"Actor: Al Silvani"

• La Strada | DVD | (19/06/2017) from £11.89   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Considered by many to be Federico Fellini's most beautiful and powerful film, La Strada was the first film to reveal the range of Guilietta Masina, whose poignant performance as the childlike Gelsomina recalls Chaplin's Little Tramp. The bubbly, waiflike Gelsomina is a simpleton sold to the gruff, bullying circus strongman Zampanò (Anthony Quinn) as a servant and assistant. Treated no better than an animal, Gelsomina nonetheless falls in love with the brute Zampano. When they join a small circus they meet Il Matto (Richard Basehart), a clown who enchants Gelsomina and relentlessly taunts Zampanograve;, whose inability to control his hatred of Il Matto (literally, "the Fool") leads to their expulsion from the circus and eventually to the film's fateful conclusion. Masina is heartbreaking as the wide-eyed innocent, whose generous spirit and love of life leads her to try to "save" Quinn's unfeeling, brutal Zampanò. Though the film resonates with mythic and biblical dimensions, Fellini never loses sight of his characters, lovingly painted in all their frailties and failings. Fellini's lyrical style reaches back to the simple beauty of his neorealist films and looks ahead to the impressionistic fantasies of later films, but at this unique period in Fellini's career, they combine to create a poetic, tragic masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker

• Rocky | DVD | (01/02/2000) from £5.46   |  Saving you £12.53 (229.49%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The 1976 Oscar winner for Best Picture, John G Avildsen's Rocky is the story of a down-and-out club fighter who gets his million-to-one shot at a world championship title. In the title role, Sylvester Stallone (who also penned the screenplay) draws a carefully etched portrait of a loser who, in Brando-esque fashion, "coulda been a contender". Rocky then becomes one thanks to a publicity stunt engineered by current champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), while finding love courtesy of timid wallflower Adrienne (Talia Shire) along the way. Burgess Meredith revives the spirit of 1940's genre pictures through his scenery-chewing performance as Rocky's trainer. An enormous entertainment, Rocky is irresistible in its depiction of an underachiever who has the courage to start all over again--a description that could have been applied to Stallone's own life at the time. --Kevin Mulhall

• La Strada | Blu Ray | (19/06/2017) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Regarded by some as Federico Fellini's finest work, and the winner of the first Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film, La Strada is a masterpiece of 20th Century filmmaking. Sold by her impoverished mother to Zampano (Anthony Quinn), a brutish fairground wrestler, waif-like Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina) lives a life of drudgery as his assistant. After taking to the road with a travelling circus, a budding relationship with Il Matto/The Fool (Richard Basehart), a gentle-natured, tightrope walking clown, offers a potential refuge from her master's clutches. Trapped by her own servile nature, Gelsomina waivers, and Zampano's volcanic temper erupts with tragic consequences. SPECIAL FEATURES: New Interview with director Julian Jarrold New Interview with Peter Matthews, Senior Lecturer, Film & Television, London College of Communication The Guardian Interview: Anthony Quinn (recorded at the BFI in 1995) Giulietta Masina 1955 Cannes interview Audio commentary by Chris Weigand on selected scenes

• Rocky Anthology | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £18.86   |  Saving you £31.13 (165.06%)   |  RRP £49.99

  This box set contains the Special Edition of all 5 Rocky films! Rocky (Dir. John G. Avildsen 1976): Nominated for 10 Academy Awards and winner for Best Picture audiences and critics alike cheered this American success story of an ""everyman"" triumphing over all odds. Featuring a dynamic musical score a thrilling fight scene and four Oscar-nominated performances this rousing crowd-pleaser will send spirits soaring. Fighting for love glory and self-respect

• The Federico Fellini Fellini Collection | DVD | (02/03/2009) from £17.99   |  Saving you £17.00 (94.50%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Winner of four Academy Awards Federico Fellini has had an immense impact on contemporary film. A visionary a dreamer a passionate storyteller and one of the most revered directors in the history of cinema Federico Fellini managed to create the most original and unique films celebrating the ceaseless carnival of life. With his vivid visual style iconic surreal imagery sly humour and magical sense for the bizarre Fellini's groundbreaking work has influenced and inspired such celebrated directors as Woody Allen Terry Gilliam and David Lynch. Included in this collection is the enchanting comedy The White Sheik (1952) (Federico Fellini's debut as a solo director and his first collaboration with composer Nino Rota) his endearing compelling and unsentimental neo-realism master piece Nights Of Cabiria (1957) and La Strada (1954) the classic drama that introduced him to the world and established him as an important creative force.

• CITY OF WOMEN | Blu Ray | (25/02/2013) from £18.88   |  Saving you £1.11 (5.88%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Federico Fellini's epic 1980 fantasia introduced the start of the Maestro's delirious late period. A surrealist tour-de-force filmed on soundstages and locations alike, and overflowing with the same sensory (and sensual) invention heretofore found only in the classic movie-musicals (and Fellini's own oeuvre), La citta delle donne [City of Women] taps into the era's restless youth-culture, coalescing into nothing less than Fellini's post-punk opus. Marcello Mastroianni appears as Fellini's alter ego in a semi-reprise of his character from 8-1/2, Snaporaz. As though passing into a dream, the charismatic avatar finds himself initiated into a phantasmagoric world where women - or an idea of women - have taken power, and which is structured like an array of psychosexual set-pieces - culminating in a bravura hot-air balloon that decisively sticks the anti up into climax. A great adventure through the looking-glass, as it were, of Fellini's own phallic lens and life-long libidinal ruminations, La citta delle donne sharply divided critics at the 1980 Festival de Cannes, some of whom had merely anticipated a nostalgic retread of the earlier Mastroianni works. What they were greeted with, and what remains today, is, in the words of Serge Daney, a victory of cinema. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present La citta delle donne on Blu-ray and DVD in Gaumont's glorious new HD restoration. Special Features: HD Restoration of the Film, presented in 1080p on the Blu-ray Newly Translated Optional Subtitles Substantial Booklet Containing Writing on the Film, Vintage Exerpts and Rare Archival Imagery

• Nights In Cabiria | DVD | (02/03/2009) from £14.95   |  Saving you £3.04 (20.33%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Welcome to a bittersweet world of episodic adventures and strange encounters. Welcome to a sordid nocturnal world of ruthless callous boyfriends and stray movie stars looking for seedy kicks. Welcome to the harsh unforgiving streets of a crumbling Rome where hope can still prevail and dreams cradle the lost. Welcome to the world of Cabiria a feisty loud outspoken and somewhat na''ve prostitute waiting for a miracle and one of the most unforgettable and endearing characters of European cinema. Eventually remade in Hollywood as Sweet Charity Nights Of Cabiria is a often humorous poignant unflinching and vivid portrait of one woman's picaresque existence and her perseverance through adversity. Starring Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina as the irrepressible protagonist Nights Of Cabiria marked Fellini's last foray into gritty neo-realism before venturing into the surreal satire and dream logic of La Dolce Vita and Eight And A Half.

• Beat the Devil | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £10.25   |  Saving you £-5.26 (-105.40%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Beat the Devil is a wacky comedy that's played as straight as any film noir and is even funnier as a result. Five men (Bogart, Lorre, Morley, Barnard, and Tulli) are out to garner control over East African land which they believe contains a rich uranium ore lode. Billy Dannreuther (Bogart) is married to Maria (Gina Lollobrigida), the other four are their 'business associates', and Jones and Underdown are added to the mix for some interesting diversification. As the boat leaves from Italy to...

• Rocky Anthology (Box Set) | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The story of Rocky Balboa, as presented in this five-movie Rocky anthology, looks suspiciously like a barely fictional parallel to Sylvester Stallone's own career. Such a strong vein of autobiography is hardly surprising, really, since Stallone wrote all five movies and directed II, III and IV. The original was a feel-good patriotic update on the American Dream, mirroring Stallone's own journey as a lucky break drags a man from the gutter into stardom; Rocky II was the story of a man who is subsequently plagued by the need to prove that his first success wasn't a fluke, and represented Stallone's attempt to keep his career afloat amidst a sudden explosion of blockbuster movies and superstar actors; the third featured a rival to his position echoing the friendly battle kept up with Schwarzenegger for box-office dominance; Rocky IV appeared at the same time as Rambo: First Blood Part II and was a veritable shower of self-glorification; and the fifth entered old age as gracefully as it could with younger blood ready to pounce from all directions. Balboa may have been "a little punchy", but Stallone was clearly the brains behind the Rockymovies' success.On the DVD: For picture and sound, it's to the first disc connoisseurs should turn. Transfer and 5.1 soundtrack are a notch above instalments III and IV. Inexplicably, II and V are only in three-channel surround. Disc 1 is also the place for the extras. Although the others feature their own trailer and a half-heartedly animated menu, the first has a montage menu that matches the excellent packaging and links rather easily to a hidden feature ("Rocky Meets Stallone"). There's a fascinating 12-minute "behind the scenes" short with director John Avildsen showing fight test footage and two short tributes to the late Burgess Meredith and cinematographer James Crabe. The commentary might seem a little crowded, featuring Avildsen, producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, Talia Shire, Burt Young and Carl Weathers. The best feature is a 30-minute interview with Stallone, who remembers writing from an 8x9 room in Philadelphia and being inspired by an Ali fight. There are confessions about injuries, casting and his dog Butkus! As a 25th Anniversary special edition, the first disc alone is excellent value. --Paul Tonks

• Rocky - Special Edition | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £9.35   |  Saving you £13.63 (214.31%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The 1976 Best Picture Award-winner Rocky has the look of a contemporary on-the-streets movie like Taxi Driver, but the heart of a fairytale. For the Bicentennial Year, world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), a Muhammad Ali-like stars-and-stripes blowhard, cynically offers a title shot to an unknown over-the-hill Philadelphia club fighter, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Unlike the sequels, Rocky is a rare American sports movie to realise there's more drama and emotional resonance in losing than winning. The unique finale suggests that going the distance against the odds is more of a triumph than a conventional victory. Stallone, then an unknown as actor and writer, crafts the script to his own strengths--mumbling, Brando-like sincerity combined with explosive physicality expressed in his use of a side of beef as a punch-bag or wintery jogs around Philly. Surprisingly little of the film is taken up with ring action, as we follow Rocky's awkward courtship of pet-store minion Adrian (Talia Shire) and uneasy relationship with her slobbish brother (Burt Young), while Burgess Meredith provides the old pro licks as the curmudgeonly trainer. Though it led to a slick, steroid-fuelled franchise, it has a pleasing roughness, exemplified by the memorable funk/brass band score and the array of fidgety, credible method acting tics. On the DVD: 1.85:1 16x9 print, which represents the sometimes-slick, sometimes rough look of the cinematography; feature commentary with supporting cast and crew (Burt Young admits to rubbing vermouth into his neck to make himself repulsive), video interview with Stallone, a retrospective featurette (which includes news footage of the Ali fight that inspired the story), 8mm test fight footage with a flabbier Stallone, tributes to Burgess Meredith and cameraman James Crabe, trailers for Rocky and all the sequels (which makes a solid précis of the whole series). All this and a "special hidden feature" (a comic sketch with Sly meeting Rocky).--Kim Newman

• La Strada | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £14.95   |  Saving you £5.04 (33.71%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The winner of the first ever Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film available on DVD for the first time! Giulietta Masina (the late Federico Fellini's wife) stars as Gelsomina who is sold by her mother into the employ of Zampano (Anthony Quinn) a vicious strongman. They join up with a travelling circus where Zampano encounters his old rival tightrope artist The Fool (Richard Basehart). The Fool befriends Gelsomina and presents her with an uplifting view of the world as oppo

• La Strada (Criterion Collection) | Blu Ray | (02/11/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Various Composers - Mad About Opera | DVD | (06/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In this screwball comedy a group of Italians presents an opera concert in London with Scipa Gigli Caniglia Gobbi and Bechi. The singers play themselves with Bechi and Gobbi getting the most singing and screen time. The arias are fully staged vividly filmed with lots of closeups. With few exceptions the camera stays directly on the singers. The print is superb.

• Beat The Devil / Humphrey Bogart On Film | DVD | (15/05/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Beat The Devil | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Beat the Devil (The Film Detective Restored Version) | DVD | (11/09/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A