Barry Lyndon question

MP · External Since: Feb 05, 2009 Posts: 16

There's a scene in Barry Lyndon in which Lady Lyndon sits in a bathtub
whilst one of her aides reads a passage from a book.

The scene can be found here at 6:35:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFaPlfw8Fw&feature=related

Does anyone know what is being said or what text is being read?

kelpzoidzl · External Since: Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 75

On May 3, 4:55 pm, MP <mystic_prow....RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> There's a scene in Barry Lyndon in which Lady Lyndon sits in a bathtub
> whilst one of her aides reads a passage from a book.
>
> The scene can be found here at 6:35:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFaPlfw8Fw&feature=related
>
> Does anyone know what is being said or what text is being read?

Good question...my first thought was Vanity Fair, but that doesn't
make sense historically. Then I looked at Dangerous Liasons and
Candide in french and apparently not the same book although a photo of
the cover of an original Dangerous Liasons looks much like the cover
we see in the film, but the passages read, arent in that book.
Something melencholy, near the end of the book ...Hmmm. A Rousseau
book?

Something contemporary that lady lyndon would be having read to her.
We are supposed to know this.

I did see another person asking the question on a blog but no answers.

It will drive me crazy till i figure it out.

dc

kelpzoidzl · External Since: Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 75

de Sade? Stendahl? Diderot? Would Lady Lyndon be reading those
authors? hmmm.

Maybe Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost....?

dc

MP · External Since: Feb 05, 2009 Posts: 16

On May 4, 3:26 am, kelpzoidzl <kelpzoi....TakeThisOut@gmail.com> wrote:
> de Sade? Stendahl? Diderot? Would Lady Lyndon be reading those
> authors? hmmm.
>
> Maybe Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost....?
>
> dc

Is it in French? Maybe I'll get someone who speaks french to translate
it.

kelpzoidzl · External Since: Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 75

On May 4, 12:56 pm, MP <mystic_prow....RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> On May 4, 3:26 am, kelpzoidzl <kelpzoi....RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > de Sade? Stendahl? Diderot? Would Lady Lyndon be reading those
> > authors? hmmm.
>
> > Maybe Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost....?
>
> > dc
>
> Is it in French? Maybe I'll get someone who speaks french to translate
> it.

I had four years of french in High School. I can usually read it when
I see it, if i go real slow, but when I hear it, the accents and
pronounciations throw me. These passages are pretty florrid. I was
able to search some phrases from it, in some of the books above that
were online in french.

I can't identify anything that gives it away. Get a translation if
you know someone----hopefully it will make the book recognizable--at
one point it may be saying a character's name. I listened to it a
dozen times but couldn't identify if it was a name.

The story of Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost has some similarities to
the Barry and Lady Lyndon story. i have yet to find a copy of the
book in french online. i'll try again when in the mood--just in case
my guess is right. But just a guess.

i'm surprised no one has this question answered online already.

dc

kelpzoidzl · External Since: Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 75

No mention of the book or the scene in either the BL transcript or the
script. Reading the original script I am reminded just how drastic
the changes to the film were, from what is called the script as linked
to IMDB. The film is nearly unrecognizable from the verison of the
script there is online.

dc

boaz217 · External Since: May 05, 2009 Posts: 1

On May 3, 4:55 pm, MP <mystic_prow....DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> There's a scene in Barry Lyndon in which Lady Lyndon sits in a bathtub
> whilst one of her aides reads a passage from a book.
>
> The scene can be found here at 6:35:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFaPlfw8Fw&feature=related
>
> Does anyone know what is being said or what text is being read?

Here is an excerpt from Michel Ciment's book about Kubrick:

"The French poem read by a companion to Lady Lyndon in her bath mixes
science with metaphysics. In this story of Barry's opportunism and his
wife's love for him being turned against themselves, it represents the
reconciliation of reason and passion. An ironic counterpoint, perhaps,
but also a moment of genuine emotion since it precedes Barry's entry,
the apologies he tenders his wife, taking her hand in his and kneeling
beside her, offering the only hint of affection to be found in the
whole film."

Then Ciment provides the poem, first in the original French:

"Les coers l'un par l'autre attirés
Se communiquent leur substance
Tels deux miroirs ardents
Concentrent la lumière et se la réfléchissent
Les rayons tour à tour recueillis... divisés
En se multipliant
S'accriossent, s'embellissent
Et d'autant plus actifs
Qu'ils se sont plus croisés
Au même point se réunissent."

And then the English translation:

"Two hearts by each other attracted
Communicate their substance
Like two burning mirrors
Concentrating light and reflecting it back
The Beams collected each in turn... divided
By multiplying
Grow larger and more beautiful
And becoming the more active
The more they intersect
Are at one and the same point reunited."
---------------------------------------------------------

Hope that helps.

Boaz
("Are you done with my lady?")

MP · External Since: Feb 05, 2009 Posts: 16

On May 5, 6:11 pm, boaz....DeleteThis@yahoo.com wrote:
> On May 3, 4:55 pm, MP <mystic_prow....DeleteThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > There's a scene in Barry Lyndon in which Lady Lyndon sits in a bathtub
> > whilst one of her aides reads a passage from a book.
>
> > The scene can be found here at 6:35:
>
> >http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFaPlfw8Fw&feature=related
>
> > Does anyone know what is being said or what text is being read?
>
> Here is an excerpt from Michel Ciment's book about Kubrick:
>
> "The French poem read by a companion to Lady Lyndon in her bath mixes
> science with metaphysics. In this story of Barry's opportunism and his
> wife's love for him being turned against themselves, it represents the
> reconciliation of reason and passion. An ironic counterpoint, perhaps,
> but also a moment of genuine emotion since it precedes Barry's entry,
> the apologies he tenders his wife, taking her hand in his and kneeling
> beside her, offering the only hint of affection to be found in the
> whole film."
>
> Then Ciment provides the poem, first in the original French:
>
> "Les coers l'un par l'autre attirés
> Se communiquent leur substance
> Tels deux miroirs ardents
> Concentrent la lumière et se la réfléchissent
> Les rayons tour à tour recueillis... divisés
> En se multipliant
> S'accriossent, s'embellissent
> Et d'autant plus actifs
> Qu'ils se sont plus croisés
> Au même point se réunissent."
>
> And then the English translation:
>
> "Two hearts by each other attracted
> Communicate their substance
> Like two burning mirrors
> Concentrating light and reflecting it back
> The Beams collected each in turn... divided
> By multiplying
> Grow larger and more beautiful
> And becoming the more active
> The more they intersect
> Are at one and the same point reunited."
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Boaz
> ("Are you done with my lady?")

Thank you very much Boaz.

kelpzoidzl · External Since: Jan 17, 2009 Posts: 75

Great

And it was on this Czech web page

http://fantomfilm.cz/?type=article&id=254

So who wrote it and when...and is it form a book or just a poem.

Its not online in french apparently

dc

woukou · Joined: Jun 03, 2009 Posts: 1

Hello, I am french and I have been searching myself for years in books for this text from Barry Lyndon; it seems in a methaphysical style not to be from a novel. I found no answer neither on Internet.

If someone has discovered the answer, I would be really interested!

Thank you