Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Barry Lyndon adapts Thackeray's picaresque novel about the adventures of an 18th-century Irish gambler and social climber. The cinematography was highly innovative: interior scenes were shot with a specially adapted f/0.7 Zeiss lens originally developed for NASA for satellite photography, allowing scenes to be lit only by candlelight.

The lenses were considered "priceless" by the head of Panavision, and Kubrick had his entire camera rebuilt to accommodate them. The result was images that looked, as many critics noted, like moving 18th-century paintings — every frame a Gainsborough or Hogarth.

For many scenes, Kubrick posed actors for an instant before the action, emphasizing the painterly quality. Cinematographer Allen Daviau says it gives the audience a way of seeing characters "as they would have been seen at the time."

The film found a great audience in Europe but put off many American critics with its measured three-hour pace. It was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four — more than any other Kubrick film. Martin Scorsese has cited it as his favourite Kubrick film, and it is now widely regarded as one of cinema's supreme visual achievements.