What’s Coming To Arrow This February

Key highlights this February on the essential, alternative streaming service ARROW includes the exclusive screening of Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin, a brand new documentary on the extraordinary French director, as well as a season of his fantastically atmospheric films, reflective Paul Joyce documentaries on American independent cinema and auteur Robert Altman, a wonderfully entertaining season of B-movies from the legendary genre-filmmaker Charles Band, film selects from CINEMATIC VOID, and a mini-retrospective on the king of kung-fu Sonny Chiba, as well as much more…

In February ARROW are proud to present the brand new and exclusive documentary from filmmakers Kat Ellinger and Dima Ballin, Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin, telling the story of one of Eurocult cinema’s most singular voices. Deeply misunderstood and widely misrepresented, Rollin seems only to have attained a marginal cult status in niche English speaking genre circles. Otherwise he has remained completely obscure. The film sets out to tell this story in an attempt to elevate the director’s work by exploring it in depth, examining his singular vision, with the help of some of his key collaborators, close friends, and experts in both film and cultural history.

There is also the season Jean Rollin: The Fantastique Collection Part IV, and including the films The Living Dead Girl, featuring a truly intense descent-into-madness performance from Françoise Blanchard; Two Orphan Vampires and Dracula’s Fiancee, featuring plenty of signature Rollin style and imagery in two films focussing on his favourite subject: sexy bloodsuckers; and undead Nazi horror, Zombie Lake.

Also presented in February, legendary Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1987 The Last Emperor – made with British producer Jeremy Thomas (Naked Lunch) – which swept the 60th Academy Awards winning nine Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Filmed on location in China, Bertolucci (The Conformist) and Thomas were the first western filmmakers to be allowed access to the famous Forbidden City in China. Together with a cast including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Peter O’Toole, John Lone, and the masterful Vittorio Storaro’s lushly evocative cinematography, the cast and crew created a classic film of epic scope poised with delicate intimacy that stunned critics, as well as audiences alike.

Seasons in February include Charles Band: The Puppetmaster, whose films were a massive part of making the 1980s home video boom, well, boom. The season brings together many of his wildest and most fun work, including Puppet Master, Doctor Mordrid, and Trancers; Killer Tech, ARROW’s newest, smallest, lightest, fastest, most expensive curated collection including Laguna Ave and Edge of the Axe; Cinematic Void Selects, an odyssey into the mouth of cinemadness hosted by film programmer Jim Branscome, focusing on all oddball gems of all genres, including Blood and Black Lace, Deadly Games, Deep Red; The French Hitchcock: Claude Chabrol, a selection of dark, witty, ruthless, mischievous movies, including Cop au vin, Madame Bovary, and The Swindle from the renowned French director; and King of Karate: The Sonny Chiba Collection, featuring brutal and lightning-fast martial arts action, including Wolf Guy, and Battles Without Honor and Humanity.

ALSO SHOWING: An in-depth Paul Joyce doc on American Indies, as well as Joyce’s portrait of legendary director ROBERT ALTMAN, tech horror in .Com For Murder, and much more…