Hey folks... fascinating trailer here for FILMWORKER... a documentary from Tony Zierra about the kind of people who love great film enough to toil in obscurity for years to support the incredible work of a master filmmaker. Leon Vitali was an actor hired to work on BARRY LYNDON by Stanley Kubrick, who became a Kubrick devotee and trusted aide to Kubrick throughout his career.
Fans of THE SHINING will marvel to see an interview with Danny Lloyd crediting Vitali's importance to him on the film-- "He was my acting coach." And R. Lee Ermey, God bless him, seems to equally hold Vitali in high esteem: "If it wasn't for Leon Vitali, I doubt I would have done half the job."
Even as we see evidence of Kubrick being stern or perhaps even a touch disappointed in Vitali's performance on something, there is the underlying idea that Kubrick didn't put this level of trust in anybody else he worked with; that Kubrick understood and appreciated how different his work would be if Vitali had not stepped in to be his Sancho Panza at that critical point in Kubrick's career.
At university, I studied about some of the greatest directors, but I almost completely ignored Kubrick in the process, as I'd studied his technique for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY as a kid and hoped those basics would get me through. Vitali is a blind spot in my education that I am eager to fill. I can't wait to see this.
-- Precious Roy
