Colour Me Kubrick
Director: Brian W Cook
Rated: M
Palace Nova
Now screening

To lovers of cinema, Stanley Kubrick is a household name. having directed such film landmarks as 'Clockwork Orange', '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Doctor Strangelove'. However, he was only famous through his movies. His face was unfamiliar, particularly after he had shunned Hollywood and moved to England in the 'sixties. Thus, when con man Alan Conway began impersonating Kubrick in London in 1998 while he was shooting 'Eyes Wide Shut', he fleeced a string of hapless victims. Employing a liberal dose of artistic license, former Kubrick assistant director Brian W Cook and screenwriter Anthony Frewin chronicle Conway's exploits delightfully in 'Colour Me Kubrick'.

Conway (John Malkovich) is an unemployed gay man sharing a dingy flat in London. He only lives through his double life as Kubrick. Bathing in the cult of celebrity, Conway begins by deceiving young male artists out of drink money or lifts by making them believe that he wants to promote their rock group, use their designs or star them in his next movie. Flushed with success, Conway takes more risks, conning a wine bar owner (Richard E Grant) out of his savings and a cabaret singer (Jim Davidson) into funding five star accommodation at a seaside resort on a promise of a Las Vegas gig. The trickery is cruel, but the victims are too embarrassed to go to the police.
The film is a satiric indictment of the cult of celebrity. The real Conway was not as benign as the one we see in the film, but Cook and Frewin can be forgiven for editing out the ugly to craft the comedy. As the cons mount up, we begin to wonder who is the more pathetic, perpetrator or victim. Conway laments "I am only trying to escape myself. That's why I have to be someone else". However, his victims' desperate quest to attach themselves to him is just as sad.
Kubrick fans - and film buffs generally - will revel in the number of the film's in-jokes. Conway's projects include 3001, the sequel, with John Malkovich ("never heard of him") in the lead. He tells one victim that he played the child Pip in Lean's 'Great Expectations'. And yes, Hal the computer in 2001 really was a jealous bitch. There are parodies of several famous scenes from Kubrick films and appearances by Kubrick alumni such as Marisa Berenson.
As the co-founder of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company and the most serious of actors, it is remarkable that Malkovich seems most at home taking the piss out of himself.

Adorned with a myriad of tasteless outfits and a bizarre range of American accents, Malkovich has a field day as Conway. Davidson is the pick of the supporting cast and there is a hilarious cameo from film director Ken Russell as a psychiatric patient in a sanitarium feeding jelly to a golliwog.

'Colour Me Kubrick' is a hoot with a sting in the tail and well worth the price of admission. PS, 'I'm Stanley Kubrick'.

Mal Byrne