"Actor: G"

• The Net - Collector's Edition / The Net 2.0 | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Net (Dir. Irwin Winkler 1995): Angela Bennett (Sandra Bullock) is a freelance computer analyst who spends her days tracking down computer viruses and her nights at home 'chatting' to other Internet users. She is content with her reclusive existence until her life is turned upside down when she is sent a top-secret disc. Caught up in a murderous web of corruption and conspiracy and pursued by a force that will stop at nothing including deleting all traces of her existenc

• Tokyo Drifter | DVD | (25/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Tokyo Drifter director Seijun Suzuki transforms the yakuza genre into a pop-art James Bond cartoon as directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The near-incomprehensible plot is negligible: hitman "Phoenix" Tetsu (Tetsuya Watari), a cool killer in dark shades who whistles his own theme song, discovers his own mob has betrayed his code of ethics and hits the road like a questing warrior, with not one but two mobs hot on his trail. In a world of shifting loyalties Tetsu is the last honourable man, a character who might have stepped out of a Jean-Pierre Melville film and into the delirious, colour-soaked landscape of this Vincent Minnelli musical-turned-gangster war zone. The twisting narrative takes Tetsu from deliriously gaudy nightclubs, where killers hide behind every pillar, to the beautiful snowy plains of northern Japan and back again, leaving a trail of corpses in his wake. Suzuki opens the widescreen production in stark, high-contrast black and white with isolated eruptions of colour which finally explode in a screen glowing with oversaturated hues, like a comic book come to life. His extreme stylisation, jarring narrative leaps and wild plot devices combine to create pulp fiction on acid, equal parts gangster parody and post-modern deconstruction. Mere description cannot capture the visceral effect of Suzuki's surreal cinematic fireworks. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• 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...

• The Snows of Kilimanjaro/Farewell to Arms | DVD | (31/12/2007) from £19.17   |  Saving you £2.82 (12.80%)   |  RRP £21.99

  The Snows Of Kilimanjaro: This lavish big-budget blockbuster combined tales from Ernest Hemingway's life with Papa's already famous autobiographical novel of the same name. As Harry (Gregory Peck) lies wounded and delirious in an African campsite at the foot of the snow-covered slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro he recounts the story of his life in a series of flashbacks. Writing women and big-game hunting - these are the things that have defined and dominated his existence. In pursuit of all three he has travelled the globe from the salons of Bohemian Paris to the battlefields of Spain to the plains of Africa. Now in the shadow of the greatest mountain and his own approaching death from gangrene he tries to make sense of his failures. Few Hemingway novels play as well onscreen as they do on paper but under the direction of Henry King Peck and Susan Hayward who plays Harry's devoted beau turn in inspired performances but both are eclipsed by Ava Gardner as Cynthia the love he lost. A Farewell To Arms: Ernest Hemingway's tragic story was first brought to the screen in 1932 by Frank Borzage in a surprisingly sophisticated and respectful form. The director brilliantly alternates objective and subjective camerawork (for which Charles Lang won and Oscar) and obtains superior performances from his leading players Helen Hayes as the British nurse and the sublimely handsome and charming American Ambulance driver Gary Cooper. The storyline was difficult to get past the censors even in pre-code days but Paramount managed to release the film with only brief cuts. However the studio fretted that audiences would not accept the novel's bleak finale and insisted that Borzage film an alternate 'happy' ending.

• Freestyle - The Art Of Rhyme | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This film explosively documents the world of improvisational rap and provides an authentic look into the life music and culture of hip hop. Packed with rare archival footage of some of the most amazing hip hop MC's ever to bless the mic this DVD documents the freestyle from the early 1980's through to the present day. Featuring a who's who list of seminal hip hop figures including MC Supernatural Mos Def members Black Thought & Questlove Notorious B.I.G. Tupac Freestyle Fellowship Lord Finesse Cut Chemist Craig G Juice Medusa Planet Asia Crazy Legs Jurassic 5 Wordsworth The Last Poets and many many more.

• Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro / Jean-Pierre Vincent, Paolo Olmi, Opéra de Lyon | DVD | (23/05/2003) from £9.97   |  Saving you £15.02 (60.10%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Popular performance of Mozart's famous Opera recorded at the Mozart Festival of the German State Opera conducted by Paolo Olmi.

• Weekend in Vegas | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £12.96   |  Saving you £-7.97 (-159.70%)   |  RRP £4.99

  An indecent proposal too tempting to resist. A young married couple Jed and Sally are struggling to survive. They head to Las Vegas hoping their luck would change. They win more money than they dared dream of but Jed returns to the casino alone to gamble - and loses their win. He is propositioned by the club owner; a night of sex in return for money....

• Timelock | DVD | (22/07/2002) from £9.77   |  Saving you £-6.78 (-226.80%)   |  RRP £2.99

  The twenty-third century finds a maximum security prison floating in space. The very worst of human life is housed here in a state of cryo suspension. A commercial transportation ship loaded with fresh criminals is on the way. One character manages to infect the prisons computer system with a virus freeing all the prisoners.

• Mozart: Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) -- Stuttgart/Zagrosek | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £22.89   |  Saving you £2.10 (9.17%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Mozart's first operatic hit Die Enfuhrung aus dem Serial ("The abduction from the seraglio") was a singspiel, a forerunner of the musical comedy with spoken dialogue between the musical numbers. In this beautifully sung, imaginatively staged production from the Stuttgart Opera House the director Hans Neuenfels splits each character by placing an actor at every singer's side who not only takes over his role for the spoken dialogue but also interacts with his singing double and other characters in the opera. Sometimes the pairing brings a sparring match between actor and singer, adding a further dimension to the drama, at other times the conductor of the orchestra becomes involved, as when Belmonte, the Spanish nobleman, directs him to cue the orchestra for his first aria. The production, in modern dress with each character clearly delineated by the costume designer, takes a few minutes to warm up while we address the director's concept. Osmin, the keeper of the harem is a tattooed thug with a sidekick to match. The aristocratic Konstanze, who has been abducted and imprisoned under him, and her intended Belmonte are in fashionable black, while their two servants are the object of much merriment. The spoken role of the Pasha adds a dramatic frisson to the plans for the abduction. His entry with his retinue walking toward the audience on a raised platform holding stakes topped out with severed heads is a riveting piece of theatre. So too is the final appearance of the ensemble. But as ever with Mozart there's a human dimension to this tale. The close up camerawork shows the Pasha's reactions and those of Konstanze to his advances as she reveals in a moving aria how she loves another man from whom she was cruelly parted. In Act Two the double duet of reconciliation between Konstanze and Belmonte, Blonde and Pedrillo as they question each others' constancy not only brings a sublime quartet but a heart stopping scene of filmed opera as the camera catches the couples' feet moving toward one another as they embrace in an intimate dance. The continuation here of the action into Act Three without a break (as with the earlier acts) brings a plus factor in dramatic continuity where there would be another interval in the opera house. Aside from one momentary lapse from Belmonte in his last aria, the singing throughout this production, like the orchestral playing under Lothar Zagrosek, matches any version on CD now on the market. On the DVD: We have the customary choice of subtitles, cues for the musical numbers and a short commentary accompanying a still of the principal characters in the opera.--Adrian Edwards

• Hitchcock Classics - The Man Who Knew Too Much / The 39 Steps | DVD | (29/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  39 Steps: Alfred Hitchcock considered The 39 Steps to be one of his favourite films partly because it launched his classic theme of the innocent man on the run from villains and lawmen. Robert Donat stars as Richard Hannay in this freely adapted version of John Buchan's story. Despite repeated remakes Hitchcock's riveting original remains unequalled. The Man Who Knew Too Much: A husband and wife's holiday in Switzerland goes horribly wrong when their daughter is kidnapped leading them into a web of mystery and intrigue...

• Lola And Bilidikid | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Kutlag Ataman's highly charged thriller takes us into the shadowy world of Berlin's Gay Turkish emigres, who live lives of double jeopardy - from extreme homophobia within their own ethnic culture and from lethal German xenophobes who may also be homophobes. The pivotal figure is 17 year old Murat, who is struggling with his own homosexuality when he meets the disowned, older gay brother he never knew he had, a popular female impersonator known as Lola.

• The Stranger | DVD | (07/04/2008) from £7.09   |  Saving you £-1.10 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Orson Welles stars and directs in this classic 1946 movie. Welles portrays Charles Rankin a respected academic at a Connecticut college. He seems to have the perfect American life - A beautiful new wife (Loretta Young) and a charming home in a small town that holds him in high esteem. Enter Mr. Wilson (Edward G. Robinson) a detective who is on the hunt for Nazi war criminal Franz Kindler. The appearance of Mr. Wilson threatens to reveal that beneath Charles Rankin's idyllic veneer is a very disturbing secret.

• Girl On A Motorcycle | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Caught midway between 1970s soft-porn clunker The Story of O and Bunuel's sado-masochistic fantasy Belle de Jour, the 1968 erotic curio Girl on a Motorcycle is one of Marianne Faithfull's chief claims to notoriety. She stars as Rebecca, a leather-clad, former bookstore clerk in search of sexual fulfilment who flees her dependable schoolteacher husband for a dangerous liaison with Daniel (Alain Delon), a dashing Professor addicted to speed. The story is told entirely in flashbacks as Rebecca rockets along the road, having donned her leathers and walked out on her sleeping husband at the crack of dawn. It all must have seemed fairly daring and provocative in 1968, providing viewers with ample opportunities to view a naked Faithfull at the height of her allure. But today the existential musings of the lead character seem achingly pretentious, the erotic symbolism merely gawky and unintentionally amusing: the sight of Alain Delon with a phallic pipe dangling from his mouth is like something out of a Rene Magritte painting. The sex scenes between Delon and Faithfull are all swamped in a polarised visual effect that, while garish and psychedelic, is dated and distinctly unerotic. Director Jack Cardiff is better known as a cinematographer on classics such as The African Queen and Black Narcissus. Among Cardiff's other directorial credits is a worthy adaptation of DH Lawrence's Sons & Lovers, but Girl on a Motorcycle is a saucy road movie with no final destination. On the DVD: This DVD version is misleadingly presented as being the fully restored and uncut version of the film. Yet it was the US version not the European one that was heavily cut (and titillatingly re-titled "Naked Under Leather"). The restoration certainly does not refer to the print quality: although the colours are vivid and bright, the print used to master the DVD (in 16:9 anamorphic format) is extremely grainy and, at times, speckled with dirt and scratches. Included as one of the special features, a theatrical trailer loaded with innuendo shows just how much the film was marketed to a prurient audience. Director Jack Cardiff provides an audio commentary but has few revelatory things to say about his film beyond technical considerations, and even makes several clunking errors (recalling his casting decisions concerning a scene that takes place in a provincial German café, he raves about how he strove to find authentic French locals!). He does reveal that the film's use of a voice-over was inspired by the internal monologue that forms the basis of James Joyce's Ulysses. Given Cardiff's age and experience one feels that he must have more interesting anecdotes and insights, making this commentary feel like a wasted opportunity. --Chris Campion

• The Zone | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Former Gulf War hero Rowdy Welles (Davi) is framed for murder by unscrupulous CIA boss Dick Althorp (Gazzara). As the price of his freedom Welles is ordered to undertake a deadly mission to destroy a nuclear processing plant in a foreign nation owned by dangerous tyrant Lothar Krasna (Godunov)...

• The House On 92nd Street | DVD | (23/04/2007) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (27.40%)   |  RRP £12.99

  ""The F.B.I.'s own tense terrific story behind the protection of the Atomic Bomb!"" Nazi spies have infiltrated America one of which tries to recruit a college graduate who then becomes a double agent for the F.B.I.

• Le Pacte Du Silence | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £6.73   |  Saving you £13.26 (66.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Gerard Depardieu stars as Jesuit priest Dr. Joachim Ferrer harboring a secret from his violent past and having found solace in the church he soon finds himself caught in a web of intrigue when a young Carmelite nun Sarah is rushed to the hospital. Suffering from inexplicable pain and delusions Joachim recognizes in Sarah the familiar symptoms of repression and denial. What no one knows is the terrifying secret she carries inside her a secret her twin sister Gaelle three thousand

• Hans Christian Andersen - 20 Classic Fairytales | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The fantastic world of Hans Christian Andersen. This six DVD set includes 20 of the worldfamous fairytale-writer's very best fairytales! These unique fairytales have been created in the Danish monastery of Borglum where Hans Christian Andersen himself once lived. The fairytales come alive through magnificent puppet theatre and narration - exactly as they did when the great writer himself was alive. Disc 1: The Tinder Box The Woman With The Eggs The Emperor's New Clothes Jack The Dullard Disc 2: The Shepherdess And The Sweep The Ugly Duckling There's No Doubt About It The Little Match Seller Disc 3: Little Claus And Big Claus The Brave Tin Soldier A Great Grief Disc 4: The Swineherd The Nightingale The Puppet-Show Man The Top And The Ball Disc 5: What The Old Man Does Is Always Right Little Tiny Thumbelina The Saucy Boy Disc 6: The Princess And The Pea The Travelling Companion

• Stolen Summer | DVD | (17/01/2005) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Alice returns

• Buffet Froid | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Bertrand Blier's C''sar Award winning surreal comedy in which Gerard Depardieu stars as a suspected serial killer pitted against an ageing police inspector.

• The Edward G Robinson Collection | DVD | (15/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  In a career that spanned fifty years and some ninety films Edward G Robinson became best known for his 'tough guy' image being cast in many similar roles following the success of his 1931 film Little Caesar. The three DVD collection highlights other aspects of his career. He was just as comfortable playing more dramatic roles such as Scarlet Street and both he and Orson Welles give exceptional performances in The Stranger. The collection is completed with The Red House a suspense thriller.