Filmworker

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.

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 .

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!

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 is perhaps the most mysterious director in history, and this documentary sheds some light on the mystery. If you're a Kubrick fan and you want to learn more about him, this is a must see. It's certainly better than the documentary Room 237, which tries too hard to read into the mind of Kubrick. Filmworker offers a lot of reliable insight into Kubrick, told by his right hand man Leon Vitali, who is perhaps just as interesting, or at least obsessive, as Kubrick himself. Thus far, I've seen five movies this week and this is my favorite. Check it out!