"Actor: Fran"

• Romance | DVD | (10/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Romance follows a young French woman, Marie, and her journey to gain control of her life.

• You'll Get Over It | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Teenager Vincent has it all: he's good looking sporty popular at school and has a beautiful girlfriend. However his world starts to fall apart when the other pupils find out his hitherto secret true sexuality...

• Deep In The Woods | DVD | (26/08/2002) from £4.98   |  Saving you £15.01 (301.41%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Deep in the Woods is an average horror film, unusual only because it was made in France. A troupe of young actors who specialise in school performances are hired by sinister aristocrat Francois Berleand to perform their "Little Red Riding Hood" act at his remote mansion as a birthday treat for his strangely silent grandson. As is often the case, the film works better in the early stages as it piles on the omens and disturbing touches, with unsettling byplay between host and guests, than it does in the extended finale, which features the familiar demises of most of the cast as someone dressed in the Big Bad Wolf costume stalks with a spear-gun and unorthodox use is made of a handy nail gun. The young, attractive victims bicker and get naked just like in a rubbish American movie and leading lady/likely survivor Clotilde Courau (best known as the young Anne Parillaud in Map of the Human Heart) is wasted in a nothing role, but mad people Berleand and Lavant provide some entertainment value.--Kim Newman

• Gounod: Romeo et Juliette | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £24.19   |  Saving you £10.80 (44.65%)   |  RRP £34.99

  A performance of Gounod's opera 'Romeo Et Juliette' in five acts recorded live at The Royal Opera House Covent Garden.

• Rosemary's Baby | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Possibly the best horror film ever made this brilliant adaptation of Ira Levin's best-selling novel is the story of a loving young New York city couple who are experiencing their first child. Like most first time mothers Rosemary experiences confusion and fear. Her husband an ambitious but unsuccessful actor makes a pact with the devil that promises to send his career skyward. Director Roman Polanski elicits uniformly extraordinary performances from the all-star cast. Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for her performance as an oversolicitous next-door neighbour in this classic chiller.

• Modern Life | DVD | (27/07/2009) from £21.02   |  Saving you £-5.03 (-31.50%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A truly uplifting cinematic experience infused with warmth and care from filmmaker Depardon who spent 20 years chronicling life in rural France.

• Mind Your Language - The Best Of Mind Your Language - Vol. 1 | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The First Lesson: When Jeremy Brown arrives at the Southbank College of Further Education little does he realise how stressful teaching can be - until he meets the students! An Inspector Calls: Jeremy causes confusion whilst mistaking the school inspector for a new student. Worse still after expounding his theory on the old-fashioned teaching practices of inspectors he then insults the inspector's wife! A Fate Worse Than Death: Wedding bells are in the air when Ranjeet asks Jeremy for help in ditching his bride to be. Jeremy could be walking up the aisle sooner than he thinks! All Through The Night: Working late takes on a whole new meaning when Jeremy and his class are locked in the classroom. Songs and gags ensue but the night can only get worse when Miss Courtney turns up.

• La Zizanie | DVD | (16/08/2005) from £11.39   |  Saving you £-0.17 (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.22

  An inventor and a small-time industrialist Guillaume (Louis De Funes) has come up with something which will take advantage of air pollution and manages to confuse a delegation of Japanese into placing an order for 3 000 of the things. Just a few obstacles stand in the way of his delivering on the order. For one thing he has no factory in which to make them. He decides to dedicate all the extra space in his house to building them though perhaps he should have told his wife (Annie Girardot) first because she seems to have been made unhappy by these developments.

• Rien Ne Va Plus | DVD | (17/04/2006) from £11.05   |  Saving you £8.94 (80.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Claude Chabrol's fiftieth film two lifelong partners in crime Betty (Isabelle Hupert) and Victor (Michel Serrault) operating out of a small RV criss-cross the country hopping from convention to convention and scamming bourgeois businessmen out of petty sums of money. They make enough however to maintain a comfortable if elusive lifestyle. When Victor discovers that Betty has been carrying on her own scam for over a year the blurry lines between secrets and lies break down.

• Sesame Street: 25 Wonderful Years: A Musical Celebration! | DVD | (01/07/1997) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Les Noces Rouges | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £9.70   |  Saving you £10.29 (51.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Les Noces Rouges Claude Chabrol extends his usual stinging examination of the French bourgeoisie family into the exaggerated realm of the tragi-comic all the while maintaining his signature elements of psychological terror and thrilling yet detached suspense. Based on an actual French murder case Les Noces Rouges is the story of two lovers each stuck in loveless marriages. Lucienne (Stephane Audran) is married to the frigid and obtuse Paul who is the semi-corrupt mayor of their small town. Pierre (Michel Piccoli) is Paul's deputy mayor and is married to a chronically ill and lifeless wife. An illicit affair of exaggerated passion explodes between Pierre and Lucienne and for a while their passion is enough for them. However when Pierre's wife mysteriously dies and Lucienne's husband discovers her infidelity the plot switches from its seemingly sleepy bourgeois tale of marital troubles and delves into the film noir stylings that could be compared to The Postman Always Rings Twice. The political duplicitousness enacted by Paul and Pierre behind closed doors in the small town's government offices is mirrored and magnified in the fractured narrative of the deranged and depraved transaction between the three players in this tale of love and lust gone sour.

• Violence In A Woman's Prison | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Shot back to back with 'Emanuelle In Prison' 'Violence In A Woman's Prison' is along the lines of 'The Concrete Jungle' and such other caged delights. Laura Gemser plays yet another Emanuelle a reporter who goes to prison undercover on trumped up charges to expose the corruption within the prison and to secure a scoop about the bad conditions run by sadistic warden Lorraine De Selle. Naturally the place is a hellhole. Gemser bares her fabulous body has sex with Gabrielle Tinti dumps a bucket of faeces on a guard and spends time in the hole where she is devoured and chewed on by hungry rats! Extremely kinky as expected with Mattei managing to stage a somewhat bizarre art rape-scene which looks like something from a Tinto Brass movie where the warden and her lover gets horny while watching a girl being raped and beaten up by male inmates (oh yes there are male inmates here too!). Lorraine De Selle is great as the evil warden and there's another loud great soundtrack by Luigi Ceccaralli.

• The Sure Thing | Blu Ray | (07/09/2015) from £31.03   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Two mismatched college students (John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga) find themselves trapped together during a cross-country road trip, trying to make it home for the holidays. She can't stand him, and he just wants to get to LA, where a sexy "sure thing" is waiting to greet him with open arms. It's not hard to predict where this sweetly old-fashioned romantic comedy is going to end up, but along the way there are many pleasures to be had. Director Rob Reiner, in his second feature (after This Is Spinal Tap), has a nice eye for the kitschy flotsam found along the American highway, and his identification with the college kids doesn't condescend to them one bit. The movie helped make a star of John Cusack, who gives a delightfully spritzy performance--kind of a precursor to his similarly energetic, likeable turn in Say Anything. Given the usual crass tenor of Hollywood college movies, The Sure Thing is something to treasure. --Robert Horton

• Silent Night, Bloody Night | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  The new owner of a mansion discovers it was once a mental home. When he visits his inheritance he sets about investigating some old crimes that took place at the mansion scaring the local populace in the process.

• Caged Women | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Hidden deep in the remote South America jungle is a place of hideous terror. Surrounded by deadly impenetrable swampland stands a dark and desolate castle - a prison of depravity run for the twisted tastes of rich aristocrats. It is a place of misery and despair where beautiful young women are held captive as helpless sexual play-things for their masters. All the mercy of brutal guards the enslaved inmates can only wait in dread for their turn to be used as 'sport' in a series of vile rituals - the most feared of which is the terrifying jungle 'hunt'. The women find comfort in each other's hearts and bodies as their passion for sex is enhanced within the prison walls. When Janet a pretty American tourist is arrested and framed for a crime she never committed she soon falls victim to the prison's evil superintendent. Frightened alone and seemingly without hope of rescue Janet's horrific nightmare is only just the beginning...

• Revenge In The House Of Usher | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-7.54 (-75.50%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Jess Franco directs this low budget slice of Euro horror under the name J.P. Johnson. Revenge in the House of Usher is a chilling tale based on the Edgar Allan Poe classic The Fall of the House of Usher. When Allen comes upon a sinister house clinging to a high cliff he is plunged into the macabre world of the Usher last descendent of a family plagued by madness. Usher leads Allen down a whirlpool of evil where Ushers' murdered wives are vampires and living corpses. Allen is

• Offenbach: La Vie Parisienne | DVD | (14/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Offenbach's 1867 La Vie Parisienne is perhaps the quintessential French comic operetta: a broad satire on Paris society set against the backdrop of the 1867 Exposition and the descent of easily lampooned foreigners on to the city; sharp moments that Molière would be proud of; undercurrents of quick-fire farce, confusion, lust and mistaken identity; and a rich cast of characters racing inexorably to a can-can finale. This 1991 production by the Lyon National Opera presents a welcome opportunity to revel in a uniquely Gallic confection rarely seen outside France. It's also a chance to enjoy one of Offenbach's most inventive, melodic scores in which the starring musical role and many of the best tunes go to the orchestra, here conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce. This is no accident: the operetta was originally created for a company of actors who relied on pastiche and the composer's help to get them through their "numbers". Not so these singers, of course. As Metella, the languorous courtesan who is responsible for the unravelling debacle, Helene Delavault is in meltingly good voice for her show-stopping rondeau, "A minuit sonnant commence la fete". Her sparring suitors Gardefeu (Jean-Francois Sivadier) and, particularly, Bobinet (Jacques Verzier) combine marvellous visual comedy with fluid singing and there is some dazzling vocal work from the supporting cast. It's a long piece, but hugely enjoyable. On the DVD: La Vie Parisienne has the usual, excellent booklet notes of ArtHaus DVD releases, which go some way to compensate for a disappointing lack of extras. Time, surely, to introduce some on-screen history or cross-references to other relevant works. The picture quality is good and sharp, although the 4:3 format does little justice to Carlo Tommasi's sweeping, stylish sets. The PCM Stereo soundtrack provides an adequate orchestral experience while managing to muffle much of the spoken dialogue. --Piers Ford

• Tarare - Salieri | DVD | (21/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Salieri opera peformed at the 1988 Schwetzinger Festspiele. 'Tarare' tells the story of the Spirit Of Nature who creates new people in an attempt to cleanse the human race. The results bring love and jealousy. Sung in French.

• Merci La Vie | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Camille a naive schoolgirl encounters the intriguing Joelle a girl slightly older but vastly more experienced in the ways of the world. Joelle leads Camille into a new a rather uncomfortable world through the discovery of sex and the darker side of life. Later in life as Camille discovers the paralysing fear of Aids she recalls her earlier encounters with Joelle and the fact she may have contracted the disease...

• Debussy: Pelleas et Melisande | DVD | (09/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Debussy's great literary opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, based on Maeterlinck's dramatic reading of the classic tale of sibling rivalry, was first performed in 1902. This 1988 production was recorded at the Opéra National de Lyon, swapping a traditional medieval forest setting for a fin de siècle Castle Allemonde in which the characters wander through vast, shadowy and empty halls. The cast features Colette Alliott-Lugaz as a mercurial Mélisande and Francois le Roux as a Byronic Pelléas, with José van Dam as his brother Golaud, the austere fly in the ointment. Little actually happens on stage. The characters circle each other, describing events and emotions which they only half understand. Often, their recitative is introspective rather than a means of external communication. The drama is played out in the landscape of the mind, punctuated and emphasised by Debussy's remarkable, brooding and atmospheric score. At times, it becomes the swirling stuff of nightmare, an aspect to which John Eliot Gardiner's assured conducting pays close attention. The opera might come to its inevitable end, but there is a strong sense that these ghost-like figures are doomed to repeat their tragic tale endlessly. Uncomfortably haunting stuff, with moments of breathtaking beauty. --Piers Ford