When renowned director Jonathan Demme died last week, people praised him for his many great films, including the Oscar-winning “Silence of the Lambs” and “Philadelphia.”
But many articles and pieces about him also noted that he broke into the business through what’s informally known as the “Roger Corman Film School.”
Corman, 91, is the iconic producer (and occasional director) of hundreds of B-movies. With more than 400 producing credits to his name, he’s a legend of exploitation cinema, having churning out microbudgeted films with titles such as “She Gods of Shark Reef,” “Attack of the Giant Leeches,” “The Brain Eaters,” “Stripped to Kill,” and “Sharktopus vs. Whalewolf.”
Related: Jonathan Demme Passes Away: Remembering His Best Work
While many of Corman’s directors never crossed over to “respectable” cinema, Demme is one of several alumni who not only made the transition but won Oscars along the way. Here’s a list of five acclaimed directors who started in the trenches of low-budget, B-movie filmmaking.
James Cameron. The acclaim: It’s easy to think of Cameron in terms of spectacle (“Avatar,” “Aliens,” the “Terminator” movies) and record-breaking box-office receipts. But that ignores the fact that 1998’s “Titanic” — in addition to being the highest-grossing film ever worldwide when it was released — won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. (It tied with 1959’s “Ben-Hur” and 2003’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” for the most Oscars ever won by a single film.)
The humble beginnings: Cameron’s first true feature filmmaking gig was designing special effects for Corman’s 1980 “Star Wars” rip-off, “Battle Beyond the Stars,” in which one fellow craftsman was future Cameron collaborator Bill Paxton. Cameron impressed Corman, remarkably enough, by designing a spaceship that had breasts. (It’s right there on the poster of this PG-rated film.) Cameron went on to become production designer and second unit director for Corman’s gory sci-fi/horror flick, “Galaxy of Terror,” in 1981. Three years later, he struck gold with “The Terminator,” which he co-wrote and directed.
[lz_third_party align=center width=630 includes=https://youtu.be/mTVKNW5s5js]
Francis Ford Coppola. The acclaim: Well, he’s just the director and co-writer of two of the three greatest films of all time, according to IMDb users: “The Godfather” (1972) and “The Godfather: Part II” (1974). “The Godfather” won three Oscars, including Best Picture, and at the time was the highest-grossing film ever. Its sequel won six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for Coppola. “The Conversation” (98 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and “Apocalypse Now” (97 percent) are similarly beloved.
The humble beginnings: Before he became one of American cinema’s greatest icons, a young Coppola recorded sound for a romantic auto racing movie Corman directed, 1963’s “The Young Racers.” Corman then tapped Coppola to create a cheap “Psycho”-inspired horror film with plenty of sex and violence. Coppola wrote and directed 1963’s “Dementia 13,” a gothic mystery centering on an ax murderer. Seven years later, his screenplay for “Patton,” co-written with Edmund H. North, won an Oscar.
[lz_third_party align=center width=630 includes=https://youtu.be/2sA9OYPq_RA]
Jonathan Demme. The acclaim: “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991) is the only horror film to win the Best Picture Oscar. It also won Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. While Demme inexplicably never received any other Academy Award nominations, his “Philadelphia” (1993) earned Tom Hanks a second Best Actor Oscar. Other acclaimed films included the Talking Heads’ concert film “Stop Making Sense” (1984), “Melvin and Howard” (1980), and “Married to the Mob” (1988).
The humble beginnings: Demme had writing credits for Corman on the biker film “Angels Hard as They Come” (1971) and women-in-prison films “The Hot Box” and “Black Mama White Mama” (1973) before writing and directing his first feature, “Caged Heat” (1974). (It was another women-in-prison exploitation film, naturally.) He’d direct two more Corman action films before crossing over with the acclaimed drama “Citizens Band,” also known as “Handle With Care,” in 1977.
[lz_third_party align=center width=630 includes=https://youtu.be/T-zlSdEl5cQ]
Ron Howard. The acclaim: One of America’s most prolific directors of both grand-scale entertainment and prestigious dramas took home the Best Director Oscar for 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind,” one of the film’s four Academy Awards. Howard and co-producer Brian Grazer also received that film’s Best Picture Oscar. Howard earned Oscar nominations in the same categories for “Frost/Nixon.” His “Apollo 13” also earned nine Oscar nominations.
The humble beginnings: First known to 1960s and ’70s television viewers as Opie on “The Andy Griffith Show” and Richie on “Happy Days,” Howard hoped to transition to directing films, but he needed a way to break in. At age 21, he made a deal with Corman in 1975 to star in the action-comedy “Eat My Dust!” if Corman would let him direct a subsequent movie. That became “Grand Theft Auto” (1977), which Howard co-wrote, starred in and directed.
After leaving “Happy Days,” Howard made a name for himself with the comedies “Night Shift” (1982), “Splash” (1984), and “Cocoon” (1985).
[lz_third_party align=center width=630 includes=https://youtu.be/idhwUaXpuzg]
Martin Scorsese. The acclaim: Few filmmakers are as critically renowned as Scorsese, who received the Best Director Oscar for 2006’s “The Departed” — which is actually considered one of his lesser films. He’s the most nominated living director in Oscar history, with eight nominations for Best Director for such films as “Raging Bull” (1980), “Goodfellas” (1990), “Gangs of New York” (2002), and “Hugo” (2011).
The humble beginnings: Given the amount of violence, profanity, and sexual situations in many of Scorsese’s films, it’s not surprising he worked with Corman early in his career. But as the late Roger Ebert’s original 1972 review notes, “Boxcar Bertha” turned out to be “a weirdly interesting movie and not really the sleazy exploitation film the ads promise.”
Though that film has its share of Corman-mandated sex and violence, Scorsese managed to work in some gritty drama. The next year, Scorsese wowed critics with “Mean Streets,” starring Robert De Niro — and never looked back.
[lz_third_party align=center width=630 includes=https://youtu.be/147iz2lO2kI]
Join the Discussion
Comments are currently closed.