Cinema Can Do Opulence: Barry Lyndon

Finding pleasure and luxuriating in opulent films of great visual and acoustic grandeur is easiest when they are seen on the big screen – like at Arsenal 1 at Potsdamer Platz until 15.12.! Freely adapted from the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, Stanley Kubrick’s BARRY LYNDON depicts the different stations in the life of Irish land nobleman Redmond Barry at the end of 18th century with epic breadth, tracing first his rise into the highest echelons of society followed by his fall into poverty and insignificance. Kubrick reconstructs the bygone era with exemplary precision, had costumes made based on original sketches and shot interiors lit only by candlelight with the help of a special lens provided by NASA. Panoramas and portraits give the film the static quality of a painting with impressive use of color. Music of different genres – folk music, military music, romantic chamber music – characterizes the shift in the social milieus and comments on the social dynamics in the protagonist’s surroundings. (al)