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I highly recommend the documentary Filmworker to anyone interested in Stanley Kubrick's character. It's about Leon Vitali, the actor who played Lord Bullingdon
by lqet 2y ago
I highly recommend the documentary Filmworker to anyone interested in Stanley Kubrick's character.
It's about Leon Vitali, the actor who played Lord Bullingdon (the neurotic brother of Lady Lyndon) in Barry Lyndon. After filming Barry Lyndon, he quit acting and became Kubricks personal assistant / factotum for over 20 years. Although some would say he was Kubrick's personal slave. It is utterly shocking to see how badly Kubrick treated him at times. Vitali did the work of 4-5 assistants, completely neglected his family, destroyed his health, spend the best years of his life re-cutting scenes until 5 in the morning while listening to Kubrick's violent tantrums, and ended his successful acting career for him. But apparently he was paid so little by Kubrick that he ran into financial trouble after the director's death. Yet for some mysterious reason, he remained completely loyal to his master until his own death in 2022.
- voltaireodactyl 2y agoThere are many people who believe that something outside themselves is more important than their own personal happiness or even basic sustenance/stability. Whether that’s something to be admired, damned, or merely observed — it would seem Vitali made choices for reasons worth it to him, personally.
- crazydoggers 2y agoLots of people make bad choices for themselves and others due to psychological control, manipulation, and/or abuse, such as people who willingly join cults. I’m not saying that is what happened to Vitali, but I think it’s the open question being alluded to. It is important to be aware and concerned about cultures or industries that foster cult like personality leaders.
- slibhb 2y agoExactly right. But people today are extremely resistant to this fact. It's very clear that many, many people would give up nearly anything -- including years of their lives -- to work with someone as talented as Kubrick. Is that crazy? I wouldn't do it, but others would.
- pjerem 2y agoThis is not the issue. The issue is that some people (like, probably Kubrick) will abuse this. There is nothing wrong in loyalty. What is wrong is unilateral loyalty.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- voltaireodactyl 2y agoI hope this doesn’t come off as snide, but is there a positive trait that abusive people won’t abuse for their own benefit? In my view, if there is one I’ve yet to encounter it. Which would suggest it’s largely the responsibility of each individual to decide what is important to themselves, and how much of themselves they’re prepared to sacrifice in pursuit of said thing. For some, perhaps works of art that hold meaning for millions of people over many, many years would qualify. For others, it’s a highly paid dev job. I suspect the difference between the two (and all others) “exists” more in the eye of the beholder than folks on any side of the equation would care to accept. You see it as unilateral loyalty. Perhaps he saw it as something different, or at least lived his life with both eyes open to his own experience. The only thing we can both say for sure is that we will never know for certain.
- kjs3 2y agoHe had a family. While clearly he thought it was worth it personally, he wasn't making choices just for himself.
- crossroadsguy 2y agoThat is true. This is the belief on which this entire, perpetual, scam of "die working for this startup for peanuts" for the great purpose of "changing the world" has been running. Every time a founder finds such sheep, mostly fresh ones but some old ones too once in a while. Sadly all that almost looks like "grateful to be abused".
- ycombinete 2y agoSounds like a two person cult.
- jfkrirj 2y ago[flagged]
- Hikikomori 2y agoMaybe he was happy doing it but it doesn't mean that he was treated well. That era of director dictators caused a lot of suffering.
- jfkrirj 2y ago[flagged]
- Hikikomori 2y agoSo you believe that what OP wrote is normal boss behaviour? I wouldn't want to work for you.
- fidotron 2y agoNormal bosses don’t get Kubrick like results.
- zoky 2y agoKubrick’s results were all over the map. He made maybe three great films: Dr. Strangelove Full Metal Jacket A Clockwork Orange A bunch of not bad films: 2001 Lolita Barry Lyndon The Shining Spartacus One real turd of a film: Eyes Wide Shut And a bunch of forgettable filler: All the other films he made. Compare this to the Anti-Kubrick, Clint Eastwood, who made: Unforgiven Mystic River Million Dollar Baby Letters From Iwo Jima Gran Torino And a bunch of okay films: Pretty much everything else And it’s pretty obvious that you don’t need to be an abusive taskmaster like Kubrick to make great art.
- hrhfisk 2y agosorry but Eastwood is not in the same league as Kubrick, by a long mile. just ask reddit and reverse the results to know who is better
- throw310822 2y ago> Lord Bullingdon (the neurotic brother of Lady Lyndon) It's her son from the first marriage.
- lqet 2y agoYou are right of course!
- blaerk 2y agoLeons daughter Vera talked a bit about her father, his relationship to Kubrick, art and family in “Sommar i P1”, a Swedish national radio show where people in “public interest” talk about whatever for an hour or so. It’s pretty interesting and provide some insights, but unfortunately it’s only in Swedish https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1319508# https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/1319508#
- raymond_goo 2y agocan someone post some cliffnotes please?
- itsthejb 2y agoAlso very enjoyable, Emilio D'Alessandro’s book Stanley Kubrick and Me
- moosemess 2y agoHow is this any different than say working at Tesla today?
- sangnoir 2y agoShades of that Twitter executive who shared a picture of herself in a sleeping bag at the office, presumably doing "hardcore engineering". She later got fired regardless.
- scottyah 2y agoAnecdotally, some managers like to show how they're present physically yet they don't actually contribute anything.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- freejazz 2y agoHe also played the red cloak.
- 486sx33 2y agoGo and photograph commercial street - right away! After completing the task, he found it was just for Kubrick to show off to his colleague
- mizunooto 2y agoYou can see his name in a newspaper article in Eyes Wide Shut at 2:21:03 (timing from Apple "TV" app version)