As one who knew and even hung a couple of times with Leon Vitali, the former actor and devoted Stanley Kubrick associate throughout the ’70s, 80s and’ 90s, and as one who badgered him a few times during the Barry Lyndon aspect-ratio brouhaha of 2011, I’m very sorry to hear that he’s passed. I loved … Read more
Longtime HE readers will recall the Barry Lyndon aspect-ratio contretemps that happened six years ago. Lyndon costar and longtime Stanley Kubrick assistant Leon Vitali, retained by Warner Home Video as a technical consultant on a spate of Kubrick Blurays, has insisted that the Lyndon Bluray be issued at 1.77:1 rather than 1.66:1, an a.r. previously … Read more
A quote from Steadicam inventor and operator Garrett Brown contained in an 11-month-old Pajiba.com article by Cindy Brown suggests that Warner Bros. Home Video and former Stanley Kubrick assistant and confidante Leon Vitali erred when they decided to master the 2011 Bluray of The Shining at a 1.85 to 1 aspect ratio. I don’t know … Read more
Two weeks hence Tony Zierra‘s Filmworker, a brilliant tale of the life and times of Leon Vitali, will open at Manhattan’s Metrograph, and then a week later at West L.A.’s Nuart. I’ve been insisting for months that this is an absolutely world-class doc, not to mention the best inside-the-beltway, what-it-was-really-like Stanley Kubrick doc ever made. … Read more
During last year’s pre-Cannes Manhattan stopover I caught a screening of Tony Zierra’s Filmworker, a doc about Leon Vitali, the one-time actor who served a Stanley Kubrick’s right-hand-man for roughly 20 years. Several days later it screened at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, under the Cannes Classics subsection. And then I sat down with Vitali … Read more
Tony Zierra‘s Filmworker, an 89-minute doc about the legendary Stanley Kubrick assistant and confidante Leon Vitali, is the juiciest and dishiest capturing of Stanley Kubrick‘s backstage life and career ever assembled. It’s about Vitali’s life, but by way of Kubrick’s. (Or is it the other way around?) 21 or 22 years of deep focus, late … Read more
In response to this morning’s Glenn Kenny/Some Came Running article containing a 12.8.75 letter from Stanley Kubrick to projectionists which specified that Barry Lyndon was shot in 1.66 and should be projected this way, former Kubrick assistant and keeper of the Kubrick flame Leon Vitali has sent me a long and detailed reply: “Thanks for … Read more
In a just-posted 11.24 interview with IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio, Eyes Wide Shut dp and Criterion vandal–beast Larry Smith says that with the exception of the large-widescreen-format Spartacus and 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick “only shot in one format, [which was] 1.85…that was his preferred aspect ratio.” From The Killing to Eyes Wide Shut and … Read more
From the same “Roberts Peaked in Serpico, Pelham” comment thread, also posted this morning… HE reply: To have spoken the plain, unfettered truth about the many, many missteps of the Criterion Collection…my God, who else has had the stones and sand to do this with? Over the years HE has righteously exposed (a) all … Read more
Before clicking on this link, please understand that HE is profusely apologizing for posting it. I have no excuse except for this: I’m fascinated by AI’s ability to own and manipulate the voice of Barry Lyndon‘s narrator, Michael Hordern. The below scene, of course, is the one that has killed most viewers’ interest in Barry … Read more
The grossest omissions from the Oscar telecast’s “death reel” were, hands down, Paul Sorvino, Anne Heche, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Tom Sizemore, Stella Stevens and Philip Baker Hall (6). Also dead but officially unrecognized: Robert Blake, Topol, Charlbi Dean, Fred Ward, Melinda Dillon, Tony Sirico, Clu Gulager, Mike Hodges, Hugh Hudson, LQ Jones, Bo Hopkins, Robert Morse, … Read more
TCM’s death reel errs grievously by calling the late Leon Vitali an “actor”. As Tony Zierra‘s Filmworker makes clear, Vitali only began as an actor. He became a legendary figure by devotionally serving the ultimate sorcerer, Stanley Kubrick, on a 24/7 basis. From “At Long Last Leon,” posted on 5.12.18: “Vitali said to himself early … Read more