I’m pretty sure that I got bogged down and didn’t finish reading it. Stanley Kubrick read it all and his 1975 film eclipses the book to such an extent that most people believe Barry Lyndon to be the title of both book and film.
The film, all 187 minutes, has been re-released in the UK this month. It is a gem and I saw it a few days ago for perhaps the third time but its appeal never wanes.
Michael Horden’s deadpan narration sets the tone. The photography is dazzling, especially the interior scenes that are like seeing pictures by Reynolds, Gainsborough or Watteau come alive. My club has two group portraits by Reynolds and I was often reminded of them. The costumes are completely realistic, the music a mix of Bach, Vivaldi, Schubert, Mozart, Handel and Irish folk music (played by The Chieftains). Much of the film was shot, over nearly a year, in Ireland. Here is a list of the locations culled from Wiki that is worth quoting in full.
Several of the interior scenes were filmed in Powerscourt House, a famous 18th-century mansion in County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland. The house was destroyed in an accidental fire several months after filming (November 1974), so the film serves as a record of the lost interiors, particularly the “Saloon” which was used for more than one scene. The Wicklow Mountains are visible, for example, through the window of the Saloon during a scene set in Berlin. Other locations included Kells Priory (the English Redcoat encampment), Blenheim Palace, Castle Howard (exteriors of the Lyndon estate), Huntington Castle, Clonegal (exterior), Corsham Court (various interiors and the music room scene), Petworth House (chapel, and so on.), Stourhead (lake and temple), Longleat, and Wilton House (interior and exterior) in England, Dunrobin Castle (exterior and garden as Spa) in Scotland, Dublin Castle in Ireland (the chevalier’s home), Ludwigsburg Palace near Stuttgart and Frederick the Great’s Neues Palais at Potsdam near Berlin (suggesting Berlin’s main street Unter den Linden as construction in Potsdam had just begun in 1763). Some exterior shots were also filmed at Waterford Castle (now a luxury hotel and golf course) and Little Island, Waterford. Moorstown Castle in Tipperary also featured. Several scenes were filmed at Castletown House outside Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, and at Youghal, Co. Cork.
Most importantly the cast really live their roles. They are not so well known that their fame makes them hard to believe in. The most famous are Leonard Rossiter (Captain John Quin) and Marisa Berenson (Lady Lyndon) but the others are seasoned character actors who play as a magnificent ensemble.
Ryan O’Neal plays Barry. He had successes in Love Story in 1970 and Paper Moon in 1973 and Warner Brothers may have wanted a box office star to help create a commercial success out of Kubrick’s ambitious and extremely expensive project. It says a lot abut Kubrick’s vision that O’Neal is not as bad as one might expect and does not appear too out of place among a cast of superb character actors. Nevertheless it is a pity that Kubrick didn’t or wasn’t allowed to emulate Tony Richardson, who cast a young Albert Finney in the title role of his 1963 film, Tom Jones, and find a less famous actor to play Barry.
As it turned out the film was expensive, $11 million, but pulled in $31.5 million at the box office. It won four Oscars and appears in many Greatest Films Ever Made lists. Last but not least it has an interval – necessary in such a long but deeply satisfying film. The pictures are all from the film and I hope convey something of its atmosphere. The 1975 trailer is keen to big up the movie.
I have to admit I’ve never seen nor heard of it, though now that you’ve told us about it I’ll certainly go and see it.
It doesn’t seem to be showing in Belfast at the moment.
If it has been remastered, it will be available on DVD or Blu-Ray, several months after the cinema screenings, perhaps?
I recommend seeing it in a cinema with a big screen and a good sound system. It is like David Lean’s films in that it would lose a lot on a a TV screen at home.
Curiously, although WiKi mentions Youghal and Co Waterford as locations, rather ‘en passant’, the Ballinatray Estate which belongs to my family is not named. The top picture in your blog shows the River Blackwater from high in the deerpark at Ballinatray. I spent a couple of happy weeks in the beautiful autumn of 1973 watching filming at Ballinatray and being astonished by the amount of hanging around and retakes. Berenson, O’Neal & Rossiter occasionally showed signs of boredom. The first time I ever heard Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ sonata was when the film was released and it remains one of my most treasured pieces of chamber music.