barry lyndon.

i had never heard of "barry lyndon" prior to the kubrick exhibit at the lacma. after viewing the caravaggio exhibit, my friends and i wandered the gift shop and checked out the kubrick items. i started to point out what i haven't seen and when i pointed to "barry lyndon", my friend lisa said it was boring. even with that warning i decided to give it a watch.

and lisa was right. it was boring. it was also three hours long. three hours long!!! so the movie is about the rise and fall of barry lyndon. the first half is a snoozefest but it started to get interesting when he meets lady lyndon. so pretty much the last hour of the film was good. also there is some foreshadowing that he dies childless and penniless so i looked forward to seeing how fate change for him. i also wanted to see his stepson get his revenge on him. so all of that got me interested in the movie whereas the first half did nothing to keep my attention.

the thing that surprised me is when i looked up this movie on wikipedia, the critics were all for it. magazines like time and village voice took polls and listed it as one of the greatest films of all times. scorsese said it was the best of kubrick's films! and the cover listed it as a winner of 4 academy awards: best art/direction, cinematography, costume design and scoring. i was surprised because like i said before the first half was quite boring.

but regardless of context the film was visually beautiful. the back cover explained that lens were pioneered to shoot interiors and exteriors in natural light. and that is one thing that is amazing in this film is the lighting. also all of the interior scenes with candlelight. everything looked like an oil painting from that era. some of the scenes seemed more like a work of art than a scene in a film. i bet sofia coppola would have given her left kidney for scenes like that in "marie antoinette".

the most beautiful scenes were with lady lyndon who was played by marisa berenson. she reminded me of emma rossum. here are some of my favorite scenes:

i am actually looking forward to see some of her costumes in the exhibit. i hope they have some. they should since those costumes won an academy award.

overall, i am glad i watched it once but will prolly not watch it again. i also feel that some of his other films are stronger contenders for "kubrick's greatest film".