Filmworker

Personally I love autobiographies or documentaries where I can really learn about the details this film fulfills that and more. It gives you an incredible look Into the unrelenting work effort of a dedicated soul. Leon is a truly amazing person and I love the behind the scenes footage of all the great movies. I wonder if Kubrick ever knew how lucky he was to have such dedicated help. I ended the movie exhausted .

A fascinating insight into one of Kubrick's faithful assistants. Essentially this film is aimed at Kubrick fans and film fanatics, but it goes much deeper than that and has the power to absorb anyone who views it. Leon is a dedicated, devoted worker bee who strived tirelessly to help Stanley archive his vision. Stanley Kubrick is obviously a genius, an enigma, and Leon was emersed in this magical world, he worked his fingers to the bone for a man he obviously admired and this devotion comes across, even though the demands Kubrick put on him took it's toll. I would give my right arm, left arm, heart, lungs , body and soul to have worked for Stanley Kubrick, Leon Vitali was lucky enough to to have been the man who did!

Filmworker is a wonderful tribute and reminder of the tireless effort that goes into the process of filmmaking. Focusing on Stanley Kubrick's assistant Leon Vitali who worked with him from Barry Lyndon onwards, it reminds you how dedicated to the craft you must be in order to make it in the industry.

Looking at Vitali, you get the sense of who he is. Tired and worn out but also undeniably enthusiastic and holding great affection to the maestro of Kubrick. He is filled with wonderful stories and it's both heart-breaking and reaffirming that he dedicated so much of his life to an extraordinary but also difficult individual. I would argue that Kubrick was not only the greatest director to who have ever lived but one of the greatest artists ever, equivalent to film what Shakespeare was to theatre. However, as with all great artists, Kubrick asked for an unbelievable amount from the people surrounding him and there is no clearer example that Vitali.

Interviewing Vitali as well as many of Kubrick's collaborators, the documentary really gives a peek into the strange world of Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures gives a more definitive biography of the man but Filmworker gives a great sense of what it was like to work for him or on any film set for that matter.

Whilst I would've liked to have seen more about Vitali's and Kubrick's personal lives, it's a great account for anyone interested in the making of Kubrick's last few films as well as the undeniably important legacy that he had.

An American documentary film. A story about Leon Vitali, an English TV and film actor turned personal assistant to mercurial filmmaker Stanley Kubrick. One can forgive the often gushing praise by contributants to the film of Kubrick's talents because it is a revealing and stirring celebration of one of cinema's unacknowledged heroes, a maestro's trusted confidant and expert on Kubrick's thought processes and genius. The film strikes upon an interesting theme about endurance for vicarious pleasure, when the person you work for you idolise and respect. The film also deals with the personal life of Vitali which is touching, showing his passion and dedication to safeguarding his boss's posterity.

Filmworker provides invaluable insight into how sausages were made, into the workings of the greatest post-studio system director in the world, Stanley Kubrick. Leon Vitali was his right hand. Vitali's story, intimately told in the first person, is indirectly Kubrick's. We see the backbreaking details of what it took Kubrick to make 2 of his 5 perfect, genre-defining films: Barry Lyndon, the defining period costume drama, and The Shining, the defining Gothic horror film. (Vitali did not work on Dr. Strangelove, the defining Cold War film (and satire), 2001, the defining outer space film, or Clockwork Orange, the defining future dystopia film. He did, however, work on Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, lesser films, IMO.)

The movie consists of real, factual, technical nitty-gritty, not the self-congratulatory generalizations which make up almost all documentaries about filmmakers and their films. This is the mountain both Kubrick and Vitali fought their entire lives to surmount. One comes to see how poor and shabby today's films are by comparison, especially with TV streaming and cable replacing real films.

Leon Vitali is a fascinating character study, a unique man, in and of himself. One wonders if Kubrick could have made his films without the blind devotion of Vitali. Those who question his devotion miss the point. Vitali was as uncompromisingly devoted to Kubrick as Kubrick was to his films. They both served the same demanding mistress, art.

If you love Kubrick, you have to see this.