ARROW is excited to announce the exclusive release of Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger’s acclaimed documentary Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin.
On 24 April (UK), and 25 April (USA/Canada), Indicator is proud to present the first entries in a series of 4K restorations of the films of one of European genre cinema’s most distinctive and revered voices, the inimitable Jean Rollin.
From the era that bought us the seedier Carry On film series also came a run of other ‘delightfully of their time’ British sex comedies. This beautifully presented set from 88 Films brings together three of those typically silly and salacious soft porn romps in Zeta One, Au Pair Girls and The Sex Thief.
I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale; literally translated as The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence, is an Italian giallo directed by Sergio Martino. Released in the United States as Torso in 1973, Martino’s artistic direction combined feverish sexuality and visually striking violence into a film that predates the American slasher subgenre. Perhaps then, the slasher owes a lot more to the Italian giallo than it is usually given credit for?
Star of David: Beautiful Girl Hunter is considered one of the best films in the Japanese sub-genre of roman-pinku films. The term roughly translates to romantic-sexploitation, as opposed to the pinku eiga films which focused on sex frequently combined with violence.
The film was made by one of the bigger studios in Japan, and it shows in the production values and acting. However, the term “romantic” is used in a far different manner than Western audiences will recognize.
This film was typical of the drive-in features Claudia Jennings appeared in the early 1970’s, with one notable exception. Although Truck Stop Women demonstrated what audiences would identify as the quintessential Claudia Jennings character, this was no working class, feminist hero Karen Walker from Unholy Rollers… In this film, Claudia commits about every original sin and violates a few new ones. She could easily be considered one of the screen’s best villains- a living nightmare, having no feelings for fellow human beings, and perhaps the sexiest sociopath of all time.
One cannot discuss 1976’s most controversial theatrical release without first discussing the mythology of the ‘snuff’ film itself. You see, a snuff film is a filmed sequence that depicts the actual murder of another human being for distribution and financial exploitation. Morbid, yes?
Then came along Snuff: “The film that could only be made in South America…where life is cheap!”
The history behind Snuff however, is far more interesting than the film itself.
During the videotape format war of the late 1970s and early 1980s, JVC’s VHS would compete for market share against Sony’s Betamax. Betamax was, in theory, the superior recording format but VHS would ultimately emerge as the preeminent home video format in 1986. Consumers could not justify the extra cost of a Betamax VCR, which was often more expensive that the VHS equivalent due to the higher quality construction of Betamax recorders.
