ROGER CORMAN
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Can Women Use Grecian For
Discover their heads because today we'll talk about one of the key figures in American cinema. Also one of the most undervalued in the history of cinema. It's no mystery why Roger Corman has become one of the cursed characters of cinema, as he has devoted his career to be a pirate. Corman's major objective has always been making money by producing cheap films, recorded quickly and tailored to appeal to young people, without worrying about its artistic value but are disturbingly brilliant at times. One example is a story of one of its productions, the first film Peter Bogdanovich (director of jewelry as comedy What's Up, Doc? or Noises Off! and occasional actor and in his popular role as psychiatrist Dr. Melfi on the series great The Soprano), the brilliant Targets (1968) degrees in Spain with a bizarre name, Hero loose. Corman served as producer of this film and Bogdanovich offered his first opportunity as a director. The proposal made by Corman bordered on the ludicrous, he said he had just finished a movie with the legendary Boris Karloff and had leftover footage also Karloff owed two working days. Corman proposed to the young and inexperienced director who will use the extra footage, rodase two days with Karloff and tape the rest with other actors, then put it all together in a movie. Peter Bogdanovich miraculously got an excellent movie that was distributed at the end of the limited resources Corman, but the anecdote serves to portray the grimy production methods of Roger Corman. 
However if we look at the number of actors and filmmakers who emerged from the Corman school we realize the importance of the producer. View the number of names we could say that the cinema of the seventies would not exist without educated people with Corman, among others Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Joe Dante, Dennis Hopper, Ron Howard, Peter Fonda, James Cameron or Bruce Dern, began their careers under Corman's wing. In his career he has produced over 380 films and 55 films were directed by him. Such productivity has earned him the nickname King of the Serie B, though he denies this discriminatory classification. He began his career in 1953 as a producer and screenwriter, and in 1955 directed his first film, Swamp Women. 
The first stage of the Corman film director is framed within the landscape of science fiction films of the 50. In the Cold War, and in a nation marked by the paranoia of a possible nuclear holocaust, the film is filled with science fiction movies that were metaphors for the phobia of communism. Both large companies and small film industry productions of series B were fed a genre which had the approval of the audience. In this context Corman signs his first film jewelry cheap as Conquered the World ( It Conquered The World , 1956), a sci-fi cult with its fanged monster crab. This film received a fitting tribute when Frank Zappa dedicated the song Cheepnis , a tribute to horror movies cheaper. 
Possibly the best example of primitive cinema Corman sci-fi is the great emissary Another World (Not Of This Earth , 1957), where he began to apply a mixture of humor and horror that would make her famous movies. Also displayed some elements of their mythology, sexuality disguised to overcome censorship and attract young audiences, simple but effective script and cheap tricks and effects that ensured the profitability of a perishable product. Was not to eternity film but a film to fill in endless sessions of self-cinemas. A new version of Not Of This Earth was in 1995, again produced by Corman. 
Corman began to carve out his reputation for fast shooting. The less time it takes to record the movie, spend less money and it would be more profitable. This meant that in 1957 none other than Corman directed seven films, including such diverse genres as science fiction ( Attack Of The Crab Monsters ), the musical film ( Rock Night, originally called Rock All Night ) and adventures ( Viking Women and the Sea Serpent , who had a very sencillito English title: The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent ). 
The 50 had occurred was EEU consumption and with it a new generation, the teenagers, the teenagers first demanded entertainment for you. It was the era of rock'n'roll, science fiction and self-cinemas, Corman was able to create an entertaining film for this new generation. Thus began to explore new genres and forms, one of his first attempts Rock Night (Rock All Night , 1957) one of the first films which made it possible for groups of rock'n'roll. In the case of the film was one of the doo-wop groups most famous of all time, The Platters who stood out musically. 
teenager fashion followed by a series of titles with the word as teenage Teenage Doll (1957), a film about a gang of delinquent girls, or Teenage Caveman (1958) degrees in Spain I Was A Teenage Caveman . 
Corman's next step was to play sexuality in a more explicit. Psychodrama School Young Ladies ( Sorority Girl, 1957) like something out of a song by The Shangri-las . He played the world of women's sororities and told the story of a poor girl crushed by his mother who focused his revenge on her fellow sorority. 
Undoubtedly one of the titles from Corman is legendary Shop of Horrors ( The Little Shop Of Horrors , 1960), a funny black comedy film about a dependent of a flower that grows a carnivorous plant that eats humans. The plant, Audrey, was without doubt the best actor of the film, but excelled at first role a young actor named Jack Nicholson. Shop of Horrors was the record of recordings Corman sprint, as it was recorded in just two days and one night (!). The whole film became a cult phenomenon, coming to be a musical based on the original story. This musical was also taken to the big screen, this is Little Shop of Horrors ( The Little Shop of Horrors , 1986), directed by Frank Oz and starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin . 
The 60 mark the beginning of a new era for Corman, the summit their creativity. The Fall of the House of Usher ( House of Usher, 1960) inaugurated a series of Gothic horror films inspired by the work of literary genius of Edgar Allan Poe terror . One of the biggest hits was counted on to Corman Poe adaptations to the big screen with one of the best science fiction writers of all time, Ray Bradbury, author of Fahrenheit 451 , who had been involved in various scenarios, including the adaptation of Moby Dick directed by John Huston . Bradbury was able to bring their scripts much of the literature sinister Poe full of obsessions, phobias and love to death. Necrophilia never was as delicious as in these films. 
But undoubtedly the main protagonist of Poe adaptations was actor Vincent Price . One of the greatest actors of the horror film classic, Price had already achieved success both in the fantasy film, most notably in Crimes Wax Museum ( House Of Wax, 1953), as in other genres, from black cinema ( Laura , 1944) to adventurous (the version of The Three Musketeers, 1947), to cinema history (the second version of The Ten Commandments , 1956). Adaptations of Poe assumed the resurgence of the actor, to the point that many people remembered for these movies, despite being a great actor with an impressive career before. Price already had some experience with gothic horror, as demonstrated in one of his best roles, Castle Dragonwyck (Dragonwyck , 1946), directed by Joseph L. great Mankiewicz, where he played a tortured aristocrat junkie. 
But Mankiewicz was a great director of actors, which Corman and was not meant to be. In Corman films to see Vincent Price in full outbreak of faces and overacting, but that's part of the charm of these movies. Following the success of the film come second in the series, The Pendulum and Death (Pit And The Pendulum , 1961) is probably the masterpiece of Roger Corman, a jewel of the macabre to be followed by the only film series in which it failed to Vincent Price. Instead the actor Ray Milland ( Perfect Crime) had just buried alive in Obsession ( Premature Burial, 1962), which followed Terror Stories (Tales of Terror , 1962) , composed of three short stories based on new works of Poe. For the film, in addition to Price, Corman recovered the great Peter Lorre ( M, The Vampire of Düsseldorf ). Far from calming their own pace, Corman's Poe series combined his other works, such as the critique of racism The Intruder (The Intruder , 1962) or the work apocalyptic Last Woman On Earth (1960). 
El Cuervo (The Raven , 1963) was the next film in the series Poe. Distantly inspired in poetry The Raven, top of Gothic literature, became a black humor piece full of faces, both from Price as Lorre. Had, albeit with the added attraction of having Boris Karloff , the legendary actor of horror films from Universal ( Frankenstein, The Mummy ). He also participated in a role the young Jack Nicholson. The film contains my favorite scene from the film of all time (although I am much given to such statements, as corroborated my relatives): one in which Vincent Price and Boris Karloff sitting struggling throwing magic spells. What more could you ask of life? 
Corman saw the potential of gothic horror and decided to exploit the maximum. Without being adaptations of Poe, Tower Of London ( Tower of London, 1962) and Terror ( The Terror , 1963), belong to the style. Terror is indeed the film that we mentioned at the beginning of the entry of leftover footage and Peter Bogdanovich used in Targets . The following adaptation of Poe was The Haunted Palace ( The Haunted Palace, 1963) that had another myth of terror, the original werewolf, Lon Chaney Jr. 
In 1963 Corman made one of his best films, which marked his return to science fiction cinema. The Man With X-Ray Eyes ( X , 1963) tells the story of Dr. Xavier, who after experimenting with X-rays developed a drug that allows you to see beyond. Corman certainly take the opportunity to give their erotic touches, as when the protagonist is engaged in looking through the clothes of the girls (ay, ay, rogue), but remains one of the best films Corman. 
The last two Potter films are the best Poe. On the one hand The Masque of the Red Death ( The Masque Of The Red Death , 1964) has a unique psychedelic aesthetic. Finally, Tomb of Ligeia ( The Tomb of Ligeia , 1964) is a dark wonder who was the grand finale of the series. Corman was able to repay in total the work of Poe, with 10 gothic horror films to his credit. Among them, incidentally, a number of masterpieces and immortal moments of cinema. That, gentlemen, they can not say all the directors of the nouvelle vague, right? 
Corman in 1966 again show its ability to reinvent himself and be a visionary of commercial cinema. Rueda Hell's Angels ( The Wild Angels ) that had at its deal with a young Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra (all a deal "children ..."). The film told the adventures of a motorcycle gang and was the inspiration of the classic Easy Rider (1969), starring three actors who started in school Corman: Fonda, Nicholson and Dennis Hopper. 
In 1967 he performed what is considered his best film, The Massacre Valentine's Day (The St. Valentine's Day Massacre). This movie had almost documentary format in detail the events that eventually put Al Capone in jail. In the role of Al Capone stressed exceptional Jason Robards ( The Ballad of Cable Hogue ). 
Following her law to please the tastes of young audiences in 1967 Corman made The Trip (The Trip ). Written by Jack Nicholson , and Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Bruce Dern as protagonists, the experience of a TV executive to try LSD, who just hallucinating and imagining being in a dungeon. Corman and incorporated the culture of the psychedelic drugs and his film, although some of his works had already incorporated the psychedelic as aesthetics. 
Building on the success of the revival of rejuvenated gangster film Bonnie & Clyde , Corman made Bloody Mama ( Bloody Mama, 1970), inspired by the life of Ma Baker and starring the wonderful Shelley Winters ( Lolita), the film had one of the first performances of Robert de Niro doing junkie son. As usual Corman played several raunchy as rape and drug addiction. The film helped to revive the legend of the bank robber that made Boney M a song dedicated to him. 
Gas-sss ( Gas!-Or-It Became Necessary To Destroy The World In Order To Save It , 1971) Corman's response to the hippy culture, a story of apocalypse where a gas killed anyone over 25 years. In the film highlighting the music of the rock group Country Joe & The Fish . That same year, Corman decided to take a break to shoot a big budget film, a biopic about the famous German aviator known as the Red Baron. The Red Baron was a failure and marked the end of Corman's career as a director. Again to make another film in 1978 and again in 1990, but would concentrate on his role as producer. Among 
Corman productions include some of the earliest works of great directors, Francis Ford Coppola made his first film, Dementia 13 (1963), under the hand of Corman. So did Martin Scorsese with his debut film, Boxcar Bertha (1971). Of course the old fox smell was still awake, given the success of Jaws of Spielberg produced Piranha ( Piranha, 1978), directed by a young Joe Dante.
able to produce these films to create a small producer and distributor New World Pictures . Most productions of Corman films were quick processing and consumption, including horror, fantasy and other sub-genres such as movies or movies rock'n'roll's prisons. In the video era Corman continued to produce films for entertainment, with a very questionable quality. One of the curious anecdotes was that made a movie about the Fantastic Four in 1994 made just for that Marvel did not lose the rights to the characters and never coming out. 
Today Corman continues to produce films insane pace that we are accustomed. In 2008 and has produced a film and has two in post-production. The pirate Corman has sold as an artist known as cheap, and has published several books telling their production methods and management. Much of the capacity of Corman as a seller lies in its ability to sell himself and a whole mythology around. That much can be false, but what happens when dealing with pirates. And without them, life would be much more boring. 
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