"Actor: Chiara"

• Nightmare In A Damaged Brain / Demonium | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Nightmare In A Damaged Brain: In this former Video Nasty title escaped mental patient George (Baird Stafford) repeatedly suffers a graphic nightmare that depicts the axe murders of a couple making love. In Florida a prowler stalks a babysitter - when she is attacked the youngest child she is looking after just sits and laughs... George begins a journey of brutal murder death and destruction until the final moment of truth when his nightmares come to frightening life! Dem

• The Past Is A Foreign Land | DVD | (11/10/2010) from £25.87   |  Saving you £-10.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Past Is A Foreign Land

• Verdi Favourites | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This stunning compilation includes some of the greatest scenes from favourite Verdi operas taken from spectacular productions filmed at La Scala Milan The Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Arena di Verona. The DVD features superb performances from major opera stars including Jos Carreras as Oronte in scenes from I Lombardi Mirella Freni as Elvira in Ernani Renato Bruson as Falstaff Nicola Martinucci and Maria Chiara in Aida Ghena Dimitrova as Abigaille in Nabucco an

• Aida / La Traviata | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Aida: La Scala went all-out for this 1986 production of Aida, the grandest of grand operas, with a strong cast and--most important for a video recording--a larger-than-life staging. The Triumph Scene in Act 2 is by no means this Aida's only attraction, but it is the part that makes the strongest and most lasting impression, and is the visual and musical climax of the production. On par with the visuals is Lorin Maazel's first-class performance with the outstanding La Scala chorus and orchestra. The soloists have a variety of strengths that outweigh a few small weaknesses. Luciano Pavarotti sings one of his signature roles in superb voice, but his weight problems are visually evident and detract from his impact as the dashing hero Radames. Maria Chiara has moments of vocal imperfection but gives a dramatically compelling performance. Ghena Dimitrova sings powerfully and the supporting cast is excellent throughout. --Joe McLellanLa Traviata: Performances of La Traviata stand or fall to an unusual extent on their principal soprano; the first thing that needs saying about this Glyndebourne performance is that Marie McLaughlin has all of the attributes needed for a role that is fundamentally a virtuoso one, no matter how emotionally involving it is as well. The point about Violetta is that she is, with absolute authenticity, all of the things she becomes in the course of the opera--the febrile socialite and yearning love of Act 1, the quiet domesticated woman of Act 2 who sacrifices her love for Alfredo to precisely the family values he has talked her into espousing, the dying penitent of Act 3. Walter McNeil is an impressive poetic Alfredo in whose successful courtship we can believe. Brent Ellis is solidly powerful as his father Germont--the duet in which he talks Violetta into renouncing his son and comes to value what he is destroying is one of the high points here, as it should be. Bernard Haitink conducts impressively. --Roz Kaveney

• Hotel | DVD | (18/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Irene is a shy reserved girl who starts working in an isolated mountain hotel. Her employers seem obsessed with cleanliness but she's not fazed by that. But she soon discovers that her predecessor has mysteriously disappeared and whenever she tries talking about it to the other employees or even the police she's met with indifference. And what are the connections to the cave nearby with its connections to witchcraft?

• A Fairytale Christmas/A Very Fairy Christmas | DVD | (24/11/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Two adventures for princesses of all ages... A Fairytale Christmas: Once upon a time in a mystical kingdom Crofton the King's Viceroy wished to be king and when he saw how King Ronen would be lost without his daughter Princess Angela he kidnapped her on Christmas Eve and left the King in despair. After many years Angela grew to be a lovely young lady. She had forgotten who she was but she still dreamed like all girls do that she was really a princess. As Angela begins to realise who she really is Crofton will do anything he can to keep hold of the kingdom he now rules and ensure that father and daughter never reunite. A Very Fairytale Christmas: In the days leading up to Christmas a young girl Leah Carpenter moves to a new city with her parents. While at Santa's workshop in the North Pole Santa Clause is meeting with Shaily the youngest fairy ever to be asked to help Santa keep track of all the children on the Naughty and Nice list. Shaily comes to visit Leah and the two become fast friends and although she knows it is against the rules Shaily takes Leah into the fairy world where their new friendship is tested and their true adventure begins.

• Sleepless | DVD | (11/12/2006) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Dario Argento's 2001 feature Sleepless didn't receive a cinematic release in the UK, and it's not hard to see why. The movie often feels like Argento on auto-pilot, rehashing images and ideas and camera angles from his more inspired films like Suspiria or Tenebrae. The dialogue is leaden, the plot is a plodding whodunnit (and most of the time it's hard to care who) and the acting, with the exception of the veteran Max von Sydow, is mostly atrocious and crudely dubbed. But then again, no one ever came to an Argento movie for the plot or the dialogue, and least of all for the acting. The key to his mastery has always been the atmosphere of a nightmare that he conjures up, with all its jagged imagery and complete absence of narrative logic. The less sense it makes, the scarier it gets. Sleepless never attains anywhere near a level of nightmarish intensity, but it has its moments--especially the least rational ones. Although the plot involves no elements of the supernatural, and everything is finally (if cumbersomely) explained, it's episodes like the first killing (where the murderer traps his victim on a speeding train he couldn't possibly have boarded) that strike most effectively home. The action involves a retired police inspector (von Sydow) lured back to investigate a series of killings in Turin that replicate murders he was assigned to 17 years earlier. As always with Argento, knives figure prominently, as do prowling steadicam tracking shots, old dark houses and females butchered in any number of gory and far-fetched ways. The film looks unfailingly good, courtesy of its rich dark palate of colours, Ronnie Taylor's sinuous camera, and Argento's favourite group Goblin contribute an edgy, insidious score. On the DVD: Sleepless on DVD comes with a clear, sharp transfer that's a pleasure to watch, with no loss of detail even in the many underlit scenes. Picture is matched for clarity by the terrific 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. This, unlike the truncated US and German DVD releases, is the full 117-minute original, shown in 1.85:1 widescreen. The two-disc set includes a generous helping of extras: stills gallery, the theatrical trailer (in Italian only, though), a 15-minute "making of" featurette, plus an informative one-hour documentary, Dario Argento--An Eye for Horror, narrated by Mark Kermode and previously shown on Channel Four at Christmas 2001.--Philip Kemp