Am now currently reading and enjoying Make Your Own Damn Movie!, a nonfiction book by Lloyd Kaufman. Am I planning on making a movie myself? No, not necessarily. On the other hand, being able to write one and get it made is the kind of goal that could spur me on to other things I want to do. And thus far there has been some useful advice, especially about finding financing.
In the early chapters there are quite a few swipes at Harvey Weinstein. Apparently back in 2003 when the book was written, Weinstein was the rival that Kaufman could never catch up with. With Weinstein's troubles now I'd bet that Kaufman is quite a bit less envious. After all, no one's ever accused him of raping anyone...EXCEPT YOUR MIND!
In the early chapters there are quite a few swipes at Harvey Weinstein. Apparently back in 2003 when the book was written, Weinstein was the rival that Kaufman could never catch up with. With Weinstein's troubles now I'd bet that Kaufman is quite a bit less envious. After all, no one's ever accused him of raping anyone...EXCEPT YOUR MIND!
2 comments:
we watched 'the toxic avenger' quite a while back, as well as 'class of nuke'm high', i'm pretty sure, but that was about as much familiarity as i've had with kaufman & troma. surprised to see his various other associations, including everything from 'rocky' (film editing) to 'my dinner with andre' (production manager)...
i'm not so surprised he never quite accomplished what weinstein did - he seemed to enjoy directing, & just being more hands-on in general, too much. definitely a prolific character, & one well worth listening to, i'm guessing...
as far as his ouvre? well, as quirkily amusing as it could sometimes be, personally i feel that, over-all, his stuff hasn't aged quite as well as russ meyer's. tho i'm sure that some elements of the politically correct crowd might disagree with me there. he certainly managed to achieve broader cultural appeal, tho, i'll definitely give him that..
Well the real gold standard as far as production of B movies - and call me old fashioned on this - is Roger Corman. Troma doesn't quite meet that standard, but I respect how it's so much the product of Kaufman's vision. He's a funny writer to spend time with. The My Dinner With Andre credit is pretty huge. It's impossible to even watch that movie without learning a million things.
Russ Meyer did what I'm sure no one expected him to do, including himself. He put America onscreen in all it's redneck glory. I can't even imagine that there would be a Quentin Tarantino without him.
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