Everybody’s Talking About: Roger Corman
Twitter’s been atwitter about Roger Corman lately. One of the reasons we’re hearing his name on the Interwebz today is because of the release of the new documentary film Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, directed by Alex Stapleton. Looks well worth watching!
You would be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t heard of a couple of Mr. Corman’s movies, and most film fans have seen more than a handful. He was a pioneer of several genres and a man that any producer and/or director can find merit in. To some he’s a miscreant, to others a god, but there’s no questioning that the man leaves his mark on Hollywood and the culture of cinema to this day.
I was never a die hard fan, but always admired Mr. Corman as a man who could get the shot in the can. With the reading of each one the articles below, though, I found myself respecting him more and more. He has a unique perspective on the history of film while he was exposed to it (or, should I say, while it was exposed to him). Furthermore, he has a tangible message about the current state of independent filmmaking.
If you are interested in learning more about the man who may very well be credited for the state of modern cinema, take a gander at some of these recent articles.
10 Ways B-Movie Master Roger Corman Changed Filmmaking:
“He was the master of optimizing any opportunity to get something juicy for the camera,” Stapleton says. “Nancy Sinatra, Peter Fonda and others told me that Corman used to tell cameramen to go chase ambulances and fire trucks and just film whatever action was happening. He’d figure out later how to use the footage in a film.”
Five Favorite Films with Roger Corman:
“Particularly in science fiction films: we had very little money to do special effects and the giant special effects — to a certain extent in Jaws but then to a great extent in Star Wars – those special effects were so spectacular that there was no way that we could compete… we had been damaged.”
An early sign of his influence came at the Academy Awards ceremony of 1975, where screenwriter Robert Towne picked up his award for ”Chinatown” and observed from the podium how the night looked to him like a “Roger Corman reunion.”
Roger Corman, Major Artist: ‘Corman’s World’ Makes the Case:
As Corman recalls, his early gig as a script consultant for Fox led to rewrites on the Gregory Peck western “The Gunfighter,” but Corman received no credit for his contributions. Frustrated with the system, he invented his own.
Recent Comments.