Kubrick and Co.

1975/color/185 min./35mm | Scr/dir: Stanley Kubrick; w / Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson, Leon Vitali, Patrick Magee, Hardy Kruger, Steven Berkoff, Gay Hamilton, Leonard Rossiter.

Kubrick’s ravishing adaption of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel stars Ryan O’Neal as an unscrupulous chancer who gambles, duels, and seduces his way through the parlors, palaces, and battlefields of 18th-century Europe.  Born into a poor, rural Irish family, Lyndon constantly transforms himself, donning different guises as he drifts through the currents and courts of European gentry in constant pursuit of two prizes that prove most ephemeral: wealth and happiness. Though a stately period film might seem like an odd change of pace for a director best known at the time for A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick’s technical virtuosity makes for a film as immersive as its predecessors, and every bit as audacious as the picaresque exploits of its (anti)hero. The film’s visual richness is the result of Kubrick’s meticulous attention to historical and technical detail, including wigs made of real hair courtesy of an Italian convent. The film’s exquisite outdoor scenes were based on a careful study of the era’s landscape paintings. Likewise, a special lens—originally developed by NASA for use on satellites—was adapted for a film camera so that cinematographer John Alcott could shoot most of the film’s indoor scenes solely by candlelight.

The next installment of Doug Benson’s Movie Interruption, where Doug and his friends (who, in the past, have included everyone from Brian Posehn to Sarah Silverman and Zach Galifianakis) chill on the front row couches, mics in hand, and say whatever hilarious thing pops into their heads while a movie of their choosing unfolds on the screen. This time, Doug & Co. tackle one of their all-time favorites: 1991′s Point Break!.

Dir. Katherine Bigelow, 1991, 35mm, 123 min.