Colour Me Kubrick, a John Malkovich-starring lark about an unlikely 1980s Stanley Kubrick impersonator, opens March 23. The screenplay’s by Anthony Frewin, longtime assistant to the late director, and Brian Cook, Colour‘s producer-director, also knew him well. “I was his assistant director on Barry Lyndon and The Shining and assistant director as well as co-producer on Eyes Wide Shut. I made three pictures with Stanley over a period of some 30 years,” Cook attests in the Colour Me Kubrick press kit. “He was really a man unto himself. We worked at the studio but we also spent a lot of time at his home. Especially as he didn’t get up early and worked into the middle of the night! He loved that and I don’t blame him. I’d do the same thing if I could afford it! He didn’t waste time going to the studio every morning. He lived at home with his wife, children and no one else. We only came over to work and never stayed… Stanley stayed up very late in the evenings reading or making phone calls. He never started to work before noon. With age, he’d get up later and later. On Eyes Wide Shut, we’d work from 1pm to 1am, even at the studio. Obviously, when you work with someone for 30 years, certain bonds develop. Extremely loyal to those whose work he appreciated, Stanley systematically rehired the same collaborators. He had surrounded himself with excellent technicians… He himself was a very good technician. Outside the periods of production, we’d sometimes phone each other. I traveled a lot but always dropped in to see him whenever I returned to England. We had a good relationship. I particularly appreciated his deadpan side whenever he’d speak about the motion picture industry. He had a very subtle wit. He knew how to be a hard taskmaster when necessary, but working with him was sheer delight, he was a true perfectionist. His method didn’t vary with the films. First of all, he’d write the scene and adapt it according to the actors. For each and every scene, he’d spend hours and hours preparing the set and lighting even before we began rehearsals with the actors. When the set finally suited him, he’d have them come over and worked with them. He never required their presence before the set, props and lighting were ready, all of which takes an incredible amount of time. We’d do as many takes as he wished. We began over again each time by modifying lighting…

It didn’t bother Stanley spending time on a film. Many good directors like to keep up a steady shooting rhythm, advancing things without increasing the number of takes.” Kubrick “always wanted to try out other options. This was his right and he could afford it, as his films raked in a huge amount of money. No studio would have tolerated his work method if he didn’t bring in so much for them. He had lots of success, but worked hard, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It was his whole life. He was a skillful filmmaker who didn’t really appreciate the shoot in itself. He preferred by far preparation and postproduction. I loved talking with him. It’s such a terrible pity he left us so son. Never again will there be a man like him. Today, directors work at a frantic pace. They have to make films ever cheaper and cannot afford to spend years preparing and polishing up each production as Stanley Kubrick or David Lean would do. All that belongs to the past.”

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