A- Directed by Tony Zierra Review by Jon Kissel |  |
At the opening of the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the LA County Museum of Art, 13 years after his 1999 death, the director’s personal assistant and guardian of his legacy, Leon Vitali, was not invited. Vitali is a living refutation of auteur theory, and there is no greater auteur than Stanley Kubrick. Perhaps having Vitali in attendance would’ve pulled focus from Kubrick. In Tony Zierra’s documentary about Vitali, it is the assistant who pulls focus from the auteur. Zierra’s Filmworker finds in Vitali the most dedicated below-the-line workhorse and makes a film dedicated to all those like him, men and women who ensure a film is completed in exchange for a blip in the end credits and the knowledge that even if no knows who they are, they too built that. This is a documentary that reframes how a person thinks about movies, and will cause this reviewer to think twice when he gives all the credit to the director.
Vitali has the appearance of Keith Richards, except his withered visage is the product of stress and deadlines and labor instead of drug-fueled decadence. Back in the 70’s when he first started acting, he was a baby-faced up-and-comer not so different from a thousand others looking to break into the cinema. Whether as a way to reconcile the path his life ultimately took or as a genuine hope for himself, he claims to never have wanted to be an actor, but wanted instead to be around greatness and further it where he could. This exact scenario presents itself when he’s cast in a supporting role in Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, and in the aftermath, Vitali keeps working for the director behind the camera. Over the next twenty years, Vitali will be responsible for some of the most indelible aspects of Kubrick’s work. Per the actors themselves, it’s Vitali who coaxes unforgettable performances out of Danny Lloyd in The Shining and R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, and it’s Vitali who finishes Eyes Wide Shut when Kubrick dies before its post-production is complete. Vitali is also an integral figure in remastering Kubrick’s older films for changing formats, putting his fingerprints on the entirety of Kubrick’s filmography.
In addition to the appeal of a documentary that must include shots and scenes from some of the most striking films of all time, Filmworker also entertains with its talking head sequences of Vitali rattling off anecdotes. The arc of his relationship with Kubrick is not unlike the whiplash of watching the gentle and instructive version of Gordon Ramsay on Masterchef Jr give way to the salmon-flinging venom of Gordon Ramsay on Hell’s Kitchen. Vitali is essentially stuck in an abusive relationship, one that he’s aware is a recreation of the one he had with his father. He recounts having to stay ahead of Kubrick’s ire, which meant sleeping on the front porch of Kubrick’s mansion to avoid getting too comfortable and therefore letting his body get the rest it so desperately needs. This persists even after Kubrick dies, when Vitali shrinks down to a starvation weight in pursuit of completing a remaster and in avoidance of a spectral beatdown from Kubrick’s ghost. In Vitali’s telling, perfect moments like peeing off the mansion’s porch or being in an audience wowed by a 4k 2001 showing makes it all worth it.
Zierra, who also edited his own film, has the good fortune of Vitali being such an engaging presence, filled with stories told with a weary charisma. He also is able to get other interview subjects to drop their guards. Ermey is deeply gracious towards Vitali and credits him for sparking his onscreen career, while Vitali’s co-star in Barry Lyndon, Ryan O’Neal, still feels guilty about the beatings he had to inflict on all-time agreeable guy Vitali in their scenes together. Matthew Modine has kind and perceptive words for Vitali’s role as a real-life Igor to Kubrick’s Frankenstein, and the back-handed, though earnest, compliments continue when other subjects call Vitali a cockroach. The emphasis is on the resilience of that loathed species, and Vitali is nothing if not resilient. Filmworker shows that it’s people like Vitali who guarantee that great works of cinema not only get made, but that persist into the future. The documentary about those people deserves to persist as well. A-
In addition to the appeal of a documentary that must include shots and scenes from some of the most striking films of all time, Filmworker also entertains with its talking head sequences of Vitali rattling off anecdotes. The arc of his relationship with Kubrick is not unlike the whiplash of watching the gentle and instructive version of Gordon Ramsay on Masterchef Jr give way to the salmon-flinging venom of Gordon Ramsay on Hell’s Kitchen. Vitali is essentially stuck in an abusive relationship, one that he’s aware is a recreation of the one he had with his father. He recounts having to stay ahead of Kubrick’s ire, which meant sleeping on the front porch of Kubrick’s mansion to avoid getting too comfortable and therefore letting his body get the rest it so desperately needs. This persists even after Kubrick dies, when Vitali shrinks down to a starvation weight in pursuit of completing a remaster and in avoidance of a spectral beatdown from Kubrick’s ghost. In Vitali’s telling, perfect moments like peeing off the mansion’s porch or being in an audience wowed by a 4k 2001 showing makes it all worth it.
Zierra, who also edited his own film, has the good fortune of Vitali being such an engaging presence, filled with stories told with a weary charisma. He also is able to get other interview subjects to drop their guards. Ermey is deeply gracious towards Vitali and credits him for sparking his onscreen career, while Vitali’s co-star in Barry Lyndon, Ryan O’Neal, still feels guilty about the beatings he had to inflict on all-time agreeable guy Vitali in their scenes together. Matthew Modine has kind and perceptive words for Vitali’s role as a real-life Igor to Kubrick’s Frankenstein, and the back-handed, though earnest, compliments continue when other subjects call Vitali a cockroach. The emphasis is on the resilience of that loathed species, and Vitali is nothing if not resilient. Filmworker shows that it’s people like Vitali who guarantee that great works of cinema not only get made, but that persist into the future. The documentary about those people deserves to persist as well. A-
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