Sydney 2011 Review: Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

By Oliver Pfeiffer / July 1, 2011

rating: 4.5

Probably the most telling Roger Corman mantra is the belief that the more money you put in a movie the less artistic imagination there will be in it. It's easy in retrospect to see this as a sly dig at George Lucas. Indeed Star Wars was Corman's biggest threat - it subsequently derailed his career and made studios savvy to something he always knew: that you could make even more money out of movies if you put more money into them. And from being the pioneer of low-budget money-making monster flicks and bloody revenge dramas Corman was relegated to the sidelines. It's easy to write-off Corman as simply a tasteless exploitative hack of Z-grade movies who has no artistic integrity of his own to speak of, but then that wouldn't justify the deep-seated admiration he has acquired. This witty, brilliantly entertaining and insightful documentary debut titled Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel from Alex Stapleton triumphantly reaffirms this by managing to summon such sought after talking heads as (deep breath) Jack Nicholson, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Demme, Bruce Dern, Peter Fonda, William Shatner, Dick Miller, Eli Roth, Paul W.S Anderson, Joe Dante, Pam Grier and the late David Carradine and Irvin Kershner - most of whose careers took off as a result of the master recycler. Its easy to see it as a two-way street - Corman exploited them by casting them or letting them direct his zero-budgeted flicks and they exploited him by getting a foothold in the business. Simply put without Corman these talents may not have come into being...and their contagious admiration for the filmmaker confirms this. But it is the lesser known and surprising facts that Corman's World reveals that is most telling about the man behind Gill Women From Venus and Naked Angels. Did you know for instance that he distributed films by Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa to wider audiences? It's quite ironic that the man behind Battle of Blood Island helped put Cries and Whispers into US Drive-throughs. Alex Stapleton's doc is also quick to acknowledge that by the 60s Corman (who had no formal training in filmmaking - but who eloquently rose through the ranks) was really beginning to master his craft and in adapting some Edgar Allen Poe stories actually created some genuinely classic genre pics including House of Usher and (Scorsese's personal fav) The Tomb of Ligeia. It's a joy to finally see a doc do justice to this underrated nurturer of talent and procurer of the no rules, no restrictions way of film thinking. And it is Nicholson who emerges as his biggest admiring apprentice - his comments range from consistently entertaining tongue-in-cheek put-downs ("By mistake Roger would actually make a good picture every once in a while...but I was never in it") to deep admiration for the man who got him his break in the movie business. Corman's World is a real eye-opener, featuring astutely selected and often hilarious clips from Corman's filmography along with raw revelatory words from a plethora of now established talents. It reveals the polite, eloquent and surprisingly level-headed man behind the trashy film facade - a resourceful, independent and intelligent businessman who nurtured new Hollywood and realised more than most that the audience is the arbiter - a lesson he learned when his most meaningful flick The Intruder (a racism drama with overt political context) ended up being his only real financial failure. In a career spanning 400 pics that's quite an achievement. Oliver Pfeiffer, our man in Oz attending the Sydney Film Festival. Check out all his reviews HERE.