Colour Me Kubrick

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Colour Me Kubrick
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBrian Cook
Written byAnthony Frewin
Produced byMichael Fitzgerald
Brian Cook
StarringJohn Malkovich
CinematographyHoward Atherton
Edited byAlan Strachan
Music byBryan Adams
Production
companies
Canal+
Isle of Man Film
Colour Me K Limited
First Choice Films
TPS Star
Distributed byEuropaCorp
Magnolia Pictures
Release dates
  • 6 October 2005 (2005-10-06) (Dinard Festival of British Cinema)
  • 4 January 2006 (2006-01-04) (France)
Running time
86 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
France
LanguageEnglish
Box office$497,009[1]

Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story (U.S. title: Color Me Kubrick) is a 2005

comedy-drama film directed by Brian W. Cook and written by Anthony Frewin. It stars John Malkovich[2] as Alan Conway, a British con-man who impersonated director Stanley Kubrick
for several years in the 1990s. The film follows a fictionalized version of Conway as he goes from person to person, convincing them to give out money, liquor, and sexual favours for the promise of a job on "Kubrick's" next film. In real life, Frewin was Kubrick's long-time personal assistant, and Cook was assistant director on three of Kubrick's films.

Plot

Two thugs come to collect a bar bill that conman Alan Conway has generated while impersonating the reclusive film director Stanley Kubrick, but Conway is nowhere to be found, as he provided the address of a wealthy elderly couple as Kubrick's home address. The thugs cause a ruckus outside the house and are arrested.

Conway scams many people by saying he is Kubrick, including a young fashion designer, the managers of an aspiring

rent boy who he attempts to pickup at a bar: when Conway begins an anecdote about directing Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) after the young man says it is his favourite of Kubrick's films, the rent boy informs him that Judgment at Nuremberg was directed by Stanley Kramer
—not Kubrick—and Conway quietly leaves.

In a restaurant, a drunk Conway confronts Frank Rich, a journalist from The New York Times, about an article the Times ran about the real Kubrick. He acts personally offended that the paper called Kubrick a recluse, and wants Rich to know that he shaved off his beard. After this chance meeting, Rich investigates Kubrick and finds a picture of him, learning that the real Kubrick looks nothing like the man he met in the restaurant.

The nurse who cares for Conway after he passes out, drunk, on a beach, introduces him to the popular British singer and comedian Lee Pratt, and Conway is able to ingratiate himself with Pratt by promising to help establish the "low-rent

Elvis gleam in his eye"[3] as a headlining act in Las Vegas. Conway travels around with Pratt, living a life of luxury at Pratt's expense in exchange for invented tips and false promises about helping the entertainer conquer America. Finally, in a high-class seaside hotel in Devon, a cleaning woman, possibly under the direction of Pratt's increasingly suspicious manager, discovers a passport with Conway's real name printed inside, and Conway is thrown out of Pratt's life and off of a pier into Lyme Bay
.

Rich writes an article exposing Conway, and reporters gather outside Conway's apartment. In an attempt to avoid prosecution, Conway acts as though he really thinks he is Stanley Kubrick and is sent to a mental hospital, where his doctor publishes a case study of him in a medical journal. He convinces the doctor he has recovered from his mental breakdown, but she says he still needs treatment for his alcoholism and arranges for the National Health Service to pay for him to attend a four-week program at the luxurious Rimini Clinic, where many celebrities go for rehab.

Conway lives the good life at the clinic. Over a still frame of him relaxing in a giant, luxurious hot tub, onscreen text reveals that he "escaped prosecution. He returned to his flat in Harrow, where he died of a heart attack in December 1998. Stanley Kubrick died three months later."

Cast

Production

The idea for Colour Me Kubrick was conceived during the filming of

conned would come forward. Frewin decided to write these accounts and stories into a screenplay, which went on to become Colour Me Kubrick.[4]

Brian Cook, an assistant director who worked with Kubrick on three films, including Eyes Wide Shut, read Frewin's script and enjoyed it. Cook also knew of Conway's actions, and how they affected Kubrick's work and personal life. He mentioned that one of the worst incidents was "when he signed Stanley's name on a bank loan for a gay club in Soho".[4] The film marked Cook's debut as a director.

Soundtrack

There are several musical references to the films of Stanley Kubrick on the film's soundtrack: both

Ray Noble and His Orchestra with Al Bowlly is featured during the closing credits of both this film and The Shining
(1980), but does not appear on Colour Me Kubrick's soundtrack album.

Colour Me Kubrick: Original Soundtrack (EuropaCorp – RMF002)

  1. Also Sprach Zarathustra
    " (1:51)
  2. Ludwig van Beethoven / Mark Ayres – "Ode To Joy" (5:34)
  3. Tom Jones – "Not Responsible" (2:09)
  4. Bryan Adams – "I'm Not The Man You Think I Am" (3:02)
  5. Erika Eigen – "I Want to Marry A Lighthouse Keeper
    " (2:07)
  6. Jim Davidson – "Hello" (3:56)
  7. The Glenn Miller Orchestra – "Twilight Time" (3:31)
  8. Bryan Adams – "It's All About Me" (1:32)
  9. Laurence Cottle – "Flipside" (3:32)
  10. Teddy Lasry – "Night Walking" (3:19)
  11. Gioacchino Rossini / Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz conducted by Kurt Redel – "The Thieving Magpie
    " (10:38)
  12. Georg Friedrich Händel / The City Of Prague Philharmonic conducted by Paul Bateman – "Sarabande" (4:06)
  13. Johann Strauss Jr. / The City Of Prague Philharmonic conducted by Paul Bateman – "On The Beautiful Blue Danube" (10:02)[5]
Colour Me Kubrick
Soundtrack album by
Bryan Adams
Released2005 (2005)
Recorded2002
Genre
LabelUniversal
Bryan Adams chronology
Room Service
(2004) 		Colour Me Kubrick
(2005) 		Anthology
(2005)

In 2005, Bryan Adams released an EP titled Colour Me Kubrick, which consisted of five songs written for and included in the film.[citation needed]

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."I'm Not the Man You Think I Am"Bryan Adams, Gretchen Peters 
2."It's All About Me"Adams, Peters 
3."Rely on Me"Adams, Eliot Kennedy 
4."Too Good to Be True"Adams, Kennedy 
5."Gift of Love"Adams, Kennedy, Matthias Gohl 

Release

Colour Me Kubrick was released in 2006 in various countries (France, Russia, Portugal) and on 23 March 2007 in the United States.[6]

Critical reception

On the

weighted average score of 57 of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[8]

Tasha Robinson of

one-man show, a one-man show starring John Malkovich is bound to be really damn good."[10]

References

  1. ^ "Color Me Kubrick (2007) - Box Office Mojo". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 30 September 2017.
  2. ^ "Colour Me Kubrick". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  3. ^ Holden, Stephen (23 March 2007). "Colour Me Kubrick Review New York Times". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
  4. ^
    Filmmaker Magazine
    . Retrieved 16 April 2009.
  5. ^ "Various – Colour Me Kubrick (Original Soundtrack)". Discogs. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  6. ^ "Release dates for Colour Me Kubrick: A True...ish Story". IMDb. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
  7. ^ "Color Me Kubrick (2007)". Retrieved 3 March 2024 – via www.rottentomatoes.com.
  8. ^ "Colour Me Kubrick Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  9. ^ "Colour Me Kubrick A.V. Club". The A.V. Club. 23 March 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
  10. UGO. Retrieved 16 April 2009.[permanent dead link
    ]

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Colour_Me_Kubrick&oldid=1213981612"