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2009 Roger Corman
By Jon Donnis
Trieste Science+Fiction Festival will celebrate the centenary of Roger Corman’s birth with a major retrospective dedicated to one of the most prolific and influential figures in the history of cinema.
Taking place in Trieste from 3 to 8 November, the festival will explore Corman’s career as a director, producer and talent scout, with six films highlighting the different sides of his extraordinary contribution to fantastic cinema.
Corman’s connection with Trieste dates back more than six decades. During the first edition of the International Science Fiction Film Festival in 1963, the forerunner of today’s Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, his X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes won the festival’s top award. Corman would return to Trieste several times as a guest, establishing a lasting connection with the event.
The centenary retrospective will be divided into two strands, reflecting Corman’s work both behind and in front of the camera.
Boxcar Bertha
The first strand will focus on his role as a producer and his extraordinary ability to identify emerging filmmaking talent. Three screenings at Cinema Ariston will take place ahead of the main festival, beginning with Martin Scorsese’s Boxcar Bertha on Friday, 9 October at 10.30pm.
Piranha
Joe Dante’s Piranha follows on Friday, 16 October at 10.30pm, before Francis Ford Coppola’s Dementia 13 concludes the strand on Friday, 30 October at 10.30pm.
The three films demonstrate how Corman’s independent productions provided opportunities for young filmmakers to experiment and develop their craft. Scorsese, Dante and Coppola would all go on to become major figures in American cinema, having benefited early in their careers from the creative opportunities offered by Corman.
Dementia
The main festival programme will then turn its attention to Corman the director, presenting three films that showcase his willingness to move between genres and embrace unconventional ideas.
The Masque of the Red Death represents his celebrated Gothic period and his cycle of films inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. It will be accompanied by two works demonstrating Corman’s approach to science fiction.
Gas-s-s-s reflects the irreverent and countercultural side of his filmmaking, while Frankenstein Unbound marked his return to directing after a lengthy absence. The film offered Corman’s own science-fiction interpretation of the Frankenstein myth.
Together, the three films illustrate the breadth of Corman’s directing career, from Gothic horror and literary adaptations to science fiction and countercultural cinema.
Adding a personal dimension to the retrospective, Julie Corman, Roger Corman’s wife and a producer in her own right, will attend the festival as a special guest. She will introduce the screenings dedicated to Corman and share the journey through his work and cinematic legacy.
The tribute also reflects the close relationship between Corman and the Trieste festival, which has been part of the city’s genre cinema tradition for more than 60 years.
With six films spread across two strands, Trieste Science+Fiction Festival will use Corman’s centenary as an opportunity to revisit both his own filmography and the filmmakers he helped launch. The result is a celebration of a career built around independent production, experimentation and a willingness to give emerging talent the opportunity to find its voice.
