Stanley Kubrick is one of the most innovative filmmakers in the history of cinema. His films were met with great anticipation as he sought to utilize a new technique in making his pictures. Barry Lyndon is no exception. For the period piece, Kubrick wanted the film to look like it would in an era where no electricity was to be found for lighting. Kubrick decided to use candles to light scenes which required innovation in camera lenses as the highest grade cinema cameras did not have an aperture on the lens that could open up wide enough to allow such minimal light in and create proper exposure on the film. Kubrick turned to NASA who had created lenses for space missions and used their technology for the film. The lenses he used had the lowest f-stop of any lens in film history (f-stop refers to the aperture opening on the camera lens). By using this and making other technical adjustments with the camera, Kubrick was able to create images lit only by candlelight that added to the value of the period drama.
Kubrick’s cinematographer, John Alcott won an Oscar for the film for Best Cinematography. He and Kubrick collaborated on the composition and lighting of each frame in such a specific way as to make it feel it belonged to the period. Or better yet, that it belonged as a painting hanging in a museum. Kubrick and Alcott were inspired by multiple paintings from the era of King George III and sought to compose images that recreated the composition, light and tone of the pieces that inspired them. Many times in the film we see Kubrick choose a wide shot to showcase a landscape or to make the characters appear small in the frame. This choice is one often seen in paintings, but used mainly as coverage in today’s filmmaking. By doing this Kubrick created a total atmosphere of the time and of the feelings of the people’s stories he was telling. Most memorably the scene where Lord Bullingdon arrives home to challenge Redmond and Redmond is passed out drunk with other men slumped around a table. The imagery if looked at in a still frame could be mistaken for an oil painting.
Kubrick’s choice to film the picture this way was masterful as it created a language between the audience and the characters in that the story took place 200 years prior and most of what we know is seen in museums and read in books. Kubrick then made a film where it appeared we were in one moment looking at a painting on a wall, and then allowed to walk into it and join the characters amongst the vibrance of the oils. Kubrick’s film was nominated for Best Picture and took home 4 Oscars.
