How to get an Oscar for “Attack of the Monstrous Crabs”, or Roger Corman's incredible career — lecture by Dr. Paweł Aleksandrovich

Fascinating lecture by Dr. Paweł Aleksandrovich about the wizard of cinema - Roger Corman.

Roger Corman's influence on the history of American cinema is enormous. Corman directed 50 films and produced 400 more, giving rise to such subgenres of exploitation cinema as films about motorcyclists and women prisoners. It was under his supervision that such stars of the big screen as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Robert de Niro or Jack Nicholson began their careers. He produced cheap B-class films and at the same time distributed foreign art films in the US, giving Americans the opportunity to see the works of Kurosawa, Fellini or Bergman.

Critics laughed at the shortcomings of his films, while at the same time he was awarded an honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievement, and the Library of Congress incorporated “The Doom of the House of Usher” into the National Film Registry, the pantheon of the most important American films in history. The lecture will trace Corman's controversial career, from directing, through later production and distribution, to Corman's influence on today's cinema.

There will be anecdotes, so numerous in his colorful career as a creator of cheap cinema — how to save money one actor had to play four different roles in the same film; how Corman ripped pages out of a script to make a film on time; how he made a film in three days; and how it was with that one film that did not bring him any income.

Paweł Aleksandrovicz defended his doctorate in film studies, and the topic of the dissertation was Roger Corman's films and an attempt to answer the question whether Corman is just an ordinary creator of cheap cinema or also a good artist. Currently, Paweł is a lecturer at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, where he teaches film translation.

October 25 | 2:30pm | Warsaw | Kinoteka | room no. 2

Admission is free.

Lecture in Polish.