The highly anticipated documentary on Stanley Kubrick's right-hand man, Leon Vitali, dropped on Netflix US recently and where I initially felt a huge deal of enthusiasm in the film's potential, Filmworker was a disappointment to me.
Let us give credit where it is due. The sentiment of the film is very nice and it technically does exactly what is says on the tin, if we are to deem the poster above as the 'tin' in question. Leon Vitali certainly is an "unacknowledged hero" of American cinema and especially in the final third of the film we certainly come to understand the hardship he dealt with (or arguably couldn't deal with at all) from many people such as those who put together the Kubrick exhibit recently at LACMA. With invitations to the stars of Kubrick's films to attend the opening of the exhibit, giving Q&A's, there was no sign of Vitali because surprisingly nobody invited him. However, ultimately it was the death of Stanley himself that pushed Vitali to the proverbial edge. Kubrick was more than a director in Vitali's life. What the documentary does well is that allows you to truly understand that for Vitali, Kubrick gave his life direction and without him, Vitali obsessed over Kubrick's projects, much like the archetypal Kubrick fan, with constant participation in restorations of his films.
This is potentially where the film does not lie consistent with what it is trying to be. The film claims to be not only a testament to Vitali's hardship but to all 'filmworkers' out there - to all those crew members who do the jobs no one recognises. However, the impression you get from Vitali is not that he is the right-hand man to a renowned filmmaker but rather a servant to Kubrick's needs. In this sense the documentary turns sour as we do not see a film that is recognising an "unacknowledged hero" but rather a real-life account of a relationship that can simply be deducted to that of master and slave. With Vitali giving us an account of setting up cameras to constantly give live feed to Kubrick's immobile and incredibly ill cat, we do not assert to ourselves that Vitali is doing his duty as 'filmworker' but take a step back as we are certain that is not part of his job description. The film is too tame and does not care to venture to the aspect of Vitali as obsessive fan as it is content in just showing Vitali as being a hard working person, despite that being only half of the story. The film does at one section feel like it is starting to unveil the truth of the relationship ultimately being poisonous with Vitali mentioning he had a severe mental breakdown but pauses and proceeds to say "I don't actually want to talk about this" with director Zierra not wanting to insist and find out what or why this mental breakdown was.
Moreover, there are far too many empty accounts from various people merely reinstating what we already know: that Vitali would "do anything" for Kubrick. There is no attempt at actually trying to figure out what it is about 'Vitali as human being' that has latched onto this man who is considered a genius. I have no problem with a documentary shooting people sitting down and just talking about the subject in question. The Thin Blue Line does just that yet as everyone who is speaking has an established position we come to grasp the different pieces of the puzzle that make up the conflict within the case. What I have a problem with in a documentary is when they all follow suit and there is no significance on who on earth is talking. The film is just a stirring pot with producers, editors and actors saying how great and unrecognised Vitali is. It does not attempt to be anything more and fears to taint the name of Kubrick which is where the true story, in my opinion, lies.
My overall quarrel with this film is then that it fails to truly "document" the nature of events in Vitali's life. A documentary's main aim should be the pursuit of truth; I do not strictly mean 'factual' in this sense either. Grizzly Man captures a truth of sorts in that it captures that despite nature being beautiful it is ultimately a terrifying place. Filmworker feels cheap in that it cops out in its conclusion and becomes a "love letter" to the crew members that work behind the scenes rather than acknowledging that it's endeavour was to present the self-sacrifice Vitali performed for Kubrick and how that deeply affected him. It could be a documentary that finds this 'ecstatic truth' that speaks on a far more philosophical level of what it is to be loyal and to give yourself to art but instead figures that it works better to play out as a TV documentary on Channel 5 at 7 on a Sunday evening.
Filmworker
2 - 2 - 0
4/13
~ Iman