Extracted from AT THE MOVIES
Oscars give Roger Corman and Gordon Willis a golden glow
They will be honored for their achievements behind the camera.
By Susan King
LA Times
November 12, 2009
This year's honorees -- actress Lauren Bacall, 85; producer-director-writer Roger Corman, 83; and "The Godfather" cinematographer Gordon Willis, 78 -- will be in attendance. Producer and former studio executive John Calley, 79 ("Remains of the Day"), the recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, will be unable to attend due to health issues.
Roger Corman
The best film schools are well known -- USC, UCLA and New York University to name just a few. But for many working in Hollywood today, the greatest film institution is actually Roger Corman.
Not only did Corman turn independent film on its ear over the last five decades, making entertaining, low-budget horror films, comedies and dramas often in less than two weeks, he also gave such Oscar-winning and nominated directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme and Peter Bogdanovich their big breaks.
"Roger Corman is responsible for the 'New Hollywood,' " says Bogdanovich, who directed his first film, 1968's acclaimed "Targets," for Corman. "He has made a tremendous impact as a director himself and made very stylish horror films and made them fast and cheap and made them look good. If it wasn't for Roger you wouldn't have Jack Nicholson or Francis Coppola or Marty or Jonathan Demme.
"Roger was fiercely independent," adds Joe Dante ("Gremlins"), who began cutting trailers for Corman in the 1970s before making the 1978 hit "Piranha" for him. "He mostly worked with American International Pictures, which was essentially an independent company. I like the way he made his pictures. I liked the speed, the economy, the style."
At his peak in the early 1960s, Corman was making as many as seven movies a year, including the classic horror comedy "Little Shop of Horrors," which he, as the story goes, shot in just two days. He also made stylish adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe thrillers.
Corman says that his degree in engineering from Stanford helped him make movies economically by knowing how to plan. "I started as a writer," he says, relaxing on a recent morning in his office in Brentwood. "When I started directing possibly because of the engineering or maybe because the way the brain is wired, I understood editing and all the technical elements of making films. I learned that on the job quickly."
But he felt unsure working with actors, so he enrolled in an acting class. It was in that class he met a young Nicholson, whom he cast in 1958's "The Cry Baby Killer." "I simply felt he was not only the best actor in the class and although he never made a film he was better than most of the actors I had been working with."
Corman began to give young filmmakers their chance after some financial success. "I had made a little bit of money and the normal way people would invest was in the stock market or real estate," he says. "I said to myself 'I don't really know anything about the stock market or real estate, but I think I know something about motion pictures.' As a young guy around Hollywood, I knew the other guys around Hollywood. I thought the thing to do is back somebody in a low-budget film."
So he first chose Irvin Kershner ("The Empire Strikes Back"), who did a picture in 1958 called "Stakeout on Dope Street." "We sold it to Warner Bros. and had a substantial profit. I thought this was a great way to invest."
Then he gave his "ace assistant" Coppola the opportunity to direct 1963's "Dementia 13," which was also a hit. And so Corman continued discovering and nurturing filmmakers.
Corman is still producing films -- in fact his first Web series, "Splatter," which he made for Netflix, concludes Friday -- but he admits he's making fewer films than before.
"We are making three to five films a year," he says. "The market for low-budget films is the lowest I have ever seen in my life. Guys who I have known for many years, many of them younger than I, have simply retired. I am one of the few who are still there."
And retirement is not an option for Corman. "I love to make films," he says.
Though several of the directors whom he championed had sent a letter to the academy's board of governors to consider Corman, the filmmaker says he never thought he would ever get the award, "because I make low-budget films. Then they called me one night and said we voted to give you an award. I was really surprised."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-oscar12-2009nov12,0,6630789.story
They will be honored for their achievements behind the camera.
By Susan King
LA Times
November 12, 2009
This year's honorees -- actress Lauren Bacall, 85; producer-director-writer Roger Corman, 83; and "The Godfather" cinematographer Gordon Willis, 78 -- will be in attendance. Producer and former studio executive John Calley, 79 ("Remains of the Day"), the recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, will be unable to attend due to health issues.
Roger Corman
The best film schools are well known -- USC, UCLA and New York University to name just a few. But for many working in Hollywood today, the greatest film institution is actually Roger Corman.
Not only did Corman turn independent film on its ear over the last five decades, making entertaining, low-budget horror films, comedies and dramas often in less than two weeks, he also gave such Oscar-winning and nominated directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ron Howard, Jonathan Demme and Peter Bogdanovich their big breaks.
"Roger Corman is responsible for the 'New Hollywood,' " says Bogdanovich, who directed his first film, 1968's acclaimed "Targets," for Corman. "He has made a tremendous impact as a director himself and made very stylish horror films and made them fast and cheap and made them look good. If it wasn't for Roger you wouldn't have Jack Nicholson or Francis Coppola or Marty or Jonathan Demme.
"Roger was fiercely independent," adds Joe Dante ("Gremlins"), who began cutting trailers for Corman in the 1970s before making the 1978 hit "Piranha" for him. "He mostly worked with American International Pictures, which was essentially an independent company. I like the way he made his pictures. I liked the speed, the economy, the style."
At his peak in the early 1960s, Corman was making as many as seven movies a year, including the classic horror comedy "Little Shop of Horrors," which he, as the story goes, shot in just two days. He also made stylish adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe thrillers.
Corman says that his degree in engineering from Stanford helped him make movies economically by knowing how to plan. "I started as a writer," he says, relaxing on a recent morning in his office in Brentwood. "When I started directing possibly because of the engineering or maybe because the way the brain is wired, I understood editing and all the technical elements of making films. I learned that on the job quickly."
But he felt unsure working with actors, so he enrolled in an acting class. It was in that class he met a young Nicholson, whom he cast in 1958's "The Cry Baby Killer." "I simply felt he was not only the best actor in the class and although he never made a film he was better than most of the actors I had been working with."
Corman began to give young filmmakers their chance after some financial success. "I had made a little bit of money and the normal way people would invest was in the stock market or real estate," he says. "I said to myself 'I don't really know anything about the stock market or real estate, but I think I know something about motion pictures.' As a young guy around Hollywood, I knew the other guys around Hollywood. I thought the thing to do is back somebody in a low-budget film."
So he first chose Irvin Kershner ("The Empire Strikes Back"), who did a picture in 1958 called "Stakeout on Dope Street." "We sold it to Warner Bros. and had a substantial profit. I thought this was a great way to invest."
Then he gave his "ace assistant" Coppola the opportunity to direct 1963's "Dementia 13," which was also a hit. And so Corman continued discovering and nurturing filmmakers.
Corman is still producing films -- in fact his first Web series, "Splatter," which he made for Netflix, concludes Friday -- but he admits he's making fewer films than before.
"We are making three to five films a year," he says. "The market for low-budget films is the lowest I have ever seen in my life. Guys who I have known for many years, many of them younger than I, have simply retired. I am one of the few who are still there."
And retirement is not an option for Corman. "I love to make films," he says.
Though several of the directors whom he championed had sent a letter to the academy's board of governors to consider Corman, the filmmaker says he never thought he would ever get the award, "because I make low-budget films. Then they called me one night and said we voted to give you an award. I was really surprised."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-oscar12-2009nov12,0,6630789.story
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