Barry Lyndon (1975) - Kubrick's elegant 19th century costume whopper

♥♥♥♥♥

The simple, elegant poster for Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon is an adaption of a 1844 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray titled The Luck of Barry Lyndon. It is the second of American master director Stanley Kubrick's (Spartacus (1960)) two 1970's movies, the previous one being A Clockwork Orange (1971). He would make only three more films in his career after Lyndon: The Shining (1980), his greatest film of them all, and the great Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
Barry Lyndon is a young Irishman in the early 19th century, who falls in love and jumps head-strong into trouble, as the object of his affection is to marry an English captain. This begins the tale of his life's adventure, which leads him around Europe as an opportunistic charmer, until he, somewhat disillusioned, marries a beautiful and wealthy countess, whom he doesn't love, and starts to squander his life thus.
This grand period drama, arranged in two parts with an intermission in between, captivates with its smart writing, incredibly beautiful images and Ryan O'Neal (What's Up, Doc? (1972)) in the title lead as the sympathetic, emotional Lyndon, whom most of us will like at times and dislike at others, but always want to follow due to O'Neal's sincere performance. Lyndon is a man who, for most of the story, seems to just follow his luck and do what seems to be the best thing for himself at any given moment. (Which is something most will probably be able to feel empathic about.)
Backing him up are some wonderful performers: Marisa Berenson (Death in Venice (1971)) is perfect as his unfulfilled, melancholic wife the countess, and Murray Melvin (A Taste of Honey (1961)) is equally audacious as Reverend Samuel Runt. Their facial qualities are heightened to great effect by exquisite make-up, hair, wigs, and costumes of supreme level, and it is no wonder that the film won an Oscar for Best Costumes (besides for Best Music, Cinematography and Art-Direction/Set-Decoration.)

Murray Melvin in the middle and Marisa Berenson to the right in this still of one of the solely candle-lit scenes in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon

Ryan O'Neal and Marisa Berenson, majestically attired in another still with much more light and therefore details from Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon

The details:

Michael Hordern (Labyrinth (1986)) lends his pleasant, great voice to the film as its narrator, who is sometimes declared unreliable, (by film critics or scholars.) He certainly sets a knowing, darkly humorous, and later a little sad tone for the epic.
Barry Lyndon is remarkable also for its impressive ambition to be shot without electrical lights, which seemed to have been mostly kept during its production, where some scenes are only lid by candlelights, which drastically diminishes the quality of the images a camera can shoot. The challenging idea is carried out masterfully by Oscar-winning cinematographer John Alcott (The Shining (1980)).
Barry Lyndon has stunning, picturesque images, an accomplishment which relies on a mix of careful production, composition and visual inspiration. The film also delights with Kubrick's choice of great classical masterworks by composers like Handel, Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Paisiello, Vivaldi as well as Irish folk songs. All this music isn't crammed into the picture, because there's time:
At 184 minutes, Barry Lyndon is a long film, and it's 3rd act also is a bit longer than it ought to be in my opinion. 
Still, duels, tableaus, incredible horse-shots and all, Barry Lyndon is a tremendously fine experience, well-acted, realistic as a period depiction, and with heavy literary and picturesque qualities.

Related reviews:

Stanley Kubrick: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - A robot fairytale with both heart and mind (concept only)
The Shining (1980) - Kubrick's descent into madness is a timeless masterpiece
Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date
A Clockwork Orange (1971) or, Outrage! The intellectual sci-fi-prison-crime-drama Shocker!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) or, Humanity and Space 

England goes to war! In Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon

 Watch the braggadocio trailer here

Cost: Est. 11 mil. $
Box office: Reported 20.1 mil. $
= Big flop

What do you think of Barry Lyndon?
What is Kubrick's greatest film in your opinion?

What's Up, Doc? (1972) - Screwball comedy revived for a wonderful show

♥♥♥♥♥

Even the credits and poster work is brimming with spirit and right on the money for Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc?

Four highly important plaid overnight bags get mixed up in San Francisco around a musicologist doctor, who is in town with his fiancee Eunice to compete for a grant.

Barbra Streisand (Funny Girl (1968)) is the sprawling stranger who begins to impersonate the doctor's wife, hilariously played by master comedienne Madeline Kahn (Blazing Saddles (1974)). Ryan O'Neal (Barry Lyndon (1975)) is the very cute and confused Doc in the middle. Both Streisand and O'Neal look sweet as pie, and they also have great screen chemistry. They are sexy and funny in What's Up, Doc?, often at the same time.
But this is not merely a mix-up romcom, but also an homage to all the old, classic screwball comedies as made by Howard Hawks (Bringing Up Baby (1938)), Frank Capra (Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)), Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve (1941)) etc. in the high days of Old Hollywood. Gender-related mix-ups with gags of all kinds involved, it is a genre I have sometimes thought too silly to be really funny, but in great New York filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich's (Targets (1968)) able and very enthusiastic vision, I am laughing and rejoicing in the calamities again and again.
Great Hungarian cinematographer László Kovacs (Easy Rider (1969)) supplies great crips pictures, and Bogdanovich has cast an incredible supporting cast to one outrageously funny character after the other. It all concludes in a memorable and quite elaborate chase through San Francisco and then a court room scene that simply puts the capital H in Hilarity.
The Streisand character is especially cartoonish, deliberately, SPOILER and the film's ending pays appropriate homage to Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes.
What's Up, Doc? will make you laugh and make you happy and perhaps also a bit nostalgic. It is written by Buck Henry (Catch-22 (1970)), David Newman (Superman (1978)) and Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)), based on Bogdanovich's story. It is one of my all-time favorite comedies and one that I can watch again and again and fall in love with all over every single time.
Bogdanovich is a somewhat under-appreciated American filmmaker and actor. He has made several good films, especially The Last Picture Show (1971), which, - on the other hand, - is an incredibly depressing film. He has also made many film documentaries, montages and books on filmmakers and actors. I just finished reading his Who the Hell's In It, which is an incredible joy to read for anyone who loves film and film stars. It features chapters on Bogdanovich's encounters/relationships with stars like John Wayne, Marlene Dietrich, James Stewart, James Cagney, Charlie Chaplin, Lillian Gish etc., including comments on their major achievements. - A great book from a great guy.

Related posts:

Peter Bogdanovich: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011) - Stapleton's Corman doc. is among the year's best films (interview subject) 
The Wild Angels (1966) - Young biker rebels deliver a counter-culture punch in Corman's hands (co-writer)

Watch the very unorthodox, unpretentious and funny trailer for the hilarious comedy, What's Up, Doc? here

Cost: 4 mil. $
Box office: 66 mil. $ + 3 mil. in 1973 re-run rentals (North America only)
= Mega-hit (returned at least 17.25 times the cost)
[What's Up, Doc? premiered 9 March (New York) and runs 94 minutes. It was shot in New Jersey and California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, from August - December 1971. It became the 3rd highest grossing film of the year in North America, behind The Godfather and The Poseidon Adventure. The only international figure I have available is from Sweden, where the film was also a major hit with 1.1 mil. admissions there. The film's success closely tails the subsequent major hits Jaws (1975) and Star Wars: Episode VI - A New Hope (1977), said to have started the blockbuster term. The 1982 video release of the film garnered another 28.5 mil. $ in rentals. Bogdanovich returned with Paper Moon (1973). Streisand returned in Up the Sandbox (1972), O'Neal in The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973). What's Up, Doc? is fresh at 90% with a 7.4/10 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of What's Up, Doc??