Colour Me Kubrick (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Animation Featurette-Making Of Interviews-Cast & Crew-John Malkovich Interviews-Cast & Crew-Brian Cook
Rating	?
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	83:00
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (78:38)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	?
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Brian W. Cook
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	John Malkovich
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Bryan Adams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Colour Me Kubrick is the entertaining, “true...ish story” about the flamboyant lifestyle of British conman and travel agent, Alan Conway, who was exposed in the 1990s for having successfully impersonated the very famous, and very reclusive film director, Stanley Kubrick, for a number of years.

    Stanley Kubrick is undoubtedly one of the most enigmatic filmmakers of our time. As a teenager, the Bronx-born Kubrick sold his photographs to various magazines, until he became a staff photographer at Look Magazine aged just 17. At age 23, Kubrick financed his own short film, Day Of The Fight, which was purchased by RKO, and screened in US cinemas.

    Kubrick then left his job as a photographer to pursue filmmaking fulltime, and ended up spending a number of years either making his own self-financed films, or working as a director-for-hire on a series of relatively low-budget movies, that is until the well-respected war film Paths Of Glory, starring Kirk Douglas, gained him international attention.

    Working with Douglas was the break Kubrick needed. Not only was Paths Of Glory a critical success, Kubrick was later invited to replace Director Anthony Mann at Douglas' suggestion on the big-budget film, Spartacus (1960). Despite creative differences between Douglas and Kubrick, Spartacus was to become a great commercial and critical success. Sadly, their ongoing arguments ended their friendship and professional relationship, but more of this story is detailed in my review of Spartacus, found here.

     For legal and financial reasons, Kubrick’s next film, Lolita (1962), was shot in England and Kubrick was to remain there, living a reclusive lifestyle in a country estate, which also housed his post-production facilities.

     Kubrick’s following films were: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).

     Shortly before his death, the Director's Guild of America awarded Kubrick its highest honour, the D.W. Griffith Award. Kubrick did not attend the ceremony, but Jack Nicholson accepted the award on behalf of Kubrick, announcing to the crowd that Kubrick was: “in a class all of his own, and if he wasn't, it doesn’t take long to call the roll”.

    However, it seems that today’s world of celebrity doesn’t appreciate famous people who enjoy their privacy. So, if one of the world’s most famous and respected filmmakers wasn’t going to live in Hollywood, walk down red carpets, give interviews, or even swan around exclusive restaurants, London seemed happy to have a phony step into the role, at least for a while.

    During the 1990s Alan Conway happily strolled about London, telling anyone who cared to listen that he was the famous Film Director, Stanley Kubrick. Conway looked nothing like Kubrick, and had very limited knowledge about Kubrick, as he apparently had only seen a couple of Kubrick films. Also, despite the fact that Conway was English, and had what his son described as an “appalling attempt at an American accent”, Conway somehow managed to persuade a number of people that he was indeed the acclaimed, reclusive Film Director.

    Apart from a great number of ordinary people, Conway’s victims included the Former British MP, Sir Fergus Montgomery, and the Show Business savvy New York Times theatre critic, Frank Rich, UK Television Entertainer, Joe Longthorne, and even a Hollywood Film Producer who had previously met the real Kubrick. Conway even went backstage at a London Theatre and informed Julie Walters and Patricia Hayes that he was considering using them in his upcoming film, Eyes Wide Shut.

    Conway was unmasked in the media, and later died a lonely and broken man, shortly before the real Kubrick passed on.

     In his feature directorial debut, Director Brian W. Cook (Kubrick's Assistant Director) and screenwriter Anthony Frewin (Kubrick's Personal Assistant) have made a film which provides a great showcase for actor John Malkovich in the leading role; but while it is amusing, it never digs deep. The reasons behind Conway’s failed marriage, failed business ventures, alcoholism, depression, and ultimately, his psychiatric problems are never really explored.

    The film’s episodic structure is entertaining, but after a while, the story becomes a rather monotonous repetition of people being conned. The situation is even worse for those viewers who aren’t big Kubrick fans, as much of the film’s humour rests on having a thorough familiarity with Kubrick’s work, and even with his life, to a certain extent. For example, apart from underscoring the film’s soundtrack with music from Kubrick films such as A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon, also consider the adult bookstore named "Bleu Danube" in reference to the famous waltz heard in 2001: A Space Odyssey, or the young street ruffian wearing a bowler hat and carrying a cane, in a nod to A Clockwork Orange.

     The film’s official web site can be found here.

Video

    Overall the transfer is quite good.

    The widescreen transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the image is good, as seen in the street scene at 10:00. The black level and shadow detail are also good, as seen in dark flat interior at 7:30 and the dark taxi interior at 21:18.

    The colour is good, with some London scenes seemingly intentionally drab. The skin tones are accurate.

    Cheaper film stock appears to have been used, and the image can be quite grainy at times. But there are no problems with MPEG, Film-To-Video or Film artefacts.

    English subtitles are present, and they are accurate.

    This is a single-sided, dual-layered disc, with the layer change placed at 78:38, at the start of the end credits. The feature is divided into 29 Chapters.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Surprisingly, the audio is limited to English Dolby Digital 2.0. While disappointing, as a dialogue-based comedy, this limitation did not affect my enjoyment of the movie.

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are fine.

    As mentioned above, the musical score makes use of music from Kubrick films such as A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    A few genuine extras have been included.

Menu

    With audio and animation.

Featurette - Making Of

    Running for just over 25 minutes, and presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Stereo audio, this featurette contains behind-the-scenes footage, with some rehearsal material and interviews. It features Actor John Malkovich, Producer Michael Fitzgerald, and Director Brian Cook.

Interview with John Malkovich

    This runs for just under nine minutes, and inexplicably begins in French, before changing to English.

Interview with Brain Cook

    Running for just under 11 minutes, Cook recounts working with Kubrick, and his personal recollections of the imposter, which in turn helped lead to the idea for the film.

    Colour Me Kubrick does not appear to have been released on DVD in Region 1.

    Entertaining, but repetitive.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is limited, but good.

    The extras are slim, but genuine.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall