TELLURIDE, Colo. — Last night and again this morning, the Telluride Film Festival hosted a special tribute to Roger Corman, the legendary indie filmmaker who has been called “the king of B-movies,” who made the trip from California to Colorado to attend the ceremonies. Corman, 86, has made hundreds of low-budget flicks since the 1950s — films of the sort that played at drive-in theaters (when they still existed), attracted counterculture “teenagers” (a post-World War II phenomenon), and that nostalgic film buffs like Quentin Tarantino still cherish and revisit on late-night TV and DVDs.
In addition to providing escapist entertainment to legions of people, Corman is also largely responsible for the careers of many of the great directors and actors of the past half-century — people like Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Peter Fonda, Peter Bogdanovich, and Ron Howard, all of whom took some of their first steps into the world of film at what is today referred to, only half-jokingly, as “the Corman School of Filmmaking.”
Corman received an honorary Oscar two years ago in celebration of his colorful and immensely influential career.
Last November, I had the opportunity to interview Corman about his life and work. I hope that you’ll check out the video of that conversation at the top of this post.
