Barry Lyndon began when Stanley Kubrick’s long-gestating historical epic on Napoleon fell apart in the early '70s. 

Kubrick pivoted to Thackeray’s 1844 novel, The Luck of Barry Lyndon. He looked to make a film that was far removed from the modern urban world, while also making some use of the years of preproduction he had done on Napoleon. What resulted was one of the most beautiful movies ever made. Kubrick managed to portray a nineteenth-century world and protagonist that might be similar to Voltaire’s Candide, looking for that “best of all possible worlds,” when fate delivers quite a different outcome. Join this seminar with Emerson professor Barry Marshall for more Barry on Barry! 

About Barry Marshall

For more than two decades, Barry Marshall has been at Emerson College, where he teaches film history. He wrote about film for several newspapers in the '70s and early '80s, including the alternative weekly, The Real Paper. He has been curating and presenting film series for the Boston Public Library for the past ten years.