A fascinating insight into one of Kubrick's faithful assistants. Essentially this film is aimed at Kubrick fans and film fanatics, but it goes much deeper than that and has the power to absorb anyone who views it. Leon is a dedicated, devoted worker bee who strived tirelessly to help Stanley archive his vision. Stanley Kubrick is obviously a genius, an enigma, and Leon was emersed in this magical world, he worked his fingers to the bone for a man he obviously admired and this devotion comes across, even though the demands Kubrick put on him took it's toll. I would give my right arm, left arm, heart, lungs , body and soul to have worked for Stanley Kubrick, Leon Vitali was lucky enough to to have been the man who did!

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 one of the most renowned, sometimes controversial, and highly influential filmmakers of all time, having written, produced and directed some of the most famous films of all time. But he is also one of the most reclusive figures in filmmaking, a very rarely gave interviews, this documentary film examines his life and career, through the man who got closest to him. Basically, Leon Vitali was an up-and-coming English actor, having made successful appearances on stage and screen. He first Kubrick in 1974, when he was cast as "Lord Bullingdon" in Kubrick's period drama Barry Lyndon. Vitali was already an admirer of Kubrick's work, having seen his work, including Paths of Glory, Spartacus, Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange. Kubrick and Vitali bonded during the shoot, Vitali was fascinated to find out about the process of editing, Kubrick agreed to let him stay on, without pay, to observe him. Five years later, Kubrick and Vitali stayed in contact, one of the last acting roles Vitali performed was Terror of Frankenstein (1977). Kubrick sent Vitali a copy of Stephen King's novel The Shining and asked him to join production on his next film project, to which Vitali eagerly agreed. Vitali is credited in The Shining (1980) as "personal assistant to director"; he selected 5-year-old Danny Lloyd, out of 5,000 children, to portray Danny Torrance in the film. It is by this time that Vitali surrendered his thriving career to become Kubrick's loyal right-hand man for the next two decades. During these nineteen years, Kubrick made the films Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, with a lot of shooting taking place in Great Britain. Kubrick had a reputation for being difficult to work with, he was a perfectionist and worked for months, if not years, on a project to get what he wanted. As his personal assistant, Vitali was responsible for overseeing dialogue coaching, casting, shipping, television, sales, video transfer, checking prints, trailer translation and much more. Vitali accepted that this was a stressful and exhausting job, but he was devoted to assisting the man he considered a genius. By 1996, Kubrick was becoming older and somewhat weaker, but Vitali was there to help him with his perfectionism during the making of his final film, Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick even cast him in the role of Red Cloak, the masked master of ceremonies at the sexual ritual (masked orgy sex party). Kubrick died in 1999, aged 70, months before the release of Eyes Wide Shut, and before the shooting of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, for which he had been developing since the 1980s with Steven Spielberg. Vitali was naturally devastated, but he was left a cherished handwritten note ("Thank you for your great talent, energy and kindness"). Some time later, a posthumous exhibition dedicated to Kubrick's work was opened in Los Angeles, Vitali was cruelly denied an invite to the opening, but the self-described "filmworker" acted as a free tour guide anyway. This film offers a fresh angle on the late great Stanley Kubrick, with rich and varied elements including previously unseen photos, videos, letters, notebooks, and memos from Vitali's private collection. With contributions from those who knew and worked alongside Kubrick and Vitali, including Ryan O'Neal (played "Barry Lyndon"), Brian Capron (Vitali's friend), Danny Lloyd (aged 45), Matthew Modine ("Private Joker" in Full Metal Jacket), R. Lee Ermey ("Gunnery Sergeant Hartman" in Full Metal Jacket, posthumous interview), Stellan Skarsgård (worked with Vitali in film and on television), Marie Richardson ("Marion" in Eyes Wide Shut), Tim Vitali (Leon's brother), Chris Vitali (Leon's brother), Max Vitali (Leon's son), Vera Vitali (Leon's daughter), and Masha Vitali (Leon's daughter). I myself am a big fan of the works of Stanley Kubrick, in 2019 I visited the exhibition at The Design Museum in London dedicated to his work to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death. This is an insightful film, it does make you realise how dedicated Kubrick was to his craft, and his PA with his croaky testimony is also an interesting character, a most worthwhile documentary. Good!