Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick; US, 1975)

Picaresque? Or picturesque? Regardless, this blithely ribald tale of a young Irishmen longing to become an English aristocrat recounts with illuminating wit his well-earned comeuppance. Such lechery and larceny as he can muster gather about our lucky Lyndon, played by Ryan O’Neal, upon whose shoulders this grand adventure fits like an off-sized suit of vintage cloth. Casting about in eighteenth-century Ireland, the antihero dabbles with soldiering, sedition, and, more often, seduction in a desperate effort to transcend his impoverished ways. Narrated by a sly and prophetic observer, much of what we know of Lyndon’s rakish life might be false but the field upon which he plays strives for authenticity. Referencing the paintings of artists such as Hogarth, Reynolds, and Gainsborough, Kubrick sought to reproduce the milieu with grand factuality. Most famous is the engineering of high-speed cameras that could capture the lusty scene with only candlelight illuming. Few films can hold a candle to Barry Lyndon’s exquisite recreation of the Irish countryside and its ornate estates. Filled with ignoble duels, musty grandeur, and the hypocrisy of the besotted aristocracy, Kubrick’s flamboyant fable is like an antiquated orb held up to a dim but detailed light.

• Written by Kubrick, based on the story “The Luck of Barry Lyndon, Esq., A Romance of the Last Century” by William Makepeace Thackeray. Photographed by John Alcott. With Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger. (184 mins, Color, DCP, From Warner Bros.)