Orchestrator of Storms (5 Stars)

This is a wonderful documentary about the legendary director Jean Rollin. It's the second documentary about him; the first was "Le rêveur égaré", made in 2011. This is the better of the two documentaries, longer and more detailed. Whereas the first documentary concentrated on his films, the second gives more details about his life.

The film hasn't yet been released on disc. It's only available on the streaming service Arrow Player. I bet that's a streaming service that no one knows. I took out a 14 day free trial so I could watch it. That's better than nothing, but I still want to hold it on a shiny little disc. The only other films on Arrow Player that I'm interested in are ones that I already own.

The documentary answered a question that's always been bugging me: where is the beach that's featured in several of Jean Rollin's films, including "The Iron Rose"? It's the beach of Dieppe in Normandy. Evidently it's a popular destination for tourists, but Rollin always used a stony location by the cliffs where there aren't many visitors.

Jean Rollin struggled for money all his life. It was difficult for him to raise money for his films, so they were all low budget productions. One of the speakers in the documentary suggests that his films might not have been as good, or at least not as original, if he'd had money to spare. I don't know. There was a phase in his life when he made hardcore pornographic films as an easy way to make money. He said of these films that they were rubbish. He wouldn't have wasted his time making them if he'd had more money.

The documentary reminded me that I still haven't seen his last two films: "The Night of the Clocks" (2007) and "The Mask of Medusa" (2009). They don't seem to be available currently. They're the sort of films that should be made available on Arrow Player.