Opulent, beautiful - paintings come to life; Kubricks often overlooked masterpiece.

Rating: 8/10 (21 November 2019)

Save to say - I avoided watching this wonderful 3 hour long epos for many years, because 2001 or the Shining seemed more thrilling. What made me finally watch it was the art of KEN ADAMS, the brilliant production designer for many Kubrick films (2001!) and this was one of the rare films where he had to use sets on location. And got an Oscar for it. So - time to watch this, jeez!
I must say: I was overwhelmed by the raw power of the images. Old dutch paintings came to life and each detail was thought through. The film lives through his brilliant actors, but also the slow zoom out, the image compositions, the (mostly natural (or inspired by natural light situations...) light and the intense making process impressed me for sure. --- Man, did you know they used a NASA camera lens that was 0.7 aperture due to Kubricks idea of filming interior scenes with candle light? Or that they had to use camera light filters excessively because they traveled 8 months through France, Germany and Ireland to get these amazing, wide angle painting like shots and the weather kept changing every minute? That impressed me a lot... because it looks so easily done, but hell yes, to make such a masterpiece, you need madness and true passion (Kubrick had it!).
He caused Ken Adam to have some break downs and for sure, it did not seem to be easy to work with Kubrick. But all the locations they chose for the period piece, all the landscapes - they are on point. Adam impresses not only in studio, but on location, big time.
The film impresses BECAUSE it tries to give us a (still altered, still artificial, yep...!) glimpse into the 17th century: war, love, monarchy and the fate of a normal man. It feels oddly real and oddly relatable, not only because of the story, but how it is told visually. I was visually pleased throughout the whole movie and am grateful that I finally watched it. It is for sure one of my favorite Kubrick films, because it tells the story of fate and mankind - this time set back few centuries before our time (not in the future like 2001), but asks similar questions... what is fate and what is coincidence? And are we all equal?
Yes - we are: in life, in death, in our human needs.
WONDERFUL masterpiece, can only recommend watching it.
PS: Can't stop thinking that it inspired also the film THE FAVORITE (2019), as it works sometimes with similar tones and techniques... and a similar story.