Bacall, Corman, Gordon Willis Earn Honorary Oscars

This year's list of honorary Oscar recipients has been announced, and it's a varied list, but I don't think you can argue against any of the picks. Lauren Bacall, one of the most legendary film noir actresses who has remained active into her 80s, will be honored by the Board of Governors at next year's Academy Awards. Joining Bacall, who co-starred with her future husband Humphrey Bogart in several mysteries of the 1940s, will be the one and only Roger Corman. Now, if you only know Corman as a director and producer of low-budget B-movies, you should be hipped to the fact that Corman is the root of one of the most significant family trees in movie history. He's influential in starting the careers of Coppola, Scorsese, James Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, Ron Howard, Peter Bogdanovich, Curtis Hanson, Nicolas Roeg, and John Sayles, among others. Six of those guys have won the Oscar for Best Director. He also gave Jack Nicholson his first starring role in The Little Shop of Horrors. So even if he hadn't been one of the few filmmakers who has been able to make the movies he wanted to make for 50 years, he deserves notice for the ships he launched. Gordon Willis is one of the great cinematographers of the 1970s, which you could quite easily argue is the best decade in the history of American film. Among his credits: The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, All the President's Men, Annie Hall, and Manhattan, although his two Oscar nominations were for Zelig and Godfather III. But not Manhattan? Really? So that's quite a collection, don't you think? I'm particularly glad for Corman, who has existed outside the system forever and whose career is a clear testament to generations of artists who just want to make movies. He's also a class act, and I can't wait to hear his speech on Oscar night...provided there's room for it now that we have ten Best Picture nominees.