“Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger’s documentary carefully traces both the poeticism and the surrealism of [Jean] Rollin back to his childhood and to the influence of his mother…”
That’s what we said about Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin in our four-star review of the documentary, and to celebrate it being released this month on the ARROW streaming service, we have an exclusive clip!
Watch it here…
Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin tells the story of Jean Rollin, one of Eurocult cinema’s most singular voices. Deeply misunderstood and widely misrepresented, during his decades-long career as a film director (1958-2009), Rollin’s work received absolutely no recognition in his native country of France, and was completely unknown anywhere else. In the nineties, because of home video, Rollin attained a marginal cult status in niche English speaking genre circles. Otherwise he has remained completely obscure.
The documentary began life on modest terms, but after working very closely with Jean’s family, including his surviving son Serge, and close family friend Véronique D-Travers, it became apparent there was a far deeper and richer story to tell. A story of struggle that led to the filmmaker falling into poverty and ill health in his later years, one in which he was never understood or given the credit he was due during his own lifetime, where he was forced to constantly battle to make the films he wanted to make.
Filmmakers Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger have said they hope to change that in presenting Jean’s story as never seen before, with the help of some of his key collaborators, close friends, and experts in both film and cultural history, as well as those responsible for ensuring his work never completely fell out of sight.
Watch Orchestrator of Storms and all other releases this February on ARROW now.