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ADVENTURES OF A TAXI DRIVER/PRIVATE EYE/PLUMBER’S MATE ICON 10135
JOHN OSBORNE AND THE GIFT OF FRIENDSHIP DIGITAL CLASSICS DC10020
DOUBLE INDEMNITY - BILLY WILDER UNIVERSAL 8232965
SUNRISE - F W MURNAU EUREKA EKA40109
NOSFERATU - F W MURNAU EUREKA EKA40025 The word ‘nosferatu’ comes from an old Slavonic word nosufur-atu, derived from the Greek for ‘plague carrier’ (vampires were long regarded as the carriers of diseases). In Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s groundbreaking 1922 masterpiece, Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (‘A Symphony of Horrors’) a city clerk named Hutter (Gustav Von Wangenheim) leaves his bride (Greta Schroeder) to conduct business in the distant Carpathian mountains with an eccentric client, Graf Orlok (the amazing Max Schreck). The closer Hutter gets to his destination during a long and hazardous journey, the more terrified are the people he meets. What he finds when he reaches Orlok’s castle is enough to make the flesh of the most devoted horror fan creep. On Nosferatu’s first release, critics were divided and the public bewildered by the director’s clever use of time and space distortion. It was the first film to be based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula character and the first from the production company Prana-Film. It was also the last one the company made before going bankrupt after Stoker’s estate sued for copyright infringement. An English judge ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed and the negative burned. Fortunately, the order was not enforceable in Germany, so a print survived and Nosferatu has subsequently gained a reputation as one of the greatest movie adaptations of the vampire legend. This Special Edition two DVD set features the full-length version as well as a sepia version, handsomely restored and digitally remastered. Extras include a commentary track, trailers and footage showing locations, original artworks and theatrical posters. This timeless classic of the silent film era is a supreme example of German Expressionism and a deeply unsettling film, with unforgettable images and a powerfully sinister atmosphere. SAPPHIRE & STEEL - THE COMPLETE SERIES SPECIAL EDITION NETWORK Set in a world in which the future and past collide and time overturns reality, Sapphire and Steel will capture your consciousness and transport you to altered states. Eerie, frightening forces are at work and only two superhuman agents, Sapphire and Steel (Joanna Lumley and David McCallum), can stop the strange events and restore natural order to the universe with their uncanny powers. Produced by ATV as its answer to the BBC’s Doctor Who, Sapphire & Steel was created by Peter J. Hammond, who conceived the programme after a stay in a haunted castle. The stories are often cryptic, raising more questions than answers, and have an eerie atmosphere, being as much ghost stories as they are science fiction. Time is like a corridor that surrounds everything, but there are weak spots where Time – implied to be a potentially malignant force – can break into the present and take things. This Special Edition 6-DVD set from Network features the complete series of this thought-provoking, unsettling and powerful drama, which built up a massive following when it was originally broadcast almost thirty years ago and remains much talked about to this day. Joanna Lumley and David McCallum are perfectly cast as the two agents, and despite modest budgets the sets look great and this much underrated series packs a wonderfully creepy punch. view clip BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ – FASSBINDER SECOND SIGHT Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s amazing Berlin Alexanderplatz was originally broadcast in 1980 as a 14-part television series set in Germany between the two World Wars. In 1983, it was released theatrically - playing two or three episodes a night - and soon acquired a cult following for the longest narrative film ever made. This epic film explores the character of Franz Biberkopf, ‘hero’ of Alfred Döblin’s acclaimed novel, as well as the Alexanderplatz area of Berlin that he inhabits. Franz (brilliantly played by Gunter Lamprecht) gets out of prison following a four-year sentence for the manslaughter of his girlfriend and becomes involved in the decadent Berlin of the 1920s, with pimps, prostitutes, Nazis and psychotic small-time crook Reinhold (Gottfried John). Facing these temptations, Franz is too easily led by others. Following a massive restoration project overseen by the original editor, Berlin Alexanderplatz is now available for the first time on DVD in this superb six-disc box set. Extras include special features: ‘Making Of, A Mega-Movie And Its’ Story’, ‘The Restoration’ - before and after, stills and productions photos gallery and the Berlinale trailer. The remastered version received its world premiere in February 2007 at the Berlin International Film Festival, when the first two episodes were shown. This remarkable 15½ hours long masterpiece becomes an even more intense and powerful experience when seen over two or three days rather than over several weeks as originally shown on television. ‘The work of a genuine master’ - Time Out. THE NEO-REALIST COLLECTION BOX SET ARROW FCD252
THE GREAT INDIAN WARS 1540-1890 DELTA 86240 The indigenous Native American peoples of what is now the United States comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states and ethnic groups, many of which still endure as political communities. The year 1540 was a crucial turning point in American history, when the Great Indian Wars were incited by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado when his expedition to the Great Plains launched the inevitable 350 year struggle between the white man and the American Indians. From that point forward, the series of battles between the United States and the Native American Indians began where blood was shed and ultimately tens of thousands of lives were lost on both sides. The Battle of Tippecanoe, the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, all three Seminole Wars and the Battle of Little Big Horn were some of the most important conflicts that led up to the last massacre, the Battle of Wounded Knee, where America’s landscape would be forever changed. This comprehensive three DVD set documents the true and often heartbreaking story of America’s Indian Wars in the bad old days of the wild west, when there were atrocities as well as heroes on both sides. The bloody struggle between the white man and the American Indians is told in an informative, entertaining and balanced way that reveals the depth of this sad strand in the country’s history. Extras include a gallery of rare photographs and maps as well as biographies of notable participants such as Tecumseh, Colonel Custer, Black Kettle, Wild Bill Hickock, Crazy Horse, Kit Carson, Geronimo and Sitting Bull. THE OPEN ROAD – CLAUDE FRIESE-GREENE BFI FILMS BFIVD739 Claude Friese-Greene was born in 1898 in London. . His father, William Friese-Greene, was possibly the inventor of Kinematography and by 1889 had patented his ‘chronophotographic’ camera. His system produced Biocolour, where black and white films were given the illusion of colour by passing them through red or green filters. Unfortunately, William’s creation was too crude to succeed and he sold the rights, due to bankruptcy, for just £500. Claude eventually continued with his father’s work and pursued a career as a filmmaker, cinematographer and technician. In 1924, he set off from England’s southern tip, Land’s End in Cornwall, and travelled 1600 miles to the most northern point of Scotland, John O’Groats, and went on to produce a series of 26 short films that together made up ‘The Open Road’. This journey took Claude and his friend Robin Haywood Booth three years to produce, while travelling across the English countryside in an open top Vauxhall D-type. This glorious time-honoured work has us seeing the people and their different environment during the time of peace between the First World War and before the depression era of the 1930s and before the build up to the Second World War. This unique travelogue was intended to be shown weekly at the cinema but although creating an initial impact when it was first exhibited at trade shows in 1925, Claude’s experimental colour process failed to reach a large audience owing to heavy flicker and colour fringing. The original negatives were deposited with the BFI for preservation in the late 1950s. Great enthusiasm for the film was created by the documentary series The Lost World of Friese-Greene, a co-production with the BBC that was televised in 2006 and released by the BFI on DVD. Now the BFI National Archive has restored a special compilation of highlights from the journey, using digital intermediate technology (the Archive’s first such project) to remove the technical defects of the original. The Open Road is important both as a landmark in the development of colour on film but also as a fascinating social record of inter-war Britain. The film is presented on this DVD with a new score by pianist Neil Brand and renowned violinist and silent film accompanist Günter Buchwald. The restoration remains true to the original colour while using the latest technology to create a clearer image with a remarkable reduction in the flicker and colour fringing. This ‘cinematic postcard’ of Britain in the 1920s is fascinating and the films speak much more resonantly for themseves without the superfluous commentary that marred the television series. Extras include a short aerial tour of the West Country in ‘Across England in an Aeroplane’ (UK, 1919-20, silent) and an illustrated 17-page booklet with background notes, details on the digital reconstruction of the film and musician biographies. REMEMBER ME – MUCCINO BLUEBELL BLC013 Gabriele Muccino’s bittersweet drama Remember Me (aka Ricordarti Di Me) concerns the dysfunctional Italian middle-class family Ristuccia. Middle-aged executive Carlo (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) has a stalled, monotonous life without passion and his wife Giulia (Laura Morante) is a frustrated woman because she gave up of being an actress in her youth to dedicate her time to the family. Their son Paolo (Silvio Muccino) feels lost and rejected, trying to find who he is and flirting with a schoolmate. Seventeen-year-old daughter Valentina (Nicoletta Romanoff) wants to work in a television show and is fighting to have an audition. The family is blown apart when Carlo meets his former sweetheart, Allessia (the beautiful Monica Belluci), after meeting her in a class reunion. They confess to each other that their marriages are in crisis and begin an affair. Meanwhile Giulia is invited to an audition in a stage production, Paolo tries to make friends using marijuana in his birthday party and Valentina has sex in order to become a dancer on a successful TV show. Their relationships change when Carlo has an accident. Superbly written and directed, this engrossing and poignant film tells the story of a normal family struggling to keep a balance between personal fulfillment and the need they have for each other. Fabrizio Bentivoglio is perfect as a decent man in crisis and Laura Morante is sensationally good as his wife, a woman teetering on the edge of a breakdown yet essentially strong. Remember Me was nominated for ten Donatello Awards, and won Best Producer, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress (for Bellucci) from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists. ‘Its deceptively light farcical elements give it dignity and emotional power’ - Time Out. HALF NELSON – RYAN FLECK AXIOM FILMS AXM560 An inner-city teacher struggling with addiction forms an unlikely bond with a young student who catches him in a compromising position in director Ryan Fleck's feature-length adaptation of his own award-winning short film Gowanus, Brooklyn. Despite his dedication to the junior-high students who fill his shabby classroom, idealistic inner-city teacher Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) leads a secret life that the majority of his students will never know. Day after day, he somehow finds the energy to inspire his 13 and 14-year-olds to examine everything from civil rights to the Civil War with a new enthusiasm. Rejecting the standard curriculum in favour of an edgier approach, Dan teaches his students how change works and how to think for themselves. When his drug-soaked nightlife begins to bleed over into his daytime hours and troubled student Drey (Shareeka Epps) makes a startling discovery, the tenuous bond that forms between the pair leads to a warm friendship that could either lead them down a dangerous path or provide the human companionship needed to see things from a fresh perspective and start life anew. The film received rapturous critical acclaim on its release, finding its way on to many top ten films of 2006 lists. Ryan Gosling gives a mesmerising performance as the disillusioned teacher and young Shareeka Epps is astonishingly good as the struggling student. From the classroom to the basketball court, to the painful addiction scenes, Epps and Gosling make Half Nelson come alive with anger, pain and the true pathos of life in America today. The generous array of extras includes commentary from writer/director Ryan Fleck and writer/editor Anna Boden, Fleck and Bodens Sundance award-winning short film ‘Gowanus, Brooklyn’ (also starring the remarkable Shareeka Epps), interviews with Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, Q&A with Fleck and Boden at the Everyman Cinema in London, cast audition footage, out-takes, deleted and extended scenes, a photo gallery and trailer. THE COMPLETE RUMBLING HEARTS REVELATION FILMS FUN72400 Originally a computer adventure game, Rumbling Hearts was later adapted as an anime that first aired in Japan between 2003 and 2004. Regularly voted one of top ten anime films, the complete series is now available first time in this box set of three DVDs. Volume One introduces four high school friends, Haruka, Takayuki, Mitsuki and Shinji. Life’s promise shines brightly on them until an accident leaves Haruka in a coma and her boyfriend, Takayuki, can’t forgive himself. Mitsuki dedicates her life to helping this tragic young man and the pair fall into a guilt-ridden relationship. When Haruka awakens after three years, Takayuki is torn between his unhappy real-life relationship and daydream high school romance. In Rumbling Hearts Volume Two, Haruka’s condition has everyone living out a warped high school daydream, as they are forced to act as if the three years since the accident simply have not occurred. Sworn to uphold the façade for the young girl’s sake, Takayuki spends more and more time at the hospital and his old feelings for first true love begin to resurface and he begins to neglect the reality for the fantasy. In Volume Three, the entire world has gone crazy, with Haruka collapsing back into a coma and Mitsuki leaving Takayuki for good. When Haruka wakes up for the second time, she realises that three years have passed and wants to know why she lost three years. Faced with unpleasant reality, the young girl must have courage enough for them all. Dealing sensitively with big themes such as guilt, friendship and faith, love and betrayal, Rumbling Hearts tells of the silent sufferings of real life. The amazing art work is fluid and smooth and the music helps draw you in the story takes that takes time to show how such a dramatic event can make everyone involved into a victim. SCREEN ICONS: THE ALEC GUINNESS COLLECTION OPTIMUM OPTD1064 Sir Alec Guinness was a member of a distinguished generation of British actors that included Olivier, Redgrave, Gielgud and Richardson. Alec Guinness was called ‘the outstanding poet of anonymity’ by Peter Ustinov and was perhaps the most versatile of them all, able effortlessly to portray characters that ranged from eight members of the doomed family D’Ascoyne to a Jedi master in the Star Wars films. With the perfect timing of a comedian and the hypnotic intensity of the greatest dramatic actors, he dazzled audiences in both hard-hitting dramas and comedies alike. Guinness was an extra in the 1934 film, Evensong, but made his first real screen impact as Herbert Pocket in director David Lean’s 1946 adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. He won international recognition in Robert Hamer’s masterpiece, Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), the best of the Ealing Studio black comedies, and continued to work at a prolific pace for the next fifty years, receiving four Oscar nominations and an honorary Academy Award in 1979. This collection includes the wonderful Kind Hearts and Coronets as well as four more Ealing comedies, each a gem that showcases his astonishing talent. The Man in the White Suit (1951) and Barnacle Bill (1957) are both classic Ealing David-and-Goliath stories. The Captain’s Paradise (1953) follows the increasingly farcical life of a bigamist ferry captain and Last Holiday (1950) is the tale of a timid man who is given a short time to live, so decides to have a last hurrah. This box set features one of the Britain’s best-loved and most accomplished actors in his prime. THE ESSENTIAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN DELTA 89149 Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, better known as Charlie Chaplin, was born in London, England, in 1889. He joined Fred Karno’s touring stage company with his brother Sydney in 1908 (Stan Laurel was also a member of the company) and in 1912 the troupe went to perform in America, where Chaplin decided to stay. The following year, producer Mack Sennett saw him perform and took him on at the Keystone Studio, which already boasted such names as Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, Mabel Normand and the Keystone Kops. Chaplin went on to become one of biggest movie stars the world has ever seen, making an astonishing 35 pictures in one year alone. As well as being a wonderfully inventive comedy actor he was also a notable director, writer, producer and musician, composing scores for some of his later films. His working life spanned over 65 years, from the Victorian stage and music hall in England as a child performer, almost until his death at the age of eighty-eight on Christmas Day, 1977 . His principal character was ‘The Tramp’ (known as ‘Charlot’ in France), a vagrant with the refined manners and dignity of a gentleman. An unmistakeable toothbrush-moustached character wearing a tight coat, over-sized trousers and shoes, and a derby hat, carrying a bamboo cane, his image remains immortal and universally recognised. This superb ten volume DVD collection contains some of Chaplin’s finest films as well as ‘Chaplin - His Life and Work’, a loving and leisurely-paced documentary that includes film excerpts along with reflections on Shakespeare and Jack the Ripper. Titles on the other nine discs include Mabel’s Married Life, Laffing Gas, Face On The Barroom Floor, The Landlady’s Pet, The Fatal Mallet, The Knockout, The New Janitor, The Rival Mashers, Musical Tramp, A Fair Exchange, His New Job, A Night Out, The Champion, In The Park, The Tramp, The Bank, Shanghaied, A Night In The Snow, A Burlesque On Carmen, Police, The Floorwalker, The Fireman, The Vagabond, One A.M., The Count, The Pawnshop, Behind The Screen, The Rink, Easy Street, The Cure and The Immigrant. This collection forms a marvelous tribute to the greatest comedian of them all, currently receiving an overdue critical and popular revival. Highly recommended. PALMS – ARISTAKISIAN SECOND RUN DVD026 Artur Aristakisian (born in Kishinov, capital of Moldova) is the first hippie of the Russian film community. It took him eight years to be accepted into the Moscow Film School (VGIK), where he lived in classrooms and cooked his food while hiding behind the curtains during his classmates’ rehearsals. For four years he struggled to complete Palms (Ladoni), an astonishing portrait of people who live outside ‘society’ and exist on the margins of life. Between 1986 and 1990, Aristakisian lived among the tramps and beggars of Kishinov, studying them and empathising with their plight. This documentary follows a series of case studies - all disadvantaged in some way - as they go about their daily business of struggling to eke out an existence in a cruel and hostile world. Aristakisian takes a philosophical, almost spiritual, view of his subjects but, by way of rationalising, he likens them to Christ and his disciples, whose outsider status was part of their uniqueness. Aristakisian’s sensitive narration is that of a father intoning truths to his unborn child, while the monochrome photography perfectly captures the former Soviet city in all its desolate glory. Palms is one of the most remarkable debuts of recent years and this unique and magical documentary has won many awards, including the 1994 Karlovy Vary Film Festival Ecumenical Jury Prize and San Francisco Film Festival Satyajit Ray Prize. DVD extras include an interview with the director and a booklet with an interesting essay by Graeme Hobbs. BARAKA & CHRONOS - RON FRICKE SECOND SIGHT 2NDVD 3112 Baraka takes its title from an ancient Middle Eastern word meaning ‘a blessing’, or ‘breath of life’. This visually stunning and inspirational film was shot over 13 months in 24 countries and is an overwhelming experience that spans the geographical, cultural and social diversity of our changing planet. A journey of rediscovery, Baraka is the power, the beauty and the rage of life itself. Often compared to Koyaanisqatsi (to which Ron Fricke’s pioneering time-lapse photography techniques contributed hugely), Baraka uses footage of landscapes, churches, ruins, religious ceremonies and cities, filmed with time-lapse photography to capture the pulse of humanity as it flocks and swarms in daily activity. In addition to making comparisons between natural and technological phenomena, the film searches for a universal cultural perspective. DVD extras include ‘The Making of Baraka’, crew interviews and the original trailer. Ron Fricke’s Chronos was originally released in 1985 in IMAX theatres. The 42-minutes long film has a soundtrack consisting of a single continuous piece by composer Michael Stearns and was also shot in dozens of locations on five continents. Chronos relates to the concept of time passing on different scales - covering the history of civilisation from pre-historic Stonehenge via Egypt, Rome and Late Antiquity to the rise of Western Europe in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the modern era. Other time scales reflect changing seasons, the passing of night and day, and the movement of shadows of the sun or the passing of people on the street. There are awe-inspiring shots of the American mid-West, the grids of motorways and the conveyor-belt imagery of humans caught-up in the neon-lit rush of New York City. This was Fricke’s debut film as a director, made using innovative cameras and rigging built to handle the unusually long and smooth time-lapse shots, such as a 24-hour expanse of a desert captured while evenly panning 180 degrees. Michael Stearns, while composing the experimental soundtrack, used an extraordinary custom-made instrument called ‘The Beam’ - 12 feet long and made of extruded aluminium with 24 of 19-22 gauge piano strings. On this DVD, optional subtitles can be selected which list the location of each shot, such as The Pyramids, Mont St. Michel, St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, Nôtre Dame in Paris, The Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Pompeii, The Acropolis and The Louvre. Other extras include commentary by Ron Fricke, Michael Stearns and production manager Anton Walpole about the techniques employed and the difficulties faced in making this breathtaking film. Now available together in this box set, Baraka and Chronos are unforgettable experiences. OF MICE AND MEN – MILESTONE ARROW FILMS FCD347 John Steinbeck novella, Of Mice and Men, was first published in 1937 and tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant workers searching for a safe haven from the cruelties of the world during the 1930s. The title was taken from Robert Burns’ poem, To a Mouse (The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley) and is an ironic allusion to the problems of the main characters. Quick-witted George looks after the disabled, possibly autistic Lennie and dreams of escaping to a better life. Lennie Small, despite his name, is a very big man physically but with the dreams and attributes of a child. He dreams of ‘living off the fatta’ the lan’ and being able to tend to rabbits. Having the mental ability of a child and the strength of a ‘bull’ leaves him unable to control or judge his own strength, resulting in a series of accidental killings as he mauls things to death when they try to escape. Set in California’s bucolic Salinas Valley, Of Mice and Men paints a bold, vivid picture of life during the Great Depression and has been filmed several times. This classic 1939 adaptation is the definitive version, with fine black and white cinematography and Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie alongside Burgess Meredith as George, who had previously played the part in over 200 performances on Broadway. Directed by Lewis Milestone, the film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original score by the great American composer Aaron Copland. Meredith and Chaney are superb in the roles of their careers and receive great support from Charles Bickford, Noah Beery Jr., veteran Bob Steele as the hot-headed Curley and Betty Field as his bored wife. CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHER WOMEN REVELATION FILMS PAR61347
SEX & FURY – NORIFUMI SUZUKI FABULOUS FILMS FHED1989 This prime example of Japanese sexploitation stars the beautiful and sultry Reiko Ike as Ocho Inoshika, a gambler, pickpocket and swordswoman in early 1920s Meiji Era Tokyo. At a young age, Ocho witnessed the brutal murder of her father, killed in cold blood by the local Yakuza. As the tale unfolds Ocho uses her deadly swordplay and female sexuality to outsmart her assailants and extracts cold hearted revenge for the death of her father, in a bloody climax of sex and violence. Director Norifumi Suzuki creates visually stunning scenes featuring wild colour and expressive movement, with spectacular photography throughout. The film has a good deal of nudity along with the violence but this is a key part of the genre and the final shot stunning of Ocho in the falling snow is supremely memorable. Sex & Fury may seem strangely familiar if you are a fan of the Kill Bill series. Quentin Tarrentino has acknowledged his considerable debt to this movie as well as to its follow up, FEMALE YAKUZA TALE (FHED1990). The latter was directed by Teruo Ishii and Reiko Ike returns to play the lead as Ocho, gambler and underworld mover and shaker who gets caught up in a complicated tale of kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking. All hell breaks lose in this fast paced, delirious blend of sex, violence and pop cinema. Less surreal and psychedelic than Sex and Fury, the sequel features a remarkable opening sequence involving a naked Ocho slaughtering multiple opponents in slow-motion, and the film builds to another fantastic climax. Sex & Fury and Female Yakuza have acquired a period charm and are essential viewing for all fans of 1970s exploitation cinema. DVD extras include theatrical trailers and other promotional material. ‘Reiko Ike became the ultimate cult queen’ - Jonathan Ross. THE CLASSIC HORROR COLLECTION CLASSIC ENTERTAINMENT CE104
HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET, SERIES 3 FREMANTLE FHED2059
HIGH HOPES – MIKE LEIGH FABULOUS / FREMANTLE FHED2019 Set mostly in King’s Cross, London, Mike Leigh’s 1988 film explores the lives of a working-class couple, Cyril (Philip Davis) and his girlfriend Shirley (superbly played by Ruth Sheen), and their friends, neighbours and family. Motor-cycle courier Cyril reads Karl Marx and is an old-style socialist who despairs of his working-class but Tory-voting mother, her ghastly yuppie neighbours, his pretentious, social-climbing sister and her insensitive, philandering car-salesman husband. Wayne left home because of an argument about pies and finds himself lost in London. Cyril would like to machine gun the royal family. Rupert and Laetitia Boothe-Brain play sex games, while deep in suburbia Valerie fails to arouse her husband Martin with a suggestion that he be Michael Douglas and she a virgin. Cyril’s mother gets locked out of her house and is criticised by her snobbish neighbour for selfishly occupying a whole house in an increasingly fashionable area. Shirley wants a baby, but Cyril is reluctant, feeling that the world should be spared more babies until everyone has a job, a place to live and enough to eat. This disparate cast of characters swim in an out of each others lives, seamlessly orchestrated by director Mike Leigh in his inimitable slice-of-life style. DVD extras include on-set news footage, an interview with Mike Leigh, the original production notes, biographies, stills and a poster gallery. This funny and touching film poignantly evokes the bleakness of the third term of Margaret Thatcher’s government. CLOSE-UP – KIAROSTAMI SODA Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami’s film tells the story of the real-life trial of a man who impersonated film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, conning a family into believing they would star in his new film. It features the people involved, acting as themselves, and the dialogue is in Persian. Kiarostami is the most influential and controversial post-revolutionary Iranian director and Close-Up was one of the first of films that brought him international attention. Set around the time of the 1990 Iran earthquake, Kiarostami’s film invites the creative participation of its audience, interrupting the expected dramatic flow of the story-line with minor characters whose lives are not considered dramatic or important. The director mixes fact and fiction in such a way that it is impossible to separate the two. The non-chronological order of the scenes in the film which offer different points-of-view urge the audience to make sense of the story (putting it in their order), as well as asking them to judge the characters on their own terms. Close-Up not only refers to the role of cinema in Iran as a means of power, popularity, and social mobility, but it also confronts the viewer with her/his own relationship to cinema. Kiarostami thus criticises the role of media and the media-maker in deceiving the audience. In this film more than his other films, Kiarostami reveals the characters through their lies and performances, and the final beautiful scene confirms the director’s compassion for his subject and makes this essential viewing for all cineastes. Hossain Sabzian gives a remarkable performance as ‘himself’ and ‘Mohsen Makhmalbaf’. DVD extras include: ‘Close-Up in close up’ hosted by Geoff Andrew and ‘The Opening Night of Close-Up’ (II Giorno della prima di Close Up), a short film by Nanni Moretti. LIFE ON MARS – COMPLETE SERIES 2 CONTENDER CTD10517
THE THIRD MAN – SPECIAL EDITION OPTIMUM OPTD0585
TAKE CARE OF MY CAT – JAE-EUN JEONG BLUEBELL Five girlfriends in their early twenties live in the dingy Korean port town of Inchon. A close-knit circle in high school, their paths begin to diverge as they step into the adult world and struggle against the weight of family expectations and class prejudice. Hee-joo leaves Inchon for the bright lights of Seoul, Ji-young and Tae-hee dream of studying overseas and bubbly twins Bri-ryu and Ohn-jo eke out a living selling hand made jewellery. Despite their brave efforts can the girls retain the bond they once had or will their growing ambition cause them to lose sight of that once precious friendship? This touching, warm and witty coming of age movie deals sympathetically and subtly with universal and profound themes yet remains engaging and highly accessible. There are delightfully natural performances by the young cast, especially Doona Bae as the optimistic Tae-hee. Director Jae-eun Jeong studied film at the Korean National University of Arts and before making this graceful and perceptive film she directed several shorts, including Yujin’ Secret Codes, which won the Grand Prix of the Women’s Film Festival in Seoul. Take Care of My Cat (Goyangileul butaghae) is a gem of a film and a highly accomplished feature debut by this young director. THE CLAUDE CHABROL COLLECTION: VOLUME 2 ARROW FCD304 Along with François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol’s name is famously associated with the Cahiers du Cinéma and the rise of the French New Wave. Born in Paris in 1930, Chabrol was evacuated during the Occupation to a village in the Massif Central, where he and a friend set up a makeshift cinema in a barn. Returning to Paris after the Liberation, he studied law and began attending the thriving postwar ciné-clubs and cinémathèques where he met Truffaut, Godard and Eric Rohmer. A fan of Fritz Lang and Alfred Hitchcock, he was invited to contribute articles to Cahiers and supported himself by working at the Paris publicity office of 20th Century-Fox. He directed his first film, the revolutionary Le Beau Serge, in 1958 and became known for his chilling Hitchcock-influenced tales of murder. The films in this second collection from Arrow Films encapsulate Chabrol’s jaundiced attitude towards the French bourgeoisie. La Rupture (The Breach, 1970), with its sensational opening, forms part of the ‘Hélène cycle’ that he made with his second wife Stéphane Audran. Inspired by Charlotte Armstrong’s pulp novel, The Balloon Man, it centres on the abuse suffered by a former stripper at the hands of drug-addicted husband Jean-Claude Drouot and father-in-law Michel Bouquet, as they try to discredit her divorce suit. Chabrol’s regular screenwriter, Paul Gégauff, plays an equally monstrous spouse in Une Partie de Plaisir (Pleasure Party, 1974), which disconcertingly co-stars his ex-wife Danielle as the target of his murderous rage after a demand for an open marriage backfires. The best laid plans of a treacherous partner also go awry in Les Innocents aux Mains Sales (Innocents with Dirty Hands, 1975), as no sooner have the beautiful Romy Schneider and St Tropez lover Paolo Giusti killed her rich and boorish husband (Rod Steiger) than he keeps coming back to haunt them. A hybrid of The Postman Always Rings Twice and Les Diaboliques, this nasty chiller finds echo in the policier Poulet au Vinaigre (Cop au Vin, 1984) and the savage exposé of middle-class morality and France’s guilty past, La Fleur du Mal (The Flower of Evil, 2003). There’s a lighter tone to the espionage caper, La Route de Corinthe (The Road to Corinth, 1967), in which Jean Seberg has to find the black boxes that will prove she didn’t kill spy husband, Christian Marquand. Extras include trailers and presentations of Fleur du Mal and Poulet au Vinaigre by Joel Magny, an interview of Caroline Eliacheff (co-scriptwriter of Fleur du Mal) and Lecon de Cinema with Claude Chabrol’s commentary on selected scenes of both films. Chabrol is one of France’s most prolific filmmakers, having directed more than fifty-five films in five decades, so this set of six DVDs is a welcome chance to catch up on some favourites and some that you may have missed. THE CLAUDE CHABROL COLLECTION: VOLUME 1 (ARROW FCD272) is another superb box set that includes eight films, mostly from the late 1960s and early 1970s: Les Biches (a polysexual menage-à-trois set in Paris and St Tropez), La Femme Infidèle (a study of jealousy, infidelity and murder), Que La Bête Meure, the brilliantly disturbing Le Boucher, Juste Avant La Nuit, Les Noces Rouges (a deadly tale of forbidden love), excellent political thriller Nada, and Madame Bovary (starring Isabelle Huppert). EISENSTEIN COLLECTION, VOLUME ONE TARTAN TVD3742
THE HAROLD LLOYD COLLECTION OPTIMUM OPTD0 The great American film actor and director Harold Clayton Lloyd was born in Burchard, Nebraska, in 1893. He began acting at an early age with theatrical repertory companies, making his film debut as an extra in a 1913 one-reel film before joining the influential Hal Roach Company. In 1917 Lloyd found the idea that became his trademark and changed him from a good comedian into a major star. Shedding grotesque comedy clothes and characterisations, he created an American archetype - an optimistic and determined go-getter sporting horn-rimmed spectacles and a toothy smile. He retained this ‘Glasses Character’ (as he called his comic persona) throughout the rest of his career, which spanned 34 years and around 200 films, both silent and ‘talkies’. Harold Lloyd’s comedies often contained ‘thrill sequences’, including car chases and such memorable daredevil physical feats as hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in Safety Last! (1923). Lloyd did many of these dangerous stunts himself, despite having been injured during the filming of Haunted Spooks (1920) when an accident with a prop bomb resulted in the loss of the thumb and index finger of his right hand (disguised on film with the use of a special prosthetic glove). Safety Last! and Haunted Spooks are just two of the films in this comprehensive 9-DVD boxset of the great man’s work. Among the others included here are Grandma’s Boy (much admired by both Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton), The Kid Brother (Lloyd’s own favourite of all his films), Movie Crazy, The Freshman (his most popular and arguably funniest film) and Speedy (‘Speedy’ was Harold Lloyd’s real-life nickname), along with many other gems and exclusive extras. With new orchestral scores and restored, digitally re-mastered prints, this splendid collection is a fitting celebration of one of cinema’s most inspired and enduring comic geniuses. A LITTLE TRIP TO HEAVEN – BALTASAR KORMAKUR REVOLVER REVD2044 Baltasar Kormákur was born in 1966 and is one of Iceland’s most popular young actors as well as being a director and successful theatre impresario. He directed his first feature, 101 Reykjavík, in 2001 and his most recent film, Mýrin (Jar City), has been widely acclaimed. A Little Trip to Heaven is a dark, moody thriller from 2005, set in the USA but shot almost entirely in Iceland. After a suspicious fatal car accident in rural northern Minnesota where the identity of the victim was forged, the Quality Life insurance company sends a smart and dogged investigator Abe Holt (a curiously-accented Forest Whitaker) to identify the body. The unique beneficiary of the one million dollars death benefit is the victim’s sister, Isold (played by the beautiful Julia Stiles), who lives with her son Thor (Alfred Harmsworth) and husband Fred (a subtly menacing performance by Jeremy Renner) in a poor cabin in the middle of nowhere. As the investigation progresses, Abe discovers the truth about the fraud but feels sorry for Isold and tries to help her, with tragic consequences. The three leading actors are excellent and there are fine supporting performances by Peter Coyote, Philip Jackson, Anne Reid, Phyllida Law and Joanna Scanlan as a sleazily sexy bartender. Part noir, part Coen Brothers, this haunting film is stylishly photographed by Óttar Guðnason. RIFIFI – JULES DASSIN ARROW FILMS FCD127 The 1955 film ‘Du rififi chez les hommes’ was released in the English-speaking world as Rififi, a word that means fighting or brawling. Famously, the film features an audacious 30-minute robbery sequence that occupies a quarter of the running time and is played without dialogue or music. It was directed by Jules Dassin, who made many American film noir classics such as The Naked City, Thieves’ Highway and Night and the City, but had to leave Hollywood after being blacklisted by HUAC. He filmed Rififi on a low budget on the streets of Paris in realistic lighting and in black and white it looks particularly stunning in this new digital transfer. The Bogartesque Jean Servais is superb as Tony le Stephanois, a master thief with a battered face and a tubercular cough, souvenirs of a recent spell in prison. The cynical, aging Tony is reluctant to return to a life of crime, but when he realises his girlfriend has thrown him over for a rival gangster, he agrees to attempt one last job. Together with three collaborators - a young father (the excellent Carl Mohner), an extrovert Franco-Italian and a sentimental Milanese safecracker (played by Dassin himself) - Tony meticulously engineers his biggest heist yet: robbing the most heavily guarded jewellery store in Paris. With glamorous photography by Philippe Agostini, beautiful women, ruthless crooks, shiny automobiles, relentlessly mounting tension and a satisfyingly cathartic ending, this is a true classic that stands the test of time. François Truffaut called Rififi ‘the best film noir he had ever seen’ and it has influenced many other directors, including Stanley Kubrick, Louis Malle and Quentin Tarantino. The film is an unmissable treat and extras on this superbly produced DVD include a Q&A with Jules Dassin at the NFT, TV review and Jules Dassin interview, the original (English-dubbed) theatrical trailer and a sequence of fine production stills. CHRONOS – RON FRICKE SECOND SIGHT 2NDVD 3115 Ron Fricke’s pioneering time-lapse photography techniques contributed hugely to the success of Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 cult film, Koyaanisqatsi, with its remarkable images clouds, waterfalls and mountains with a complementary score by composer Philip Glass. Chronos is an abstract film with no actors or dialogue and created with custom-built time-lapse cameras. Originally released in IMAX theatres, the 42 minutes long film has a soundtrack consisting of a single continuous piece by composer Michael Stearns. Filmed in dozens of locations on five continents, Chronos relates to the concept of time passing on different scales - covering the history of civilisation from pre-historic Stonehenge via Egypt, Rome and Late Antiquity to the rise of Western Europe in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the modern era. Other time scales reflect changing seasons, the passing of night and day, and the movement of shadows of the sun or the passing of people on the street. There are awe-inspiring shots of the American mid-West, the grids of motorways and the conveyor-belt imagery of humans caught-up in the neon-lit rush of New York City. Fricke’s debut film as a director was made using innovative cameras and rigging built to handle the unusually long and smooth time-lapse shots, such as a 24-hour expanse of a desert captured while perfectly-evenly panning 180 degrees. Michael Stearns, while composing the experimental soundtrack, used an extraordinary custom-made instrument called ‘The Beam’ - 12 feet long and made of extruded aluminium with 24 of 19-22 gauge piano strings. On this new DVD, optional subtitles can be selected which list the location of each shot, such as The Pyramids, Mont St. Michel, St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome, Nôtre Dame in Paris, The Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Pompeii, The Acropolis and The Louvre. Other extras include commentary by Ron Fricke, Michael Stearns and production manager Anton Walpole about the techniques employed and the difficulties faced in making this breathtaking film. THE BEAST MUST DIE – PAUL ANNETT OPTIMUM OPTD0810 The British film company Amicus Productions, founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg, was based at Shepperton Studios and is best known for horror anthologies such as Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors and The House That Dripped Blood. Amicus films are sometimes mistaken for the output of the better-known Hammer Films, to which they are similar in visual style, and with which they share many stars, including Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Unlike the period gothic Hammer films, though, Amicus productions were usually set in the present day and now enjoy a considerable cult following of their own. The Beast Must Die was directed by Paul Annett in 1974 and tells the story if eccentric millionaire tycoon Tom Newcliffe (Bahamian-born Calvin Lockhart), a big game hunter with a dream of capturing the biggest prey of his life - a werewolf! To this end, he invites a number of guests to his estate, all of whom have shady and suspicious pasts, in the belief that one among them - the one that will become the hunted - is about to become a blood-crazed werewolf. When an outbreak of violence occurs on the first night, Newcliffe informs his guests that they must remain throughout the cycle of the full moon. The servants have been dismissed, the phones disconnected. They are captives at the mercy of each other’s beastliness. As the horrors mount, the fearless hunter begins to realise that he is a mortal pitted against powers beyond man’s understanding. This enjoyably silly mystery thriller - complete with a ‘werewolf break’ to make up your mind which guest really is the beast - also stars a curiously-accented Peter Cushing as an expert on lycanthropy, sultry Marlene Clark, a young Michael Gambon, the suave Charles Gray, Anton Diffring and the beautiful Ciaran Madden. The excellent cinematography is by Jack Hildyard. Other classic horror films newly issued by Optimum include I, Monster (another Amicus production, with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee), Ghost Ship and Dr Crippen. ARTEMISIA – AGNES MERLET BLUEBELL FILMS BLB004 Artemisia Gentileschi was born in Rome in 1593 and received her early training in art from her father, Orazio Gentileschi, as well a friend of his, Agostino Tassi. Artemisia became one of the first women artists to achieve recognition in the male-dominated world of post-Renaissance art. When most female artists were limited to portrait painting and imitative poses, she was the first woman to paint major historical and religious scenarios. In 1612, her father brought suit against Tassi for raping Artemisia, which resulted in a highly publicised seven-month trial. The trauma of this rape and trial greatly affected Artemisia’s painting as she attempted to deal with the physical and psychic pain. Her style was heavily influenced by dramatic realism and marked chiaroscuro (contrasting light and dark) of Caravaggio. After her death, she drifted into obscurity, her works often attributed to her father or other artists, but in recent years she has been more widely recognised as one of the world’s greatest female artists. This controversial French film, directed by Agnes Merlet in 1998, tells the story of Artemisia Gentileschi’s youth, when she was guided and protected by her father, played by Michel Serrault. Professional curiosity about the male anatomy, forbidden for her eyes, led her to the knowledge of sexual pleasure, and the traumatic events of the rape and its consequences make up the central theme of the film. This true story of an extraordinary woman occasionally plays fast and loose with the historic facts but remains a fine, sumptuously photographed romantic drama, with an excellent central performance by the beautiful Valentina Cervi. THE STRAUSS FAMILY ACORN AVNE5005 The Austrian composer Johann Strauss II is famous for his waltzes, such as The Blue Danube, and the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century is due in large part to him. Son of the composer Johann Strauss I and brother of composers Josef and Eduard Strauss, Johann II – ‘the waltz king’ - revolutionised the waltz, elevating it from a lowly peasant dance to entertainment fit for the royal Habsburg court. He also wrote many polkas and as as well as the evergree operetta, Die Fledermaus. This triple DVD set features this most famous of musical families as portrayed in a lavish eight part drama series first broadcast by ITV in 1972, when it was the year’s thirteenth most most popular programme. The saga spans 85 years and brings to life Johann Strauss and his sons, his marriage, mistresses, public adulation and humiliation – a story of music, passion, jealousy, tragedy and the lives and loves of two generations. The talented cast includes Eric Woofe as Strauss senior, Stuart Wilson as young Johann and the excellent Anne Stallybrass as long suffering, devoted wife and mother Anna Strauss. The music was provided by the London Symphony Orchestra. The eventful lives of the Strauss family lend themselves splendidly to the soap-opera treatment and the costumes, sets and music enjoyably capture the spirit of the era. THE SHIELD - SERIES FOUR SONY CDRP2197 The Shield is an award-winning American police series created by Shawn Ryan and The Barn Productions for Fox Television Studios and Sony Pictures Television. Shown on Five in the UK and currently in its sixth season, the show features an experimental division of the Los Angeles Police Department located in the fictional Farmington district (‘the Farm’) of Los Angeles, using a converted church (‘the Barn’) as a police station. Detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) is leader of the Strike Team, a four-man anti-gang unit that adopts a variety of often illegal and unethical methods to bring justice to the streets, while making a profit through drug protection schemes and robbery. The cops are shown to be not above planting drugs on and coercing confessions out of gang members. Common themes are the citizens’ distrust of police, the social impact of drugs and gang warfare, and the conflict between ethics and political expediency. Controversial for its portrayal of corrupt police officers, The Shield has won critical praise for its realism, particularly in its portrayal of gang violence. Season Four saw the first appearance of the formidable Glenn Close as Farmington’s new Captain and deals with the fallout from the Strike Team disbandment. Michael Chiklis still has top billing as Mackey and the ensemble cast also includes Walton Goggins, (Michael Peña, Kenneth Johnson, David Rees Snell and the excellent CCH Pounder, who together with Close was nominated for an Emmy. Extras with this four-DVD include commentaries from the entire cast (including Glenn Close) and a documentary showing day-to-day production with behind-the-scenes footage. Close and Chiklis might seem an unlikely duo but their screen partnership is riveting and the rest of the cast are in fine form. Gritty, fast-paced and often gory, The Shield may sometimes be confusing but is never boring. THE JEAN-LUC GODARD COLLECTION, VOL. 1 OPTIMUM OPTD0824 Jean-Luc Godard was born to Franco-Swiss parents in Paris in 1930 and educated at the Sorbonne, where he became involved with the young group of filmmakers and film theorists who would become to the French Nouvelle Vague, or New Wave. Known for stylistic implementations that challenged the conventions of Hollywood cinema, Godard soon became recognised one of the most audacious and influential filmmakers in the world. His work is unambiguously political and reflects a profound knowledge of film history as well as existential and Marxist philosophy. From his stylish 1959 debut feature A Bout De Souffle, ‘the film which epitomised the iconoclasm of the early Nouvelle Vague (Time Out), Godard has remained controversial and intriguing throughout his lengthy film career. This outstanding collection includes the exhilarating and sexy A Bout De Souffle, otherwise known as Breathless (starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg), as well as Passion, the futuristic Alphaville (winner of the Golden Bear award at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival) and Made in the USA (an American Noir hommage starring Anna Karina), plus many extras and a comprehensive bonus disc of special features. These include: The Dinosaur & The Baby, a classic interview between Fritz Lang and Jean-Luc Godard; Jean-Luc As Seen By Luc, a short film by Godard’s long time friend and director Luc Moullet; Godard, Love, Poetry, exploring how the director’s relationship with Anna Karina has influenced his work. All the extras are new to UK DVD. ‘The filmmaker of the Sixties’ - Independent on Sunday. Optimum has also released another superb DVD box set, THE JEAN RENOIR COLLECTION (OPTD0867). Renoir was born in the Paris’s Montmartre district in 1894, the second son of Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. As a director and actor, Jean Renoir made over forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s and is famous for his accurate and poignant observation of the nuances of human behaviour. Included here are his anti-war masterpiece La Grande Illusion, La Bête Humaine (starring Jean Gabin and Simone Simon), La Marseillaise, Elena et les Hommes (with Ingrid Bergman), Le Testament Du Docteur Cordelier (based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde), the joyful Dejeuner Sur Herbe and Le Caporal Epingle, revisiting the prison camp setting first exploited in La Grande Illusion almost 30 years before. All the titles have been digitally restored and this box-set marks the DVD premiere of all apart from La Grande Illusion and La Bête Humaine. Extra include an introduction to La Grande Illusion by Ginette Vincendeau and two shorts by Jean Renoir (Sur Un Air De Charleston and La Petite Marchande D’Allumette), as well as fascinating documentaries about La Marseillaise, Le Dejeuner Sur L’Herbe and Le Caporel Epingle. Essential viewing of films by the man Orson Welles called ‘the greatest of all directors’. JIMMY AND JUDY REVOLVER REVD2026 The ultimate teenage outcast road trip movie, Jimmy and Judy charts the path of a pair of outsiders who fall in love and out of control as they travel across an American landscape dotted with hypocrisy, materialism, drugs and violence. Starring Edward Furlong and Rachel Bella, this unconventional love story offers a fresh take on classic adolescent themes such as rebellion, love and anger. Jimmy is a passionate outsider doing whatever he wants, documenting every detail of his life on video camera. Judy falls in love with him, fuelling their most intimate and self-loathing emotions. The partnership intensifies and drives their love of violence, drugs, sex and ultimately murder. One fateful evening a tragedy sets off a domino effect of trouble, forcing them to run away from their homes and embark on an explosive journey. Each move they make brings them closer together, yet further away from redemption. Written and directed by Randall K. Rubin and Jon Schroder, the film eschews conventional cinematic grammar in favour of an intense, verite style of narrative. The directors use the immediacy of hand-held video to give an unprecedented intimacy into the adventures of this modern day Bonnie & Clyde. The film is set up as an ongoing video diary, first of Jimmy’s sociopathic pranks, then of the couple’s blossoming romance and subsequent flight into a violent and anarchic middle-American wilderness. The two leading actors have a real chemistry on screen and there are fine performances by Chaney Kley as an intoxicated meth-head and William Sadler as Uncle Rodney, the predatory leader of a drug besotted commune dedicated to the ‘garbage culture’. Clearly influenced by films such as Wild at Heart, Natural Born Killers and Badlands, Jimmy and Judy could become another cult classic. THE COVENANT – RENNY HARLIN SONY Renny Harlin, the most successful Finnish film director in the history of Hollywood, making such box-office hits as A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Cliffhanger with Sylvester Stallone (nominated for 3 Oscars), Deep Blue Sea and The Long Kiss Goodnight. The Covenant, released in 2006, tells the story of the Sons of Ipswich, four young students at the elite Spenser Academy who are bound by their sacred ancestry. As descendants of the original families who settled in Ipswich Colony in the 1600s, the four boys have all been born with special powers. When the body of a dead student is discovered after a party, secrets begin to unravel which threaten to break the covenant of silence that has protected their families for hundreds of years. Starring some of Hollywood’s hottest and fittest, up-and-coming young actors, this low-budget horror film explores the world of witchcraft, magic and psychological horror without going over the top with excessive gore (one of the most frightening moments is created by an army of spiders). This may not be the kind of film that wins Academy Awards but it’s a glossily enjoyable popcorn movie with suitably all-American performances by Steven Strait, Taylor Kitsch (last seen in Snakes on a Plane) and Laura Ramsey. Pierre Gill’s excellent photography relishes the swirling fog, dark nights, heavy rain, ominous forests and inevitable raging thunderstorm. DVD extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette (Breaking the Silence: Exposing the Covenant) and a director commentary. THE RISE AND RISE OF MICHAEL RIMMER DIGITAL CLASSICS DC10036 This brilliant British political satire stars Peter Cook as the mysterious young Michael Rimmer, who appears at a small advertising agency and takes over from the hapless employees, who including the bumbling Pumer (played by John Cleese), skiving boss Ferrett (Arthur Lowe) and sexy secretary Tanya (the statuesque Valerie Leon). Rimmer rises through the ranks of the agency and soon moves into politics, acting as a spin doctor for the leader of the Tory opposition. With chicanery, manipulation, and relentless opinion polls, the Machiavellian Rimmer becomes MP for Budleigh Moor and acquires a trophy wife before rapidly working his way up, with charismatic deception, to even greater heights as his ‘policy-light’ style of leadership somehow wins the hearts of the nation. Co-written by Peter Cook with John Cleese, Graham Chapman and director Kevin Billington, The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer also has a superb supporting cast that features stalearts such as Denholm Elliott, Harold Pinter and Dennis Price. Way ahead of its time (it was made in the mini-skirted, flared-trousered world of 1970), this funny and serious film remains strikingly relevant in the current climate of British political spin, taking a subversive look at the road to political success. Digitally restored, this sharply-observed classic is now available for the first time on DVD. Bonus material includes a picture gallery and the original film poster. INTO GREAT SILENCE – PHILIP GRONING SODA SODA033 This quiet, contemplative film examines life inside the Grande Chartreuse, head monastery of the reclusive Carthusian Order in France. Nestled in a beautiful valley deep in the French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world’s most ascetic monasteries. The Order of the Carthusians was founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and this order of hermits has been located in the mountains near Grenoble ever since. Themonks dedicate themselves entirely to the service of God and to spiritual life, in permanent silence. The monastery was buried under an avalanche in 1132 and came close to being destroyed by fire eight times in its history (the present-day structure was built in 1688). In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them. Sixteen years later, they were ready. Gröning, without crew or artificial lighting, lived in the monks’ quarters for six months - filming their daily prayers, tasks, rituals and rare outdoor excursions. This transcendent, closely observed film seeks to embody a monastery, rather than simply depict one - it has no score, no voiceover and no archival footage. What remains is stunningly elemental: time, space and light. One of the most mesmerizing and poetic chronicles of spirituality ever created, Into great Silence (Die Grosse Stille) dissolves the border between screen and audience with a total immersion into the hush of monastic life. More meditation than documentary, it’s a rare, transformative experience. This long, intimate and almost wordless portrait of an ordered, cloistered world is immensely touching and provides true insight into another way to live one’s life. Extras with this two-disc set include a making-of documentary, over three hours of additional scenes, stills, sound and document galleries, including the original 1984 film outline. ROMEO, JULIET AND DARKNESS – JIRI WEISS SECOND RUN DVD 028 Romeo, Juliet and Darkness is a tragic love story that is also a thriller and a social commentary. Set during the German occupation of Prague in 1942 the film is an unconventional treatment of the Anne Frank theme, telling the story of a young student, Pavel, who shelters a Jewish girl, Hanka, in his apartment building’s attic. He is her only link to the outside world and over time their relationship grows. When the two are discovered by Pavel’s mother, she forces the residents of the apartment building to decide whether Hana can remain. Wonderfully shot by Václav Hanuš in beautiful black and white photography, the film examines the consequences of the young man’s act of compassion in the face of the Nazi occupation. Director Jirí Weiss perfectly captures the fear of living under such conditions and there are fine performances by Ivan Mistrík as Pavel and Daniela Smutná as Hanka. During the mid-1950s, before the Prague Spring ushered in the Czechoslovak new wave cinema, there were several film directors who were able to make imaginative films, mostly by avoiding contemporary themes. Weiss, born in Prague’s German-speaking Jewish community, was one of best directors of that generation and this poetic, moving and compassionate film, released in 1960, is one of his greatest achievements. Digitally re-mastered and newly subtitled in English, this is the first time that Romeo, Juliet and Darkness has been available on DVD. LE JOUR SE LEVE – MARCEL CARNE OPTIMUM OPTD0903 The great French director Marcel Carné was born in Paris and began his film career as an assistant of Jacques Feyder. By age of 25, Carné had directed his first film (Jenny). This began his long-lasting collaboration with the surrealist poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert, and Carné also worked regularly with composer Maurice Jaubert and actor Jean Gabin to create films such as Hôtel du Nord (1938) that defined the poetic realism style of pre-war French cinema. Under the German occupation of France during the Second World War, Marcel Carné continued working under the Vichy government but subverted the regime’s attempts at control by making his anti-Nazi masterpiece Les Enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise), recently voted ‘Best French Film of the Century’ in a poll of French critics. Le Jour se leve (1939) is a fine example of the 1930s French film-making, in which the formidable Jean Gabin plays Francois, a manual labourer in a Parisian iron foundry, who kills the suave music-hall entertainer Valentin (Jules Berry) before locking himself in his attic room in a poor lodging house. As the film unfolds through a series of flashbacks, Francois’ motivations for murder are revealed as he contemplates his fate and his love for a fellow orphan, flower-seller Françoise (Jacqueline Laurent). Gabin brilliantly portrays the different aspects of his character’s complex personality and Jules Berry is unforgettable as the sadistic Valentin. The excellent Arletty also appears as Clara, who has left Valentin and immediately falls for François, who is too besotted with Françoise to appreciate her. The expressionist black and white photography is immaculate and the memorable sets are by Alexandre Trauner. Jacques Prévert’s taut script was based on a story by Jacques Viot. Soon after the start of the war, the French government banned Le Jour se leve and it remained banned throughout the German occupation. When the war ended, RKO produced a poor Hollywood remake starring Henry Fonda and withdrew the original version for a decade, attempting to destroy all copies. Luckily the film survived to become recognised as a true classic. Also available from Optimum are Marcel Carné’s previous film, Quai des Brumes (OPTD0904), and a set of two films by that remarkable pioneer of the avant-garde Jean Cocteau - Le Sang D’Un Poete and La Testament D’Orphee (OPTD0900). GHOSTS – NICK BROOMFIELD TARTAN TVD 3729 This extraordinary film tells the story of a young girl, Ai Qin, who pays $25,000 to be smuggled into the UK in order to support her family back in China and becomes just another one of three million migrant workers. After a gruelling six-month overland journey, she is forced to live with eleven other Chinese in a small house in Thetford, Norfolk, working in factories and fields preparing food for British supermarkets. Nick Broomfield is best known for his idiosyncratic documentaries and this is only his second dramatic feature - his first being the unsuccessful Diamond Skulls in 1989. He brings his great skills as a documentary maker to Ghosts, using non-professional actors, hand-held cameras, natural light and real life locations. The film was inspired by the Morecambe bay tragedy of 2004, when a gang of Chinese cockle-pickers found themselves trapped by the fast-moving tide. This horrendous event, resulting in 23 deaths, lifted the lid on an invisible immigrant workforce who toil as virtual slaves in this country. Broomfield’s first experience of migrant life was in a house in Liverpool, where Guardian writer Hsiao-Hung Pai introduced him to a group of Chinese workers. The genuine relationships fostered among the actors (who actually lived for several weeks in the run-down house they nicknamed the ‘Big Brother Chinese House’) adds authenticity to their remarkable performances. Ai Qin is outstanding as the film’s heroine and the rest of the amateur cast are equally convincing. The film concludes with the violence and tragedy that took place among the cockle pickers, filmed by Broomfield in the real Morecambe Bay at a night. A strong riptide threatened to put the cast and crew in danger and the white van that the actors cling to in the water was actually lost in Morecambe Bay, where it remains today. This is a gripping, thought-provoking and moving film that should make everyone think again about how workers at the bottom of the heap are treated. BECKET – PETER GLENVILLE SECOND SIGHT 2NDVD3119 This 1964 film adaptation of the play by Jean Anouilh was directed by Peter Glenville and stars Richard Burton as Thomas Becket and Peter O’Toole as King Henry II. Others in the stellar cast include John Gielgud, Donald Wolfit, Martita Hunt, Pamela Brown, Siân Phillips, Felix Aylmer and the marvelous Wilfrid Lawson. The original Anouilh play premiered in Paris in 1959 and opened on Broadway with Laurence Olivier and Anthony Quinn in a production that was also directed by Peter Glenville. The film, made at Shepperton Studios and stunningly photographed by Geoffrey Unsworth on location at Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle and Bamburgh Beach in Northumberland, received twelve Academy Award nominations, including Best Actor for both Burton and O’Toole and Best Supporting Actor for Gielgud, and won the Best Screenplay Award for Edward Anhalt. The film is a leisurely-paced epic that tells of the tempestuous yet passionate friendship between King Henry and his trusted companion Becket, to whom he gives the position of Archbishop of Canterbury in the hope that this will provide him with control over the church. However, Becket takes his new duties seriously and his devotion to God brings him into direct conflict with the state and his lifelong friend. Their rift endures prompting Henry’s damning exclamation ‘Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?’ and the Archbishop’s subsequent murder. Previously unavailable for 20 years, Becket has been rediscovered and beautifully restored with the aid of Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and is now available for the first time on DVD. Extras include a Peter O’ Toole commentary, an interview with editor Anne V. Coates (recent recipient of the BAFTA Fellowship award) and an interview with the composer Laurence Rosenthal. O’Toole and Burton give typically idiosyncratic performances and John Gielgud is wonderfully mischievous as the waspish French King Louis VII. ‘Exhilarating’ - The Sunday Telegraph. BLACK BOOK – PAUL VERHOEVEN TARTAN TVD 3726 The Dutch director, screenwriter and producer Paul Verhoeven is best known for his American feature films RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers. After making films in the United States for twenty years, he returned to the Netherlands to make Black Book with screenwriter Gerard Soeteman. They had been working on the script for fifteen years but only resolved their problems with the story by eventually changing the main character from a man to a woman. Unlike Verhoeven’s earlier film about the Second World War, Soldier of Orange, Black Book is not a true story, although the director states that many of the events shown in it are true. Set in Nazi-occupied Holland during the last months of the war, the film tells the story of a beautiful young Jewish chanteuse called Rachel Stein (played by Carice van Houten). When her temporary safe house is destroyed by a bomb, she joins fellow refugees in an attempt to reach safe Allied territory by boat. Tragedy strikes when a Nazi patrol intercepts their escape, ruthlessly killing everybody onboard including Rachel’s family, so only she escapes the massacre. Embittered and desperate for revenge, she joins the Resistance where, assigned a new identity as the blond Ellis de Vries, she is charged with infiltrating the German security service by seducing senior officer Muntze (subtly played by Sebastian Koch). Without warning she becomes entangled in a deadly web of double-dealing and betrayal. Twenty years in the making, this sexy thriller finds Paul Verhoeven back in peak form. Entertaining, well-acted and fast-paced, this is an epic tale of courage and fierce emotion. Black Book was the most awarded film at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2006 and is the most expensive, as well as most commercially successful, Dutch film ever made. The outstanding performance of actress Carice van Houten in the demanding central role is a revelation and Waldemar Kobus is excellent as the evil Günther Franken. DVD extras include interviews with Verhoeven and van Houten as well as the original theatrical trailer. THE PARTY AND THE GUESTS – JAN NEMEC SECOND RUN DVD 020 Czech film-maker Jan Němec studied at the state film school in Prague in the 1950s, when Czechoslovakia was ruled by a Soviet-controlled puppet government and artists were subject to extreme censorship. Němec became part of the underground, subversive movement in film-making, art and literature that became known as the Czech New Wave. After directing the influential Holocaust-themed Diamonds of the Night, he made his most controversial film, ‘O slavnosti a hostech’, in 1966. Literally translated as ‘About Celebration and Guests’, the plot revolves around a group of friends on a picnic who are invited to a bizarre banquet by a bullying sadist who eventually forces them into blind conformity and brutality. Belatedly released during the short-lived liberalisation of early 1968, the film was formally ‘banned forever’ in 1973 until Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution of 1989. The widespread assumption, shared by Antonín Novotný, the country’s President at the time of production, was that the film was a direct attack on the Communist government and therefore too dangerous to show. In fact, ‘The Party and the Guests’ is really more of an absurdist satire, influenced by the work of Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco as well as by the surrealist films of Luis Bunuel. As a result of the ban by the Czech authorities this film has long been unavailable and rarely seen but has now been released on DVD for the first time by Second Run, with restored image and sound. Extras include a newly filmed appreciation by Peter Hames and improved English subtitles. Excellently acted and with superb black and white photography, this bold satirical fable has humour and true psychological depth. ‘An acute piece of historical insight and a marvellous idea’ - Time Out. HITCHCOCK: THE EARLY YEARS OPTIMUM OPTD0726 Alfred Hitchcock had been interested in cinema from an early age and during the early 1920s he began to design title cards for silent films and soon acquired a thorough grounding in all aspects of film making, including writing, design and direction. He directed his first feature, The Pleasure Garden in Germany in 1925 and received immediate critical acclaim. By the age of twenty-seven with several successes behind him he was regarded as one of the mot promising young film directors in all Europe, with a reputation for being a patient, polished, highly intelligent director who showed more subtlety and imagination in his work than most of his contemporaries. The most famous of the nine films in this Special Edition box set is Blackmail, featuring Anny Ondra (Hitchcock’s first ‘Blonde’) in the famous scene with the bread knife. Originally shot as a silent film, when sound became available during the course of shooting, Hitchcock re-shot certain scenes with sound, making it the Master of Suspense’s first talking film. It also includes one of the first of his trademark cameo appearances (being bothered by a small boy on the underground). The other films here are Hitchcock’s early expressionist classic The Ring (1927), The Farmer’s Wife (1928), the frothy love-story Champagne (1928), The Manxman (1928), the experimental Murder! starring Herbert Marshall (1930), The Skin Game, based on a play by John Galsworthy (1931), the darkly comic Rich & Strange (1932), and Number Seventeen (1942). There are picture galleries for all the films and introductions by the French director and film historian, Noel Simsolo. The Ring, Champagne, The Farmer’s Wife and The Manxman have been fully re-mastered and feature new soundtracks. Other extras include an alternative ending to Murder!, a scene from the original, silent version of Blackmail, Anny Ondra’s vocal audition by a mischievous Hitchcock, and a fascinating documentary about the director’s early work, featuring Claude Chabrol and Bernard Eisenschitz. NEW STREET LAW ACORN AV9488 Set in Manchester, this gritty British television series features two rival barristers chambers, one headed by the principled Jack Roper (John Hannah), which deals with defending clients, the other by Laurence Scammel Q.C. (Paul Freeman), Roper’s former mentor, which deals with prosecuting them. Professional rivalry becomes personal when Scammel’s beautiful and talented daughter, Laura (played by Lisa Faulkner) becomes more deeply embroiled in the two men’s struggle, forcing her to choose between family loyalty and her conscience. Encouraged by his glamorous wife, the ruthlessly ambitious Honor Scammell (Penny Downie), Laurence resolves to crush the opposition for good, no matter what it takes. With both sides drawn into ever fiercer conflict, there can only be one winner. Other regular characters include Jack’s old friend Al Ware (Chris Gascoyne), lovable chancer Charlie Darling (John Thomson), no-nonsense Annie Quick (Lara Cazalet) and cocky Joe Stevens (Lee Williams). This first series was shown on BBC1 in 2006 and features guest stars such as Diane Keen, Mark Womack, Les Dennis and Nikki Sanderson. Intelligently written by the award winning G.F Newman, who also created Judge John Deed, this gripping, contemporary legal drama makes compelling viewing. The triple DVD set contains all the episodes from the first series of New Street Law together with extras such as an introduction by the excellent John Hannah, cast filmographies and interviews, and a behind-the-scenes picture gallery. ESMA’S SECRET (GRBAVICA) - JASMILA ZBANIC DOGWOOF ALT114
BUSTER KEATON - THE COMPLETE SHORT FILMS, 1917-1923 EUREKA EKA40211 Joseph Frank Keaton Jr. (1895-1966), more usually known by his professional name as Buster Keaton, was arguably America’s greatest silent-film comic actor and filmmaker. With his trademark physical comedy and deadpan expression, earning him the nickname ‘The Great Stone Face’, he performed and directed some of the most sophisticated, innovative and influential work in the history of cinema. In February 1917, Keaton met Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle at the Talmadge Studios in New York City, where Arbuckle was under contract to Joseph M. Schenck, and was hired as a co-star and gag-man. After his successful work with Arbuckle, Schenck gave Keaton his own production unit where he made a series of two-reel comedies, including One Week (1920), Cops (1922), The Electric House (1922), and The Playhouse (1921). Based on the success of these shorts, he graduated to full-length features, making him one of the most famous comedians in the world. This magnificent four-disc box set contains thirty-two films, with a running time of over 740 minutes, and documents Buster Keaton’s short films made between 1917 and 1923. Starting with The Butcher Boy, this collection captures Keaton’s first steps in front of a camera, charting his early association with ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle through to starring in his own box office hits. Using Chaplin’s old Hollywood studio, Keaton created a succession of the most timeless, classic comedy shorts ever realised. This Masters of Cinema Series collection includes audio commentaries by Joseph McBride on six of the films as well as an excellent 180-page book. ‘A comedian does funny things. A good comedian does things funny’ - Buster Keaton. SIR HENRY AT RAWLINSON END DIGITAL CLASSICS DC10028 Vivian Stanshall (1943-1995) was an English musician, painter, singer, broadcaster, songwriter, poet, writer, wit, and raconteur, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, and for narrating Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells. Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, Stanshall’s surreal exploration of the British upper classes, came to the public’s attention in the 1970s when he recorded several sessions for BBC Radio One’s John Peel show in which he elaborated, with a mixture of eloquence and irreverence, on the weird and wonderful adventures of the inebriated and blimpish Sir Henry Rawlinson, his dotty wife Great Aunt Florrie, his ‘unusual’ brother Huber, old Scrotum the wrinkled retainer, Mrs E, the rambling and unhygienic cook, and many other inhabitants of the crumbling Rawlinson End. The Rawlinson family had been populating Stanshall’s surreal imagination for some time, appearing (in name, at least) for the first time on the Bonzos’ 1967 track The Intro & The Outro: ‘Great to hear the Rawlinsons on trombone’. An LP released in 1978, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, reworked some of the material from the Peel sessions and this sepia-tinted black and white film version, starring Trevor Howard as Sir Henry, and Stanshall himself as Hubert, appeared in 1980. Crammed with extraordinary one-liners (‘If I had all the money I’ve spent on drink – I’d spend it on drink’), this shambolic tour de force also stars Patrick Magee, Denise Coffey, Sheila Reid, J.G. Devlin as the memorable Old Scrotum, Harry Fowler, Jeremy Child, Suzanne Danielle and Liz Smith as Lady Phillipa of Staines. Available for the first time on DVD, with bonus material including a trailer and a commentary by director Steve Roberts with actors Sheila Reid and Jeremy Childs. ‘A comic masterpiece’ – NME. RESISTANCE[S] LOWAVE 017
TIDELAND – TERRY GILLIAM REVOLVER REVD1972 Based on Mitch Cullin’s novel of the same name, Tideland was co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam and is a macabre, surreal film about an abandoned child named Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland). Described by Gilliam as ‘Alice in Wonderland meets Psycho’, the story centres on the girl’s solitary adventures during one summer in rural Texas while staying at a rundown farmhouse, focussing on her increasingly dark, imaginative fantasy life - a world where fireflies have names, squirrels talk, and the heads of four dolls, long since separated from their bodies, keep her company. Both Jeliza-Rose’s parents are junkies, and when her mother (Jennifer Tilly) dies, she embarks on a strange journey with her father, Noah (Jeff Bridges), a washed-out rock musician. The film drifts between reality and fantasy as Jeliza-Rose escapes the loneliness of her new existence into her fantasies and meets Dickens (Brendan Fletcher), a mentally damaged young man with the mind of a ten-year-old. Dressed in a wet suit and diving mask, he spends his days hiding out in a junk heaped wig-wam turned submarine, waiting to catch the monster shark that inhabits the railway tracks. Then there’s his older sister Dell (Janet McTeer), a tall ghost-like figure dressed in black who is blind in one eye from a bee sting and hides behind a beekeeper’s mesh hood. Tideland premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, since when it has received a mixed response from both viewers and critics, ranging from ‘Brilliant…an unforgettable experience’ (The Times) to ‘gruesomely awful (Entertainment Weekly). This ‘poetic horror film’ is one that people either love or hate, and you really need to see this unsettling film for yourself to decide. Expect a bizarre, phantasmagorical nightmare, with wonderfully creepy performance by Jodelle Ferland as the modern day Alice. A host of extras on this double DVD include an introduction by Terry Gilliam, commentary with Gilliam and scriptwriter Tony Grisoni, interviews with Gilliam and producer Jeremy Thomas, a 60-minute documentary of The Making of Tideland, a behind the scenes featurette, deleted Scenes, a Q&A with Mitch Cullin and Terry Gilliam, and the theatrical trailer. THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH – DE MILLE PARAMOUNT This dazzling 1952 film set in the circus world was produced, directed and narrated by Cecil B. DeMille. It stars energetic Betty Hutton (Holly) and debonair Cornel Wilde (‘The Great Sebastian’) as trapeze artists competing for the centre ring, with Charlton Heston in his first big break as the tough circus manager running the show. As Holly and Sebastian indulge in their dangerous one-upmanship in the ring, he pursues her on the ground. Subplots involve the secret past of Buttons the Clown (James Stewart, who never removes his makeup) and the efforts of racketeers to muscle in on the game concessions. The film also features such Hollywood stalwarts as Dorothy Lamour (in a sarong), wonderful Gloria Grahame as the elephant girl, Henry Wilcoxon as an FBI Agent, Lyle Bettger and Lawrence Tierney. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby have fleeting cameo roles as popcorn-eating spectators in the crowd. The Greatest Show on Earth is a typically full-on Cecil B. DeMille spectacular and makes a lively tribute to an American institution: the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Controversially, the film won Oscars for Best Story and Best Picture in 1952 (in opposition to Singin’ in the Rain, High Noon and The Quiet Man, among others) but this was more a tribute to a lifetime’s work by DeMille, who famously directed the first Hollywood film, The Squaw Man, forty years earlier. With its colourful characters, purple dialogue, lions and elephants, exciting circus acts, a train wreck and splendid photography, this brash extravaganza remains an irresistible treat. FAUST – MURNAU EUREKA: MASTERS OF CINEMA EKA40210 Murnau and screenwriter Hans Kyser’s Faust draws on older traditions of the legendary tale as well as on Goethe’s version, and this innovative film contains many memorable images and amazing special effects. The stars are Gösta Ekman (who as Faust miraculously changes from a bearded old man to a handsome youth), Emil Jannings as the sinister Mephisto and the little-known actress Camilla Horn in a terrific performance as Gretchen. With superb photography and art direction, this classic tale of a man who sells his soul to the devil is a triumph of the silent film era. Murnau, ever the perfectionist, shot many takes of each scene with only the best making the final German domestic cut of the film. Only the prints made for export outside Germany were seen until recently and this version was thought to be the only one in existence. Using the nitrate duplicate negatives printed in 1926 (and an array of international sources) Murnau’s authentic German version of Faust has now been meticulously reconstructed by Luciano Berriatúa for Filmoteca Española from which this newly restored transfer is sourced, now available for the first time in the UK in Eureka’s Masters of Cinema Series. The Special Edition double DVD features this brilliantly restored film with audio commentary by critics David Ehrenstein and Bill Krohn, a new harp score by Stan Ambrose as well as the Timothy Brock orchestral score, original German intertitles and optional English subtitles. Three hours of extras include the previously available export version; Tony Rayns on Faust; Faust: The different versions; a 28-page booklet with essays by Peter Spooner and R. Dixon Smith; and a selection of rare production stills. REDS – WARREN BEATTY PARAMOUNT PHE9056 This ambitious, award-winning film tells a moving and heroic love story set against a backdrop of New York intellectualism, Bolshevik revolution and the politics of war. One night in 1912 the writer Louise Bryant goes to a lecture given by a radical journalist, John Reed. Although a respectable married woman, she leaves her husband for the charismatic Reed and becomes an important feminist and radical in her own right, becoming involved with labour and political disputes. The couple travel to Russia in time for the October Revolution in 1917 and return to the USA hoping to lead a similar revolution. Writer-director Warren Beatty knew he faced a challenge when he took on the task of bringing to life the story of one of history’s greatest socialists, but by using his commercial success and box office pulling power he succeeded. This epic film stars Beatty himself as John Reed, together with Jack Nicholson (brilliant as the playwright Eugene O’Neill), Diane Keaton (marvellously sexy as Louise Bryant, a part Beatty originally intended for Julie Christie), Paul Sorvino, M. Emmet Walsh and Gene Hackman in a cameo role as Pete Van Wherry. Nominated for twelve Academy Awards, Reds won four Oscars for Art Direction, the terrific Cinematography of Vittorio Storaro, Best Supporting Actress for Maureen Stapleton and Best Director for Beatty, securing his place as a leading powerhouse in film-making. With a Steven Sondheim score and first-rate cast, Reds is as poignant now as ever. This two disc special edition set features new interviews with Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Vittorio Storaro and the composer. The film itself includes interspersed interviews with well-known social activists, many of whom were contemporaries of Reed and Bryant. NATASHA WARNER VISION 5101199292
LONESOME DOVE – SIMON WINCER ACORN AV9200 Based on Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel set in the late 19th century, this acclaimed television mini-series stars Academy Award winners Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. In an epic tale of the Old West, two aging cowboys and former Texas Rangers leave the small town of Lonesome Dove and head out on an adventurous 2500-mile cattle drive to the lush ranch country of Montana. They steal a herd from a gang of Mexican cattle rustlers and battle horse thieves, Indian tribes and a renegade half-breed killer named Blue Duck (Frederic Forrest) along the way. The exceptional cast also includes Robert Urich as a cardsharp, Anjelica Huston as an old flame, Danny Glover, Ricky Schroder, Diane Lane, Chris Cooper, D.B. Sweeney, Steve Buscemi, and a cameo role for Larry McMurtry. The Australian director Simon Wincer cleverly balances sweeping drama and intimacy against the stunning landscape of the American Southwest while creating a host of memorable characters. Duvall and Jones are superb in the main roles. The production is extremely faithful to Larry McMurtry’s great novel and this is the kind of film that can be watched over and over again with undiminished pleasure. If you enjoy classic Westerns such as Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Shane, you will find this grand and touching epic is a film to relish. As well as a stirring story, glorious scenery and great performances (especially by Duvall, Jones and two scene-stealing pigs) there is a fine Emmy-winning musical score by Basil Poledouris. Extras include interviews with writer Larry McMurtry and producer Suzanne De Passe. BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES - MARK KIRCHELLE DIGITAL CLASSICS LIB6051 Berkeley, the oldest (founded in 1868) campus of the University of California system, came to the world’s attention during the 1960s with its reputation for student activism. The Free Speech Movement began at Berkeley in 1964 as an impromptu response to the university’s ban on campus political activity, and Student protests continued into the early 1970s. One of the most publicised events was the People’s Park protest in 1969, when students and city residents took over a plot of land belonging to the university and turned it into a community park. The university decided to reclaim control by bringing in law enforcement sending in bulldozers. Governor Ronald Reagan called in National Guard and more violence erupted, resulting in many people being hurt. One student died, a police officer was stabbed and a bystander blinded. This Oscar nominated 1990 documentary produced by Mark Kirchelle tells the remarkable story of this small group of students who challenged the establishment and changed the face of America. This outstanding film brings 1960s California back to life with its civil rights marches and anti Vietnam protests, showing how it evolved from the 1950s HUAC communist witch-hunt and led to the rise of feminism, hippiedom and the Black Panthers. Archive footage is brilliantly combined with specially filmed interviews and commentary by people such as Jack Weinberg, Frank Bardacke, Susan Griffin and Bobby Seale, who all participated in bringing about profound changes over half a century ago. Interest in political film making has lately been revived and ‘Berkeley In The Sixties’ was the forerunner of today’s radical documentary making, providing a snap shot of a time when a nation of youth found it’s voice and defied the establishment. As well as inspiring and sometimes shocking archival visual images, the film also features evocative music from the era, including The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, The Band, Joan Baez and Jefferson Airplane. This invaluable documentary is essential viewing for anyone wishing to understand the 60s counterculture and it consequences. Highly recommended. A LONG WEEKEND IN PEST & BUDA – KAROLY MAKK SECOND RUN 021 The veteran film director and screenwriter Károly Makk was born the son of a cinema projectionist in Hungary in 1925. In a career of more than 60 years he has worked on over 40 films, making his first feature as a director in 1954. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 had a profound effect on him, and in 1970 he tackled the subject of political repression in his masterpiece, Love (Szerelem), winner of a special award at Cannes in 1971. This moving commentary on life under political tyranny made no direct reference to 1956, although this is the context in which the film is inevitably seen. A Long Weekend in Pest & Buda reunites the director with two of Hungary’s greatest actors, Mari Törõcsik and Iván Darva, who starred in Love over 30 years earlier. They were once a couple who meet again when he visits her after she falls terminally ill. This beautifully-photographed (cinematographer Elemér Ragályi) film reflects honestly in a Bergmanesque manner on age, memory and how we reinvent ourselves. Emotionally mature and often moving, the romantic drama is set in picturesque Budapest and shows how, despite our best efforts, we can never quite escape our past. A Long Weekend in Pest & Buda won the 2003 Moscow International Film Festival Golden St George prize, and Mari Törõcsik’s superb performance earned her the 2003 Bulgaria Film Festival best actress award. There are strong performances too by Eszter Nagy-Kálózy as the discovered daughter and Eileen Aitkins as the neglected wife. Extras on this DVD release include filmed interviews with Károly Makk and co-writer/exec producer Marc Vlessing, as well as a booklet featuring Mari Törõcsik speaking about Károly Makk and an essay by author John Cunningham. NORMAN MCLAREN – THE MASTERS EDITION SODA PICTURES Norman McLaren (1914-1987) was a pioneering Scottish animator and film director, best known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada. Born in Stirling, Scotland, he studied set design at Glasgow School of Art and his early experiments in animation included scratching and painting on the the actual film stock. After working as a cameraman in Scotland and England, he went to Spain to film the Civil War then emigrated to the USA in 1939 before moving to Canada in 1941 to work for the NFB at the invitation of the hugely influential John Grierson, with whom he had earlier worked at the famous GPO film unit. He started an animation studio to train Canadian animators and make his own films. These included Neighbours (1952), which won both the Canadian Film Award and the Academy Award. Besides the brilliant combination of visuals and sound, the film has a strong social message against violence and war. Neighbours used a style of animation known as pixilation, where the camera films people and objects a few frames at a time, and McLaren continued experimenting with image and sound as he developed his techniques for combining and synchronising animation with music. Other groundbreaking films included Pas de Deux (1968), Line: Horizontal (1962) and Opening Speech (1960, featuring McLaren himself in live action). This definitive seven DVD ‘Masters Edition’ box set of immaculately restored films from Soda Pictures brings together for the first time all of McLaren’s surviving work, as well as many tests, works in progress, 15 original thematic documentaries and an 88-page booklet. The perfect tribute to a creative genius who influenced and inspired artists, animators and filmmakers from Picasso and Truffaut to Lucas and Linklater. ‘Movies move! How it moves is as important as what moves’ - Norman McLaren. THE BAKER STREET DOZEN ORBIT MEDIA ORB10121 Sherlock Holmes the world’s most frequently filmed fictional character (in second place is Dracula) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s immortal detective has appeared in almost 200 films to date, the first being Sherlock Holmes Baffled, a one-reel film made in 1900 and running less than a minute. Perhaps the most memorable incarnation of Holmes and Watson was in Universal’s entertaining Rathbone/Bruce series of movies made during the early 1940s ‘based on characters created by Conan Doyle’. All twelve were newly written and not contained in the original published series. Basil Rathbone’s career as Holmes began with The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, both made by 20th Century Fox and released in 1939. As well as his film performances, Rathbone also played Holmes 219 times on radio, as well as on television and the stage. The Universal series transported Holmes and Watson to a contemporary setting that sometimes pitted him against Nazi agents. South African born Rathbone nevertheless portrays Conan Doyle’s detective brilliantly, partly due to his remarkable resemblance to Sidney Paget’s Strand illustrations that accompanied the original stories. Nigel Bruce - the son of a baronet and a descendant of Robert the Bruce - played Watson as more of a bumbler than Doyle intended but made his character wonderfully genial. This box set of six double feature discs features all of the original Universal films, in which Holmes goes to Washington, Faces Death, meets The Spider Woman and finds Terror by Night. In Pursuit to Algiers, Holmes and Watson manage to find thicker fog on a ship than in London and Nigel Bruce gets to sing Loch Lomond (surprisingly well). Highly recommended. STYLE WARS – TONY SILVER WIENERWORLD WNRD2412 Filmed in New York in 1982, this seminal film, originally broadcast on PBS, documents the golden age of youthful creativity and exploding hip-hop subculture. Young graffiti artists were transforming the city with their unique art, ‘writing’ their ‘pieces’ to create a new visual language and using the city's dilapidated subway system as a canvas. Unfortunately, their art was deemed vandalism to Mayor Ed Koch, the NYPD and the Metropolitan Transit Authority, all of whom opposed a movement that physically transformed the urban landscape and invented a new visual language to express both the artists individuality and the voice of the community. Style Wars brilliantly captures the look and feel of New York’s ramshackle subway system as the graffiti writers’ public playground and battleground. Meanwhile, MC’s, DJ’s and B-Boys were rocking the city with new sounds and new moves, as street corner break-dance battles became performance art. The film’s soundtrack features classic performances by The Sugar Hill Gang, The Treacherous Three, The Fearless Four, Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five, Trouble Funk, Rammellzee/K-Rob and Dion. Directed by Tony Silver and produced by Tony Silver and photographer Henry Chalfont, Style Wars was awarded the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the Sundance Film Festival in 1984 and in 2003 it was acclaimed at New York’s Tribeca Festival and at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film has been remixed for the DVD in 5.1 surround sound, and has more than three hours of additional documentary and artistic material, earning it the title of Best DVD of the Year by The Onion. Beautifully shot and edited, with an outstanding soundtrack, this exhilarating film is a fascinating time capsule and makes essential viewing for all fans of early hip-hop culture. Bonus Features on this double DVD set include over 23 minutes of outtake footage, feature commentary and interview with the director and producer, 32 artist galleries including new interviews, trains and rare photos, tributes to Dondi and Shy 147, guest interviews with Fab 5 Freddy, Goldie, Guru, DJ Red Alert and photographer Martha Cooper, and a ‘Destroy All Lines’ 30 min. loop of over 200 cars and burners. ‘A breakthrough documentary’ - New York Times. YASUJIRO OZU: VOL. 4 TARTAN TVD3702 Volume 4 in Tartan’s excellent series of work by the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu features his last film, An Autumn Afternoon, made in 1962 (the year before he died). Known in Japan as Sanma no Aji, this meditative film stars Chishu Ryu (an Ozu regular who also featured in Tokyo Twilight) as the widower patriarch of the Hirayama family who lives with his daughter (played by Shima Iwashita). She is happy to care for him but he is determined to find her a husband and sets about arranging a suitable marriage. The strength of this touching and unforgettable film rests in Ozu’s ability to observe events without passing judgement, and An Autumn Afternoon contains the main themes prominent in most of his work – the generation gap, Westernisation and marriage. In this final masterpiece, Ozu finds quiet poetry in the urban landscape and interiors, exquisitely shot in colour, and explores love and the human predicament with his usual wisdom and subtlety. Look out too for a scene-stealing performance by Eijiro Tono as an old school teacher known as ‘The Gourd’. The other film included here is Late Autumn (Akibiyori), made two years earlier. This takes a lighter look on the director’s favourite theme of intergenerational conflict and differing expectations as a woman gives up thoughts of marriage in order to care for her widowed mother (Setsuko Hara). However, the mother wishes her daughter (Yoko Tsukasa) to marry even though this means a lonely old age for her. Soon however suitors are being sought for both generations, often with misunderstandings and comical confusions. Both films feature the delightful Mariko Okada and are highly recommended for anyone who admires the work of one of the world’s finest directors. Volume 3 in this series can be seen here TOMMY COOPER: THE VERY BEST OF & MISSING PIECES FREMANTLE MEDIA FHED1977 The great British comedian and magician Tommy Cooper was born in Caerphilly, Wales, in 1921. He entered show business on Christmas Eve, 1947, after seven years in the army and rapidly became a top of the bill variety act before television brought him to national recognition. After his debut on the BBC talent show New To You in March 1948, he started starring in his own shows, most notably for Thames Television from 1968 to 1980, and was hugely popular for four decades. Despite being an accomplished magician and member of the Magic Circle, he made an art form of getting magic tricks wrong, becoming one of the most recognisable and inventive British comedians since Charlie Chaplin. Sample Joke: Two Cannibals are eating a clown. One says to the other, ‘Does this taste funny to you?’ Famed for his red fez and much imitated catchphrases such as ‘Just like that!’ he continued to perform despite health problems and died in 1984 after collapsing from a heart attack in front of millions of television viewers, midway through his act on a popular variety show, Live from Her Majesty’s. Most of the audience thought it was part of his act and continued laughing until it became apparent that he was seriously ill. These two specially compiled collections of timeless clips selected from the Thames Television archives show the ‘comedian’s comedian’ at his best, featuring all his classic routines. DVD extras include a biography and a book of gags. This is essential viewing for all classic comedy fans. ‘No other comic would work with him, he was too good. If you didn’t like Tommy Cooper the comic, you didn’t like comedy’ - Eric Morecambe. HELLZAPOPPIN’ – H. C. POTTER SECOND SIGHT 2NDVD 3113 The ground-breaking and hugely influential comedy classic Hellzapoppin’ was a hit revue on stage from 1938 to 1941, becoming then the longest-running Broadway musical with 1,404 performances. A frenetic comedy hodgepodge full of sight gags and slapstick, the show was continually rewritten during its run to remain topical and a circus atmosphere prevailed, with midgets, clowns, trained pigeons and much audience participation. The book was by Olsen & Johnson (John ‘Ole’ Olsen and Harold ‘Chic’ Johnson), a comedy team more like Crosby and Hope than Laurel and Hardy. The movie version was made in 1941, directed by H.C. Potter and depicting Ole and Chic making a movie for the fictitious studio Miracle Pictures (‘If it’s a good picture, it's a Miracle!’), and featuring Olsen & Johnson (playing themselves), the loud and indefatigable Martha Raye, Misha Auer, Elisha Cook and the very funny Hugh Herber. The special effects were innovative for their time and the frantic dance routine performed by dancing of the Harlem Congeroo Dancers has never been bettered. The songs have corny lyrics typical of their period and are nothing special, and some of the humour has dated, but you there is no time to analyse as you are swept along to the next gag before you know it. Brief respites from the madness come in the form of variety acts and synchronised swimming, and the funniest sneezing ever seen in a movie. Hellzapoppin’ was way ahead of its time and its zaniness inspired generations of comedians to come, including Danny Kaye, Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in show. ‘Outstrips the works of the Marx Brothers’ - Time Out. MAN PUSH CART – RAMIN BAHRANI DOGWOOF PICTURES ALT109 Ramin Bahrani’s memorable and refreshing film tells the story of Ahmad, a Pakistani immigrant living in New York. Every night while the city sleeps, he laboriously drags his heavy push cart along the streets to a corner in Midtown Manhattan where he sells coffee and donuts to a city he cannot call his own. A former rock star in his own country, he now ekes out a living from his cart to hurried New Yorkers by day and by night supplements his income selling pirate pornographic DVDs. He carefully saves his money in the hope that he will one day raise enough to purchase a place of his own and reunite with his estranged son. Times are tough in the city and hard-working Ahmad (played by Ahmad Razvi) soon strikes up a tentative friendship with fellow countryman Mohammed (Charles Daniel Sandoval) and Spanish newsstand worker, Noemi (Leticia Dolera). As Ahmad, Mohammed, and Noemi gradually begin to socialise together, a tragedy in Ahmad’s past prompts the struggling newcomer to question the true nature of his current relationships. Iranian-American director Bahrani was named ‘US Star of Tomorrow’ by Screen International and Man Push Cart is his feature film debut, earning many awards including Best Film at the London Film Festival. Beautifully observed, Man Push Cart is a subtle and technically accomplished film, wholly original in subject, location and characters. Haunting and insightful, this poignant film gives a revealing picture of a rarely depicted community in the Big Apple - the sort of people others pass by every day without really seeing them. Michael Simmonds’s cinematography is superb and a there is a wonderfully convincing performance by Ahmad Razvi as the push cart vendor, perhaps because he is not a professional actor but is able to draw on personal experience. Highly recommended. ‘A hymn to New York’s invisibles’ - Daily Telegraph. DRIVING LESSONS - JEREMY BROCK TARTAN TVD 3700 This is a coming of age story about Ben, an unhappy, shy teenage boy whose world changes dramatically when he goes to work for a grandly eccentric retired actress, ‘Dame’ Evie Walton, who teaches him about girls, driving and life on the road to the Edinburgh festival. This odd couple – a sort of British ‘Harold and Maude’ – are played by flame-haired Rupert Grint and national treasure Julie Walters. Writer-director Jeremy Brock based the story on his own experience, as a teenager, with Dame Peggy Ashcroft. Julie Walters giving is hilariously over the top as the imperious, foul-mouthed Evie and Rupert Grint, a sixteen year old actor previously known as Harry Potter’s best friend Ron, makes his curiously acquiescent character ultimately sympathetic. There are fine performances too by Nicholas Farrell as Ben’s tortured vicar father and Laura Linney is brilliant (with a perfect English accent) as the possessive, unhinged mother. Michelle Duncan plays a cheerfully obliging Scottish lass and Jim Norton is taciturnly effective as the mysterious delinquent, Mr Fincham. The plot is sometimes implausible and sentimental, and the denouement frankly ludicrous, but this is essentially a wise, warm-hearted and likeable film. The imaginative soundtrack features Sufjan Stevens, John Renbourn, Scottish folk band Salsa Celtica, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake and Chopin’s First Nocturne in B flat Minor. DVD extras include a commentary by Jeremy Brock, interviews with Julie Walters and Rupert Grint, deleted scenes and the original theatrical trailer. THE KING OF QUEENS: SEASON 1 PARAMOUNT This clever situation comedy series debuted in 1998 and is currently in its ninth and final season, making it the longest-running American live-action sitcom on the air. Blue-collar couple Doug Heffernan and Carrie Heffernan (Kevin James and Leah Remini) share their home in Rego Park, Queens, New York with Carrie’s idiosyncratic dad, Arthur Spooner (brilliantly played by veteran Jerry Stiller, who was Frank Costanza in Seinfeld). Burly Doug, who makes a living as a parcel deliveryman often has to scheme to find time alone with Carrie, who works as a legal secretary at a large law firm. This is complicated by Arthur, who can be quite a handful - so much so that they hire a dog-walker, Holly (Nicole Sullivan), to look after him. When he’s not working, clashing with Arthur, or spending time with the sexy Carrie, Doug hangs out with his advice-giving buddies Deacon Palmer (Victor Williams), Spence Olchin (Patton Oswalt), and his cousin Danny Heffernan (Gary Valentine). This deceptively simple yet smartly scripted comedy bounces along because Doug, though completely a guy’s guy, constantly struggles to keep the world around him in a delicate emotional balance. Meanwhile, his wife Carrie, though utterly feminine, uses the kind of no-nonsense rational approach that’s usually a man’s province. Add to this mix Carrie’s fussy, self-absorbed father and you’ve got the building blocks for an excellent and durable show. The King of Queens: Season 1 will delight audiences with storylines firmly rooted in the everyday world, with much of the humour centring around Doug and Carrie’s petty neuroses, ill-advised scheming and much juggling of obligations to friends and family. In one classic moment, Doug and Carrie have a furious argument in absolute silence at a cello concert - a scene typical of this hit comedy that fuses deft physicality and well-developed characters with delightful silliness. JUNEBUG - PHIL MORRISON EUREKA EKA40219 British-born Chicago art dealer Madeleine (coolly and elegantly played by Embeth Davidtz) travels to rural North Carolina with her handsome new husband George (Alessandro Nivola) to close a deal with a reclusive artist David Wark (Frank Hoyt Taylor) and to be introduced to George’s close-knit working-class family. Unfamiliar with their southern lifestyle, Madeleine enters the house with an open mind but George’s possessive mother Peg (Celia Weston), his kindly, taciturn father Eugene (Scott Wilson) and embittered younger brother Johnny (Ben McKenzie) react to the new bride with bemusement and hostility. Johnny’s lonely wife Ashley (Oscar-nominated Amy Adams), whose marriage has produced an unhappy pregnancy, welcomes the glamorous visitor as a sister and steers her through this insular community with her non-stop conversation. Ashley’s openness and generosity help to heal the rifts between brother and sibling, parent and child. Director Phil Morrison’s wise and intimate study of Southern morals and manners is a deft evocation of an unsophisticated yet deeply spiritual backwater. Body language is as important as dialogue in expressing emotions and the acting is wonderfully subtle throughout, particularly by Ben McKenzie and the brilliant Amy Adams. Nothing much happens on the surface in Junebug but every moment rings true and the film seduces the viewer with its languorous tone before delivering an unexpectedly emotional climax. Morrison and screenwriter Angus MacLachlan have created a complex, sympathetic portrait of small-town life that avoids cliches and remains in the memory. As well as an excellent transfer of the film, the double DVD also includes an audio commentary by Amy Adams and Embeth Davidtz, Q&A with Amy Adams, deleted scenes, behind the scenes documentaries and casting sessions. HELL (L’ENFER) - DANIS TANOVIC MOMENTUM MP574D In Paris in the 1980s, a man, fresh from his release from prison, is rejected by his wife. After a violent confrontation he throws himself from his apartment window, witnessed by his three young daughters. In present day Paris, the sisters, now grown up, live their own separate, lonely lives and the family bonds are broken. Sophie (the stunning Emmanuelle Beart), the eldest, is married with young children and suspects her husband of having an affair. Repressed middle sister Celine (a brilliantly subtle performance by Karin Viard) lives a solitary life, caring for her difficult mother (Carole Bouquet) who is the mute resident in a care home outside Paris. The youngest sister, Anne (Marie Gillain) is a student involved in a doomed relationship with one of her tutors at the Sorbonne. It takes a handsome stranger (Guillaume Canet) to make change things, gradually drawing them together again and back into their shared, tragic past. Hell is based on the second part of a planned trilogy (Heaven, Hell and Purgatory) originally conceived by the late Polish writer/director Krzysztof Kieslowski with his collaborator Krzysztof Piesiewicz. The first, Heaven, was shot by Tom Tykwer. Bosnian director Danis Tanovic’s No Man’s Land won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2002 and with this harrowing yet enormously rewarding film he pays due homage to the much acclaimed Kieslowski. Laurent Dailland’s lush cinematography perfectly captures the moody interiors and the acting is superb throughout, especially by Beart and Viard, with touching cameos from Jean Rochefort as a fellow inmate of the mother and Georges Siatidis as a sympathetic train porter. Special features include a ‘making of’ documentary and a trailer. Not to be confused with L’Enfer (1994), directed by Claude Chabrol and also starring Emmanuelle Beart). ‘A masterclass of French fine acting’ - Empire. FELLINI BOX SET INFINITY ARTHOUSE INF216 Federico Fellini (1920-1993) was one of the most influential and revered Italian film-makers of the 20th century. His films, most famously La Dolce Vita and Amarcord, combine memory, dreams, fantasy, humour and desire in a uniquely exuberant style. This splendid six-disc box set from Infinity Arthouse features three of his later works together with a host of extras - self portraits of Marcello Mastrioianni and Fellini and a brilliant series of films documenting the director’s life. Orchestra Rehearsal (Prova d’orchestra), made in 1978, is a sharp musical satire created for television on the single set of a Medieval Roman chapel that is now an oratorio. We meet most of the members of an orchestra as it rehearses a piece composed by the Fellini’s long-time associate Nino Rota before the musicians eventually revolt, only to rediscover the consolations of music. And The Ship Sails On (E la nave va), starring Freddie Jones and Barbara Jefford, is rare and haunting Fellini fable set on board a luxury liner that leaves Italy in July 1914 with the ashes of the famous opera singer Tetua (Janet Suzman). The egocentric passengers include aristocrats, diplomats and a band of opera singers, who indulge their follies and fancies both vocally and romantically, but their gilded world is about to receive a chill blast of reality. The story somehow also includes a sick rhinoceros, a hypnotised chicken and duelling tenors. Ginger and Fred (1986) is Fellini’s award-winning take on the world of small time show business. Two former dancers from the 1940s, Ginger (Giulietta Masina) and Fred (Marcello Mastroianni), who imitated the dance routines of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, reunite after retiring for over twenty years to appear on a TV variety show. The film is both a touchingly nostalgic journey into the past and a viciously satirical attack on television, portraying it as a mindless freakshow. ‘The sense of the miraculous is Fellini’s greatest gift to cinema’ - Financial Times. BALLETS RUSSES REVOLVER ENTERTAINMENT The Ballets Russes, established in 1909 by the Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev, was resident first in the Théâtre Mogador, Paris, and then in Monte Carlo. It created a sensation and went on to become the most influential ballet company of the 20th century. Directed with consummate invention and infused with anecdotal interviews from many of the company’s glamorous stars, this fascinating documentary treats modern audiences to a rare glimpse of the remarkable merger of Russian, American, European, and Latin American dancers, choreographers, composers and designers that transformed the face of ballet for generations. Unearthing a treasure trove of archival footage, Emmy Award winning filmmakers Dayna Goldfine and Dan Geller show the company’s Diaghilev-era beginnings in turn-of-the-century Paris when artists such as Dame Alicia Markova, Frederic Franklin, Nijinsky, Balanchine, Picasso, Miro, Matisse and Stravinsky united in an unparalleled collaboration. Rare magical performances, home movies, letters and diaries are intercut with intimate interviews with former stars, bringing to life the extraordinary journey of the company and the individuals who danced in it. The film culminates with the first and only Ballets Russes Reunion Celebration, held in 2000 in New Orleans, bringing together almost a hundred surviving dancers, most of whom had not seen each other in more than fifty years. Their undimmed enthusiasm, touching reminiscences and general perkiness make a convincing case for the power of dance. Extras include an extensive photo gallery, additional archive footage and interviews with Frederic Franklin, Alicia Markova, George Zoritch, Maria Tallchief and Alan Howard. This splendid and joyful documentary, released on DVD on August 21, celebrates a glorious period of cultural history and makes essential viewing for anyone interested in the art of dance. ‘Riveting’ - The Guardian. THE RIVER - JEAN RENOIR THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE BFIVD619 Jean Renoir was born in 1894 the Montmartre district of Paris, France, as the second son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. As a film director and actor, Jean Renoir made over forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. The River was filmed in India in 1951 and helped launch the careers of Satyajit Ray, who was an assisted on the film, and Subrata Mitra, Ray’s cinematographer. It was produced by Kenneth McEldowney, a florist and real estate agent from Los Angeles, to prove to his wife, an MGM publicist, that he could make a better film than Hollywood. The River, which opened in 1951 in New York to public and critical acclaim, was based on a novel by the writer of Black Narcissus, Rumer Godden. It is an autobiographical coming-of-age tale of an adolescent girl living with her English family on the banks of West Bengal during the waning years of British colonial life. Exquisitely shot in luminous Technicolor by Renoir’s nephew Claude, The River is a visual tour de force and a glorious, meditative tribute to the sights and sounds of Indian culture. Its central character (and the film’s narrator) is fourteen-year-old Harriet (Patricia Walters), the eldest of five children. Harriet and her beautiful, slightly older friend Valerie (Adrienne Corri) experience the intensity of first love when Captain John (Thomas E. Breen) comes to stay with their neighbours, a mixed-race family with a daughter, Melanie (Radha), of similar age. Captain John, who has lost a leg in active service, captivates the three teenagers, each of whom develops romantic feelings towards this heroic and enigmatic young man. Perhaps Renoir’s most symbolic and spiritual film, The River is a vital and stunningly beautiful work. Following its theatrical re-release at the NFT in 2006, bfi Video has now released on this DVD a new, high-definition digital transfer of The River in its original aspect ratio. It was mastered from the film restoration by the Academy Film Archive, carried out in association with the British Film Institute and Janus Films. Extras include a specially commissioned filmed introduction by Indian filmmaker Kumar Shahani and seven rarely-seen short films set in India, including a surprisingly fascinating documentary about the huge jute industry and two films in Technicolor by great British cinematographer Jack Cardiff. An accompanying illustrated booklet includes a film essay and Rumer Godden interview by David Thompson and a biography of the director as well as notes on all the short films. This is an immaculate release of a beguiling, profound and beautiful film by one of cinema’s most gifted and humane directors. PASSENGER - ANDRZEJ MUNK SECOND RUN DVD 018 The film director and screenwriter Andrzej Munk was one of the leading artists with Andrzej Wajda at the Polish Film School in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Munk was born in Kraków in 1921 and moved to Warsaw during the German occupation of Poland, forced to hide because of his partly Jewish ancestry. In 1944 he took part in the Warsaw Uprising and after the war he graduated from the Łódź Film and Theatre School before making films such as Man on the Tracks, Heroism and Bad Luck. Andrzej Munk died in a car accident near Łowicz in 1961 while on his way home from Auschwitz concentration camp where he was finishing his last film, Passenger (Pasażerka). This haunting and dream-like film tells the story of a German woman (played by the excellent Aleksandra Slaska) on a cruise ship coming back to Europe who recognises the face of another woman. She tells her husband how she tried to protect the girl from her vicious captors but we later learn in flashback what really happened. Passenger was completed by his friends after the director’s death, leaving parts of the story unexplained. What remains is shocking yet essential viewing as one of the most audacious fictions ever made about the Holocaust, and this is the first digitally restored DVD release of Munk’s film. Extras include a documentary about the director with contributions from Roman Polanski and Andrzej Wajda, and a booklet detailing the making of the film. ‘I can think of no other movie to compare with Munk’s, in the precise and harrowing balance of romantic beauty and profound terror’ - NY Times. YASUJIRO OZU: VOL. 3 TARTAN TVD3565 The great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu is famous as much for the technical style and innovation of his films as for their humane narrative content. He did not conform to most Hollywood conventions, such as the 180-degree rule where an imaginary line is drawn between two characters in a dialogue-scene, which the camera does not cross. Also, rather than use typical over-the-shoulder shots in his dialogue scenes, the camera gazes on the actors directly, which has the effect of placing the viewer in the middle of the scene. Instead of using typical transitions between scenes, Ozu shows shots of static objects or uses direct cuts, rather than fades or dissolves. His camera, rarely, if ever moved. He also invented the ‘tatami shot’, in which the camera is placed on the ground, where it would be if one were kneeling on a tatami mat, so it comes as no surprise to discover that his favourite film was Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. Ozu made his first film in 1927 and went on to direct 55 more before his death in 1963. As a director, he was eccentric and a notorious perfectionist. Regarded as one of the ‘most Japanese’ film-makers, his work was rarely shown overseas before the 1960s. Today, he is recognised as one the world’s finest directors, renowned for his deceptively quiet, formalist style, and his intensely moving Tokyo Story was voted the greatest film ever made by Halliwell’s 1000 Greatest Films. This collection features three of his classic movies from the late 1950s: the darkly beautiful masterpiece Tokyo Twilight (Ozu’s last film made in black and white), Equinox Flower (his first film in colour) and Good Morning (an updating of his earlier silent film I Was Born, But...). Superbly mastered prints, original theatrical trailers and extensive film notes reveal a true genius of world cinema. Essential viewing. ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL UNIVERSAL 8244001 All Creatures Great and Small was the title given to a U.S. book first published in 1972 comprising James Herriot’s first two publications, If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet. The name was borrowed from the second line of the hymn All Things Bright and beautiful, and derived from a suggestion by Herriot’s daughter, who thought the book should be titled Ill Creatures Great and Small. The books were part autobiography and part fiction, based on Herriot’s life as a young veterinary surgeon working in and around Thirsk, Yorkshire just before and during the Second World War. They became hugely successful, inspiring two feature films and this popular television series as well as a lucrative James Herriot tourism industry around Thirsk. For television, Christopher Timothy played James Herriot, the novice vet who joins the practice of Siegfried Farnon (Robert Hardy) and his easygoing brother Tristan (Peter Davison). Set in the fictional Yorkshire Dales town of Darrowby, initially in the 1930s, the programme reflected a much gentler time when life moved at a slower pace. The shows ended in 1980 after three series, with Herriot and Tristan Farnon heading off to World War Two, but public pressure brought about a return for the series in 1988. First rate performances and production values helped ensure that All Creatures Great and Small stand out as a shining example of British television at its best, and this excellent four DVD set from Universal features all 14 episodes from the third series, which finds the vets concerned about the coming war and how life will change in the Dales. The usual characters are featured such as Mrs Pumphrey with Tricky, her hypochondriac poodle, and Dr Bennett who never misses a chance to get the ‘vit’nery’ drunk. This is the most emotional of the three original seasons, with both Siegfried and James eventually called into service and Tristan passing his tests to run the practice on his own merit. Well-crafted scripts, great characters and period details combine with memorable performances (especially by Robert Hardy) to produce one of the most enjoyable television series of all time. KONG: RETURN TO THE JUNGLE BKN HOME ENTERTAINMENT Ever since the original King Kong fell to his tragic death off the Empire State Building there has been a fascination with this greatest of all the apes. BKN Entertainment’s engaging, CGI-animated feature sees the return of Kong as a huge gorilla recreated by combining the DNA of the original with a human. He is now able to mind-link with his ‘brother’ Jason, making him even more powerful than his predecessor. He lives on remote Kong Island together with various dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, safely protected until a sinister hunter and a scientist with a grudge against Kong capture him and other island creatures – including a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex – to take to a futuristic zoo in New York. Once there, the animals escape and cause havoc in the city. Amid the plot’s many twists and turns it’s down to Jason and Kong to save the remarkable animals and restore them to their island home. Kong, Return to the Jungle is primarily suited to an audience aged 4-8 but the imaginative storytelling and rollicking action make this is a movie anyone can enjoy. THE BIG BOTTOM COLLECTION UNIVERSAL 8246909 The early 1990s British television sitcom Bottom was written by and starred Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson as Richard Richard (Richie) and Edward Elizabeth Hitler (Eddie), who share a flat in Hammersmith, West London. The idea for the show came about when, in 1991, Mayall and Edmondson co-starred in a West End production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and decided to create a cruder cousin to this classic play about the pointlessness of life. Bottom went on to ran for three series, and is famous for its extravagantly violent slapstick style. The programme also led to five live theatre shows, in which the performers often (apparently) ad lib and are able to be far cruder than in the television incarnation. This DVD brings together all five live shows plus Best of Bottom Live, a celebration of what were some of the most anarchic, squalid, violent and hilarious comedy tours ever seen, with all the best bits as well as interviews with Rik and Ade’s unlucky neighbours and a ‘making of’ documentary revealing how they managed to sink to such depths of depravity. As an added bonus, the collection also includes the duo’s riotous feature film, Guest House Paradiso, made following the ‘Hooligan’s Island’ tour. Mayall and Edmondson wrote the film’s script and it was directed by Edmondson in 1999. The characters, based on Richie and Eddie, run a filthy hotel next to a nuclear power plant, with guests that include the ubiquitous Bill Nighy and outrageous ‘Mrs Foxfur’ (Fenella Fielding). This anarchic blend of slapstick, farce and abuse is quintessentially British, so it’s no surprise that the public has taken these two head-banging morons to its bosom. BOB DYLAN - THE UNAUTHORISED DOCUMENTARIES WIENERWORLD DR-4525 Born on 24 May 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota, Robert Alan Zimmerman grew up in nearby Hibbing. ‘The Greatest Songwriter Ever’ has released more than 40 albums since his 1962 debut, Bob Dylan. His second release, 1963’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, featured many classic songs and began a series of albums that completely changed the world’s perceptions of popular music. Around five hundred songs later (Like a Rolling Stone was voted the best song of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine and the NME) Dylan continues to surprise, challenge, mystify and fascinate in equal measure as he pursues his ‘Never Ending Tour’. Despite countless words written about him over the years, the coolest man on the planet remains, partly by his own choice, an enigma. This box set from Wienerworld features three films documenting the major tours of Dylan’s life, brought together for the first time on DVD. The set includes the CD soundtrack to Rolling Thunder and The Gospel Years and nine excellent photograph postcards. In Bob Dylan 1975-1981 Rolling Thunder and The Gospel Years, director Joel Gilbert reveals these monumental periods of Bob Dylan’s life and music through insider portraits, exclusive photos, concert footage and location visits as well as interviews with, among others, boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter and folk legend Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. Bob Dylan World Tours 1966-1974 features the work of Barry Feinstein, who was the exclusive tour photographer on Bob Dylan and The Band’s legendary 1966 and 1974 world tours. Joel Gilbert chronicles these tours with 150 selections of Feinstein’s finest portraits, visits to Big Pink and Woodstock, and interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, rock journalist Al Aronowitz and the obsessive ‘Dylanologist’ AJ Weberman. Bob Dylan 1966 World Tour, The Home Movies features drummer Mickey Jones, who toured the world in 1966 with Dylan and The Band and captured on film what became known as ‘the tour that changed rock and roll forever’. Joel Gilbert updates this release with exclusive interviews with Charlie Daniels, Johnny Rivers, Trini Lopez and soundman Richard Alderson. Dylan followers are notoriously ‘completist’ so these fascinating DVDs are sure to be essential viewing for many of his fans. BARELY LEGAL - DAVID MICKEY EVANS PARAMOUNT PRD 9083 Sexy and irreverent, National Lampoon’s Barely Legal is a playful comedy that follows the misadventures of three sex-obsessed teenagers with a brilliant plan to improve their status as the most inventive and legendary virgins ever to walk planet earth. They decide to make a porno movie for virgins made by virgins, with the help of fake I.D.s and a teacher’s unknown contribution, the three rascals set out to film what they have only dreamed about. Naturally there are obstacles along the way, such as when the most popular guy at school finds out and wants to be a part of the film, when a new girlfriend threatens to tear the teenagers apart, and when the porn king of the town tries to shut them down. The film pushes the limits of what ‘heroes’ can do before the audience stops rooting for them, and there isn’t much in the way of a plot, so Barely Legal is mostly dependent on the performances. Erik Von Detton and Amy Smart are likeable in the main roles and good support is provided by Vince Vieluf, Sarah Jane Potts, Tony Denman, Riley Smith, Daniel Farber and Tom Arnold. If you enjoyed American Pie and National Lampoon’s other films, you’ll probably find this amusingly fluffy entertainment to your liking. KZ – REX BLOOMSTEIN SHOOTING PEOPLE FILMS KZ is the German for concentration camp. In this groundbreaking film, veteran British documentary maker Rex Bloomstein examines the distubing phenomenon of ‘Holocaust tourism’ as his camera lingers over the parade of guides and visitors to the former Nazi concentration camp in the Austrian town of Mauthausen on the banks of the River Danube. The picturesque town and its beautiful surroundings contrasts with the horrors of the camp, a place that attracts busloads of tourists, including schoolchildren, from around the world. The documentary uses no archive footage, commentary, music, reconstructions with actors, or testimony from survivors, but instead tells the story of how we interpret historical events today, what our relationship is with them and how individuals respond when they encounter places with an extraordinary past. Tour guides come to work at the camp every day while nearby the locals go about their daily lives. This is a place where many thousands of people from over 30 nations were tortured and murdered. How does it feel to be a tourist at a former concentration camp? How does it feel to work here as a guide, day in, day out? How does it feel to live here as a local with the dark secrets of the past? And what of those who've chosen this town to be their new home? There are no shocking visuals but the words eloquently express the dreadful horrors of the camp. This haunting film provides no easy answers but asks questions that remain profoundly disturbing. ‘Perhaps the first postmodern Holocaust movie’ - The Jewish Chronicle. LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN – OPHULS SECOND SIGHT 2NDVD 3104 Max Ophüls was born Maximillian Oppenheimer in Germany in 1902 but used the pseudonym Ophüls (the umlaut was usually dropped when he later worked abroad). He began as an actor but soon moved into production, becoming creative director of the Burgtheater in Vienna. He started in films as a dialogue director under Anatole Litvak and directed his first film in 1931 (the comedy short, Dann schon lieber Lebertran). When the Nazis came into power in 1933, Ophüls, being a Jew, fled to France, where he became a French citizen. After the fall of France, he travelled via Switzerland and Italy to the USA, where he made several distinguished films before returning to Europe in 1950. Most of his films feature characteristically smooth camera movements, with complex crane and tracking shots that have influenced many other directors, including Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. Letter from an Unknown Woman, made in 1948, was based on a novel by Stefan Zweig and adapted by Howard Koch. It tells the story of a man who, while reading a letter written by a woman he does not remember, gets glimpses into her life story as she remembers it. Starring Joan Fontaine, Louis Jourdan, Mady Christians and Marcel Journet, this bittersweet tale of obsessive love is perhaps the greatest of the twenty films Max Ophüls directed. Convincingly and sympathetically told, it has soulful performances by Fontaine and Jourdan, wonderfully romantic music by Daniele Amfitheatrof and exquisite black and white photography by Franz Planer. DVD extras include an insightful video essay by the film historian Tag Gallagher. The other films in this excellent Max Ophuls Collection series of DVDs from Second Sight are THE RECKLESS MOMENT, a sophisticated film noir starring James Mason and Joan Bennett at their best (2NDVD 3105), LE PLAISIR, which Jean-Luc Godard called the ‘the greatest film made in France since the liberation’ (2NDVD 3107) and a dazzling masterpiece based on three Guy de Maupassant stories, MADAME DE... (2NDVD 3106). Together they make a splendid tribute to one of cinema’s great visual stylists. THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN & THE BIONIC WOMAN UNIVERSAL The Six Million Dollar Man was an American television series about a cyborg working for a U.S. secret service called OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence). Based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, the show first aired between 1973 and 1978, with Steve Austin ruggedly played by Lee Majors. The background story is the crash of former astronaut Austin in an M2-F2, shown in the opening credits. Severely injured, he is ‘rebuilt’ in an operation that costs six million dollars. His right arm, both legs and left eye are replaced by experimental bionic (cybernetic) implants that enhance his strength, speed and vision far above the human norm. He uses these enhanced abilities to work as a secret agent and as a guinea pig for bionics, investigating foreign spies, mad scientists, bombers and even space aliens. The second season of Six Million Dollar Man has now been released for the first time on DVD in this six DVD set (Universal Cat No: 8243285), including all 21 episodes and with a total running time of 17hrs 42mins. Steve meets a glamorous blonde (played by his then real-life wife and Charlie’s Angel Farrah Fawcett) and also becomes engaged to former girlfriend, Jaime Sommers (the delightful Lindsay Wagner), who has a near fatal accident when skydiving. She too is cybernetically modified and starred in several successful television series of her own as The Bionic Woman, the second of which is also now released on DVD. These six discs (Universal Cat No: 8243291) contain complete second season of 22 episodes with a running time of 17hrs 32mins. After fully recovering from her near fatal bout of bionic rejection, Jaime is assigned to spy missions of her own. Outfitted with bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic ear, she leads a double life as a schoolteacher and an undercover OSI operative. The second season finds her involved in many weird and wonderful missions in which she is forced to become a female wrestler, don a nun’s habit and become the private tutor to a young prince. With their charmingly dated special effects, cold war paranoia and entertaining 1970s clothes, both series provide many hours of slick entertainment and enjoyable nostalgia. FAUSTO 5.0 - ISIDRO ORTIZ NUCLEUS FILMS NUC0004 This unusual and disturbing fantasy horror film, in which the Faust myth is retold in a futuristic Barcelona, forms the third part of a trilogy of productions based on Faust from the Spanish theatre group La Fura Dels Baus. The others are a stage play (Faust Versio 3.0) and an opera (The Damnation Of Faust). Fausto 5.0 tells the story of Dr Fausto (played by Argentine actor Miguel Ángel Solá), who is resident surgeon in an experimental ward specialising in terminal cases. Being constantly surrounded by the dead and the dying has resulted in the doctor becoming alienated and weary of life. One day he meets the charismatic Santos Vella (brilliantly portrayed by Eduard Fernández) who claims that the doctor saved his life eight years previously and says that he will do anything to repay him, including granting his every wish. Santos insistently leads Dr Fausto in an exploration of the city, showing him the light and dark realms of human desire. Both lead actors are excellent and the beautiful Najwa Nimri gives a subtle and convicing performance as the doctor’s assistant. The film is an unusual collaboration between the three directors - Álex Ollé and Carlos Padrisa (both members of the La Fura dels Baus) and Isidro Ortiz. It exudes an oppressive sense of death and decay and is reminiscent of the work of Davids Cronenberg and Lynch. A strange, erotic and darkly atmospheric film, the award-winning Fausto 5.0 generates a nightmarish vision of the future, with excellent cinematography by Pedro del Ray and an effective soundtrack. The enhanced widescreen presentation is accompanied by options for Dolby Digital 5.1 or stereo sound, and DVD extras include English subtitles, a ‘Making of Fausto 5.0’ feature, the theatrical trailer and trailers for other Nucleus Films releases. BALANCHINE KULTUR D2448 George Balanchine was one of the last century’s most important and influential choreographers, his work forming a link between classical and modern ballet. He was born Georgi Melitonovich Balanchivadze in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1904. While still in his teens he choreographed his first work, a pas de deux called La Nuit (1920, music by Anton Rubinstein). After the Russian revolution, he performed with his group in Europe and defected to become ballet master in Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes company. After Diaghilev’s death, Balanchine moved to the United States, where in 1934 he founded the School of American Ballet, later to become the New York City Ballet. By the time of his death in 1983, he had created over 400 works and was ranked among the greatest choreographers in the history of ballet. Originally produced for the PBS series, Dance in America, this DVD celebrates George Balanchine’s remarkable artistry and pays tribute to the themes of his ballets. By means of rare archival audio and video footage, interviews, film and photographs, the documentary traces Balanchine’s life from his youth at the Maryinsky Theater, through his work for Hollywood and Broadway, to his work with the New York City Ballet. It also examines Balanchine’s thoughts on dance making and features selections from some of his many ballets, including Chaconne, Agon, Symphony in C, Apollo, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Western Symphony. ‘A thrilling experience’ – New York Daily News. HOTEL DU NORD – MARCEL CARNE SODA PICTURES SODA017 French film director Marcel Carné (1906-1996) was born in Paris and began his career in silent film as a trainee with director Jacques Feyder. By the age 25, he had directed his first film and begun a successful collaboration with the surrealist poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert that lasted for more than a dozen years during which they created films that defined French cinema of the day. Under the German occupation of France during the Second World War, Carné subverted the regime’s attempts to control art by filming his masterpiece, Les Enfants du Paradis. Hotel du Nord was the second in Marcel Carne’s trio of ‘fatalistic romantic melodramas’, the other two being Quai des Brumes and Le Jour se Leve. The story for Hotel du Nord is based on a novel of the same name by Eugene Dabit, whose parents operated the hotel around which the film is built and where much of the shooting took place. Renee (an extremely effective performance by Annabella) and Pierre (Jean-Pierre Aumont) take a room at the shabby Parisian Hotel du Nord with the intention of seeing through a suicide pact. However, Pierre shoots Annabella, but cannot turn the gun on himself. Seedy pimp Monsieur Edmond (Louis Jouvet) and his mistress Raymonde (Arletty) help Aumont to escape the authorities, but he can’t escape from himself. Beautifully photographed and acted, with a fine screenplay by Jean Aurenche. the bittersweet Hotel du Nord is a true classic, revealing a Paris wonderfully alive and filled with both comedy and tragedy. DVD extras include a stills gallery, theatrical trailer, and an introduction by the film historian Paul Ryan. Highly recommended for, among many other things, Raymonde’s famous riposte ‘Atmosphere, atmosphere, do I look like an atmosphere?’ TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE – TOBE HOOPER UNIVERSAL 8246207 In this controversial cult horror movie, partly based on the true story of Ed Gein, five college students are heading through the back roads of Texas in a camper van en route to their grandfather’s grave. Among them are Sally Hardesty (the excellent Marilyn Burns) and her wheelchair-bound brother Franklin (Paul A Partain). They pick up an alarming hitchhiker (Edwin Neal) who slashes both himself and Franklin with a knife. They manage to eject him from the van but soon afterwards are forced to stop at a sinister clapboard house, not realising that this is the home of the ghoulish Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and his demented family of cannibalistic psychopaths. One by one, the students are murdered for food until only Sally remains alive, held as a captive guest until she somehow escapes into the night pursued by Leatherface and his fiendish chainsaw. Her terror and screams are perhaps unequalled in cinema, even by the illustrious Fay Wray. First released in 1974, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre fully justifies its reputation as one of the scariest of American horror films. Brilliantly atmospheric and occasionally darkly funny, this classic horror film was the godfather of the ‘Slasher’ movie genre, influencing countless subsequent movies such as Halloween and Friday 13th. Its appeal lies in a gritty cinema veritè style rather than graphic depictions of blood. Despite its grisly subject matter, the film features a minimum of explicit gore (unlike its sequels and imitations) but generates mounting terror through suspense. Directed by Tobe Hooper on a meagre eighty-two thousand dollar budget, the production team saw only a small fraction of the profits even though the film was a huge success in America (it was banned in the UK until 1999). Gunnar Hansen and Marilyn Burns are particularly impressive and the final ten minutes are some of the most exciting ever filmed. Unmissable. BEFORE THE NICKELODION THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE BFIVD577 Edwin Stanton Porter (1870-1941) was an influential early American film pioneer. In the late 1890s he worked as a projectionist and mechanic, eventually becoming director and cameraman for Thomas Edison and the Edison Manufacturing Company. Influenced by England’s ‘Brighton School’ and the films of Georges Méliès, Porter went on to make important shorts such as the hugely popular and imaginative Life of an American Fireman (1903) and The Great Train Robbery (1903), one of the cinema’s first Westerns. The latter was also groundbreaking for its use of cross-cutting in editing to show simultaneous action in different places. In these films and many others, Porter helped to develop the modern concept of continuity editing and he is credited with discovering that the basic unit of structure in film was the shot rather than the scene, paving the way for D.W. Griffith’s advances in editing and screen storytelling. In an attempt to resist the new industrial system born out of the popularity of nickleodeons, Porter left Edison in 1909 to form his own production company and became an investor in Adolph Zukor’s company Famous Players, where he directed features starring Pauline Frederick and Mary Pickford. This award-winning documentary explores the work of the illustrious pioneer from telephone operator to projectionist and finally prestigious film director, based on research by the leading scholar of early American film, Charles Musser, who also co-wrote and directed it. Porter was a product of a system that was emerging out of the years of invention and would feed the thousands of nickelodeons, or cheap cinemas, which mushroomed across American from 1907. As narrator Blanche Sweet acknowledges, to study Porter’s fortunes is to witness the emergence of the American cinema industry. He made over 200 films between 1901 and 1908, and this documentary has excerpts from Life of an American Fireman, Jack and the Beanstalk (1902) and The Great Train Robbery. The accompanying illustrated booklet has an introduction as biographies of Porter, Charles Musser and Blanche Sweet, a talented actress who started work at Biograph with D.W. Griffith in 1909. INTIMATE LIGHTING - IVAN PASSER SECOND RUN DVD 009 The Czech director Ivan Passer was an important figure in his country’s short lived New Wave cinema, working as scriptwriter on many Milos Forman films. He made his directorial debut with a look at football fanaticism in A Boring Afternoon before going on to make his first feature, Intimate Lighting (Intimní osvetlení) in 1965. Shot during a sultry summer on real locations in Tabor, the film was premiered in 1966 at Cannes, where it took the Youth Prize, and subsequently won a special award from the American Society of Film Critics. After the Soviet invasion in 1968, Passer fled Czechoslovakia and eventually moved to the USA, to direct offbeat films such as Cutter’s Way. The wry and sympathetic Intimate Lighting remains his most personal and most successful work, showing the visit of professional cellist Petr (played by Zdenek Bezusek) and his beautiful girlfriend Stepa (Vera Kresadlova, wife of Milos Forman) to his melancholic old friend Bambas (Karel Blasek), head of the music school in a small country town, where Petr has been engaged to solo with the rustic orchestra. In anecdotal fashion, the film reflects on the sophisticated urbanity of the visitors and the homely simplicity of the villagers. Instead of creating drama or portraying unusual situations, Passer focuses on the humour of the ordinary as Intimate Lighting shows true affection and understanding for all its characters, even in the midst of petty bickering and resentments. Played mostly by non-professional actors the film is beautifully shot (by Miroslav Ondricek and Jan Strecha) and acted and music seems to permeate every frame. Nothing much happens, but we see the universal in the banal and this wise, gentle film becomes more moving and unforgettable with repeated viewing. The DVD includes an excellent print and a revealing interview with Ivan Passer. The sleeve notes are by Phillip Bergson and more information can be found on the Second Run website. ‘One of the ten films that have most affected me’ - Krzyzstof Kieslowski. LES VALSEUSES - BERNARD BLIER SECOND SIGHT 2NDVD 3102 French writer-director Bertrand Blier based his controversial debut film, Les Valseuses (Going Places), on his own novel. It was a huge hit in France on its release in 1974, bringing the charismatic Gérard Depardieu to the world’s attention and establishing Blier as a major new talent. Stuffed with a typically French robust and rustic sense of humour, the film details the plight of two aimless drifters (Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere) who spend their days wandering the French countryside in search of women and an outlet for their petty criminal tendencies. Their hedonistic spree of debauchery frequently results in them fighting or running their way out of trouble. After temporarily leaving a girl who is unable to have an orgasm, they approach an older woman just out of prison, on the assumption that she must be dying for it (which she is, literally). With a couple of deaths sending them on the run, their rambling delinquency takes on rather more romantic fugitive connotations. The delinquent pair are joined by a supporting array of characters, played by the wonderful Jeanne Moreau, irresistible Miou-Miou and a very young Isabelle Huppert in one of her earliest roles. One of the key French films of the seventies, Les Valseuses (literally The Testicles, in English) uses grim humour to portray unbridled sex, violence and criminality as the two anti-heroes romp unashamedly through the French countryside. ‘A revolutionary film’ - Pauline Kael. DICKENS BEFORE SOUND THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE BFIVD526 Many Charles Dickens works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime and there have been well over 200 films based on his novels, beginning with the silent short film Death of Nancy Sykes in 1897. The most memorable are probably the musical Oliver! and two classic David Lean films: Oliver Twist (1948) and Great Expectations (1946). Almost a hundred film versions of Dickens’ stories were made before the coming of sound, mainly in Britain and the USA, but also in countries such as France, Italy, Russia, Germany and Denmark. Only about a third of them have survived and most have rarely been seen. This splendidly produced double DVD features eleven rare films showing how early cinema storytelling developed, as practitioners of this new art form struggled to transform a tale from page to screen. Here you can find the first existing Dickens movie adaptation, Scrooge; or Marley’s Ghost (W R Booth, UK, 1901) photographed only thirty-one years after the author’s death. Other highlights include an entirely original attempt to animate a series of beautiful original lantern slides depicting the story of Gabriel Grub; the first Dickensian sound film, with Bransby Williams as the character Grandfather Smallweed from Bleak House (Hugh Croise, UK, date unknown); and a 74-minute version of Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, USA, 1922) featuring two great performers of the silent screen, Jackie Coogan and Lon Chaney. The films have been given new scores by the composer and pianist Neil Brand, and Ken Campbell speaks the words of Dickens over Gabriel Grub and a highly enjoyable excerpt from The Pickwick Papers (Larry Trimble, USA/UK, 1913). There is a commentary by screenwriter Michael Eaton on The Cricket on the Hearth (D W Griffith, USA, 1909). Other extras include an excellent illustrated 40-page booklet with an introduction, notes on each film and original production stills, and a downloadable essay by Dickens scholar Graham Petrie. CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA - KALIRAI PECCADILLO PICTURES PPD118 This colourful farce is set in Preston, where the Chopra family's only son Jimi (Chris Bisson) foolishly allows himself to be persuaded to get engaged to the beautiful Simran (Jinder Mahal), who has come from India and is the daughter of an old friend of the family. The problem is that Jimi is already in love and living with Jack. Jimi can’t bring himself to break his family’s heart or give up Jack but fate intervenes when a series of accidents and misunderstanding leads Simran to believe that Jimi is father to eight year old Hannah (a film-stealing performance by Katy Clayton). Jimi is thrown into more confusion when his family propose that instead he will marry Vanessa, his landlady and Hannah’s mother (played by Sally Bankes). Mayhem and misunderstanding reigns at the ceremony but, as with all good farces, everything works out in the end. The screenplay for Chicken Tikka Masala was produced by 18 year old Roopesh Parekh and directed by Harmage Singh Kalirai. Occasionally the low budget and inexperience shows but the film's warm-heartedness and pacey humour generally keep the unlikely story bubbling along. Highlights include stirling performances by veteran actor Saeed Jaffrey as Jimi's father, Zohra Sehgal as his outrageous grandmother and Harish Patel as, inimitably, Harish Patel. In the tradition of My Beautiful Launderette and Bhaji On The Beach, this inspired piece of independent film making has enough twists and turns to keep you entertained until the end. THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE COLLECTION TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX Shirley Jane Temple was born in 1928 in Santa Monica, California. During the 1930s she became the most famous child actress of all time, starring in more than forty films. She began her career at the age of three, appearing in two series of shorts for Educational Pictures. She signed to Fox Film Corporation (later to become Twentieth Century Fox) in 1933 and became the studio’s most lucrative player, ranking as the top-grossing box office star in America for four years in a row. Even at the age of five, the hallmark of her acting work was her professionalism: she always had her lines memorised and dance steps prepared when shooting began. Even in her earliest films she could handle complex tap choreography and was teamed with the famed Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, who coached and developed the choreography for many of her films. After leaving show business Shirley Temple Black became involved in Republican Party politics and held several diplomatic posts, serving as American ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. These new releases from Twentieth Century Fox feature six of her most famous films, all expertly re-mastered and colourised, giving a whole new perspective on Hollywood’s favourite curly-haired girl. Each DVD also contains the original black and white version, and comes with a different charm bracelet. The films included are Bright Eyes (featuring the famous ‘On The Good Ship Lollipop’), the hilarious Baby Take A Bow, The Little Colonel, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Dimples, and The Littlest Rebel (in which our heroine meets President Lincoln). Shirley Temple was a remarkable phenomenon who lightened up the world at a time when such cheerfulness was much needed. These attractively presented DVDs - available as two box sets or individually - make a fitting tribute to a beguiling talent that still seems fresh after more than seventy years. PRISON - INGMAR BERGMAN TARTAN TVD3578 Also known as Fängelse or The Devil’s Wanton, this fascinating early film by Ingmar Bergman was the first one he directed from his own original screenplay. In it a film director is persuaded by a professor of his that the world is controlled by the devil. He decides to make that the theme for his next movie and passes the idea on to a writer, who is coincidentally is going through his own hell on earth with his prostitute lover - a haunting performance by Doris Svedlund. Trying to make a new start, she is hounded and tormented by her sadistic ex-pimp while dream, nightmare and reality merge. Bergmanesque themes of suicide and faith are addressed and Gunnar Fischer’s hard-edged expressionist cinematography, sometimes reminiscent of film noir, captures Stockholm’s old city locations brilliantly, effectively complementing the harsh subject matter. Shot on a miniscule budget in 1949 Prison was Bergman’s first masterpiece and remains his most experimental film. With its daring structure and unflinching exploration of often uncomfortable ideas, this remarkable work is essential viewing for anyone interested in twentieth century film-making. Tartan’s Ingmar Bergman Collection series on DVD also now includes MUSIC IN DARKNESS (TVD3559), starring Birger Malmsten and the beautiful Mai Zetterling. The director here takes his inspiration from Dante’s Divine Comedy to tell the story of a handsome young pianist, blinded in a military accident, and his developing relationship with his pupil. Love wins through in the end and Bergman’s fourth feature, made in 1948, proved a popular success in Sweden at the time, helping to establish him as one of the world’s great film-makers. DVD extras include trailers, filmographies and notes by Philip Strick. THE CHILD - JEAN-PIERRE & LUC DARDENNE ARTIFICIAL EYE ART316DVD Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne founded their company ‘Derives’ in 1975 to produce and direct more than 60 documentaries. They began making fictional films about ten years ago and have gained an international reputation for creating outstanding realistic dramas. Their latest work, The Child (‘L’Enfant’), was awarded the prestigious 2005 Palme d’Or, making it the second time the brothers have won the Cannes Film Festival’s highest honour. The film stars the charismatic Jeremie Renier as Bruno, a young petty thief who has fathered a baby with his girlfriend Sonia, played by newcomer Deborah Francois. Desperate for cash and terrified at the prospect of raising his son, Bruno sells the infant to some black-market connections who promise to find him an adoptive home. Sonia then goes into a state of shock while Bruno attempts to undo his reckless deed, becoming ever more ensnared in a world of greed and violence. Shot on location in the unpromising environs of a decaying east Belgian industrial town, The Child is a compassionate yet unsentimental masterpiece of suspense that grips throughout before ending in a scene of moving redemption. The acting is totally convincing, especially by Jeremie Renier and Deborah Francois, who is a revelation as the angelic Sonia. Extras include an interview with the Dardenne Brothers and trailers for their previous movies. This exciting, shocking and morally profound film is not to be missed. ‘Absolutely terrific’ - Time Out. LOULOU - MAURICE PIALAT ARTIFICIAL EYE ART019 DVD One of award-winning French director Maurice Pialat’s most sexually charged films, Loulou is a masterpiece of unrestrained eroticism. When a passionate middle-class married woman called Nelly (played by the beautiful Isabelle Huppert) meets charming leather-jacketed ruffian Loulou (Gerard Depardieu at his youthful and magnetic best) she is unable to resist his lustful style and returns home with him. Loulou turns out to be as passionate in bed - even causing it to collapse - as on the dance floor and the film explores their free-wheeling relationship. As the womanising petty criminal Loulou, Gerard Depardieu exudes an eroticism that proves irresistible, causing Nelly to leave her advertising agency boss (and lover) Andre for a socially-marginal existence with him. When Huppert and Depardieu are on the screen together, they radiate a dangerously anarchic sexuality and Guy Marchand is superb as the jealous Andre. The scene in which he brawls with Loulou in a courtyard before joining him for a civilised drink sets the quintessentially French tone for a film that captures the atmosphere of low-life Paris perfectly. DVD extras include interviews with Isabelle Huppert and Maurice Pialat, the theatrical trailer, and director and cast filmographies. DARK KNIGHT, 1 BLUE DOLPHIN BDVD2005 Sir Walter Scott’s historical novel Ivanhoe, written in 1819 and set in 12th century England, tells the story of Wilfred of Ivanhoe, son of a Saxon family. He falls out of favour with his father due to his unsuitable courting of a Saxon Princess named Rowena and his allegiance to the Norman king Richard I of England. There have been many subsequent adaptations of the Ivanhoe legend and Dark Knight is a radical re-imagining that adds fantastical, supernatural elements to an already captivating story. Ancient evil is about to be unleashed on the land and the only hope is the sharp sword, the pure heart and the mysterious force that protects the ‘Chosen One’, Ivanhoe. Set in the dark ages, a time of fear, magic and mystery, Dark Knight shows its hero battling tyranny, oppression and a legion of terrifying, magical and hellish creatures as he attempts to restore King Richard to the throne and bring peace to England. This spectacular sword and sorcery television adventure series of was made in New Zealand, using extensive CGI to create a magical world filled with elves and goblins, as well as monsters from the underworld. Ben Pullen stars as Sir Ivanhoe of Rotherwood, with the beautiful Charlotte Comer as Rebecca, Peter O’Farrell as the ex-sorcerer’s comical apprentice Odo, Cameron Rhodes as the despicable Prince John and Jeffrey Thomas as evil necromancer Mordour. With brisk storytelling, exotic locations, stunning costumes and fine action sequences, Dark Knight has become cult viewing and this three-DVD set brings all twelve episodes of the first series together for the first time. Brilliantly filmed, this is a highly enjoyable romp through the dark ages will delight fans of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and Xena: Warrior Princess. THE GOOD SHEPHERD MOMENTUM PICTURES MP447DPD Christian Slater stars as Daniel Clemens, a worldly and urbane priest who is forced to challenge his comfortable existence as an ecclesiastical spin-doctor when he comes to believe in the innocence of a young priest accused of murder. Daniel’s only ally is the investigative TV reporter Madeline Finney (played with convincing ascerbity by Molly Parker), who also happens to be a former girlfriend. His job is to deflect scandal but his belief in the accused’s innocence is confirmed when Andrews is found dead in prison, presumably having taken his own life. Despite the relief of his superiors that the case appears have been closed, Daniel cannot believe that such a devout man would commit suicide. Against the advice of his friend and mentor Henry McCaran (Stephen Rea), he takes over the dead priest’s parish and becomes involved in a world that is very different from his usual comfortable living. With the help of Madeline, he heads down a path which will lead to further deaths but which might just take him back to his own true course, although the truth will test his faith and vocation to the limit. Directed by Lewin Webb, this is a tightly written, beautifully shot and well-acted whodunit that keeps you guessing right to the last minute. THE LONG NIGHT - ANATOLE LITVAK ORBIT MEDIA The film writer, director and producer Anatole Litvak was born Mikhail Anatol Litwak into a Jewish family in Kiev in 1902. After working in avant-garde theatre in St. Petersburg he moved to Germany but left there in the 1930s with the rise if Nazism. He made several successful films in England (Sleeping Car) and France (Mayerling) before moving to Hollywood. He served with the US Army during during the Second World War and was head of the photography division responsible for documenting the D Day landing on Normandy. The Long Night, released in 1947, is an underrated remake of the Marcel Carnè classic Le jour se lève (1939). It opens with a bang as a shot fired in an upstairs bedroom of a lodging house and a dying man stumbles out of the door to fall down two flights of stairs. A series of flashbacks (and flashbacks-within-flashbacks) tells the story of a disillusioned war veteran, Joe Adams, who falls in love with a girl who lies about her relationship with a smarmy and sadistic stage magician, creepily played by Vincent Price. Although not as good as Carnè’s poetic masterpiece on which it was based, there is much to enjoy in this noirish melodrama, including the gritty cinematography of Sol Polito, claustrophobic sets by Eugene Lourie and the music of Dimitri Tiomkin, who incorporates part of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony to create an ominous sense of foreboding. Barbara Bel Geddes, making her debut, is inadequate as the mixed-up girl but Henry Fonda is excellent as the doomed ordinary Joe, Vincent Price is entertainingly hammy as the magician, Elisha Cook Jnr appears as a blind witness, and Ann Dvorak gives an unselfish and sexy performance as the magician’s worldly former assistant. SARABAND - INGMAR BERGMAN TARTAN TVD 3594 The Swedish stage and film director Ingmar Bergman is one of the great film auteurs of the second half of the twentieth century, whose work usually deals with existential questions about mortality, loneliness and faith. He developed a ‘repertory company‘ of Swedish actors, including Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Erland Josephson, and the late Ingrid Thulin. Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann was the last to join this group and ultimately became most closely associated with Bergman, both artistically and personally. In 1982, he made Fanny and Alexander, declaring that it would be his last film, but in 2003, at the age of 84, he directed Saraband. In true Bergman tradition, Saraband deals with human relationships, using a slow pace, pointed dialogue, and heavy use of symbolism to explore the psychological states of the characters. The film is a sequel to 1973’s Scenes From A Marriage, as Bergman follows up the relationship between Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) twenty years later. Now divorced, she comes to visit her ex-husband for the weekend only to be caught up in the emotional battle between him, his son from a later marriage, and his grand-daughter. Originally made for Swedish TV, Saraband shows that Bergman’s dramatic power is undiminished and his technical mastery is evident throughout. Outstanding performances by Ullmann with Josephson help create complex characters and Saraband is a gripping and compelling experience that we can assume will be the last motion picture directed by Ingmar Bergman - his parting gift to the medium that made him world-famous. Extras include a ‘making of’ featurette, stills gallery and Philip Strick notes. Also released on DVD this month is AFTER THE REHEARSAL (TARTAN TVD 3594). Starring Erland Josephson, Ingrid Thulin, Liv Ullmann and Lena Olin, this 1984 film brings the worlds of cinema and theatre together when a stage director takes on his new actress and former mistress in a duel of wits as they rehearse a new play. Extras include filmographies and trailers. LOVE IS THE DEVIL - JOHN MAYBURY ARTIFICIAL EYE ART164DVD Francis Bacon was an enigmatic and brilliant artist but a waspish and unlovable man, with a bleak, uncompromising view of life and little regard for the feelings of others. Director John Maybury’s dazzling and brave film examines unflinchingly the painter’s turbulent and tragic relationship with his lover and model George Dyer, a former boxer and small time thief who competes for Bacon’s affections so passionately that he is eventually destroyed. The film opens in 1971 at the Grand Palais in Paris, where Bacon is welcomed as ‘the greatest living painter’. Dyer recalls the fateful day in 1964 when he met the artist whilst attempting to burgle his house and is invited to stay the night. The film successfully captures the louche bohemian life of 1960’s Soho, an underworld of artist’s models, East End thugs and the infamous drinking den, the Colony Room - a ‘concentration of camp’ presided over by the hilariously foul-mouthed Muriel Belcher (Tilda Swinton). Maybury’s study of Bacon and his tumultuous relationship with Dyer is a powerful testament to one of the twentieth century’s most controversial artists. The director has worked with the artist Derek Jarman and collaborated with the Michael Clarke dance company, and has made some of the most innovative music videos of recent years. In Love Is the Devil he uses his remarkable talent for visual imagery to illuminate Francis Bacon’s brilliant yet often seedy world. Derek Jacobi gives an uncannily accurate performance as the tortured artist and Daniel Craig (soon to be the new James Bond) is superb as George Dyer, a petty criminal out of his depth and gradually falling apart. Extras on the DVD include filmographies of the stars and the theatrical trailer. ‘Tough, tender, wholly compelling’ - Time Out. UNION CITY - MARCUS REICHERT TARTAN TVD 3635 Set in 1953 in a gritty New Jersey industrial town, Union City tells the strange story of an accountant who becomes so obsessed with finding whoever is stealing his morning milk that he fails to notice his beautiful wife is having an affair with the superintendent of their dingy apartment building. Dennis Lipscomb is excellent as the repressed, paranoid accountant who panics then rapidly falls apart after committing an act of irrational violence. His feckless, frustrated wife is played by Debbie ‘Deborah’ Harry, making her film debut and cleverly underplaying her dislocated dialogue. This is in marked contrast to Irina Maleeva, who gives a seductive performance as the glamorous and batty Contessa who lives across the hall. Good support also comes from Charles Rydell as a cynical cab driver, Everett McGill as the predatory superintendent, and there are brief appearances by CCH Pounder and Pat Benatar. Based on a 1940s short story ‘The Corpse Next Door’ by Cornell Woolrich, Union City uses its low budget brilliantly to draw you in to an unnerving world of transience and foreboding that might have been created by David Lynch. Marcus Reichert was an artist before becoming a film director and he uses primary colours here to great effect, especially in the strikingly painted interiors. From its lurid opening credits to a satisfyingly tragic twist at the end, this quirky neo film noir is an enjoyabe existential romp. The suitably evocative music is by Debbie Harry’s Blondie bandmate, Chris Stein. TIME OF FAVOR - JOSEPH CEDAR BLUE DOLPHIN BDVD 2004 Writer/director Joseph Cedar’s Time of Favor is a gripping psychological thriller that is also a love story and an anti-hate polemic. Set largely within an Orthodox Jewish settlement on the West Bank, this claustrophobic film takes a cautionary look at the dangers of fundamentalism with the story of a man whose whole life comes into question when a plan to bomb the sacred mosque on the Temple Mount is discovered. The film stars Aki Avni, Tinkerbell, Edan Alterman and veteran Israeli actor-filmmaker Asi Dayan, and the film won six Israeli Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Editing and Best Cinematography. Made in Hebrew with English subtitles, Time of Favor was Israel’s official entry for the Oscar of Best Foreign Film 2001. Joseph Cedar’s thought-provoking debut feature is based on his own experiences as a paratrooper and student at a yeshiva (a traditional school dedicated to religious study) as well as on a real-life news story about an army officer who was falsely accused of being a member of a Jewish terrorist group. The first part of the film is a little slow and wordy but this romance/thriller gives a fascinating insight into religious fundamentalism and the Israeli experience in modern-day Palestine. Although made on a tight budget, the film features spectacular scenery (it was shot on location halfway between Jericho and Jerusalem.), an effective storyline and impressive acting, particularly from Aki Avni and the delightfully named Tinkerbell. MIX-UP OU MELI-MELO - FRANCOISE ROMAND LOWAVE EDV 1394 This unique and critically acclaimed documentary, Mix-Up ou Meli-Melo, follows the true story of two English women who as babies were accidentally switched in the hospital in 1936 and 20 years later discovered that they had been raised by the wrong sets of parents. French director Francoise Romand enlists all the surviving family members (including the delightfully eccentric Charles) in her haunting and bizarre investigation, which involves not only a recounting but a reenactment of all the significant events in the two daughters’ emotional histories. The seriousness and thoroughness with which she pursues her approach create a formal beauty and a witty precision in framing, pacing, editing, use of music and mise en scene that is inseparable from the film’s ethical and philosophical project. It’s a story that encompasses courage, humour, love and a six-year correspondence with George Bernard Shaw. The mix-up of the title refers not only to the putative subject but to many stylistic and formal collisions: fiction versus fact, French versus English, memory versus imagination. What might have been a plodding documentary in other hands is transformed into an intriguing and inventive film in which even the final credits are memorable. The film is in English with optional subtitled in French, German and English. Extras include interviews with Francoise Romand and the American film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum as well as biographies, filmographies and a slide show. Lowave is an independent DVD label with the objective of discovering and promoting contemporary film and video art. Its ambition is to create a new marketplace for the work of cutting-edge artists and filmmakers, under recognized by the traditional distribution channels, by making them accessible via the DVD format. ‘A deliciously oddball movie’ - New York Times. SLOW MOTION - LEAN-LUC GODARD ARTIFICIAL EYE 053 DVD Jean-Luc Godard was born in Paris to Franco-Swiss parents in 1930 and studied at the Lycée Rohmer and the Sorbonne, where he became involved with the young group of filmmakers and theorists that gave birth to the Nouvelle Vague, or ‘French New Wave’. Known for stylistic implementations that challenged, the conventions of Hollywood cinema, this ‘enfant terrible’ became one of the most audacious and radical filmmakers in the world. His work reflected a deep knowledge of film history as well as an understanding of existential and Marxist philosophy. His reputation was established in the 1960s with films such as À bout de souffle (Breathless), Alphaville and Weekend, but after the Paris student rebellion in May 1968, Godard’s involvement with the political left became all-consuming. He returned to ‘commercial’ film-making in 1980 with Sauve Qui Peut, which loosely translates as ‘every man for himself’. Released in the UK as ‘Slow Motion’, the film is about the lives of three people coping with their place in the world. Paul Godard (Jacques Dutronc) is a desperate television producer and Nathalie Baye plays his ex-girlfriend Denise, who wants to give up her city job to pursue an idyllic life in the country. Isabelle (brilliantly played by Isabelle Huppert) is a country girl who moves to the city to become a prostitute. Their stories intersect when Paul brings Denise to the country cottage he is trying to rent and Isabelle comes to see it without knowing that the landlord has been her client. This complex, pessimistic film is beautifully acted and visually stunning, reaffirming the director’s position as one of the world’s most adventurous and provocative filmmakers. ‘All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun’ - Jean-Luc Godard. THE SAVAGE INNOCENTS - NICHOLAS RAY EUREKA EKA40207 In the late sixties, Bob Dylan wrote the song The Mighty Quinn (or Quinn the Eskimo) in tribute of Anthony Quinn’s remarkable performance in The Savage Innocents. In this visually stunning film, Quinn plays a native Eskimo who has to deal with conflicts between the traditional ways and the encroachments of civilisation. Quinn’s character, Inuk, accidentally kills a missionary and finds himself pursued by two Mounties, including Peter O’Toole in his feature film debut, although the latter asked for his name be removed from the credits after his voice was dubbed by another actor. The beautiful Japanese actress Yoko Tani plays Inuk’s wife. The screenplay, mainly written by its director Nicholas Ray, is based on Hans Ruesch’s best selling novel, Top of the World. Ray shot his epic 1959 film - a British, Italian and French co-production - in the Canadian Arctic, with interiors shot in Britain’s Pinewood Studios and at Rome’s Cinecittà studios. The Savage Innocents continued the director’s fascination with alternative lifestyles and represents his first attempt to break free from Hollywood. Unfortunately, the film was unfairly treated on its release, being censored in the UK and unjustly neglected for decades. With a score by the Italian composer Angelo Francesco Lavagnino and stunning colour photography by Aldo Tonti, who had worked with Fellini and Rossellini, The Savage Innocents is one of Nicholas Ray’s most ambitious films. Anthony Quinn gives a masterful performance and there are stunning shots of Arctic scenery and wildlife, including an almost surreal vision of walruses gathered on a rock. Quinn once said that of the many films he had made he was only truly proud of Zorba, La Strada and The Savage Innocents. The film is released here in Eureka’s Masters of Cinema Series in high definition transfer to DVD, with extras that include an informed audio commentary by critics David Ehrenstein and Bill Krohn, optional English subtitles and a 32-page booklet containing original promotional materials. This exciting and unique film fully deserves to be rediscovered. WHISKY - REBELLA & STOLL ARTIFICIAL EYE 306 DVD Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll’s internationally acclaimed film is a ironic and touching comedy reminiscent of Aki Kaurismaki and Jim Jarmusch. The title - ‘Whisky’ - is what people in Uruguay say when posing for family snapshots. Dull, middle-aged Jacobo Koller (Andres Pazos) has a joyless life running the family’s antiquated sock factory in Montevideo, relying on his quietly submissive assistant Marta (Mirella Pascual) for almost everything, from office paperwork to arranging his late mother’s headstone ceremony. When his long-absent brother Herman (Jorge Bolani) comes to visit from Brazil, Jacobo asks Marta to pretend to be his wife. Herman then invites Marta and Jacobo to Piriapolis, a seaside resort the brothers used to visit as children. Jacobo continues to maintain his lugubrious ways but Herman’s warm and affable personality brings out a side to Marta that Jacobo had never imagined. Co-writers and directors Rebella and Stoll transform their farcical premise into a wonderfully funny and charming story about two brothers who are virtual strangers, at the same time suggesting Marta’s quiet desperation as well as her unexpected ability to change. The film, superbly photographed by Barbara Alvarez, moves at an unhurried pace but has an ending that is well worth the wait. The acting is subtle and underplayed, with an extraordinarily poignant performance by Mirella Pascual as the downtrodden Marta. Dialogue is in Spanish, with English subtitles, and extras include the trailer and a feature showing the making of the film, with auditions and rehearsals. NIGHTMARE ALLEY - EDMUND GOULDING EUREKA EKA40116 This little-known movie from Hollywood’s classic period is a sophisticated film noir starring the strikingly handsome Tyrone Power, cast against type as a circus apprentice who becomes a con-artist and pseudo-religious guru. One of the great swashbuckling stars of twentieth century cinema, Power was the third of four in an acting dynasty going back to the eighteenth century. He struggled to find work in Hollywood before landing a contract at 20th Century Fox, where he became one of the studio’s leading stars. Most of his roles were undemanding but the strange and intriguing Nightmare Alley gave him a chance to show what a fine actor he could be. The film’s cult reputation is partly due to a long dispute between the film’s producer (comedian George Jessel) and Fox, which prevented it from being screened or released on video. With the conflict resolved, Nightmare Alley can now be rediscovered in this new release in Eureka’s Masters of Cinema Series. As well as Tyrone Power, the film stars the splendid Joan Blondell (as Mademoiselle Zeena), Coleen Grey, the excellent Ian Keith and Helen Walker (as a femme fatale psychoanalyst). Based on William Lindsay Gresham’s book and scripted by Jules Furthman (who worked on To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep), Nightmare Alley reflects the preoccupations of its drug and alcohol-abusing, orgy-frequenting director Edmund Goulding. Both Goulding and Gresham later committed suicide and this unsettling film is underscored by a sense of tragedy - the circus becoming a metaphor of B-system Hollywood in the 1940s. Extras include an introduction by the noir historian Woody Haut, audio commentary by Alain Silver and James Ursini, the original theatrical trailer, and a 32-page booklet with rare production stills. Tyrone Power’s performance is a revelation in a part that he fought hard for and Lee Garmes’ cinematography captures all the sinister strangeness of carny life in this beautifully restored transfer to DVD. SECRET THINGS (CHOSE SECRETES) TARTAN TVD3406 Two young women - a street-wise stripper called Nathalie and the naïve barmaid Sandrine - find themselves struggling to survive in Paris. Together, they discover that sex can be used to their advantage and pleasure when they find positions in the office of a large bank. After making their way though several layers of executives, they approach Christophe, son and heir to the powerful owner of the bank. He turns out to be a manipulative voyeur with his own secret agenda but both women fall hopelessly for him. In Christophe, the girls find an opponent who understands all their wiles, and will sadistically challenge their friendship by provoking feelings of jealousy and ecstasy. This is office politics played for high stakes, with shamelessly amoral characters and a suitably melodramatic climax. Sabrina Seyvecou is spellbinding as Sandrine and Coralie Revel very sexy as Nathalie. Director Jean-Claude Brisseau has made a beautifully shot film that Les Cahiers du cinéma chose as one of the ten best pictures of 2002. Features include the original trailer and film notes by Tony McKibben. The dialogue is in French, with English subtitles. Entertaining but not for the prudish. TEN MINUTES OLDER: THE TRUMPET & THE CELLO BLUE DOLPHIN DVD2007 This double-DVD set includes two feature length compilations of ten-minute films by some of the world’s most gifted directors. Each film explores an individual director’s personal vision of the always fascinating subject of time and is connected by a musical theme. The first feature was Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet showcases the work of Spike Lee (We Wuz Robbed, a documentary about George W. Bush’s controversial win in the Presidential election), Jim Jarmusch, Chen Kaige, Werner Herzog, Victor Erice (Lifeline, shot a brilliant black and white, and a telling reflection on the rise of Nazism in Spain), Aki Kaurismaki and Wim Wenders. Hugh Masekela plays the jazz trumpet theme. Ten Minutes Older: The Cello features films by Bernardo Bertolucci, István Szabó, Claire Denis, Volker Schlöndorff, Mike Figgis, Michael Radford (with Daniel Craig as a spaceman who returns to Earth after 80 years), a poignant and lyrical piece by Jiri Menzel and Jean Luc Godard, who contributes a typically brilliant yet enigmatic film called Dans le Noir du Temps. The cello music linking the films is played by Claudio Bohorquez. Each of the directors had complete creative freedom to bring their own interpretation of ‘time’ to the screen, using the technology of film in innovative, provocative ways to explore all human experience: birth, death, love, the drama of the moment, history and ancient myth; and a great variety of locations all over the world. Tricksiness and inconsequentiality do sometimes intrude (Mike Figgis, Claire Denis) but many of the films are outstanding in their own right (especially those by Victor Erice and Jiri Menzel) and seen together they gain additional meaning, providing fascinating insights into the thoughts and preoccupations of their directors. WHO KILLED BAMBI? - GILLES MARCHAND TARTAN TVD 3431 This sexy and provocative French thriller is Gilles Marchand’s directorial debut (he co-wrote the excellent With a Friend Like Harry). Who Killed Bambi? tells the story of a beautiful and rather naive student nurse, Isabelle (Sophie Quinton) and the mysterious Dr Philip, played with cool menace by Laurent Lucas. Isabelle suffers a strange fainting fit in the presence of the doctor, who nicknames her Bambi: because her legs can’t support her. As patients start to dissappear from their rooms and operations go dangerously wrong, Bambi begins to suspect that Dr Philip may be a killer. A cat and mouse game develops between the two of them as tension mounts and we come share in her confusion. Sophie Quinton is suitably doe-eyed and deer-like and the acting is excellent throughout. Marchand’s minimalist style of filmmaking is perfect for depicting the sterile atmosphere of an unusually quiet and underpopulated hospital, and although some might find the film too long his restrained approach manages to create a wonderful sense of unease. Specail features include the original trailer and Tony McKibben film notes. Who Killed Bambi? is part of Tartan’s Ciné Lumière collection of innovative contemporary films from France. Others in the series include Bruno Dumont’s provocative horror film Twentynine Palms (TVD 3488) and Bertrand Bonello’s ambitious retelling of a classic Greek myth in Tiresia (TVD 3424). ONIBABA - KANETO SHINDO EUREKA EKA40103 The Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindo was born in Hiroshima and began his film career as an art director during the late 1930s. He then started writing screenplays and worked with directors such as Kenji Mizoguchi and Kon Ichikawa before making his own directorial debut in 1951 with The Story of a Beloved Wife. Onibaba uses black and white photography to stunning effect in its portrayal of murder, jealousy and the darkness of the human soul during a brutal period of Japan’s history when the country was ravaged by civil war. Weary from combat, samurai are drawn towards the seven-foot high susuki grass fields to hide and rest themselves, whereupon they are ambushed and murdered by a ruthless mother (Nobuko Otowa) and daughter-in-law (Jitsuko Yoshimura). The women throw the samurai bodies into a pit, and barter their armour and weapons for food. When Hachi (Kei Sato), a neighbour returning from the wars, brings bad news, he threatens the women’s partnership. Erotically charged and steeped in the symbolism and superstition of its Buddhist and Shinto roots, Onibaba is in part a modern parable on consumerism, a study of the destructiveness of sexual desire and - filmed amid a mesmerising and claustrophobic sea of grass - one of the most striking films ever made.Kiyomi Kuroda won the Blue Ribbon Award for his cinematography and the memorably frenetic drumming soundtrack was scored by Hikaru Hayashi. This newly restored high-definition transfer to DVD is accompanied by a full-length audio commentary by the director and the stars of the film, Kei Sato and Jitsuko Yoshimura, as well as an introduction by Alex Cox. Other extras include footage shot on location by Kei Sato, the original trailer and a booklet containing an English translation of the Buddhist fable that inspired the film. Onibaba is part of the Masters of Cinema Series that also includes Shindo’s haunting 1968 horror story, KURONEKO (Eureka EKA40104). FLESH/HEAT/TRASH - PAUL MORRISSEY TARTAN TVD 3547 Born in New York City in 1938, Paul Morrissey began directing short independent films in the 1960s. He soon became one of the most talented and influential members of Andy Warhol’s ‘Factory’, working on early Warhol films as well as discovering the Velvet Underground and Nico. Morrissey wrote and directed the sex and drug-fuelled cult classics Flesh (1968), Trash (1970) and Heat (1972), produced by Andy Warhol and starring the beautiful Joe Dallesandro. All three films are included in this three disc box set on which Morrissey worked closely with Tartan, making introductions for each film as well as supervising the transfer to DVD. Among the many extra features are audio commentaries by film-makers Penny Woolcock and Don Boyd, and the Kleineian psychoanalyst Nicola Abel-Hirsch. Flesh tells the story a teenage hustler’s attempts to raise money for an abortion for his wife’s lesbian girlfriend. Trash features a sexually impotent heroin user and his ambiguously gendered girlfriend (wonderfully played by Holly Woodlawn) as they try to start a family by faking a pregnancy to get on welfare. In Heat, a forgotten TV child star (the splendid Sylvia Miles) tries to make a comeback by getting involved with the family of a former B movie star - now a gameshow panellist - her lesbian daughter and her bisexual ex-husband. These groundbreaking films are by turns clever, dazzling, slow, hilarious, touching and weird, giving a unique insight into a revolutionary period for both art and society. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE - KURT VONNEGUT UNIVERSAL 8234428 Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death, written in 1969 is Kurt Vonnegut’s most popular novel, combining science fiction with an analysis of the human condition, time travel and the bombing of Dresden in World War II, which the author witnessed. In 1972 director George Roy Hill released a screen adaptation that Vonnegut called a ‘flawless translation’ of his novel. At the time of the book's release, the Dresden bombing was not a widely known historical event and rarely discussed by veterans and historians, despite claims that the bombing resulted in roughly the same number of deaths as the detonation of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima, Japan. Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece of twentieth century writing is included in this box set together with a DVD of the stylish film adaptation. The film features fine performances by Michael Sacks and Valerie Perrine as well as powerful re-creations of doomed Dresden and the suburban tedium of post-war America to which World War II survivors returned. Slaughterhouse-Five was awarded the prestigious Jury Prize at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.and Michael Sacks received a Golden Globe nomination for his subtle portrayal of Billy Pilgrim - the anti-hero who finds himself ‘unstuck in time’. An intelligent anti-war film without piousness and a witty sci-fi adventure rooted in tragic realism, like Vonnegut’s cult book, the movie is a unique and affecting experience. Essential viewing. THE LADY EVE - PRESTON STURGES UNIVERSAL 8232878 Barbara Stanwyck was a great actress who unaccountably never won an Acadamy Award, although during her peak in the 1940s she was one of Hollywood’s highest paid stars. She was outstanding as the deadly femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and in Preston Sturges’ scintillating comedy The Lady Eve she plays a sexy card sharp vamp who passes for an English lady. Her victim is a rich but unsophisticated herpetologist named Charles ‘Hopsy’ Pike (Henry Fonda), who intriguingly remarks: ‘You’re certainly a funny girl for anyone to meet who’s been up the Amazon for a year’. The New York Times declared The Lady Eve best picture of 1941 (an outstanding year that also saw the release of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane and Sturges’s own Sullivan's Travels). With its physical humour and razor-sharp dialogue, as well as some very touching moments, The Lady Eve was an immediate box office success and its charm remains irresistible. Stanwyck and Fonda have great chemistry and admirable support comes from such Sturges regulars as the wonderfully suspicious William Demarest, Robert Greig, Charles Coburn, and Eric Blore. This classy film is one of the finest screwball comedies to emerge from the ‘golden’ Hollywood era and has deservedly been voted one of the hundred best movies of all time. SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS - PRESTON STURGES UNIVERSAL 8232877 Preston Sturges was a pioneer of the screwball comedy and one of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters. Born into a weathy family in Chicago in 1898, he dropped out of school to manage a cosmetics company his mother had started in Paris, where he invented the first kiss-proof lipstick. After the first world war he returned to Chicago and wrote plays for Broadway before trying his luck in Hollywood. His brand of witty dialogue was an immediate success and by the 1930s he had become one of the most prolific and best paid writers. His first film as director, The Great McGinty, earned him an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and he went on to write and direct other classic comedies such as Christmas in July, Lady Eve, The Palm Beach Story, I Married a Witch and The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek. Sullivan’s Travels, made in 1941, tells the story of a director called John L. Sullivan (played with great subtlety by Joel McCrea) who wants to make a social-problems film called ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’ (a title later to inspire the Coen Brothers). His producers point out that he knows nothing about trouble so he goes on the road as a hobo to look for it, joined by an aspiring actress (the delectable Veronica Lake). Sophisticated verbal wit, brilliant slapstick and biting satire make the film an urbane delight, as do contributions from Sturges regulars such as Eric Blore, Robert Greig and William Demarest. The extras include an insightful commentary by ex-Python Terry Jones. Highly recommended. DUEL: SPECIAL EDITION - STEVEN SPIELBERG UNIVERSAL 8224686 Duel was Steven Spielberg’s first movie and is still considered one of his best. David Mann, played with conviction by Dennis Weaver, is on his way through the desert to an important sales meeting when he overtakes a wonderfully evil-looking truck. The unseen truck driver seems to resent this and gives unrelenting chase. The eponymous duel continues as he taunts the driver, playing games, speeding up and slowing down, until the car driver confronts his demon. Originally made on a tight budget for TV in 1971, Duel proved so successful that it was later given a theatrical release in Europe with extra footage. The film can be enjoyed as a satisfying thriller in which the director effectively cranks up the tension in a truly Hitchcockian fashion. Or it can be interpreted as a psychological contest in which a man (‘Mann’) escapes his crushingly humdrum life to find freedom. Either way, it’s a treat. DVD extras include three revealing featurettes: A conversation with Spielberg on Making Duel (in which due credit is geven to Dennis Weaver and the brilliant stunt driver, Carey Loftin), Spielberg and the small screen (featuring excerpts from Columbo and an emotive Joan Crawford), and Richard Matheson - The Writing of Duel. The DVD also has a photograph gallery (including posters) and the original trailer, making this essential viewing for Spielberg afficionados and aspiring movie-makers. win a free copy with New Classics or buy Duel at 25% discount from Amazon.co.uk. TIME TEAM DIGS - A HISTORY OF BRITAIN D D HOME ENTERTAINMENT DD21502 In the hugely popular Time Team history programme on Channel 4, Tony Robinson and his team investigate archaeological sites around the UK. Each dig has three days to uncover to piece together as much evidence as possible in order to build a picture of the people living in Britain through the last 6000 years. Even the most mundane digs are given an entertaining slant by this accessible format and in thr right hands even a few pottery fragments can reveal a fascinating picture of a pre-historic culture. Time Team Digs - A History of Britain shows a complete chronological history of life in the the British Isels, from the Bronze and Neolithic age up to Medieval times. Each of the eight episodes describes a different epoch and uses the finds of Time Team digs to produce an outline of life at the time. Ten hours of content ensures that most of the best bits from the series are included, along with extras that haven’t previously been seen. Anyone who enjoys Time Team on TV, as millions have done every week, will find this an entertaining release and excellent value. LUST: 12 SEXY SHORTS LOWAVE 004 DVD The innovative independent film label Lowave has produced an ambitious 80-minute compilation of underground and experimental films that explore a frenetic world of desire that begins with sex for some and ends in separations for others. The DVD features 12 cutting-edge short films from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, the USA and Switzerland, together with interviews, bios, filmographies, a bonus film and sub-titles in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Esperanto. This is a world of digital technology, gritty super-8, video art, sensual discovery and innovation - an eclectic mix that overcomes linguistic and cultural barriers. By turns passionate, stylish, stark, disconcerting, funny and baffling, these 12 films are as honest life itself, especially when it comes to matters of sex. Highlights include Menotti Bucco’s Palindrome from Italy, Matto Kämpf’s Loosli and the heated Faim De Communication, directed by Caroline Tabet. This varied compilation provides new perspectives and forms a unique introduction to the world of modern underground film. JOHN WAYNE - OUT WEST UNIVERSAL DVD 8229288-11 The man born Marion Michael Morrison in Winterset, Iowa, in 1907 became the most consistently popular film star between 1949 and 1974. He started in the movies as a labourer and gradually worked his way into bit parts until in 1939 John Ford cast him as the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach, creating the archetypal Western hero. Most cinema icons are rebels like Brando, Bogart and James Dean, but Wayne achieved superstar status by representing the establishment. The six classic westerns in this excellently produced box set date from 1940 (Dark Command, set in the days before the American Civil War) to 1975 (Wayne’s penultimate film, Rooster Cogburn, in which he starred with Katharine Hepburn). Also included are Tall in the Saddle, Angel and the Badman, The Fighting Kentuckian (with Oliver Hardy in a rare dramatic role) and The War Wagon (a spectacular and enjoyable entertainment that also stars Kirk Douglas). Bonus materials include a documentary about The Duke’s early career and an eight page collectors booklet. This box set forms part of Universal’s John Wayne: The Collection, a commemorative tribute that also has John Wayne: At War, John Wayne: In Action and John Wayne: The John Ford Collection (featuring the immortal Stagecoach) as well as a Bonus Collection not available elsewhere that includes Seven Sinners, Three Faces West , Lady From Louisiana, Reap the Wild Wind and Dakota. ‘Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much’ - John Wayne on acting. GREAT AUTHORS - CHARLES DICKENS OPUS ARTE OA 0876 D This comprehensive DVD set devotes over eight hours to an enjoyable exploration of the phenomenal life, times and work of Charles Dickens. Much about the great Victorian author’s amazing life remains unknown but what we have is a fascinating rags to riches story; complete with bankruptcy, prison, forced child labour, followed by fame and fortune, always overshadowed by guilt and secrecy. On the first disc, ‘Uncovering the Real Dickens’, Peter Ackroyd presents a mix of documentary and dramatic reconstruction, vividly recreating the author’s life. Disc two features a brilliant 1999 BBC three-hour televised version of David Copperfield. The third disc includes ‘A Christmas Carol’, where at Dickens’ house a group of his friends and relatives attend a private performance of the classic Christmas story, with an authentic dramatisation by Anton Lesser as the novelist. In ‘Songs from Grope Lane’, 12-year old Dickens escapes his miserable daily life in a brief spell of raucous tavern entertainment. The making of ‘Uncovering the Real Dickens’ is a revealing look behind the scenes of this production. ‘Anton Lesser made an emotionally charged, almost tremulous, Dickens, especially recreating the writer's inspirational public readings’ - The Times. |
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Grbavica, this film’s title in its native Bosnia, is a neighbourhood in Sarajevo where several acts of ethnic cleansing took place and where life has still not returned to normal after the Balkan war. Jasmila Zbanic’s powerful and affecting film tells the story of Esma (Mirjana Karanovic), a single mother, and her headstrong 12-year-old daughter Sara (eloquently played by Luna Mijovic). Unable to survive on government benefit, Esma takes a job as a cocktail waitress in a night club to help pay for the school outing to which Sara is looking forward. A discount on the trip is offered for ‘shaheeds’ - people whose fathers died as martyrs in the war - so Sara has to submit official papers regarding her father’s death, which leads directly into the traumas that still dominate the realities of everyday life. This touching film won the Golden Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize for best World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival. Esma’s Secret is a warm and at times a heart-rending film that gives a memorable portrait of a mother-daughter relationship, with a wonderfully subtle performance by Mirjana Karanovic in the central role. Esma and Sara’s lives are touched by love, helping both of them to accept their past, face the future and to allow Esma to finally reveal her agonising secret. Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic’s first major feature film is a remarkable achievement - emotionally harrowing at times yet ultimately providing an uplifting experience. Highly recommended.![Resistance[s]](../assets/images/autogen/a_Resistances.jpg "Resistance[s]")
This excellent DVD compilation features eight films and videos from Middle Eastern and North African artists, showing a wide range of contemporary experimental creativity. Using images to lead the narrative, each artist raises fundamental questions relating to humanity, politics and aesthetics. What unites these films is their determination to resist the narrow stereotyping of Islam and of the Middle East prevalent in Western media, and a creative use of images and sounds to invent a more nuanced, multifaceted understanding. Highlights include Dansons, a amusingly subversive video by Algerian Zoulikha Bouabdellah. Bouabdellah in which she expresses her dual Algerian and French identity by dancing to the awkward rhythms of La Marseillaise and ‘Dieu Me Pardonne’, where the Moroccan artist Mounir Fatmi creates a beautiful and disturbing collage of sexual imagery, bombs, guns, explosions, masked gunmen, riots and fighting in the streets. ‘Allahu Akbar’, by the American-based filmmaker ‘Usama Alshaibi’ features stunning abstract kaleidoscopes of animation that reflects traditional geometric themes of Islamic art and the irresistible, pulsating soundtrack of popular Iraqi music. In ‘Transit’, Taysir Batniji uses a simple slide show of photographs to show the endless ordeal of waiting endured by Palestinians and Egyptians attempting to travel between Gaza and Egypt. ‘Wet Tiles’, by Lamya Gargash from United Arab Emirates, is an obscure film about a young woman apparently being prepared for an arranged marriage. ‘Untitled Part 3B: (as if) Beauty Never Ends..’ is a brilliant film by Canadian Jayce Salloum, inspired by the moving monologue of a Palestinian refugee returning to his destroyed house. ‘K3 (Les Femmes)’ is an experimental piece by French filmmaker Frédérique Devaux. The longest work in this collection is ‘Ça Sera Beau, From Beyrouth with Love’, by Lebanese filmmaker Waël Noureddine, and this ambitious, cinematic portrait of the mutilated city and people of Beirut has gained added poignancy in the light of recent tragic events. Essential viewing.
The charming Russian ballet dancer and actress Natalya Romanovna Makarova was born in 1940 in Leningrad, where she performed with the Kirov Ballet from 1956 to 1970. After defecting to the West while on tour in London in 1970, she performed with the American Ballet Theatre in the USA and with the Royal Ballet in England. Although keen to expand her range by dancing in works by modern choreographers she remains most identified with classical ballets such as Swan Lake and Giselle. With the ABT she worked extensively with Tudor, Balanchine, Robbins and Tetley. With The Royal Ballet her repertoire included Swan Lake, Giselle, The Sleeping Beauty, Les Sylphides, Manon, Song of the Earth, A Month in the Country, Elite Syncopations, Checkmate and Les Biches. Makarova has also appeared as a guest artist with many leading ballet companies throughout the world, including the Paris Opera Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Stuttgart Ballet, Royal Danish Ballet, London Festival Ballet, and Roland Petit’s Ballets de Marseille. Her television appearances have included an acclaimed Ballerina Series for the BBC and this 1985 television special, Natasha, which shows off Makarova’s delightful personality as well as her astonishing range and artistry as a dancer. Some of her most acclaimed interpretations, including Natalya Petrovna in Ashton’s A Month in the Country and Juliet in MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet are featured here alongside dances created especially for her. Highlights include and extract from her Tony Award-winning performance in the musical On your Toes, an erotically-charged Carmen pas de deux with Denys Ganio, the Prelude to Les Sylphides and an amazingly fluid interpretation of the Saint-Saëns Dying Swan solo by Fokine. The dance programme is stylishly linked by Makarova herself, making this a fascinating visual biography of one of the greatest female dancers of our time.