John Malkovich Is Kubrick

Started by MacGuffin, June 17, 2003, 10:27:54 AM

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mogwai

i just read that actress marisa berenson who played lady lyndon in "barry lyndon" will be in "colour me kubrick".

now, that's odd.

or maybe the movie is supposed to be a doc?

El Duderino

Did I just get cock-blocked by Bob Saget?

Pubrick

Quote from: El DuderinoPromo Trailer Here
oh u mean the exact same one that is on the previous page?

thanks.
under the paving stones.

©brad

Quote from: SiliasRubyCount me in on seeing this

count me in on seeing this, but not with you.


cowboykurtis

god this movie looks like such an awfukl peice of shit -- does any one know the story of this? a biopic? the teaser is dreadful -- this just looks like a waste of time money and labor.

if im not mistaken kubrick old assistant is producing this? seems to me like he saw an opportunity to cash in -- stanley is spitting in his fucking grave
...your excuses are your own...

MacGuffin

Quote from: cowboykurtisdoes any one know the story of this? a biopic?

if im not mistaken kubrick old assistant is producing this?

All those questions are answered in the very first post on page one of this thread.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

cowboykurtis

Quote from: MacGuffin
Quote from: cowboykurtisdoes any one know the story of this? a biopic?

if im not mistaken kubrick old assistant is producing this?

All those questions are answered in the very first post on page one of this thread.

thanks - i take my harsh comments back -- i did not read the whole thread -- actually kind of an interesting story.
...your excuses are your own...

Pozer

Cowboykurtis, those were the funniest set of posts I have ever read on this site.
Colour Me Kurtis.

modage

Quote from: flagpolespecial on February 28, 2006, 10:02:40 AM
has it played any festivals? what's the what?

Colour Me Kubrick
Int'l Narrative Competition
[COLOU] 2005 87 min 
Directed By: Brian Cook 
North American Premiere 

Toward the end of his life, Stanley Kubrick found himself increasingly vexed by the antics of an impostor who cut a swath through London, passing himself off as the acclaimed director. His success was founded not only on boundless chutzpah but also on the fact that Kubrick's real face and voice were practically unknown since-like Terence Malick and Chris Marker-he remained one of filmdom's few stubborn holdouts in the Fame Game. Although director Brian Cook and screenwriter Anthony Frewin have both collaborated with Kubrick for decades, what ultimately winds up on the screen has little to do with the actual filmmaker and everything to do with portraying the astonishing depths of human credulity, especially when provoked by the presence of a celebrity. Alan Conway, the man who turned out to be the perpetrator of the long-running hoax, is brought uproariously to life by John Malkovich. In a jaw-dropping tour de force, the star leaves no regional American accent or campily outlandish costume unturned. He stops at nothing in depicting Conway's shameless character, whether he is cadging a few quid for cab fare or pulling off even more outrageous scams. As producer Michael Fitzgerald notes: ""The film has three hidden messages. One, anyone can be Stanley Kubrick. Two, all crimes perpetrated in the name of celebrity will be rewarded by celebrity itself. Three, if you ever meet a celebrity, watch your wallet.""

SCREENING SCHEDULE
Mon, May 1 / 6:00 pm
Tue, May 2 / 9:30 pm
Wed, May 3 / Noon
Thu, May 4 / 5:00 pm
Fri, May 5 / 8:15 pm


www.tribecafilmfestival.org
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

hedwig

haha great. we watched Dangerous Liaisons in class today and I was wondering what the hell happened to this movie.

good to hear.  :yabbse-thumbup:

Pubrick

Quote from: modage on April 04, 2006, 08:43:52 PM
As producer Michael Fitzgerald notes: ""The film has three hidden messages. One, anyone can be Stanley Kubrick. Two, all crimes perpetrated in the name of celebrity will be rewarded by celebrity itself. Three, if you ever meet a celebrity, watch your wallet.""
brilliant. colour me highly anticipaty.
under the paving stones.

cron

the film HAD three hidden messages...  :yabbse-sad:
context, context, context.

MacGuffin

Malkovich plays man who would be Kubrick in film

John Malkovich's new film has him playing an Englishman who pretends he is Stanley Kubrick in what is billed as a "true-ish" story about a conman who duped dozens of people into thinking he was the reclusive director.

"Color me Kubrick," showing at the Tribeca Film Festival this week, has already drawn comparisons to "Being John Malkovich" because of its cerebral approach to questions of identity and celebrity.

But it is essentially a comedy that gives Malkovich the chance to revel in outlandish accents, behavior and costumes, from stockings and stilettos to oversized pajamas and foppish suits and cravats. The soundtrack echoes Kubrick's own films, including the famous theme from "2001: Space Odyssey."

Alan Conway, an alcoholic and small-time swindler, managed to pass himself off as the famously publicity-shy Kubrick for years until he was unmasked by a newspaper. Even then he convinced psychiatrists he was mentally ill, escaping prosecution for duping dozens of gullible victims into parting with their cash and sometimes their virtue.

"Everybody believed it," said Michael Fitzgerald, who produced the film written by Kubrick's personal assistant Anthony Frewin.

"Stanley Kubrick's wife still gets letters from parents of young men who were, what's the word, 'pleasured' by him, regretting his death, but saying he had done unspeakable things to their children," he said.

With his debonair look, eccentric outfits and gift of gab, Conway takes in everyone from the local pharmacist, to the managers of a heavy metal band, to a comedian played by British star Jim Davidson.

Malkovich said the surprising thing was how readily people believed Conway because of their reverence for celebrities. "They were blind as of that instant and all they were wondering about was what he was thinking about them," he said.

Asked about the parallels with "Being John Malkovich" -- where a puppeteer discovers a door in his office that allows him to enter the mind and life of the actor -- Malkovich said they were not so much in issues of identity as celebrity.

"I suppose they do have some things in common," he said. "But it's not so much what draws me to these films as it's what draws people to thinking being a celebrity would be in any way interesting or beneficial."

"Someone who has a life like Alan Conway is going to clearly see that life is better if you're Stanley Kubrick," Malkovich said. "Then people like you and people listen to you, and if you're just a kind of minor petty criminal and failed travel agent, chances are they wouldn't be as interested in you."

But he said after playing the role he was amazed at the effort involved to maintain such a deception. "Surely the fundamental rule about existence is that you are who you are," he said.

The film has yet to find a distributor in the United States. "They don't know how to market it -- that's the excuse so far," said Fitzgerald.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

mogwai

Playing the man playing Kubrick

Actor John Malkovich has told the BBC he was so "stunned" by the story of a con artist who spent 10 years taking money from people who believed him to be director Stanley Kubrick that he took the role of the man himself for a new film.

Colour Me Kubrick tells the story of Alan Conway, who spent a decade impersonating the director, despite knowing very little about his work, looking not at all like him, and having been born in Whitechapel in London rather than the Bronx in New York.

Conway's victims included a number of famous British celebrities, from heavy metal bands to cabaret singers.

Malkovich, who plays Conway in the film, told BBC World Service's On Screen programme that he was amazed when he first heard about Conway's scam.

"It's not that I applaud it - but I am kind of stunned by it," he said.

"Why would you bother? To a lot of people, their lives are so beneath the size of their dreams, that they need to be someone else."

Making a killing

Malkovich plays Conway as an alcoholic on the edge, improvising his every scam and parting credulous people with their money.

"He knew nothing about Kubrick, and he was an incredible drunk - which would have made it hard to remember anything he knew, had he known it," Malkovich said.


"It seemed to me to make a lot of sense to just read the person in front of you, and be who they would like you to be."
Conway was able to carry out his deception because Kubrick had a reputation of being a recluse.

Despite having made some of the best-known films in cinema history - including 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining and A Clockwork Orange - the director only very rarely appeared in public, and spent most of his time off set in his mansion in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Conway, however, was much more gregarious. In an interesting twist, Colour Me Kubrick director Brian Cook - who himself worked with Kubrick on a number of films, including The Shining and Barry Lyndon - found that many of the British actors he employed for the film had met Conway.

"Jim Davidson encountered him and thought he was Kubrick," he said.

"Conway had really got around, so we heard about it from many of the people actually in the film."

Kubrick himself only became aware of Conway's existence in the mid-1990s, as he was preparing to make what would turn out to be his last film, Eyes Wide Shut. He began to receive letters accusing him of breaking promises, stealing money and wrecking people's lives.

Tabloid exposes

The idea for the film came from Tony Fruin, Kubrick's personal assistant for many years, who was charged with tracking Conway down in 1998.

Conway's story has been told before, in the British documentary The Man Who Would Be Kubrick, as well as in numerous tabloid exposes.

Colour Me Kubrick is described as "A true-ish account", played by Malkovich as broad comedy.

"When I saw a TV programme about the gentleman in question, he mentioned his extraordinarily exact American accent - but it didn't resemble anyone I'd ever heard," Malkovich said.

"That gave me the idea of having the accent a little bit Yiddish, a little bit Croydon, a little bit Copenhagen, and a little bit Seoul."

The film is also a peculiar sideways tribute to Kubrick, and has a number of oblique references to his films, especially in the dialogue and the music.

However, despite its intriguing premise, the film is currently struggling to get distribution in the two countries Kubrick lived and worked in all his life - the US and the UK.

It has so far been released in France - as Appellez Moi Kubrick - and Australia, but there is no word whether it will get a chance in the world's major film market.