Stanley Kubrick is synonymous with bat-s**t-crazy-brilliance and from roughly 1973 till 1999 he had a willing slave called Leon Vitali. The latter’s willingness to prostate himself before his idol (even now) is the grist to Filmworker’s mill.
Vitali started out as an actor. And he was good (he played the tragically pettish Lord Bullingdon in Barry Lyndon). Once he was on Kubrick’s payroll though he became expert at spotting talent in others.
Vitali makes for a tremulous interviewee (imagine Axl Rose after the longest of stints in a prison camp). He’s clearly a believer in the phrase “no pain no gain”. He explains how, after Kubrick’s death, there was a ton of post-production work to attend to. Vitali worked 36-hour shifts, only leaving his post to vomit.
Vitali says he’s “still working” for Kubrick, with an ardour that induces goosebumps. He makes Kubrick sound as death-defying as Dracula and it begins to seem entirely possible that the auteur will swoop into view, purring: “Enough about him. Let’s talk about mise-en-scene.”
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How do you foreground a self-effacing masochist? Director Tony Zierra, cleverly, just lets the ironies unfold. Vitali not only had a tantalising father, but became one himself (we meet his two adult kids, who despite being blonde and beautiful stink of neglect). One of Vitali’s jobs was to keep an eye on Kubrick’s beloved pets (he created a whole surveillance system for one particular dying moggy). Vitali wasn’t treated like an animal. Animals had a far cushier time than he did.
It would have been interesting to hear how Vitali and Kubrick’s wife got along (were they jealous?) But let’s not quibble. Whether you’re fascinated by Kubrick or the human condition this is a minor classic.
