"Actor: Dominic Guard"

• The Lord of the Rings (Animated Version) | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the movie's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well-conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• Picnic At Hanging Rock | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  On Saturday 14th February 1900 a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College took a trip to Hanging Rock near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria. During the idyllic sun-drenched afternoon some of the party left the rest of the group and having climbed higher stopped to rest and fell asleep. They awoke as though still in a dream and silently ventured further through a passage in the imposing rock face. Some of the girls were never seen again. The film that established Peter Weir as a major filmmaker is a critically acclaimed classic of Australian cinema. With BAFTA-winning photography and a memorably haunting score Picnic at Hanging Rock remains one of the most chillingly atmospheric and beautifully enigmatic films ever made.

• The Go Between | Blu Ray | (16/09/2019) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on the novel by L.P Hartley and adapted by Harold Pinter, The Go-Between stars Julie Christie as Marian, about to be engaged to Hugh (Edward Fox), a well-bred viscount and her perfect match. Over the course of a sweltering Norfolk summer in 1900, young Leo (Dominic Guard), becomes besotted with the vivacious Marian whilst staying at their house. Innocent of romantic and sexual matters, he unwittingly becomes a pawn in the forbidden romance between her and eminently unsuitable local farmer Ted Burgess (Alan Bates). As the oppressive heat intensifies so too does Leon's burgeoning adolescent questioning of love, attraction and the rules of the upper class that he doesn't really belong to. Both a beautifully subtle critique of the English class system and a visual masterpiece that perfectly captures the timeless beauty of an English Edwardian summer, The Go-Between won director Joseph Losey the Grand Prix (now the Palme D'Or) at Cannes Film Festival in 1971.

• A Woman Of Substance - Barbara Taylor Bradford | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £7.88   |  Saving you £-5.89 (-296.00%)   |  RRP £1.99

  Spanning more than a century this is the epic story of the Harte dynasty as told through the best selling trilogy of novels by one of todays most popular authors. The story starts as the indomitable Emma Harte looks back over her remarkable rags-to-riches story while her own family plots against her to gain control of her mighty business empire.

• The Go-Between | DVD | (22/01/2007) from £12.27   |  Saving you £3.72 (30.32%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Summer 1900: Queen Victoria's last and the summer Leo turns 13. He's the guest of Marcus a wealthy classmate at a grand home in rural Norfolk. Leo is befriended by Marian Marcus's twenty-something sister a beauty about to be engaged to Hugh a viscount and good fellow. Marian buys Leo a forest-green suit takes him on walks and asks him to carry messages to and from their neighbor Ted Burgess a bit of a rake. Leo is soon dissembling realizes he's betraying Hugh but continues as the go-between nonetheless asking adults naive questions about the attractions of men and women. Can an affair between neighbors stay secret for long? And how does innocence end?

• Picnic At Hanging Rock - The Director's Cut | Blu Ray | (26/07/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  On Saturday 14th February 1900 a party of schoolgirls from Appleyard College took a trip to Hanging Rock near Mt. Macedon in the state of Victoria. During the idyllic sun-drenched afternoon some of the party left the rest of the group and having climbed higher stopped to rest and fell asleep. They awoke as though still in a dream and silently ventured further through a passage in the imposing rock face. Some of the girls were never seen again. The film that established Peter Weir as a major filmmaker is a critically acclaimed classic of Australian cinema. With BAFTA-winning photography and a memorably haunting score Picnic at Hanging Rock remains one of the most chillingly atmospheric and beautifully enigmatic films ever made.

• How Green Was My Valley | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £33.39   |  Saving you £-13.40 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village the Morgans raise coal mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life. Huw is the youngest in a family of 6 brothers and 1 sister and the film centers on his struggle toward manhood amid conflicting demands of faith economics education and family loyalty in a Wales caught in an irreversible shift from a pastoral to an industrialized society.

• The Go-Between | Blu Ray | (15/02/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Christie stars as Marian sister to Marcus and about to be engaged to Hugh (Edward Fox) a good-natured Viscount and her perfect match. During the course of summer 1900 13-year-old Leo comes to stay at the Norfolk stately home of his classmate Marcus and is soon befriended by Marian. Initially ignorant of the implications Leo agrees to carry messages between Marian and her neighbour the eminently unsuitable local farmer Ted Burgess (Alan Bates). As the oppressive heat intensifies so do Leo's questions about the laws of attraction and love... and as his childhood innocence is threatened so is the fragile web of relationships so recently forged over the course of this summer's passions deceptions and revelations... Adapted from the classic novel by LP Hartley by Harold Pinter this was his third collaboration with director Joseph Losey and won him a BAFTA for Best Screenplay. Also a BAFTA winner for Best Actress the film also stars Michael Redgrave.

• Absolution (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (24/04/2023) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  At a Catholic boys' school, domineering disciplinarian Father Goddard (Richard Burton, Look Back in Anger, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold) rules over his pupils with an iron hand. When one of his teenage charges confesses to murder, the dogmatic but deeply repressed Goddard finds his faith challenged and his life spiralling dangerously out of control. Also starring Billy Connolly (in his first feature-film role), Dominic Guard (The Go-Between, Picnic at Hanging Rock), Kes star Dai Bradley, and the inimitable Brian Glover (Kes, Jabberwocky, Alien3), and written by the great Anthony Shaffer (The Wicker Man, Sleuth), Absolution is one of British cinema's most underrated chillers, not least for a towering central performance by Burton. Product Features 2K restoration Original mono audio Alternative presentations of the main feature: the original 1978 Theatrical Version and the 2018 Director's Cut Audio commentary with Kevin Lyons, editor of The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television, on the original theatrical version The Devil to Pay (2018, 12 mins): new and exclusive interview with director Anthony Page in which he reflects on the production of Absolution Them and Us (2018, 13 mins): new and exclusive interview with actor Dominic Guard Cutting the Cloth (2018, 9 mins): new and exclusive interview with costume designer Anne Gainsford Original theatrical trailer Stills and posters gallery Press materials gallery New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Absolution | DVD | (07/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  confessions turn from a practical joke to a real murder mystery Father Goddard (Richard Burton) hears confessions at a catholic school. In confession student Benjamin Stanfield tells Goddard that he has accidentally murdered his friend (Billy Connolly) and buried him in the forest. Goddard investigates the matter and finds a buried scarecrow. Shortly after Stanfield once again enters the confession booth telling Goddard that what before was a practical joke he has now made hap

• The Lord of the Rings -- Limited Edition Box Set | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the film's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• The Go Between | DVD | (16/09/2019) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Julie Christie stars in this adaptation of the classic novel by L.P. Hartley. A young teenage boy, Leo (Dominic Guard), is invited to a wealthy school friend's family estate and is drawn into a love affair between his friend's twenty-something sister, Marian (Christie), and the family neighbour, even though she is engaged to be married. She uses Leo as a go-between, sending messages to her lover. Despite feeling he is betraying her fiance Hugh (Edward Fox), Leo carries on being the go-between and discovers more about the attraction between men and women along the way.