Barry Lyndon sights on Thackeray's 1844 "satirical picaresque about the fortune-hunting of an Irish rogue," "Barry Lyndon", the setting of which allowed Kubrick to take advantage of the copious period research he had done for the now-aborted "Napoleon". At the time, Kubrick merely announced that his next film would star Ryan O'Neal (deemed "a seemingly un-Kubricky choice of leading man") and Marisa Berenson, a former "Vogue" and "Time" magazine cover model, and be shot largely in Ireland. So heightened was the secrecy surrounding the film that "Even Berenson, when Kubrick first approached her, was told only that it was to be an
Barry Lyndon mainly in London. The production was troubled; there were logistical, political (Kubrick feared that he might be an IRA hostage target), and weather-related problems, while the relationship between Kubrick and O'Neal was especially fraught and difficult. O'Neal's performance and perceived lack of on-screen depth and ability to portray a character arc have been repeatedly criticised, even by those who consider the film as one of the director's major successes. "Barry Lyndon" won four Oscars in production categories at the 1975 Academy Awards. Although some critics took issue with the film's glacial pace and restrained emotion, like many of Kubrick's works,