Larry Cohen is the subject of the brilliant new documentary by Steve Mitchell - KING COHEN: THE WILD WORLD OF FILMMAKER LARRY COHEN. A true independent and maverick, Cohen got his start in television creating the Western series Branded (1965-66) and the sci-fi series The Invaders (1967-8), and writing episodes of series such as The Fugitive and The Defenders. Making his feature directing debut with the dark comedy BONE (1972), Cohen established himself as a filmmaker able to craft wildly entertaining, challenging, socially satirical films on tight budgets, in an array of genres. His incredible filmography, which has inspired other filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, J.J. Abrams, John Landis and Joe Dante (all of whom are interviewed in KING COHEN), includes the blaxploitation gangster pic BLACK CAESAR (1973), the monster movie/ drama IT'S ALIVE (1974) and its two sequels, the extraordinary GOD TOLD ME TO (1976), the historical drama THE PRIVATE FILES OF J. EDGAR HOOVER (1977), the monster movie/ heist thriller/ drama Q - THE WINGED SERPENT (1982), the satirical horror film THE STUFF (1985), the horror comedy THE AMBULANCE (1990), and the screenplays for PHONE BOOTH (2002), BEST SELLER (1987), GUILTY AS SIN (1993), BODY SNATCHERS (1993), CELLULAR (2004) and MANIAC COP (1988). In the first part of a three-part interview I spoke with Cohen about why he loves filmmaking, his approaches towards his craft, and how he measures the success of each film.
What do you love the
most about filmmaking?
In my particular case
it was the freedom. I got to write, produce, direct and edit, and be
in control of all of my 20 movies from start to finish, which was a
unique experience. Most directors have supervision from studio
executives, producers and investors, and a lot of interference, so
half of their time is spent arguing with these people and trying to
convince them of things. I never had to do that. Whatever I wanted to
do was allowed without any committee interference. I just made my
movie and changed whatever I wanted to. I sometimes wrote new scenes
or created new characters.
It's just whether I am
personally happy with it. I make films to please myself. I do like to
go to the theater and see audiences responding to my films in person.
I hear of these filmmakers who say once they finish a film they never
see it again ever. I don't believe it. I just got back from
Manhattan, where they ran seven of my movies, and we sold out every
show. I got to do a Q and A, and I enjoyed seeing the pictures again
after all these years, particularly as the prints held up very well.
Which accolades have made
you the happiest over your career?
I've received plenty of
different awards from different places. I have a whole shelf full of
them, but they really don't mean anything to me. Even an Oscar
wouldn't mean anything to me because I know the history of the
industry. I've had many Oscar winners work on my movies who were
happy to get the job. Having an Oscar doesn't always mean that you
are going to have continued success or affluence. One person wins it
one year, another the next year, and so on, and no-one remembers
particularly.
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I didn't have too much
success with comedies. There was a lot of comedy and comedic sections
and comedic characters in my 'straight' movies but the films that I
did that were pure comedy never fared as well, although I did enjoy
making them because of the people that were in them. I'm best known
for thrillers with a high degree of comedy in them.
You once said that had
your first film BONE been more of a success, you might have had more
of a career as a more esoteric director. Do you have any regrets that
your career didn't go that way?
If BONE had become a
success, I would have become a studio director of high-budget films,
and I never would have had the same degree of freedom that I have
had, and I probably would not have known what I was missing. On the
few experiences where I have written screenplays that were produced
and directed by other people, there were so many petty arguments and
disagreements between people, and jockeying for importance amongst
the staff, that it was just miserable for the director of the
picture. They weren't the pure experiences I was used to making my
own films. There aren't too many of us that have that prerogative of
making films how we want to make them. You usually have to be
either very successful or able to make movies at a lower budget. If
you're anywhere in the middle you're just subject to constant
irritation by people butting in all the time and trying to tell you
what to do. I wouldn't have been able to make movies like that. I got
spoiled early on, and after that I could only do my own thing.
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Directing THE AMBULANCE. |
I don't know where it
came from. Every human being has their different outlook on life. I
always saw a great deal of dark humor in serious events, and that is
what I put on the screen. Taking a baby and making a monster out of
it (IT'S ALIVE). Taking ice cream and making a monster out of it (THE
STUFF). Taking an ambulance and making a monster out of it (THE
AMBULANCE). There's certainly a tradition that I have followed in
each of my movies.
You are also excellent
at twisting preconceptions and bringing together different tones and
genres in a single film. What is the key to pulling this off?
Claude Chabrol, the
great French filmmaker, was a fan of my movies and kept asking me
''How do you do that? How do you get the comedy into the drama
without affecting the dramatic elements and ruining the suspense?'' I
suppose it's just a style I have and something I'm able to do, like
some other novelists or filmmakers. The characters that I create are
solid characters. They're not foolish or frivolous. They're not in
there just to make a joke and look stupid. They have a reason for
being and a logical progression of character. If they do something
funny in the process, it doesn't destroy the reality of the
situation. There are some filmmakers who make attempts to do all this and it just comes off as
silly.
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Yes, I do. I like
movies that move along and I find that almost every movie that I see
these days is too long. Now that some directors get final cut, they
don't want to lose anything, and sometimes you have the same scene
played two or three times. Then, when the film comes out on DVD and
Blu-ray they put in all the other scenes that they took out, and you
have to sit through another half hour of the movie. My movies are
always around 90 to 100 minutes and that's it.
You manage to make New
York look and feel different than other filmmakers. You also seem to
always find locations that haven't been used before.
I love New York. It's a
great backlot. Everywhere you go, there's something interesting. It
has an interesting texture. There are a lot of old and decrepit
buildings. Modern buildings. Skyscrapers. Glass
buildings, silver buildings, gold buildings. It's a wonderland, and I
like to capture it on film. It's great because you don't have to deal
with the expense of building sets. It's all there. You just have to
find the right places. For Q - THE WINGED SERPENT, the Chrysler Building was absolutely
perfect. We couldn't afford to build any parts of the building, so we had to shoot in the real turrets of the Chrysler Building, 88
storeys above the street. We were up there on little ladders, perched
with cables, trying to keep from falling off the building as we shot
the movie. It was dangerous, but I went up there and the crew
followed me and we got the scenes and made a very good picture I
think. Most people would have built that building in a set somewhere,
but it wouldn't have been the same.
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On the set of BLACK CAESAR. |
Is it a conscious
decision to cast actors who don't look like movie stars and look like
people you'd meet on the street?
I just try to cast
actors who are going to be believable in the parts. I've shot so many
movies in New York, and there are so many good actors there who have
theater experience and are dying to be in the movies. Back when I
started directing movies, nobody was making movies in New York. Now a
lot of film and TV is shot there because of the tax benefits, which
we never had. In fact shooting in New York was difficult to put
together because the union requirements were so heavy and it was so
much more expensive to shoot there than in California. I didn't care
because my movies never cost so much money and I always knew how to
control the budget.
Your films have a very
loose, exciting, in the moment energy. Do you keep a very energetic
set when you are filming?
Oh yeah, absolutely. We
shoot very long hours. I am sure that people who have worked for me
over the years thought I was on some sort of drug because I never got
tired and I was always so full of pep and energy. We'd be coming up to 13
or 14 hours and I would be tap dancing around and telling jokes and
trying to keep everybody entertained so they didn't get too exhausted.
Everybody always complained that I worked them such long hours but
when I announced my next movie the same people would be back wanting
to work with me again. So they obviously enjoyed the experience, even
though I was a slave driver!
Do you think you're at
your happiest when you're on a set?
Oh, there's no
question. There's nothing to equal it. On most other movies,
particularly big movies, the actors come in and they're the stars of
the movie. Everyone is catering to them, and in fear of them. The
stars don't want to be spoken to by the crew. They don't want people
to look at them. They have all kinds of demands that are just
nonsense. On my pictures, it doesn't matter who the actors are, I'm
the star of the movie! They're all gravitating around me and want to
see what I'm doing next. The actors forget about being the stars and
they just get into their parts. Even on the days they're not
scheduled to work, actors often show up to set just to see what is
happening. That's a huge compliment to me.
Do you write every
day?
Yes, I do, even if it's
just a couple of scenes or a couple of notes. I'm constantly coming
up with new ideas. More than I could possibly turn into scripts.
What usually
kickstarts a script?
I just get an idea for
a story and I feel like I want to make it as a movie. That compels me
to write the script. I don't write outlines. I just start writing a
story and the dialogue. I usually start somewhere in the middle. I
write an interesting scene that has a lot of juice, something that
gets me hooked up into the whole movie – a scene where the
characters start coming together and interacting with each other. On
the first day we start shooting the picture I like to shoot a scene
like that to help get the actors hooked into their parts right away,
the same way I got hooked originally into the story. Often I give the
actors some money and say ''Go and buy your own costumes. '' It helps
personalise the parts for them. I give the actors a lot of
responsibility.
Part two of the interview.
KING COHEN will be released in cinemas and on VOD later in the year, and will be screened at Fright Fest in London on August 25 and at the Sitges International Film Festival in October.
Larry's website.
The KING COHEN website.
Interview by Paul Rowlands. Copyright © Paul Rowlands, 2017. All rights reserved.
Part two of the interview.
KING COHEN will be released in cinemas and on VOD later in the year, and will be screened at Fright Fest in London on August 25 and at the Sitges International Film Festival in October.
Larry's website.
The KING COHEN website.
Interview by Paul Rowlands. Copyright © Paul Rowlands, 2017. All rights reserved.
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