Kitschy films from the heart
 |
| Film-maker Lloyd Kaufman with Toxie, the hero of Troma’s most popular film, The Toxic Avenger (1984). |
SINGAPORE - You can call Lloyd Kaufman many things - writer-director, actor, co-founder of independent studio Troma Entertainment.
Just do not call him a maker of low-budget B-movies.
The 67-year-old president of Troma, a brand that a legion of fans around the world love for its gleeful celebration - some would say exploitation - of blood, breasts and buffoonery, protests at the label.
"You don't call them B-movies. B-movies were, historically, the second movie on a double bill.
Kitsch is okay. But Troma movies are unto themselves. Which is why we have a very small following, but it's a very loving and aggressive following," he tells Life! on the telephone from New York.
"Our movies are full of sex and violence, and R-rated material or worse, but on the other hand, they are also considered art and have been a huge influence on the mainstream."
Born Stanley Lloyd Kaufman, the man who co-wrote and co-directed Troma's most well-known work, The Toxic Avenger (1984), will be in Singapore next week to give a two-day masterclass titled Lloyd Kaufman's Make and Sell Your Own Movie at the Lasalle College of the Arts.
The man who founded Troma in 1974 is a graduate of Yale University ("pretty conservative, all boys, George Bush and Oliver Stone were in my class"), where he obtained a degree in Chinese studies.
He sounds disappointed when he says he will not get a chance to practise his Mandarin as English is used widely in Singapore. It will be his first time here.
The themes that recur in the interview are his antipathy to the monopoly held over distribution by the movie industry's largest players; his love of the classics of cinema from the likes of Jean Renoir, Stan Brakhage and Franklin Schaffner; and why, through the dedication of fans who petition their hometown cinemas to hold screenings of Troma films, the studio keeps going, even if the scrappy little indie company has seen better times.
Just do not call him a maker of low-budget B-movies.
The 67-year-old president of Troma, a brand that a legion of fans around the world love for its gleeful celebration - some would say exploitation - of blood, breasts and buffoonery, protests at the label.
"You don't call them B-movies. B-movies were, historically, the second movie on a double bill.
Kitsch is okay. But Troma movies are unto themselves. Which is why we have a very small following, but it's a very loving and aggressive following," he tells Life! on the telephone from New York.
"Our movies are full of sex and violence, and R-rated material or worse, but on the other hand, they are also considered art and have been a huge influence on the mainstream."
Born Stanley Lloyd Kaufman, the man who co-wrote and co-directed Troma's most well-known work, The Toxic Avenger (1984), will be in Singapore next week to give a two-day masterclass titled Lloyd Kaufman's Make and Sell Your Own Movie at the Lasalle College of the Arts.
The man who founded Troma in 1974 is a graduate of Yale University ("pretty conservative, all boys, George Bush and Oliver Stone were in my class"), where he obtained a degree in Chinese studies.
He sounds disappointed when he says he will not get a chance to practise his Mandarin as English is used widely in Singapore. It will be his first time here.
The themes that recur in the interview are his antipathy to the monopoly held over distribution by the movie industry's largest players; his love of the classics of cinema from the likes of Jean Renoir, Stan Brakhage and Franklin Schaffner; and why, through the dedication of fans who petition their hometown cinemas to hold screenings of Troma films, the studio keeps going, even if the scrappy little indie company has seen better times.
1 How has the movie industry changed since the time you started Troma?
Now, through the miracle of digital technology, anyone can make a movie. If you have a good script and talented actors, presto, you have a good movie.
The other thing that has happened is the movie industry has become very consolidated, controlled by a very small number of companies. The conglomerates own newspapers, television stations, movie theatres. They keep out independent companies.
We have hardworking fans who help us distribute movies in the US - they go to a theatre in Chicago and say they'd like to see Troma's new movie, Return To Nuke 'Em Volume 1, and if there are enough requests, the theatre will show it.
2 Troma has a following in Hollywood. Who are some people you know?
The directors of animated television comedy South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, their very first movie, Cannibal! The Musical (1993), is a Troma movie.
James Gunn is directing a US$200-million (S$250-million) movie for Disney, Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), and he started with me. We wrote Tromeo And Juliet (1996).
Eli Roth (director of Hostel, 2005) is a fan and acted in our movies. I also know that Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained, 2012), Peter Jackson (The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit films) and Takashi Miike (13 Assassins, 2010) are fans.
3 Many film-makers think that if they copy genre-blending Troma style, they will make a hit, but often they don't. What makes the Troma formula so hard to copy?
We are more famous than ever, but our revenues have not been the strongest. We are surviving. We've never been more influential but we have never been more locked out of the marketplace (by the cartel).
Film-makers think there is a formula. My business partner Michael Herz and I started Troma in 1974 because we love movies. Troma is the classic cult movie studio, our movies come from the heart and they reflect the heart and soul of Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman.
4 A lot of film-makers think that censorship is a major obstacle to making films. What do you think?
Now, through the miracle of digital technology, anyone can make a movie. If you have a good script and talented actors, presto, you have a good movie.
The other thing that has happened is the movie industry has become very consolidated, controlled by a very small number of companies. The conglomerates own newspapers, television stations, movie theatres. They keep out independent companies.
We have hardworking fans who help us distribute movies in the US - they go to a theatre in Chicago and say they'd like to see Troma's new movie, Return To Nuke 'Em Volume 1, and if there are enough requests, the theatre will show it.
2 Troma has a following in Hollywood. Who are some people you know?
The directors of animated television comedy South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, their very first movie, Cannibal! The Musical (1993), is a Troma movie.
James Gunn is directing a US$200-million (S$250-million) movie for Disney, Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014), and he started with me. We wrote Tromeo And Juliet (1996).
Eli Roth (director of Hostel, 2005) is a fan and acted in our movies. I also know that Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained, 2012), Peter Jackson (The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit films) and Takashi Miike (13 Assassins, 2010) are fans.
3 Many film-makers think that if they copy genre-blending Troma style, they will make a hit, but often they don't. What makes the Troma formula so hard to copy?
We are more famous than ever, but our revenues have not been the strongest. We are surviving. We've never been more influential but we have never been more locked out of the marketplace (by the cartel).
Film-makers think there is a formula. My business partner Michael Herz and I started Troma in 1974 because we love movies. Troma is the classic cult movie studio, our movies come from the heart and they reflect the heart and soul of Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman.
4 A lot of film-makers think that censorship is a major obstacle to making films. What do you think?
(Troma has battled with the United States film ratings body, the MPAA, or Motion Picture Association of America, a trade association representing the six big Hollywood studios, which rates movies for objectionable content.)
The market in film distribution and exhibition is so closed now, economic blacklisting is the real censorship. These gatekeepers censor out our entire body of work.
The MPAA has double standards and it has always rated Troma more harshly than a movie from a major studio.
In 1988, for Troma's War, we couldn't even get an R rating unless we removed the fist punching. It destroyed the movie. At the same time, Die Hard came out and it was full of blood and guts splattering, and that was no problem (It got an R rating).
5 As a producer, how do you rein in a director whose vision might break the budget?
On our own movies, I write, direct and produce. So I will control myself. I am a good producer. Gunn (now directing a big-budget movie for Disney) has said, 'I channel Lloyd Kaufman and I make sure that every penny is seen on the screen'.
But if a director and I, as producer, disagree, I always let the director win. That's why our movies have originality and uniqueness.
6 You had a taste of life inside the mainstream movie industry and you decided to never be in it. Why?
After Yale, I had enough of university and didn't want to go to film school. It would be too expensive. I went to work in the movie industry.
I worked for free as a production assistant for John Avildsen and he made Rocky (1976), and I worked for John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, 1977) - that was film school.
I took other jobs to pay for Troma. Then I was a producer on The Final Countdown (1980), a big- budget sci-fi movie. It wasn't a bad movie, but it could have been so much better. But the lunch, overtime payments, petty cash - this was more important to the Hollywood army, the crew that made the movie. That was it for me. I said, 'never again'.
7 What will you talk about in your masterclass in Singapore?
I will not just talk about, but will show, how Troma makes its movies. It may not be the right way, but it's the Troma way and it's been going on for 40 years. It's an overview.
I just did one in Rome and in Paris. A year and a half ago, I did one at Oxford University and at Imperial College in London.
8 How would you like to be remembered?
I would like to be remembered as a decent person. I have been married for 40 years to the same woman (Pat Swinney Kaufman, 63, executive director of the New York State Governor's Office for Motion Picture and Television Development), and have had the same business partner, Herz, for 40 years.
I'd like to be remembered as a decent artist who believed in what he was doing and was loyal to his friends and family. That's pretty bourgeois, huh?
Book it
LLOYD KAUFMAN'S MAKE and SELL YOUR OWN MOVIE TWO-DAY MASTERCLASS
Where: Lasalle College of the Arts
When: Dec 14 and 15, 9am to 5pm
Admission: US$495 (S$618.50). For tickets and information, go to masterfilmmakers. com/lloydkaufman/. Use promo code "SIFC" (Singapore Independent Filmmakers Collective) to get a discounted ticket price
The market in film distribution and exhibition is so closed now, economic blacklisting is the real censorship. These gatekeepers censor out our entire body of work.
The MPAA has double standards and it has always rated Troma more harshly than a movie from a major studio.
In 1988, for Troma's War, we couldn't even get an R rating unless we removed the fist punching. It destroyed the movie. At the same time, Die Hard came out and it was full of blood and guts splattering, and that was no problem (It got an R rating).
5 As a producer, how do you rein in a director whose vision might break the budget?
On our own movies, I write, direct and produce. So I will control myself. I am a good producer. Gunn (now directing a big-budget movie for Disney) has said, 'I channel Lloyd Kaufman and I make sure that every penny is seen on the screen'.
But if a director and I, as producer, disagree, I always let the director win. That's why our movies have originality and uniqueness.
6 You had a taste of life inside the mainstream movie industry and you decided to never be in it. Why?
After Yale, I had enough of university and didn't want to go to film school. It would be too expensive. I went to work in the movie industry.
I worked for free as a production assistant for John Avildsen and he made Rocky (1976), and I worked for John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, 1977) - that was film school.
I took other jobs to pay for Troma. Then I was a producer on The Final Countdown (1980), a big- budget sci-fi movie. It wasn't a bad movie, but it could have been so much better. But the lunch, overtime payments, petty cash - this was more important to the Hollywood army, the crew that made the movie. That was it for me. I said, 'never again'.
7 What will you talk about in your masterclass in Singapore?
I will not just talk about, but will show, how Troma makes its movies. It may not be the right way, but it's the Troma way and it's been going on for 40 years. It's an overview.
I just did one in Rome and in Paris. A year and a half ago, I did one at Oxford University and at Imperial College in London.
8 How would you like to be remembered?
I would like to be remembered as a decent person. I have been married for 40 years to the same woman (Pat Swinney Kaufman, 63, executive director of the New York State Governor's Office for Motion Picture and Television Development), and have had the same business partner, Herz, for 40 years.
I'd like to be remembered as a decent artist who believed in what he was doing and was loyal to his friends and family. That's pretty bourgeois, huh?
Book it
LLOYD KAUFMAN'S MAKE and SELL YOUR OWN MOVIE TWO-DAY MASTERCLASS
Where: Lasalle College of the Arts
When: Dec 14 and 15, 9am to 5pm
Admission: US$495 (S$618.50). For tickets and information, go to masterfilmmakers. com/lloydkaufman/. Use promo code "SIFC" (Singapore Independent Filmmakers Collective) to get a discounted ticket price
You have read this article with the title Lloyd Kaufman: Kitschy films from the heart. You can bookmark this page URL https://duk78.blogspot.com/2013/12/lloyd-kaufman-kitschy-films-from-heart.html. Thanks!
