UK/USA 1975

Directed by Stanley Kubrick

With Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick McGee, Hardy Krüger, Diana Koerner, Leon Vitali, Steven Berkoff

184 min

12A

DCP

Legendary director Stanley Kubrick’s tenth feature film is one of Kubrick’s finest and most influential films and has been named as one of the greatest films ever made in polls including Sight & Sound and Time.

In this adaption of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about the exploits of an 18th century Irish adventurer, Ryan O’Neal stars as Redmond Barry (later Barry Lyndon) and Marisa Berenson is Lady Lyndon. Among the great supporting cast are Patrick McGee, Hardy Krüger, Diana Koerner, Leon Vitali, Steven Berkoff, Murray Melvin and Leonard Rossiter.

Only a cinema screen can do justice to the stunning visuals of Barry Lyndon. Kubrick went to incredible lengths in his research of the period in order to re-create it accurately. Inspired by painters such as Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth, the film has a beautiful, painterly look, enhanced by filming in natural or historically accurate light sources. Some scenes were lit only by candlelight, captured by the super-fast lenses of Oscar®-winning cinematographer John Alcott.