Filmworker

Cert: 15A; Now showing IFI

Leon Vitali thought he had made his breakthrough when he was cast in the role of Lord Bullingdon in Stanley Kubrick’s sprawling 1975 period epic Barry Lyndon.

By the end of that shoot, on location in Ireland, Vitali was so enamoured with Kubrick that he gave up his pursuit of an acting career and joined Kubrick’s production team, eventually becoming the great director’s right-hand man.

You had to be made of certain stuff to survive working with the furiously demanding Kubrick. A Gordon Ramsay-type figure (in Vitali’s own words), Kubrick insisted on overseeing every minute detail of his productions, from the score to the dialogue to the marketing. As a result, Vitali sacrificed much of his family life to work long into the wee hours on and off set on projects such as The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut.

Tony Zierra’s spunky and wellassembled documentary will be vital for Kubrick completists but also delivers in its own right as a study of a real character who applied grit and determination to a starry-eyed idealism that remains to this day.