When he was a young man, Leon Vitali looked like a screen star. A floppy haired TV actor in the 1970s, this pouty-lipped pretty boy found fame as Lord Bullingdon in Stanley Kubrick’s 1975 drama Barry Lyndon. The present-day Vitali hardly seems like the same man; blond hair under a bandana and wearing rock’n’roll sunglasses, he no longer has the well-keptness of a pampered actor.
In this edifying, occasionally troubling documentary, we learn that Vitali gave up acting, choosing instead to learn the craft of film-making from Kubrick’s side. Beginning his apprenticeship on the set of The Shining, Vitali spent the best part of 30 years learning the intricacies of colour grading, Foley artistry, casting, trailer cutting and more, fuelled by an almost masochistic dedication to the auteur’s vision. He would even go on to finish Eyes Wide Shut when Kubrick died before its completion.
