Farewell at 98 to a legend of genre cinema, B-Movie mogul Roger Corman. On this site, I have opined at length about films he directed, like X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES or THE PREMATURE BURIAL, or movies he produced and/or presented, like CANNONBALL!/CARQUAKE, CRAZY MAMA, BLOOD BATH, ELVIRA, MISTRESS OF THE DARK, ROCK N' ROLL HIGH SCHOOL, or CHOPPING MALL, or even movies he just had a cameo in, like SCREAM 3 (pictured), SWING SHIFT, or John Carpenter's BODY BAGS. There are a lot of great artists, from Jonathan Demme to Jack Nicholson to Jack Hill to Joe Dante to John Sayles to James Cameron (um, I guess he had a preference for dudes with 'J' names?) whose careers he helped launch and cultivate. He handled the American distribution for Akira Kurosawa's DERSU UZALA, Ingmar Bergman's CRIES AND WHISPERS, and Federico Fellini's AMARCORD, keeping one foot in the arthouse while the other was in the grindhouse. R.I.P.
