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color me kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was a visionary filmmaker who directed 13 critically acclaimed films during his career. Second to his genius behind the camera, Kubrick was widely known as a recluse, shunning the public eye and refusing to travel, choosing instead to make actors come to him in London for auditions. It was during this time in the famed director’s life that a man named Alan Conway took advantage of Kubrick’s seclusion. Conway’s deeds are the subject of a film called Color Me Kubrick starring John Malkovich, which is now available on DVD.

Alan Conway (Malkovich) is a middle-aged loser who has people falling all over themselves to shower him with money, gifts, sexual liaisons and endless drinks. You see, they have no idea who Alan Conway is. They think they’re wining and dining Stanley Kubrick. For three years Conway, a life-long criminal and conman, has been sashaying around London pretending to be Kubrick, despite looking nothing like him and knowing next to nothing about his films. His marks are the gullible; those willing to hand over cash to a perfect stranger who promises to make them stars. From fashion designers to rock bands to washed-up comedians, Conway gained their trust and managed to manipulate them into giving him whatever he desired.

An alcoholic with a taste for fine food and younger men, Conway used the director’s name to get into the best parties, stay in the fanciest hotels and sleep with whoever he wanted. After being discovered by one of his marks and having his story exposed in the papers, Conway was forced to resume the life he was born into, only now slightly more famous.

Color Me Kubrick actually follows this con-artist’s three years of treachery fairly well. The real Alan Conway had a long rap sheet that began at age 13 and consisted of petty crime, fraud, embezzlement and burglary. After leaving his wife for his gay lover and falling into alcoholism, Conway began impersonating Stanley Kubrick in the early 90s. He convinced actors, musicians and even New York Times theater critic Frank Rich that he was the real deal and subsequently survived on their generosity. Once he was discovered, Conway went to Priory, a substance abuse treatment facility, and became a committed member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

He did interviews with the media about his days as Stanley Kubrick, claiming he loved the role and would have played the part until the day he died if he could have. He admitted that, to some degree, he really did believe he was Stanley Kubrick. On December 5, 1998, Conway passed away, leaving his son with a stack of maxed out credit cards and a number of angry collectors leaving messages on the answering machine for “Stanley.” Coincidentally, the real Stanley Kubrick died three months later.

The Color Me Kubrick DVD only contains one bonus feature, a 45-minute long featurette called “Being Alan Conway.” Here, the filmmakers, many of whom worked with the real Stanley Kubrick during this strange era of his life, discuss the making of the film, muse about what Kubrick would have thought about the movie, share funny stories about working with him and, to a much lesser degree, talk about Conway and his con. At the end we get a snippet of an interview with Conway himself.

Color Me Kubrick is an interesting, entertaining film at the beginning and the end. The middle is all filler. Basically, we just see Conway tricking people over and over again until he gets caught. It’s funny and intriguing the first couple times he does it, but after that it gets old. It would have been immensely boring if it weren’t for the masterful performance by Malkovich, who plays a much quirkier version of the real Conway, complete with wild, flamboyant outfits and about a dozen terrible-on-purpose accents, one for each sucker. Amusing nods to Kubrick are also hidden throughout, particularly in the soundtrack, where selections of music from A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining are used during key scenes. The film is, at the very least, worth a rental if you’re interested in the subject matter. If not, this one is safe to skip.

In Color Me Kubrick, we’re never told why Conway impersonated the famed director, mostly because no one actually knows, and we never see Kubrick’s response to Conway’s antics, though it’s been reported that he was mildly amused by the whole thing. In the end, these things aren’t really important. The point is that people will believe anything if they think it will benefit them. All of Conway’s marks were certain their chance encounter with the reclusive director would be their ticket to easy street, only to discover their shortcut to success was a dead end. In some ways, they deserved what they got. Still, Conway’s actions earned him nothing but a lonely death and the resentment of his only son. Then again, he is the subject of a major motion picture and a Google search of his name results in nearly 50,000 hits. Maybe he got the last laugh after all.