This year is the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Barry Lyndon is one of the films that convinced me of the power and distinctiveness of cinema, of its versatility and its capacity to contain multitudes. This “rake’s progress” of a roguish antihero making his way and his fortune, surviving and scheming, striving and conniving through the battlefields and bedrooms and noble houses of 18th-century Europe has a bewitching power utterly unexpected for its subject matter. At a Glance A glance at the plot makes it seem likely this will be a film full of vim and vigour, energy and dynamism – a James Bond or Flashman-esque escapade of biting remarks and... Please log in or subscribe for $12/month.