Film Review: 'Filmworker' (2017): Fascinating Film Documentary

Leon Vitali's life took an unexpected turn when he met Stanley Kubrick.

Filmworker (2017), directed by Tony Zierra; featuring Leon Vitali, Ryan O'Neal, Matthew Modine, Brian Capon, Danny Lloyd, and many others.

This documentary tells the unique story of Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick’s long-standing personal assistant. A Shakespearian-trained theater actor, Vitali threw away a promising acting career to be what was essentially Kubrick’s Kato. This fascinating film is as much about Kubrick as it is about Vitali.

They met during casting for Kubrick’s 18th Century costume drama, Barry Lyndon (1975). Vitali was cast as Lord Bullingdon, the third lead. With a prominent role in a Kubrick film, his career seemed set. Yet as filming dragged on, he became increasingly fascinated with a) Stanley Kubrick and b) what went on behind the camera.

Thus began a 25-year career of Vitali doing whatever it took to help Kubrick create his masterpieces. His tasks ranged from editing trailers to watching over Kubrick’s cats to acting as official child minder to little Danny Lloyd on the set of The Shining. He seems to have loved every minute of it.

The documentary also includes extensive interviews with actors, producers, and other film workers who worked with/knew Kubrick and Vitali. They include Ryan O’Neal (who played the title role in Barry Lyndon), Matthew Modine (Private Joker in Full Metal Jacket) and R. Lee Ermey, the former US Marine drill sergeant who played the infamous “Gunny” in FMJ.

Ermey’s interview is one of the best and most revealing segments. Hired as a technical consultant on FMJ, he bullied and hectored Kubrick non-stop until he was given the role of Gunny, which Kubrick had already cast with another actor, Kevyn Major Howard. Kubrick then felt so bad about replacing Howard with Ermey that he gave Howard the role of Rafterman. He then tried very hard to convince Howard that it was a better role than Gunny. (Howard, who is also interviewed in this documentary, didn’t buy it.)

In another revealing segment, Vitali describes how painful it was for Kubrick to face the inevitable when his cats and dogs reached the end of their lifespans. For an elderly cat named Alexandra, Kubrick had Vitali set up video cameras around his house to track the cat’s movements in case she became ill. Vitali eventually had Alexandra euthanized without telling Kubrick.

Despite these displays of soft-heartedness, Kubrick was notorious for pushing his actors and other workers to the limit in a way that bordered on cruelty. He famously demanded so much from Tom Cruise on the set of Eyes Wide Shut that Cruise developed an ulcer. In this documentary, an associate said any actors who showed up late on a Kubrick set, or didn’t know their lines, were immediately dismissed.

The ending of the film is poignant, with Vitali seeming lost without Kubrick, who died suddenly in 1999 only a few days after delivering his final cut of Eyes Wide Shut. However, Vitali repeatedly states he had no regrets about the trajectory of his career.

He has returned to acting sporadically, most notably in the chilling role of Red Cloak, the orgy master in Eyes Wide Shut, where he was excellent. He has also worked in producing, with a credit as associate producer for the underrated Todd Field film, Little Children (2006). (Actor turned director Field played Nick Nightingale, the piano player in EWS.)

Currently streaming on US Netflix, this documentary is a must for Kubrick fans — or for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of filmmaking.