Roger Corman’s filmography covers many genres: westerns, war films, science fiction, film noir, blaxploitation, and psychedelic films, so representative of the 1960s counter culture movement. No one’s films deserve the “cult film” label as much as Roger Corman’s do, many of which have such poetically memorable titles as Attack of the Crab Monsters, The Little Shop of Horrors or Wild Angels.

We have selected 7 films for our programme, allowing you only the briefest glimpse into the rich diversity of the Corman canon, of the new talent he has discovered and of the importance of his filmography to the history of cinema. The 7th film in our selection, produced by Roger Corman, was chosen not only for its cult nature, but to pay a modest tribute to the late David Carradine.

Georges Franju (1912-87) co-founder of the Cinématèque française in 1936 with Henri Langlois, went on to become an acclaimed filmmaker of short documentary films (Le Grand Méliès, Le Sang des bêtes). In 1959, he turned to features with his first fantastic film, Eyes without a Face, followed by Judex, and Shadowman. This switch was criticised as a step down into a minor genre.

An admirer of Fantômas, both the novels and Feuillade’s films, but never obtaining the rights, both Judex and Shadowman bear the Fantomas stamp.

Franju collaborated extensively with Feuillade’s grandson, Jacques Champreux, and the great Maurice Jarre, whose haunting music runs through 5 of his 8 feature films.

Poetry, horror and plasticity were the aesthetics he admired the most in film.