London, UK – Arrow Video is excited to announce the August 2023 lineup of their subscription-based ARROW platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
August 4th kicks off with Revengeamatics (UK/IRE/US/CA), a Season where the wronged get to make things right, where the wicked are punished and where our hero will go through hell to make sure that comeuppance is violently meted out no matter the cost.
Titles Include: Female Prisoner Scorpion, Vengeance is Mine, King Boxer, Yakuza Law, And God Said to Cain, Hell High.
Also on August 4, subscribers are treated to two more Paul Joyce documentaries diving into the magic of filmmaking.
Sellers’ Best (UK/IRE/US/CA): One of the all-time greatest comedians, Peter Sellers’ mimicry, timing, instinct and ability to decimate an audience with laughter made him absolutely unforgettable. Combining comedy and acting like no one before, or since, Sellers starred in legendary cult films such as Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and The Return of the Pink Panther. Sellers’ Best explores not only his comedic talent but goes beneath to examine the man himself and features interviews with those who knew him best, such as Spike Milligan, Beryl Reid and John Sessions. Paul Joyce’s special on Peter Sellers, Sellers’ Best, is not to be missed by anybody with any interest in comedy.
Pictures of Europe (UK/IRE/US/CA): What makes European cinema so special? Find out in Paul Joyce’s feature-length documentary, Pictures of Europe, which examines the differences between American independent and Hollywood movies and films from European directors. Featuring luminary iconoclasts from European cinema such as Agnes Varda, Bernardo Bertolucci and Pedro Almodovar, as well as American counterpoints from Paul Schrader, and those who have crossed back and forth, such as Paul Verhoeven, Pictures of Europe is a fascinating, intelligent and essential documentary for all cineastes.
On August 7, check out Reece Shearsmith Selects (UK/IRE/US/CA).
The actor/writer/comedian (The League of Gentlemen, Psychoville, Inside No.9) muses: “How do you possibly choose a selection of favourite ARROW film releases and not go mad in the process? Well, that’s what ARROW asked me to do, and I’ve done both. So please go ahead and read my choices as I find I must kill again…”
Titles Include: Deep Red, The Crazies, Society.
On August 11, ARROW resurrects Red Sun (UK/IRE/US/CA): A pop fantasy focused on the post-’68 and women’s liberation movements, Red Sun was compared to a comic strip by Wim Wenders and is a beautiful art-genre collision that is both brilliantly bizarre and provocative. Director Rudolf Thome was an emerging talent in the New German Cinema alongside Wenders, Fassbinder and Herzog, but received little international distribution and fell into obscurity despite a consistent career covering six decades. Now, subscribers in all territories can discover this lost German classic.
On August 11, dive deep into cinema with Access All Areas: The Documentaries of Paul Joyce (UK/IRE/US/CA). This Season goes through the past, present and future of filmmaking, leaving no stone unturned.
Titles Include: Hell on Earth, Still Tickin’, The Last Movie, You Talkin’ To Me, Made in the USA.
On August 18, North American subscribers can enjoy a trio of titles about loose cannons with big guns and no respect for authority when there’s bad guys to defeat: Double Target (US/CA), Born to Fight (US/CA), and Cop Game (USA), all from the filmography of director Bruno Mattei.
Continuing the trend, ARROW also presents Renegade Cops (UK/IRE/US/CA): They don’t play by the rules, but these loose cannons are the best we have and they get the job done, dammit!
Go for a ride along with a curated collection of hotshot coppers who shoot first, ask questions later and always get their man – by whatever means necessary – in Renegade Cops.
Titles Include: Doberman Cop, Highway Racer, Dead or Alive, Cop Game, Heart of Dragon.
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Avary from The Video Archives Podcast had this to say about his Arrow Selects: “When I Select a film, dear viewer, it is safe. There is no question about it anymore. My Selects are the best films. I don’t mean that they’re the most virtuous, or indeed the least virtuous, or the cleverest or the stupidest, or the most expensive or the best made. But the best. In a word, films about which there is no question.”
Experience Roger Avary Selects (UK/IRE/US/CA) beginning August 21.
Titles Include: The Living Dead Girl, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Road Games.
On August 25, say goodbye to summer with This is Torture! (UK/IRE/US/CA): A curated Season dastardly designed to make you wince and recoil in shock and horror from the misery, torment and agony being inflicted. Dare you peek between your fingers to witness the graphic and painful torments contained within This is Torture!
Titles Include: American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice, American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon, American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock.
ARROW closes out August on the 29th with another underrated classic: New Fist of Fury (US/CA).
Almost five years after breaking all Hong Kong box office records with the instant classic Fist of Fury, his last collaboration with the late Bruce Lee, director Lo Wei got to work on a sequel. It would be the first major leading role for Lo’s latest discovery, a young actor who had been a stuntman on the original film but would soon be as massive a star as Lee. His name: Jackie Chan.
