Filmworker

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Filmworker
Directed byTony Zierra
Produced byElizabeth Yoffe
Tony Zierra
StarringLeon Vitali
Edited byTony Zierra
Running time
94 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Filmworker is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Tony Zierra about Leon Vitali, a successful British actor who, after playing the role of Lord Bullingdon in the Stanley Kubrick-directed Barry Lyndon, gave up his acting career to work for decades as Kubrick’s assistant. Filmworker premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival on May 19 and was nominated for the L'Œil d'or, le prix du documentaire – Cannes.[1]

Synopsis

After his performance as "Lord Bullingdon" in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, actor Leon Vitali gave up his career to become Kubrick’s personal assistant. For more than two decades Vitali played a crucial role behind-the-scenes helping Kubrick make and maintain his body of work. In Filmworker, Vitali’s experiences with Kubrick are brought together with previously unseen photos, videos, letters, notebooks and memos from his private collection. Interviews with actors, family, crew members and key film industry professionals who worked with Kubrick and Vitali are also utilized throughout the film.[2]

Production

Director Tony Zierra was working on another Kubrick related project when he met Leon Vitali. After extensively interviewing Vitali, Zierra and his producing partner, Elizabeth Yoffe, decided that his story should be told and began shooting what would become Filmworker.

UK and Sweden.[4]

Participants

Filmworker features interviews with actors and film industry professionals who worked with, or knew, Kubrick and/or Leon Vitali, as well as members of Vitali's family. Participants include actors

Lee Ermey (Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket), Marie Richardson (Marion in Eyes Wide Shut), Stellan Skarsgård, Pernilla August, Brian Capron and Treva Etienne (Morgue Orderly in Eyes Wide Shut). Film industry professionals featured in Filmworker include former and current Warner Bros. executives Julian Senior, Brian Jamieson, Warren Lieberfarb
, Steve Southgate and Ned Price.

Reception

Filmworker was given a long standing ovation after its premiere at Cannes.[5] Following Cannes, the press and critical reviews were favorable. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 95%, based on 86 reviews, and an average rating of 7.7/10.[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 73 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7]

Owen Glieberman in

Village Voice put Filmworker on his list of top 12 best movies at Cannes 2017.[10] Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post called Filmworker "movie love at its purest" and said that "Vitali’s story marked an incursion of the real world into Cannes in the very best sense, as a celebration of its anonymous inhabitants’ role in bringing our collective dreams to life."[11]

Director's Cut

Leon Vitali died on 19 August 2022 in Los Angeles.[12] The Associated Press story about Vitali's death, states that Tony Zierra "is working on a director’s cut of Filmworker that will include new footage that he and Vitali wanted in the film, but couldn’t get done in time for its Cannes debut in 2017."[13]

References

  1. ^ Mullen, Pat (16 May 2017). "Documentaries at Cannes 2017". Point of View Magazine. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  2. ^ "Home - Filmworker". Filmworker official website. Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  3. ^ Buder, Emily (25 May 2017). "'Filmworker': Meet the Secret Hero Behind Stanley Kubrick's Movies". No Film School. NONETWORK. Archived from the original on 2 July 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  4. ^ "Filmworker (2017)". IMDb. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  5. ^ Coye, Jake (23 May 2017). "Kubrick's little-known right-hand man takes a bow in Cannes". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  6. Fandango Media
    . Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  7. CBS Interactive
    . Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  8. Penske Business Media. Archived
    from the original on 25 July 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  9. Guardian News and Media. Archived
    from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  10. Village Voice. Archived
    from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 14 September 2017.
  11. ^ Hornaday, Ann (25 May 2017). "At Cannes, auteurs are worshiped, for better and, too often, for worse". The Washington Post. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  12. ^ "Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick's right-hand man, dies at 74". Associated Press. 21 August 2022.
  13. ^ "Leon Vitali, Stanley Kubrick's right-hand man, dies at 74". Associated Press. 21 August 2022.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Filmworker&oldid=1166799902"