Jonathan Demme is an American director from the Corman School, a sort of work-study film programme run in Los Angeles by the benevolent entrepreneur and former film director Roger Corman. (Actually he’s not a former film director any more, having recently directed Frankenstein Unbound.) Other graduates of the Corman School were Joe Dante, Jack Nicholson, Francis Coppola and Monte Hellman. The Corman School produced very low-budget action and horror films. Demme directed several women-in-prison movies and Crazy Mamma before graduating from Corman’s august academy, and heading out to seek his fortune in what is sometimes called the Real World.