American film director Roger Corman: biography, filmography and interesting facts

Since the early 1950s, the well-known independent producer and director Roger William Corman (Roger Corman), whose filmography includes hundreds of low-budget tapes, questionable both in terms of artistry and taste, revolutionized the way they were produced and distributed. Working outside the studio system, he set the record as one of the most commercially successful filmmakers in the history of Hollywood, 90% of whose products have made a profit.

Talent Seeker

Roger Corman, the full filmography of which has more than 400 films, managed to create only a few paintings that have become classics of the genre, including "Not from this Earth" (1957), "The Store of Horrors" (1960), "The Crow" (1963), " The Race of Death 2000 "(1975) and" The Battle for the Stars "(1980). Perhaps more important than his own achievements was the fact that he brought to the people of many famous Hollywood actors and directors such as Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, John Sales, Curtis Hanson And James Cameron. At the same time, in the 1970s he helped foreign directors such as Akira Kurosawa, François Truffaut and Ingmar Bergman, become popular in the United States when no one wanted to take risks. He was one of the first producers to recognize the financial advantages of shooting in Europe, and he used scenery unclaimed by other films. Not surprisingly, Corman, nicknamed the king of low-budget tape, became one of the most prolific and successful producers of his time.

short biography

Roger was born April 5, 1926 in Detroit, Michigan. He was the eldest of two sons of Gene Corman, an engineer who participated in the design of the Greenfield Village dam, and his wife Anne. He grew up in the industrial Midwest, but because of his father's illness and his early retirement, the family moved to southern California. After graduating from high school in Beverly Hills in the last years of World War II, Roger served in the US Navy, and then followed in the footsteps of his father and became an engineer, educated at Stanford University. Then he first showed interest in the entertainment industry, publishing in the newspaper "Stanford Daily" reviews of movies. After graduating from high school in 1947, he worked for 4 days at US Electric Motors Company and, having parted with the ambitions of an engineer, decided to try his hand at Hollywood. Corman broke into the film industry, working as a messenger for the studio "Twentieth Century Fox," and later became a stage worker and analyst of screenplays. At the last work, he got acquainted with a number of budgetary subjects, which seemed to him a decent way to earn money.

Engineering approach

Roger Corman sold his first script "Nedvod freeway" for 4 thousand dollars. He invested money in the production of his first tape "Monster from the ocean floor" (1954), an ultra-low-budget horror film about a tourist and deep-sea diver who tried to find a mysterious sea creature attacking humans and animals. Having demonstrated his ability to direct, he accumulated funds for further filming by electing the American Releasing Corporation, which later became American International Pictures, the distributor of his second film, The Fast and the Furious (1954), who became his longest-lived creation. By the next year, when he made his debut as director of the tape Five Guns of the West (1955), Corman's formula had already crystallized: bizarre characters, unfamiliar stories, permeated with social commentaries, clever use of scenery and cinematography, the search for new talents and, most importantly, dense Schedule shooting with scanty budgets. This approach allowed to create up to 9 films a year. It was an unheard-of performance in Hollywood of that time.

Roger Corman - director

Over the next decades he produced hack-work for hack-work, among which, however, sometimes came ribbons worthy of admiration for the critics. Among the films filmed by Roger Corman are the films "This conquered the world" (1956), "Swamp women" (1956), "Attack of Monster Crabs" (1957) and "The Risen from the Dead" (1957), which were ridiculed years Later in the popular television series "Mystery Science Theater 3000" (1988-1999). After the filming of Carnival Rock (1957) and Naked Paradise (1957), he created the best work of the era "Not from this Earth" (1957), in which he got rid of a standard monster in a rubber suit, depicting a humanoid aliens who arrived on Earth For the blood to feed their fellow tribesmen. Dark, creepy and mystical, this film has become one of those rare cases when Corman was able to turn a small budget into a creative advantage. The following tapes - "Machine-gun Kelly" (1958), "Night of the Beast of Blood" (1958) and "Fasting on Dope Street" (1958) - left no doubt in his intention to sacrifice artistic merit in favor of fast, cheap and ultimately profitable Genre.

From the carnivorous plant to Edgar Poe

He shot another horrible film, worthy of praise, "Bucket of Blood" (1959), dedicated to the close assistant of the waiter in the beaters' coffee house, which was adopted on Wednesday, drawing horrendous murders in works of contemporary art. Perhaps his most famous film of that time was the "Horror Store" (1960), a comedy about a florist assistant who brought out a carnivorous plant that feeds on human blood. Two successful musicals and a remake were put on it, and the tape itself became cult and found a long life on video and DVD, due to the fact that in the episodic role the director shot the then unknown Jack Nicholson. Corman Roger entered his most famous period, when he photographed several stories and poems by Edgar Allan Poe, in which the great Vincent Price was shot. The first and best of the films was The House of Aschers (1960), in which Price was played by Roderick Asher, followed by the film version of Edgar Poe's The Well and the Pendulum (1961).

Roger Corman continued to make cheap genre films based on Poe's adaptations. After the "Stories of Horror" (1962), he directed the young William Shatner in "The Breaker" (1962), an amazingly mature and ahead of his time tape on racial segregation and civil rights. The following year, he directed another popular adaptation of Edgar Po, based on the author's most famous work, The Raven (1963), in which the main roles were played by Nicholson, Peter Lorr and Boris Karloff. Corman's fascination with the works of the thriller pioneer was embodied in the adaptations "The Enchanted Castle" (1963), "The Mask of Red Death" (1964) and "The Tomb of Ligeia" (1964). The last film was different script, written by future Oscar winner Robert Taun. At the same time, the thriller "Dementia 13" (1963) was directed, which was directed by the young Francis Ford Coppola.

Corman Roger returned to the production of filmmaking, taking off the Beach Ball (1965), Journey to the Prehistoric Planet (1966) and Wild Angels (1966). The last movie on the theme of bikers shines with the game of Peter Fonda, Nancy Sinatra, Diana Ladd and Bruce Dern and the scenario of Peter Bogdanovich. Then, in "The Massacre on Valentine's Day" (1967), Corman switched to the theme of the famous gangster wars of the 1920s, where Jason Robarbs (Al Capone) and Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker) were shot.

New World Pictures

Always allowing creative talents to experiment, Corman enlisted Nicholson to write the "Journey" (1967) scenario, a surreal psychedelic fantasy of a TV commercial director who embarks on a LSD journey similar to Alice's adventures in Wonderland, which ends with his rebirth in the finale. They say that the director used drugs to get a better idea of what the action of the acid might look like. For the next few years he directed and produced The Targets (1968), the directorial debut of Peter Bogdanovich about the 1966 shooting of Charles Whitman from the sniper rifle tower, Bloody Mama (1968) with Shelley Winters about a criminal family led by Ma Parker and The Dunwich Horror (1970), starring Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee, and the script was written by the future Oscar-winning director Curtis Hanson. Unhappy with the interference in the scenarios and budgets of his films by the distributor of American International Pictures, Corman decided in 1970 to organize his own company, New World Pictures, in order to gain complete control over his products. He directed the films Gas! (1970) and Von Richthofen and Brown (1970), but soon lost interest in directing until the 1990s.

Sex and crime

At the same time, Corman actively helped to start the novice directors, many of whom created the greatest pictures in the history of cinema. After launching the career of Jonathan Demme, who started writing the script for The Hot Box (1972), he hired young Martin Scorsese to shoot the picture "Bertha nicknamed the Wagon Train" (1972), a crime drama about the Great Depression that forced a young woman Barbara Hershey) and trade unionist (David Carradine) to take the path of crime. At the same time, Corman produced a series of films about sexual exploitation, full of nudity and violence, with few stories or vivid characters, including "Gentle Care" (1972), "Student Trainee" (1973) and "Young Nurses" (1973). ). Corman's film school was also attended by Curtis Hanson, who made his directorial debut in "Sweet Murder" (1973), and Demme tried his luck in the film about women in the "Renegade" (1974). After the Sisters of Mercy (1974), The Crazy Woman (1975) and the episodic role in The Godfather II (1974), he shot another high-quality science fiction thriller, Death Race 2000 (1975), a futuristic satire about the national Rally, the winner of which will be a driver who crushed more pedestrians.

Chase and criminal thrillers

For 10 years, Corman stamps tapes about chases and criminal thrillers - Cannonball (1976), Jackson County Prison (1976) with Tommy Lee Jones and Grand Theft Auto (1977), in which Ron Howard made his debut. Then he released a parody of the horror films Piranha (1978) by Joe Dante. After producing and playing the role in the documentary film "Roger Corman: The Wild Angel of Hollywood" (1978), he created some of his most famous paintings: The School of Rock and Roll (1979), The Lady in Red (1979) and " The Battle for the Stars "(1980), one of his biggest hits, which again used the talents of John Sales and the special effects of James Cameron. Also successful was the film "Howl" (1981), an innovative tape about the werewolf, with amazing makeup, the direction of Joe Dante and the scenario of Sales. Following the Forbidden World (1982), The Angels of Hell Forever (1983) and The Eccentrics (1984), Corman once again demonstrated his sharp business acumen when in 1983 he sold New World Productions, the largest independent company, Engaged in the production and distribution of films in the US, for $ 16.5 million.

New Horizons

In addition, in the same year, Corman founded the Concorde / New Horizons film company, which became a successful and profitable enterprise that fully utilized new markets, such as the sale of videocassettes, and later DVDs, pay TV, and sales abroad, Low-cost films such as "Violations of the Rules" (1985), "Massacre in Sorority House" (1986), "Nightmare in the Summer Camp" (1986) and "Stripped for Murder" (1987), full of scenes of violence and nudity. Over the next few years, Corman released a long series of horror films and ribbons about martial arts that were of poor quality and hardly differed from each other. But, as always, his work was profitable. Of the many names, only a few were singled out, including the "Bloody Fist" (1989), which spawned many extensions over the years. He also helped revive the career of porn star Treacy Lords, who starred in the remake of "Not From This Earth" (1988). Then, after a twelve-year break, Corman suddenly returned to directing, filming the film "Frankenstein released" (1990). He continued to play the role of producer of films with such ridiculous names as "In a fit of passion" (1991), "Deadly impulse" (1992) and "Carnosaurus" (1993).

In recent years, actor Corman Roger starred in several sensational paintings, including "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991) and "Philadelphia" (1993), directed by his old protege, Jonathan Demme. After appearing in the film "Apollo 13" (1995) Ron Howard, he seemed to begin to lower the pace of his work for the first time after he started shooting 40 years ago. In fact, Corman simply equaled the usual pace of modern producers, producing one or two films a year. Following the Black Thunder (1998) and The Nightfall (2000), he was the executive producer of Varvara (2003), a cheap forgery for Conan the Barbarian. Corman continued to exploit the old stories and scenery, creating a sequential sequel sequel "Bloodfist 2050" (2005).

Honorary "Oscar"

Roger Corman long enough revolved in the film industry to win the respect of Hollywood, which largely ignored the director throughout most of his career. In 2009, after producing the web series Joe Dante "Gossip", at the awards ceremony Governors Awards, held on November 14, Corman was awarded the honorary "Oscar". Although some called the award undeserved because of the lack of artistry and taste for many years, many defended it, arguing that the director and producer made a significant contribution to the cinema, because thanks to him appeared many great filmmakers.