Filmworker

If you're a film fan or a Stanley Kubrick fan this movie is a must see. Leon Vitali truly gave and is still giving his life to the work of Kubrick's legendary films. Leon does not begin to get the recognition he deserves. He was truly Kubrick's right hand man. There is so much that goes into completing a film project and Leon became the jack of all trades strictly for the art of Kubrick's films. It has taken a physical, mental, and personal toll on his life, but the man is not bitter. In the current day of digital aid Leon Vitali perfected the films without this help. This film displays literally thousands of documents and notes that Leon wrote while filming. He is truly a one man film crew. Other crew members and actors bring the story to life on how this man gave everything he had and more. Fantastic and inspiring documentary.

I thought this film really shone a spotlight on the sad consequences of a career decision made by Leon Vitali and was one of the most severe indictments on Stanley Kubrick as a person.

A few years after appearing as Lord Bullingdon in Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, Vitali abandoned what we are led to believe was a promising acting career to work full-time (and then some) for Kubrick himself.

Whether Vitali did have a promising acting career ahead of him is not really the point, my own feeling is that if his performance in Barry Lyndon is anything to go by then an illustrious career in front of the camera was by no means guaranteed.

The real story here is the level of devotion that Vitali gave to his new career and the price he paid for it; neglecting his family and the detrimental effect the extreme workload had on his health. Vitali looks like a walking corpse and has done for many years.

This problem could have been easily solved if the very wealthy Kubrick had dug a little deeper into his pocket and employed another two or three assistants to share the workload but apparently this never happened. And the fact that Vitali has had to rely on financial support from his children clearly indicates that not only did Kubrick pay him a low salary he also left Vitali very little, if anything, in his will. Kubrick comes across as a modern-day Ebenezer Scrooge.

At least Dolores Claiborne was eventually rewarded for going above and beyond the call of duty, Vitali just seems to have been exploited and taken for granted by Kubrick for 20 years.

Kubrick must have had some special kind of charisma to treat Vitali this way and still have him coming back for more. Or maybe Vitali is just downright stupid.

Viewers will decide for themselves.

Stanley Kubrick was known as one of the most fanatically detailed Directors in cinema. But, even the most detailed of filmmakers could not possibly attend to each and every facet of the process. It required many co-workers. One of those collaborators was Leon Vitali. But, Vitali wasn't just an assistant, he literally became Kubrick's jack of all trades for much of the last quarter century of his life. One of the ironies is that Kubrick was so picky with his projects that he completed only three films (THE SHINING, FULL METAL JACKET and EYES WIDE SHUT) from the time that Vitali became his assistant to his death (and even then, post-production had to completed on EYES posthumously).

FILMWORKER is Director Tony Zierra's effective, and sometimes confounding, portrait of Vitali. Vitali first became enthralled by Kubrick when he went to see 2001 as a young man. By the time that CLOCKWORK ORANGE came out, Vitali had begun a career as an actor, largely on British television. His fascination with Kubrick continued so the opportunity to score even a small role in Kubrick's BARRY LYNDON was literally the chance of a lifetime. As fate would have it, Kubrick took a liking to Vitali's performance as Lord Bullingdon and re-wrote the script in order to increase the part. This gave Vitali an opportunity to not only observe the Director at work, but, to put a bug in his ear that he might like to work for him on his future films. That opportunity came with work with THE SHINING.

What follows is a fascinating portrait of Kubrick as a combination of kindly Maestro and toxic Vampire. He could cajole Vitali and the cast and crew of a picture on one hand, and, then demand effort (and frankly, ability) above and beyond on the other. Not just Vitali, but others describe how exhausting Kubrick's demands were (more than one person is mentioned as having a form of a nervous breakdown on his sets!). Through it all, Vitali's importance to Kubrick grew and grew. From being a fairly defined purely Director's Assistant on THE SHINING to what would become an all-consuming full-time job as his boss' virtual alter-ego (Kubrick would even sign Vitali's name on some of his missives).

Director Zierra's documentary is densely packed for it's 94 minutes. A good assortment of clips illustrate both Kubrick's films, but, also Vitali's early career as an actor. Plus, there's a smattering of behind the scenes footage. Most of it is well chosen, even if, occasionally, they became the equivalent of visual wallpaper in order to have stuff to cut away from the talking heads. Vitali is the main interviewee, but, we also get other Kubrick collaborators both in front of, and behind the camera, and extending to techs in charge of post-production, distribution and home video. Zierra managed to get lead actor Ryan O'Neil to speak about BARRY LYNDON, but, was unable to secure Jack Nicholson or Shelly Duvall from THE SHINING (Danny Lloyd, who was all of 6, represents). Disappointingly, neither Tom Cruise nor Nicole Kidman co-operated either (17th billed Marie Richardson is the lone cast member other than Vitali). Matthew Modine and the late R. Lee Ermey (who's death came after FILMWORKER was completed) speak about FULL METAL JACKET. The interviews are informative and well-edited (Although it must be noted that Kubrick himself would have been aghast at the chalky HD camera-work in them! In one amusing scene we see Kubrick 'direct' a brief video-taped acceptance speech that Vitali recorded. Yes, he was THAT detail oriented).

What emerges is a compelling portrait of one artist (Vitali) essentially giving his life over to facilitate another's (Kubrick). As mentioned, Kubrick only made three movies during the nearly 25 year tenure of Vitali as his assistant. What was he doing in between films? FILMWORKER shows that Kubrick's attention to minutiae extended to attending to each and every painstaking detail of how his completed films were preserved, distributed and promoted. Kubrick would cut special trailers for each major country his films got released in (sometimes differing by only a frame or two). We see Vitali standing in pile after pile of boxes full of old files, VHS tapes, clippings etc.. It became, by his account, a 24-7 position (including holidays) -- even during the 'off' years between films (a full dozen between JACKET and EYES alone).

Zierra thoughtfully dedicates his Doc to all 'Filmworkers' - not just Vitali, but, one can't help but feel he never quite addresses the elephant in the room - why did Vitali give up a promising career as an actor to become a glorified gofer? Other than his professional work, we are given precious little insight to Vitali, the man. We see his three children briefly interviewed, but, his wives (supposedly three) aren't discussed. Perhaps appropriately, the only old footage we see of his kids is with Vitali steeped in work with the children playing in those boxes of Kubrick world. Vitali addresses the camera directly and says it was all worth it, but you can't help but wonder. Yes, it was all done voluntarily, but, at a certain point one has to ask if it wasn't some deranged form of Stockholm Syndrome. While Vitali may never have become a great actor, his resume was adding up. You would think he had some creative bones still in him, that, at some juncture he would have asked Kubrick for a more creative role (or, to even strike out on his own). It's somewhat consoling that Vitali feels he played a role in a great filmmaker's oeuvre, but, one can't escape a mild feeling of depression slipping in. The thought of the dozen years between METAL and EYES being taken up not by artistic input, but instead slaving over the box art for the Japanese VHS tape of 2001 or re-re-re-cutting a trailer for the French re-release of THE SHINING does cast a pall on FILMWORKER.

Zierra has made a fine documentary. The fact that not every question is answered may be unknowable. Just like Kubrick. And, just like Vitali, perhaps.

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.

It's absolutely mind-boggling that most movie buffs don't know the story of Leon Vitali. I am grateful for this documentary and the context it provided me with. I now know that Leon should have been given much more credit than he received. If ever there was the perfect occasion for the lifetime achievement Academy Award, I'm hard-pressed if ANYBODY in Hollywood could find a better reason to hand it out than to the man who perfectly restored Kubrick's movie legacy for all to enjoy in its perfection.

Being a big fan of Kubrick, I have watched many documentaries about the virtuoso director, but it's only today, after seeing "Filmworker", that the mosaic is more complete. Therefore, while not a perfect piece of cinema, "Filmworker" still deserves all the praise because it told a story that absolutely needed to be told!