How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime
July 28, 2006
"How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime" by Roger Corman
Da Capo Press, 1998
Roger Corman is an underground hero in the film industry, a man who made few movie of artistic merit and yet has had an incredible influence on the independent film industry, as well as cinema history in general. Though his movies were often cheap exploitation films, woodenly acted and occasionally ploddingly scripted, what really mattered was how he made them. Corman took a logical step in the 1950s that many filmmakers at the time could not even conceive: he made movies quickly, on the fly, that expressed a personal vision and where often free of studio control. He was an independent filmmaker at a time when studios ruled with an iron fist. Because his films were schlock, it allowed him to slip under the system and basically make whatever he wanted to make. "How I Made..." is interesting as it shows how one man, making B-list movies with lurid titles, managed to have a subtle but profound effect on the film industry, both through giving young actors and filmmakers a start, distributing foreign films in the U.S. by directors such as Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman (which might not have otherwise made it to our shores), and by running companies that gave a working model for how to distribute films outside of the major studios. It's a necessary read for anyone interested in film history, and Corman is a pleasant narrator to boot.
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