A pleasant suprise was had by staff this week when we learnt that one of our Silver Ukulele participants had contributed to a pretty impressive score for a film that is not only Oscar® and BAFTA-winning, but is showing our in cinema this week.
Legendary director Stanley Kubrick’s Oscar® and BAFTA-winning historical drama Barry Lyndon will be shown in the cinema tonight due to the BFI releasing a remastered version for 2016. The classic film is often noted as being one of the greatest of all time by countless critics and directors.
But one of our Silver Ukulele paticpants has a special bond for the film which not many people can boast.
When passing the Box Office after his weekly ukulele session, Donald Castelow casually noted to staff that he had contributed to the soundtrack of the original film, and what’s more, he had never even seen the film before!
We wanted to find out more, so we chatted to Donald about his experience:
“Back in 1975 I was a young member of the Corps of Drums with the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards and as a flute player I remember spending a day in the middle of a field being recorded for two tunes on the Barry Lyndon sound track. I have never seen the film and my son bought me the CD soundtrack as a Christmas present last year.”
Barry Lyndon is based on the director’s own adaptation of a William Makepeace Thackeray novel. Ryan O’Neal stars as Redmond Barry – later Barry Lyndon – an 18th century Irish wanderer whose adventures see him climb from rural lad to English noble. Beautifully shot, intricately detailed and ravishingly designed (by the late Ken Adam), the film also features fine supporting roles from Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Diana Koerner, Leon Vitali, Steven Berkoff, Murray Melvin and Leonard Rossiter.
If you would like to see the remastered version of the film then you can catch it tonight (Thursday 1 September) at 7.30pm, and we’re delighted that Donald will be joining us!