Paul Bartel; Directed Cult Film, ‘Eating Raoul’

Paul Bartel, 61, director of the farcical 1982 cult movie, “Eating Raoul.” Bartel was born in Brooklyn and majored in theater arts at UCLA. He decided he wanted to direct animated movies when he was 11, and by 13 had spent a summer working at New York’s UPA animation studio. At UCLA he received a Fulbright scholarship to study film direction in Rome, producing a short that was presented at the 1962 Venice Film Festival. He later was hired by Roger Corman’s brother, Gene, to direct a low-budget horror feature called “Private Parts,” released in 1972. Roger Corman hired him as a second unit director on “Big Bad Mama,” which led to his directing “Death Race 2000” in 1978. He could not persuade Corman to finance his pet project, “Eating Raoul.” The $500,000 black comedy was made after his parents sold their New Jersey house and gave him the money. Shot in 22 days, mostly weekends, over the course of a year, “Eating Raoul” starred Bartel and Mary Woronov as gourmet cannibals who lure sex swingers to their apartment, smack them with a skillet, rob them and use the proceeds to buy a restaurant. Bartel was also an actor seen in such movies as Brian De Palma’s “Hi, Mom!” and Jonathan Demme’s “Heart Like a Wheel.” On Saturday at his Manhattan home two weeks after surgery for cancer of the liver ducts.