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Stanley Kubrick, "Barry Lyndon", and the 50MM F/1.0 lens...


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Anyone has technical and historical comments concerning the lens used

by Stanley Kubrick in the filming of "Barry Lyndon". This lens was a

special 50MM F/1.0 made by Zeiss or Leitz (I am not sure). Where can

I find informations about this special lens and if it was used for

others scientific and industrial applications... Thanks...

Jean-Pierre Auger.

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>>Good film marred by poor casting of Ryan O'Neal in my opinion<<

 

Right. The first person narrator in the book (actually a 1844 magazine installment) is much more entertaining, because he is writing his memoirs in his inimitable and uncomprehending way, in terms of how his life has turned out. In the movie there's a narrator to explain things in the third person.

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I thought the same about Ryan O'neal at first but in retrospect I think his shallowness

added a certain authenticity somehow to the kind of person like that who just falls

into things and goes along like that. His being an american playing an englishman or

whatever was mostly what I thought didnt work too well.

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I thought Vanity Fair the better read. The recent Tom-Cruise-

narrated documentary about Kubrick mentions his use of this

lens for the candle lit scenes, and how there was almost zero

DOF, with the challenges that entailed, etc.etc. More entertaining

was the story of how he cajoled two rare mechanical motion

picture cameras (I can't recall the marque) from the studio boss,

who had no idea how valuable they were.

 

Tom

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See also the Noctilux topic in the Leica FAQ I maintain:<P>

 

<<A HREF="http://nemeng.com/leica/040b.shtml">

http://nemeng.com/leica/040b.shtml</A>><P>

 

After the page loads, scroll down to the bottom for discussion and links about

the Zeiss lens. The french TV documentary "The Dark Side of the Moon", which

deals with the real reasons why Nasa let Kubrick use this lens, is a hoot.

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Kubrick is just about my favourite director. I find most of his main characters to

have a naive, shallow way about them; part of why I like them, perhaps.

Maybe someone could have done a better job than O'Neal, but I wonder how

much better; Kubrick was supposed to have been such a domineering

presence on the set that I think any character would have molded themselves

exactly how he wanted them.

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Asides from David Lynch, Kubrick is my favourite director. I dare say he's the greatest of them all but that might be because he is such an imposing name in cinema.

 

Problem is that I still have some of his movies to watch. That's because I've been waiting for the 'perfect' moment to watch them. Well, being patient is one of my virtues.

 

BTW that French doco, 'The Dark Side of the Moon' is a hoax. Had me fooled. The French are experts at that sort of thing. Bastards! ;-)

 

Didn't NASA also use a Leica M with the 0.95 Canon 50mm?

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