Cormans World - Cult Laboratories

OUT TODAY: Sam@Cultlabs Writes...

26th March 2012

Corman's World is out today on UK DVD and Blu-ray and I've been promoting the movie with blogs that span Roger Corman's incredible career in movie making for the past couple of months but why should you as a lover of unusual cinema want to see this film? Here's why…

Corman is part of the glue that holds the history of modern Hollywood together. His movies did two things in the pre-Star Wars blockbuster era. First, they gave young filmmaking talent behind and in front of the lens the chance to work on professional projects that went into drive-ins and hard tops across American and into cinemas throughout the world. They may have involved Auto-gladiators in souped up muscle cars, caged women in heat and rubbery monsters but they still gave emerging talent a taste of what a life in pictures could be.

Secondly, what did these kids do with the wealth of experience they gained working on violent biker movies and shlock sci-fi? They helped to bring about a revolution in Hollywood. Jaws and Star Wars, films that arguably took the trashy stylings of classic Corman and threw wedges of cash at them, transformed the big marquee movie, essentially making the difference between an A and B picture one of budget rather than genre.

The low rent, dollar generating exploitation cinema of Roger Corman and those who followed in his slipstream was put to bed when the big studios stopped caring about being classy and turned to the dirty tricks of the grindhouse. Roger Corman's film factory, with its alumni of big names and successful players, made the kind of movies that now demand big budgets and huge hype.

The Corman's World film gives the man his due. Aside from being a hugely entertaining ride through a movie making world that no longer exists, it gives full credit to an gentile and unassuming man whose contribution needs more fanfare.

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OUT TOMORROW >>

The remarkable story of Hollywood’s most prolific and influential writer-director-producer, the legendary Roger Corman, is the subject of director Alex Stapleton’s affectionate, witty and hugely entertaining documentary, Corman’s World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel, which charts the Oscar winning filmmaker’s career from his early days working in the mail room at 20th Century Fox to the set of one of his most recently produced “creature features”, “Dinoshark”.

Essential viewing for every cineaste, Corman’s World is “a delightful tribute” (Variety) to a true Hollywood great and one that proves to be thrilling, fun, informative and frequently touching (witness a rare and genuinely emotional scene featuring Jack Nicholson that, alone, makes this an unmissable documentary).

Leaving no doubt as to Corman’s seminal influence on modern-day cinema, the film features enlightening interviews with an incredible cavalcade of Hollywood icons, luminaries and A-listers (many of whom began their own careers working under Corman), including Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, Quentin Tarantino, John Sayles, Jonathan Demme, Eli Roth, Peter Fonda, Peter Bogdanovich, William Shatner and countless others.

Combining archival footage with contemporary clips and interviews, Corman’s World chronicles how one man created an empire, cultivating undiscovered talent and pushing the boundaries of what independent filmmakers could achieve when working outside the studio system. From Corman’s original genre-defining works such as “The Fast And The Furious”, “The Little Shop Of Horrors” and his classic film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories, to his distribution of the art house films of Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini and Truffaut and his continuing work as one of the world’s leading independent film producers, Stapleton’s superb documentary recounts a career that has spanned an astonishing six decades.

Corman’s World: Exploits Of A Hollywood Rebel (cert. tbc) will be a Picturehouse Culture Shock Presentation on Tuesday 21st February and will be available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray from 26th March 2012.

Cinema venues: FACT (Liverpool), Cameo Picturehouse (Edinburgh), Duke Of Yorks (Brighton), Belmont Picturehouse (Aberdeen), Hackney Picturehouse (London), Ritzy Picturehouse (London), Clapham Picturehouse (London), Greenwich Picturehouse (London), Stratford East Picturehouse (London), Regal (Henley-on-Thames), Stratford Upon Avon Picturehouse, Abbeygate Picturehouse (Bury), Exeter Picturehouse, The Little Theatre (Bath), Phoenix Picturehouse (Oxford), City Screen Picturehouse (York), Cinema City (Norwich), Harbour Lights Picturehouse (Southampton), Hyde Park (Leeds), Electric Cinema (Birmingham)..