"Actor: Claudio"

• Verdi: Simon Boccanegra - Abbado | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A performance of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra which tells the story of the struggle for power in 14th Century Genoa. Claudio Abbado conducts.

• Roman Holiday | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £4.58   |  Saving you £12.67 (381.63%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The three-way combination of ingénue Audrey Hepburn, admirable Gregory Peck and the Eternal City itself guarantees that Roman Holiday (1953) still knocks the socks off any modern rom-com you might care to name. Add to this stellar triumvirate the meticulous, loving direction of William Wyler and a warm-hearted original story by Dalton Trumbo (blacklisted and uncredited at the time) and the result is assuredly one of Hollywood's timeless classics. At the leading man's own suggestion, newcomer Hepburn was generously accorded equal above-the-title billing with Peck: he knew that the film belonged to her anyway and wasn't one to stand on ceremony. As the princess who chafes at stuffy responsibility Hepburn's appealing girlishness is suffused with a will and wilfulness that rubs delightfully against Peck's more earnest mannerisms (even playing light-hearted comedy, he's still Atticus Finch at heart). The then-unusual decision to shoot entirely on location provides the movie with its glorious travelogue backdrop, and stalwart character-actor Eddie Albert is a fine foil for the two leads. Although Wyler is best known now for the grander vistas of The Big Country and Ben-Hur, none of his epics have as much heart as this. On the DVD: Roman Holiday comes to DVD in a good digitally restored print--in itself a powerful reason to acquire the movie on disc. Sound is clean Dolby mono. Extras include a brief piece on the film restoration process, and a short documentary about costume designer Edith Head, which isn't specifically about this movie. The 25-minute making-of featurette has recent and archive interviews with cast members, including Peck and Eddie Albert, as well as William Wyler's daughter, plus Hepburn's screen test footage. Still-photo galleries and trailers complete a pleasant selection. --Mark Walker

• Free Hand For A Tough Cop (Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (29/11/2021) from £16.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From the notorious Umberto Lenzi (Nightmare City) comes Free Hand for a Tough Cop, the film that introduced Tomas Milian's legendary ˜Monnezza' (A.K.A Garbage Can) to audiences around the world. When the critically ill daughter of a prominent family is kidnapped by a ruthless band of thugs, Inspector Sarti (Claudio Cassinelli, Suspected Death Of A Minor) is forced to bend the rules and oversees the prison break of Sergio 'Monnezza' Marazzi (Tomas Milian, Brothers Till We Die), a lowlife criminal with deep roots in the criminal underworld. The unlikely duo team-up in hopes of retrieving the girl and catching the infamous Brescianelli (Henry Silva, Almost Human), the crime boss behind the kidnapping, before time runs out. Finally making its UK debut, Fractured Visions is proud to present Free Hand for a Tough Cop, a much-loved Euro Crime classic that spawned other genre staples like Umberto Lenzi's Brothers Till We Die and Stelvio Massi's Destruction Force. It all started here!

• Sting/COE/Abbado - Prokofiev - Peter And The Wolf | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £15.85   |  Saving you £-1.86 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Peter And The Wolf

• La Grande Vadrouille - 50th Anniversary Restoration | Blu Ray | (07/11/2016) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  To mark the 50th anniversary, La Grande Vadrouille has been stunningly restored. The film is considered one of the greatest comic achievements of French cinema and one of the most popular films ever shown in France. During World War II, when their combat aircraft is shot down by the Germans, three English airmen (including Terry-Thomas as Sir Reginald) parachute to the comparative safety of Nazi occupied France. One lands on the scaffold of an amiable painter and decorator, Augustin (Bourvil). Another lands on top of a concert hall and is rescued by the irascible but patriotic conductor Stanislas Lefort (Louis de Funès). The third ends up in the otter enclosure of a Parisian zoo. When they try to help the airmen keep a rendez-vous at the Turkish baths in Paris, Augustin and Stanislas quickly find that they themselves have become targets for the German soldiers. Assisted by the daughter of a puppeteer and an anti-German nun, the two reluctant heroes accompany the three airmen on a reckless trek across France towards the safety of the neutral zone.

• Cronos | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £9.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (60.06%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A strange object the Cronos device has been found inside the statue of an angel in an antique store. While the dealer Jesus Gris is holding the device it springs open and its metallic legs pierces his flesh. Once bitten he develops a craving for human blood and his body grows more and more youthful with each drink. As the addiction spreads through his body he realizes he desires the blood of his innocent granddaughter... Winner of the Cannes Festival Critics' Week prize in 1992.

• The Tribe That Hides From Men | DVD | (13/08/2007) from £8.98   |  Saving you £8.00 (114.45%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The search for the Kreen Akrore tribe in the Amazon jungles of Brazil led by Orlando and Claudio Villas Boas who have devoted the last twenty-five years to working for and amongst Indians. The purpose of the expedition was to locate the tribe and bring it gently into contact with the modern world.

• Mediterraneo | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Mediterraneo, the 1991 comedy by Gabriele Salvatores, was knocked for not being deep enough but it is what it is; and it is actually an easygoing, sunny movie about eight Italian soldiers who manage to strand themselves on a tiny Greek island paradise during World War II. The sort of mutts who would shoot a donkey for not knowing the proper password, these clumsy warriors become a comic variation on the Lotus Eaters of myth, their fighting spirit evaporated in the midst of so much beauty and sexual availability among the local women. There are also sundry opportunities for the men to find another purpose for their lives (one particularly artistic fellow works on the restoration of a church, for example). Amid the sometimes coarse jokes and gratuitous nudity, there are subtle themes about the contrast between what men are truly like in their natural state versus what they are like as killers. (The Thin Red Line this isn't but Salvatores does, in his own way, touch on some of the same themes.) Watch this one on a cold winter's day and vicariously enjoy the tans as well as the antiwar sentiment. --Tom Keogh

• Men Of Hard Skin | DVD | (14/10/2019) from £12.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Argentinian gay-themed drama written and directed by Jose Campusano. The film follows Ariel (Wall Javier), a young man living and working on his father's rural farm. Although his father refuses to accept his homosexuality, Ariel has been involved in an exploitative relationship with an older Catholic priest for a number of years. When the clandestine relationship comes to an end, Ariel begins to embrace and explore his sexuality and begins a relationship with one of his father's employees.

• The Island Of The Fishmen | Blu Ray | (11/03/2022) from £17.92   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• It Started In Naples | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £9.79   |  Saving you £6.20 (63.33%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An American lawyer travels to Naples to settle the estate of his recently deceased expatriate brother. When he arrives he discovers that his sister-in-law was also killed in the accident leaving their son Marrietto in the guardianship of an aunt he hardly knows. The mutual suspicion of the two towards one another eventually turns to attraction.

• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly -- 2-disc Special Edition | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £9.95   |  Saving you £10.04 (100.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This two-disc Special Edition presents the restored, extended English-language version of Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, now clocking in at almost three hours (actually 171 minutes on this Region 2 DVD as a result of the faster frames-per-second ratio of the PAL format). It includes some 14 minutes of previously cut scenes, with both Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach returning to the editing suite in 2003 to add their voices to scenes that had never before been dubbed into English (Wallach's voice is noticeably that of a much older man in these additional sequences). The extra material contains nothing of vital importance, but it's good to have the movie returned to pretty much the way Leone originally wanted it. The anamorphic widescreen picture is now also accompanied by a handsome Dolby 5.1 soundtrack, making this the most complete and satisfactory version so far released. Film historian Richard Schickel provides an authoritative and engaging commentary on Disc 1. On the second disc there are featurettes on Leone's West (20 mins), The Leone Style (24 mins), Reconstructing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (11 mins) and a documentary about the historical background of the Sibley campaign, The Man Who Lost the Civil War (15 mins). In addition, there's a two-part appreciation of composer Ennio Morricone, Il Maestro, by film-music expert John Burlinghame. Tuco's extended torture scene can be found here, along with a reconstruction of the fragmentary "Socorro Sequence". In short, exemplary bonus features that will satisfy every Leone aficionado. --Mark Walker

• Roman Holiday | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Audrey Hepburn won an Oscar for her portrayal of a modern-day princess rebelling against her royal obligations who explores Rome on her own. She meets Gregory Peck an American newspaperman who seeking an exclusive story pretends ignorance of her true identity. But his plan falters as they rapidly fall in love...

• The Beauty Jungle | DVD | (03/06/2013) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  1960s British comedy drama in which a young woman finds a new career as a beauty queen. Attractive typist Shirley Freeman (Janette Scott) is encouraged by newspaper man Don Mackenzie (Ian Hendry) to enter a beauty pageant while on vacation. After winning she decides to quit her job and become a full-time contestant, proving to be very successful. However, her success won't last forever...

• A Bay of Blood | Blu Ray | (13/12/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Countess Federica the elderly owner of a coveted piece of bayside property is brutally slain by her husband--who is himself killed by a mysterious third person at the murder scene! Who is the killer? Could it be the real estate developer or the entomologist neighbor who wants to preserve the natural insect life thriving around the bay? Perhaps the Countess's illegitimate son in a bid to claim a name for himself is responsible? Whoever it is brace yourself because no one's a suspect for very long in Mario Bava's black comedy of human greed - which boasts 13 characters and 13 of the most shocking murders ever filmed!

• Flavia the Heretic | Blu Ray | (25/05/2020) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Witness the most notoriously graphic and nasty descent into the nunsploitation genre with Gianfranco Mingozzi s unforgettable masterpiece of shock cinema that is Flavia The Heretic. Set during 15th Century Italy when brutality was wielded mercilessly in the name of God, young Flavia (Florinda Bolkan) is imprisoned in a monastery by her tyrannical father. Rather than the years of quiet contemplation she might expect, the sexually frustrated Flavia instead gets a crash course in hell on earth as rape, torture, castration, bondage and worse becomes her world but that is nothing compared to what will become of her! Beautifully filmed by Alfio Contini (The Night Porter) and boasting a score by Oscar-winning composer Nicola Piovani this disturbingly cruel exploration of religiously condoned sexual violence is as well made as it is sadistic on the senses. Extras: New unique interview with the iconic Florinda Bolkan the legend of arthouse and grindhouse Italian cinema (imdb) Audio commentary by genre-specialist Kat Ellinger, Editor Diabolque Magazine

• The Facts of Murder | Blu Ray | (23/09/2024) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Inspector Ingravallo has been called to a Roman apartment building to investigate a robbery. Once there he questions the tenants but soon realises something is amiss. As the investigation progresses a simple robbery leads to a murder case... Directed by and starring Pietro Germi (The Railroad Man) as the growling Inspector, The Facts of Murder was loosely adapted from celebrated author Carlo Emilio Gadda's novel and is shot with inky shadows reminiscent of film noir, while the mystery element prefigures the giallo. Featuring a cast of wonderful supporting actors including Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl) and Claudio Gora (Il sorpasso), the film won multiple awards at Italian institutions including the Golden Globe for Best Film.Inspector Ingravallo has been called to a Roman apartment building to investigate a robbery. Once there he questions the tenants but soon realises something is amiss. As the investigation progresses a simple robbery leads to a murder case... Directed by and starring Pietro Germi (The Railroad Man) as the growling Inspector, The Facts of Murder was loosely adapted from celebrated author Carlo Emilio Gadda's novel and is shot with inky shadows reminiscent of film noir, while the mystery element prefigures the giallo. Featuring a cast of wonderful supporting actors including Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl) and Claudio Gora (Il sorpasso), the film won multiple awards at Italian institutions including the Golden Globe for Best Film.

• The Mountain Of The Cannibal God | Blu Ray | (28/05/2018) from £18.13   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When her anthropologist husband fails to return from an expedition into the Manilla jungle, Susan Stevenson (Ursula Andress) organises a search party to go looking for him. Accompanied by her brother Arthur (Antonio Marsina) and her husband's friend Dr Edward Foster (Stacey Keach), Susan heads towards Mount Rarami, the last confirmed location her husband visited. There they learn about the terrible curses which have rendered the mountain taboo and begin to suspect that it might have something to do with the anthropologist's disappearance.

• Vows Of Deception | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £6.99   |  Saving you £-1.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In this shocking sexually charged thriller a deadly maze of desire greed and betrayal explodes when a wealthy lawyer is found shot dead and his best friend sets out to prove the dead man's conniving wife is guilty of murder.

• The Suspicious Death Of A Minor | Blu Ray | (25/09/2017) from £20.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In the wake of the success of Dario Argento s ground-breaking giallo The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, numerous other directors stepped forward to try their hand at these lurid murder-mysteries. At the forefront was Sergio Martino (The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh, Torso), whose sensual 70s thrillers starring Edwige Fenech and George Hilton are widely celebrated as some of the best the genre has to offer. The final of Martino s six gialli, The Suspicious Death of a Minor combines conventional giallo trappings with elements of the then flourishing poliziotteschi crime thrillers. Claudio Cassinelli (What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) stars as undercover cop Paolo Germi, on the trail of a Milanese criminal outfit following the brutal murder of an underage prostitute. But a killer-for-hire is also on the prowl, bumping off witnesses before they have a chance to talk... Also starring Mel Ferrer (Nightmare City), Barbara Magnolfi (Suspiria) and Jenny Tamburi (The Psychic), and featuring a script by veteran giallo writer Ernesto Gastaldi (All the Colours of the Dark, Death Walks at Midnight), this unique and lesser-known entry in Martino s filmography serves as an essential link between two different movements in Italian popular cinema. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS Brand new 2K restoration of the film from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc) English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films New interviews with director Sergio Martino and cinematographer Giancarlo Ferrando Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Chris Malbon FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing by Barry Forshaw