"Actor: Francesco"

• La terra trema (Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (23/06/2025) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In the fishing village of Aci Trezza, Sicily, the Valastro family dream of a better life. Living modestly thanks to merciless wholesalers, eldest son Ntoni takes matters into his own hands and - with the help of a bank loan - starts fishing alone. The venture is initially a success but an unexpected shipwreck means the family must soon fend for themselves. Originally commissioned as propaganda by the Communist Party, master filmmaker Luchino Visconti (The Leopard, Death in Venice) used the real villagers of Aci Trezza as his stars to craft a docu-fictional melodrama about the difficulties of rural life post-World War II. La terra trema was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 1948 Venice Film Festival and is considered one of the finest examples of Italian neorealist cinema. LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES 2K restoration of the film by Cineteca Nazionale Uncompressed mono PCM audio New interview with critic Christina Newland Interview with Italian politician and journalist Pietro Ingrao Interview with assistant director Francesco Rosi Interview with Turi Vasile Trailer Newly improved English subtitle translation Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow Limited edition booklet featuring new and archival writing Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

• Life Is Beautiful | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Italy's rubber-faced funnyman Roberto Benigni accomplishes the impossible in his World War II comedy Life Is Beautiful: he shapes a simultaneously hilarious and haunting comedy out of the tragedy of the Holocaust. An international sensation and the most successful foreign language film in US history, the picture also earned director-cowriter-star Benigni Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor. He plays the Jewish country boy Guido, a madcap romantic in Mussolini's Italy who wins the heart of his sweetheart (Benigni's real-life sweetie, Nicoletta Braschi) and raises a darling son (the adorable Giorgio Cantarini) in the shadow of fascism. When the Nazis ship the men off to a concentration camp in the waning days of the war, Guido is determined to shelter his son from the evils around them and convinces him they're in an elaborate contest to win (of all things) a tank. Guido tirelessly maintains the ruse with comic ingenuity, even as the horrors escalate and the camp's population continues to dwindle--all the more impetus to keep his son safe, secure and, most of all, hidden. Benigni walks a fine line mining comedy from tragedy and his efforts are pure fantasy--he accomplishes feats no man could realistically pull off--both of which have drawn fire from a few critics. Yet for all its wacky humour and inventive gags, Life Is Beautiful is a moving and poignant tale of one father's sacrifice to save not just his young son's life but his innocence in the face of one of the most evil acts ever perpetrated by the human race. --Sean Axmaker

• Francesco's Venice | DVD | (19/06/2006) from £6.34   |  Saving you £13.65 (215.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A breathtaking journey through the ages telling the story of one of the world's most famous and beautiful cities. This lavish landmark series explores how a place with no firm ground no crops no indigenous riches and no land army came to snatch success from the jaws of failure time and time again - right up to the present day. Step back in time to early Venice recreated by the magic of CGI. See wooden houses on stilts replaced by the daring rebuild in stone and brick. Witness th

• Oedipus Rex | Blu Ray | (24/09/2012) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Three years after The Gospel According to Matthew, Pier Paolo Pasolini resumed his series of classical adaptations with asavage, highly personal take on Sophocles' ancient Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex (Edipo Re). As his first colour feature, Oedipus Rex makes brilliant use of wildly alternating Moroccan landscapes to transpose collective myth into a particular vision that is at once tender, sensual, and wholly unsparing.The film is divided into three sections set in different eras. The opening takes place in 1920s Italy, and recounts a birth thatechoes that of the director himself, the product of a beautiful bourgeoise's affair with a military officer. The mid section depicts a time outside of history - it is here that the myth of Oedipus (portrayed by Franco Citti of Accattone and Coppola's The Godfather), one of patricide and incest, plays out opposite the young man's mother/lover (Silvana Mangano). An epilogue shot on the streets of present-day Bologna finds Oedipus playing his flute for a bustling citizenry.

• Platoon | DVD | (18/09/2000) from £7.19   |  Saving you £8.80 (122.39%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Based on the first-hand experience of director Oliver Stone, this is powerful, intense and starkly brutal. Harrowingly realistic and completely convincing, it is a dark, unforgettable memorial to every soldier whose innocence was lost in Vietnam.

• Miracle In Milan | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Vittorio De Sica's (Bicycle Thieves) award-winning masterpiece Miracle in Milan is one of the watershed films of the Italian cinema renaissance. Once upon a time an old woman discovered a young child in her cabbage patch. She cared for him until her death at which time the boy was placed into an orphanage. When the child is released from the orphanage he inspires shantytown squatters to improve their huts and enjoy the world. But as they begin to rebuild the squat

• Platoon | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £5.83   |  Saving you £14.16 (242.88%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Winning a raft of awards, not least of which four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, Oliver Stone's Platoon was a box-office smash heralding Hollywood's second wave of Vietnam war films. Where predecessors The Deer Hunter (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979) were elaborate epics, Platoon simply showed the daily reality of the war from the point of view of ordinary soldiers. Stone's own service in Vietnam gives his work a unique authenticity. Charlie Sheen gives his best performance to date, enduring a series of increasingly large-scale and bloody battles which retrospectively make one wonder why Saving Private Ryan was hailed as so new. Against this gruelling verity the film falters over the symbolic conflict between good and evil sergeants played by Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger. Even though this was also based in real life, it strikes a too conventionally Hollywood-like note in a film which otherwise maintains much of the raw power of Stone's other film from 1986, Salvador. Johnny Depp fans should look out for an early appearance by the star. Stone would return to Vietnam with the more sophisticated Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven and Earth (1993). On the DVD: The 50-minute documentary "Tour of the Inferno" goes beyond the usual "making-of" to present a personal account both of the film and of Stone's own time in Vietnam. Likewise the two audio commentaries--one by Stone, the other by Captain Dale Dye, fellow veteran and military technical advisor--range between the making of the film and the degree to which the actors came to inhabit their parts, to their own wartime experiences. Both commentaries bring a fresh level of appreciation and understanding to the film. Also included is the original trailer and three TV commercials, together with well-presented stills galleries of behind-the-scenes photos and poster art. Following a credit sequence marred by dirt on the print, the anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 image is sharp and clear. The many night scenes are very dark but remain easily comprehensible. The three-channel Dolby Digital sound is suitably raw and powerful, though an early sequence featuring rain in the jungle suffers from very distracting repeated drop-outs in the left channel. --Gary S Dalkin

• Francesco's Italy - Top To Toe | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £23.39   |  Saving you £1.60 (6.84%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Following his sumptuous series on Venice Francesco da Mosto celebrates the art and beauty of Italy - its cathedrals churches palaces opera houses paintings sculpture and music. It is a story of the Italy we all know and love enhanced by a look at the secret side of the country that only an insider can show us. Da Mosta reveals the full glories of Renaissance Italy and the country's astonishing cultural diversity which was only recently unified under one flag. Born into a distinguished family with a Venetian father and a Sicilian mother what better guide could there be than one who knows and loves this magnificent country?

• Boys On Film 19: No Ordinary Boy | DVD | (25/02/2019) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  As BOYS ON FILM reaches the end of its teenage years we take a look at those unique boys; the boys who make the world a better and more exciting place. The boys who will go one step further and always impress. The boys who are not always what they seem

• The Voyeur | DVD | (22/10/2012) from £13.48   |  Saving you £1.51 (11.20%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A young university professor, is the Voyeur of the title reliving various moments of his sex life through a series of erotic flashbacks, trying to understand his wife's bizarre sexual needs and win her back. He also observes the night-time habits of his brazen uninhibited maid and witnesses the totally liberated dalliances of one of his student, a dusky beauty. Remastered in its original sumptuous widescreen, The Voyeur finally gets the release it deserves, in its longest, most complete form ever!

• Francesco's Shakespeare | DVD | (04/06/2012) from £6.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (128.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Nowhere fired Shakespeare's Imagination quite like Italy. But as Francesco Da Mosto argues in this new two part series, Italian cities meant far more to our greatest author than just a sunlit setting.Francesco takes us on a journey from North to South, visiting the spectacular locations that shaped the Bard's genius. This series celebrates Shakespeare as a popular entertainer. The emphasis will be on accessibility and our greatest playwright under the blue skies of Italy, with a feel of Shakespeare meets holiday adventure as Francesco travels between Venice, Verona, Padua, Milan, Mantua, Florence, Rome, Napoli, Sicily and Capri.

• Gomorrah Season 3 | DVD | (12/03/2018) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  With the Godfather Don Pietro murdered, there is a void to be filled in the underworld of Naples. His son Genny takes control, using the opportunity to settle old scores. The survivors of the remaining factions, exhausted by the warring and massive police pressure, have suffered drastic financial losses and make peace. And with Avitabile in prison for another year, Genny now has to reign over North Naples and Rome. Ciro, on the other hand, has had his revenge but his dreams and his family have been destroyed. He decides to leave everything behind, travels to Bulgaria and goes to work for the big-time drug dealer Valentin. But when Ciro has to return to Naples, he forms a new powerful partnership with the young and ambitious Enzo; a light that was once extinguished in Ciro's eyes reappears. Enzo, with Ciro's help, learns how to be a real boss and to take what he is entitled to. It is a time of drastic change for all of them. Once they started out as street-level drug dealers. Now they are casting their net way beyond the city of Naples and the borders of Italy.

• Respiro | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £9.29   |  Saving you £10.70 (115.18%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Imprisoned on Lampedusa, a tiny island off the coast of South Italy, free-spirited young mother Grazia fights against the narrow conventions of her town.

• Romanzo Criminale: Season 1 | DVD | (14/09/2015) from £13.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Romanzo Criminale S1

• Miracle In Milan | Blu Ray | (25/05/2015) from £13.98   |  Saving you £8.00 (66.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After his earth shattering Bicycle Thieves Vittorio De Sica and long time screenwriter Cesare Zavattini turned their neo-realist ideas to something much more like a fable yet retaining the core ideas behind the revolutionary cinema movement. Miracle in Milan went on to wow critics and audiences winning the Grand Prize of the Cannes Film Festival in 1951. Always in the shadow of the ever more popular Bicycle Thieves this largely unsung masterpiece tends toward magic realism to imagine a place where society’s most downtrodden can find purchase and possible escape from misery. Set within a fantastically theatrical shantytown Miracle in Milan constructs an alternate world from De Sica and Zavattini’s fascination with marginalised perspectives. The unusual use of deliberate artifice and spectacle rekindles the Meliesian magical aura of early cinema. Arrow Academy is pleased to present De Sica’s classic along with his 1956 neo-realist film Il Tetto also written by Zavattini in this special edition.

• Neo-Realist Box Set | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £19.84   |  Saving you £15.15 (76.36%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Rome Open City: Roberto Rossellini's startling depiction of Nazi-occupied World War II Rome and one of the most prominent examples of his neorealist cinematic style is the story of a tenaciously held underground resistance against the Germans. When its leader Manfredi (Marcello Pagliero) and a priest Don Pietro (Aldo Fabrizi) are captured the resistance collapses with disastrous personal results to all. The film was nominated for an Oscar for Best Screenplay; Fellini collaborated with Rossellini in the writing of the script. 'Open City' is all the more remarkable in that it was made immediately following the liberation of Rome had been developed while Rossellini himself was in hiding and was filmed in the locations where the true events that the story are based on occurred. (Dir. Roberto Rossellini 1945) The Bicycle Thieves: After nearly two years of unemployment Antonio (Lamberto Maggiorani) finally finds work posting bills. But he needs a bicycle to do the job. Unfortunately he was forced to pawn his own bicycle long ago. In a humbling tragic scene Antonio exchanges his family's linen for his bicycle. But when the bike is stolen on his first day of work he must comb the streets of Rome in search of the bike: his family's only means to survival. Shot on location in Rome and using non-actors as a means of heightening the reality of the film Ladri Di Biciclette received the Honorary Award for Best Foreign Film at the 1950 Oscars. (Dir. Vittorio De Sica 1948) Miracle In Milan: Once upon a time an old woman discovered a young child in her cabbage patch. She cared for him until her death at which time the boy was placed into an orphanage. When the child is released from the orphanage he inspires shantytown squatters to improve their huts and enjoy the world. But as they begin to rebuild the squatters strike oil. The landowner evicts them wanting the oil for himself. But the old woman drops down from heaven to give Toto a magical dove which grants them whatever wish they want. Winner of the Grand Prize at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival - tied with Frken Julie. (Dir. Vittorio De Sica 1951) Umberto D: Retired civil servant Umberto struggles to survive on his rapidly dwindling pension in the harsh environment of post-World War II Rome a city plagued by its society's total disregard for the plight of the elderly the poor and the downtrodden. His only companions are his loyal dog Flag and a pregnant housemaid named Maria (Maria-Pia Casilio). Facing eviction from his humble home by his tyrannical landlady (Lina Gennari) Umberto's desperate failed attempts to raise money lead him to contemplate suicide. But first he must find a home for his little dog. Filmed on location in Rome with a totally non-professional cast Vittorio De Sica's compassionate but unsentimental handling of Umberto's tale devastatingly conveys the wretchedness of poverty and old age. 'Umberto D' is a deeply emotional and moving film that has quite rightly been hailed as a timeless classic of modern cinema. (Dir. Vittorio De Sica 1952) I Vitelloni: Five young men linger in post-adolescent limbo dreaming of adventure and escape from their small seacoast town. They while away their time spending the lira doled out by their indulgent families on drink women and nights at the local pool hall. Federico Fellini's second solo directorial effort is a semi-autobiographical masterpiece of sharply drawn character sketches. An international success and recipient of an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay I Vitelloni compassionately details a year in the life of small-town layabouts struggling to find meaning in their lives. (Dir. Federico Fellini 1953)

• Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £7.72   |  Saving you £17.27 (223.70%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Venetian architect and historian Francesco da Mosto sets out from Venice to cross the Mediterranean sea - following in the wake of his ancestor the explorer Alvise da Mosto - to discover the cities and islands where Western civilization was born. Sailing in a late nineteenth-century schooner his journey starts in Venice and finishes in Istanbul. Along the way he takes in spectacular ruins like the Acropolis in Athens and the Roman city of Ephesus in Turkey; sacred sites like the monasteries of Mount Athos and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul; and beautiful Dubrovnik (destroyed and rebuilt in the last decade). Ancient history and bygone legends intertwine as Francesco visits these wonderful ancient sites bringing the past vividly to life.

• Gomorrah Season 3 | Blu Ray | (12/03/2018) from £16.55   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  There is a void to be filled in the underworld of Naples. Genny takes control, using the opportunity to settle old scores. The survivors of the remaining factions, exhausted by the warring and massive police pressure, have suffered drastic financial losses and make peace. And with Avitabile in prison for another year, Genny now has to reign over North Naples and Rome. Ciro, on the other hand, has had his revenge but his dreams and his family have been destroyed. He decides to leave everything behind, travels to Bulgaria and goes to work for the big-time drug dealer Valentin. But when Ciro has to return to Naples, he forms a new powerful partnership with the young and ambitious Enzo; a light that was once extinguished in Ciro s eyes reappears. Enzo, with Ciro s help, learns how to be a real boss and to take what he is entitled to. It is a time of drastic change for all of them. Once they started out as street-level drug dealers. Now they are casting their net way beyond the city of Naples and the borders of Italy.

• Spring | Blu Ray | (30/11/2020) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Channeling the films of Richard Linklater by way of H.P. Lovecraft, Spring is one of the most critically acclaimed horror films of recent years, now released on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. On the run from the law after a bar-room brawl, troubled Evan flees the US to Italy. Arriving completely alone and without a plan, he soon meets the mysterious Louise, and quickly falls in love. But upon discovering that there's more to her than meets the eye, he must decide just how far he'll go for love.

• Before the Revolution (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (22/08/2011) from £14.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (33.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A rarely seen early work from one of world cinema s most acclaimed directors, Bernardo Bertolucci s beautiful and unique Before the Revolution - made when he was just 22 captures the passions and ideology of the 1960s. Young, idealistic and bourgeois, Fabrizio struggles to come to terms with these contradictions and master a transgressive love for his auntPart autobiography, part literary adaptation, part homage to the French new-wave and Italian neo-realists that inspired him, Bertolucci s virtuosic second film is an atmospheric, ambiguous portrait of idealistic youth.