Arrow Films, founded in 1991, has made its mark in the world of home entertainment by curating a catalog that celebrates the richness of cinema. With a keen eye for diverse and unconventional films, Arrow has become synonymous with artistic excellence and a dedication to presenting lesser-known works to a wider audience. Arrow emerged responding to the demand for meticulously curated releases of niche and cult films, founded on a passion for cinema, the label quickly established itself as a platform for high-quality editions that showcased films previously relegated to the fringes of the industry, but soon expanded its reach to encompass a wide range of genres, including arthouse cinema, world cinema, and classic Hollywood releases. 

What sets Arrow Films apart is its unwavering commitment to quality and curation. The company’s founders sought out films that challenged conventions, pushed boundaries, and offered unique perspectives. This dedication to selection and diversity allowed Arrow to forge a distinct identity, attracting a dedicated following of discerning cinephiles seeking unconventional and thought-provoking works. By curating films that represent a wide range of eras, cultures, and styles, they’ve cultivated a catalog that appeals to those with an adventurous spirit and an appetite for cinematic discovery. 

Understanding the significance of safeguarding cinematic heritage and ensuring that films can be experienced in their intended glory is a core tenet of Arrow. Through collaborations with film archives and the expertise of skilled technicians, they invest considerable resources in restoration projects, reviving damaged or neglected films and breathing new life into them. Their releases often include essays, interviews, and behind-the-scenes documentaries that provide valuable insights into the artistic, cultural, and historical contexts of the films. By enriching the viewer’s understanding and appreciation, they encourage a deeper engagement with the films they distribute.

As Arrow continues to evolve and uncover new cinematic treasures, their legacy as a beacon of artistic excellence and a curator of unconventional delights remains firmly intact.

Summer is here, and with it comes an exciting Arrow sale at fopp! Get ready for incredible discounts not only on the entire catalogue but also on the latest Arrow releases. Let’s dive into the new releases included in this sale…

Boyhood

From Richard Linklater, the director of Slacker, Dazed & Confused and Before Sunrise, Boyhood is a ground-breaking cinematic achievement; a fictional drama made with the same group of actors over a 12-year period. At once epic and intimate, it is a one-of-a-kind trip through the exhilaration of childhood, the seismic shifts of modern family life, and the passage of time itself.

Dreamy-eyed grade-schooler Mason (Ellar Coltrane) is facing upheaval: his struggling single mom Olivia (Patricia Arquette) has decided to move him and older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) to Houston – just as their long-absent father Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke) re-enters their world.  Thus begins a decade of constantly unfolding heartbreak and wonder.  Against the tide of family moves and controversies, faltering marriages and re-marriages, new schools, first loves, lost loves, good times and scary times that will shape him, Mason emerges to head down his own road.

A remarkable achievement that builds on Linklater’s fascination with time, relationships and the ever-changing nature of our lives, Boyhood is a deeply moving experience that found praise from critics around the world and went on to win the award for Best Film at both the Golden Globes and British Academy Film Awards in 2015.

• Without Ambition, One Starts Nothing, a new featurette featuring American poet and critic Dan Chiasson in conversation with his son Louis Chiasson about their shared love and connection to the film

• In Search of Lost Time, a new visual essay by critic and film-maker Scout Tafoya 

• Before and After Boyhood, a previously unheard interview with Richard Linklater by film critic Rob Stone, author of Walk, Don’t Run: The Cinema of Richard Linklater

• Richard Linklater at the BFI, director Richard Linklater discusses Boyhood and his whole career in this on stage appearance at the British Film Institute

Naked Lunch

In a career dedicated to seeing the unseeable and filming the unfilmable, perhaps only David Cronenberg could really do justice to William S. Burroughs’ controversial novel, Naked Lunch. Weaving together elements of Burroughs’ own remarkable biography with the content of the book, Cronenberg’s film steps inside the body and mind of an author to depict the dangerous act of imagination itself from the inside out.

Former junkie William Lee (Peter Weller, RoboCop) makes ends meet as an exterminator. But when he and his wife Joan (Judy Davis, Barton Fink) discover the hallucinatory properties of the powder he uses to kill bugs, they become hooked, and their world is changed forever. Insects speak, typewriters mutate and talk, interdimensional beings reveal themselves, identities fracture and blur; nothing and no one is quite what it seems. When Bill, under the influence of drugs, or the bugs that have begun talking to him, shoots his wife, he flees to Interzone, at once a place and a state of mind, where things only get stranger.

Winner of Best Picture, Best Direction, and Best Screenplay at the 1992 Genie Awards and winner of the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director, the film also features a superb supporting cast including Roy Scheider (Jaws) and an astonishing score by Howard Shore (The Fly), featuring Ornette Coleman. Naked Lunch is provocative, transgressive, and surreal – a feast for the senses, where nothing is true and everything is permitted. 

• Naked Attraction, an interview with legendary producer Jeremy Thomas 

• Exterminate All Rational Thought, an interview with star Peter Weller 

• Peter Suschitzky on Naked Lunch, an interview with the celebrated director of photography 

The Beta Test

Eyes Wide Shut meets Office Space, The Player and Black Mirror in The Beta Test, the acclaimed thriller from Jim Cummings, creator of Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow.

A ruthless, manipulative, and soon-to-be married Hollywood agent receives a mysterious letter inviting him to an anonymous sexual encounter. After some uncertainty he accepts, but euphoria turns to paranoia as he becomes ensnared in a sinister world of lies, infidelity and murder.

Strikingly shot and with pitch-perfect performances that will make you squirm in your seat, The Beta Test is a stylish, scathing satire of preening toxic masculinity, the dangers of technology, and the hollowness of Hollywood success.

• Audio commentary by directors Jim Cummings & PJ McCabe

• Sex, Lies & Purple Envelopes, a visual essay by author and film scholar Alexandra Heller Nicholas

• Trapped. Hiding. Boom, a visual essay by author and critic Guy Adams

• The Making of The Beta Test Theatrical trailer

• Image gallery

• A two and a half hour collection of short films from the Sundance Award-winning filmmakers behind The Beta Test including: Cory Comes to Christmas, Parent Teacher, The Stop, Marty Loves Katie, Native Stand Up, The Robbery and Us Funny

• Also includes a look behind the scenes and two hilarious short ‘documentaries’ about attending the Sundance Film Festival in 2016 and 2017

Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection – Volume 3

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the enfant terrible of the New German Cinema, wrote, directed, produced and starred in over 40 films in his short but prolific life, before passing away of a drugs overdose in 1982 aged just 37. Rainer Werner Fassbinder vol. 3 brings together a collection of his lesser seen works from various stages in his career, featuring high definition digital restorations prepared by the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation.

• DISC ONE – GODS OF THE PLAGUE & RIO DAS MORTES

• DISC TWO – THE NIKLASHAUSEN JOURNEY & THE AMERICAN SOLDIER

• DISC THREE – MOTHER KÜSTERS GOES TO HEAVEN & FEAR OF FEAR

• DISC FOUR – SATAN’S BREW

Lovers Lane

A steamy secret tryst that was brutally cut short on Valentine’s Day an unlucky thirteen years ago comes back to haunt the teens who linger around the lovers lane where the double slaying took place. The County Sheriff Tom Anderson (Matt Riedy) has just about come to terms with the fact that it was his wife who died in another man’s car on that fateful night. His daughter Mandy (Erin J. Dean), who as a four-year-old saw her mother’s corpse carried away from the scene, has a different take on things. It doesn’t help that her classmate Michael (Riley Smith) lost his father to the same hook-handed homicidal maniac in that night’s incident. To cap it all off, as another Valentine’s Day comes round, reports come through that the man arrested as “The Hook” has just bust out of his asylum.

Prepare yourself for the ultimate hook up in a scream-a-minute rollercoaster that marked the film debut of Anna Faris (the Scary Movie series; Lost in Translation).

• Brand new 2K restoration from a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative 

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation

• Two versions of the film: the widescreen 1.85:1 version and the full-frame 1.33:1 version 

• Brand new audio commentary with writer-producers Geof Miller and Rory Veal 

• Screaming Teens: The Legacy of Lovers Lane featurette with Geof Miller and Rory Veal and actors Matt Riedy and Carter Roy

• Image gallery 

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ilan Sheady