"Actor: Giorgio"

• 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

• Life Is Beautiful | DVD | (30/05/2011) from £6.97   |  Saving you £13.02 (186.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An inspired award-winning story about the power of love and the human spirit Life Is Beautiful has been called a modern masterpiece! Guido - a charming but bumbling waiter who's gifted with a colourful imagination and an irresistible sense of humour - has won the heart of the woman he loves and created a beautiful life for his young family. But then that life is threatened by World War IIand Guido must rely on those very same strengths to save his beloved wife and son from an unthinkable fate... Honoured with an overwhelming level of critical acclaim this truly exceptional utterly unique motion picture will lift your spirits and capture your heart.

• Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (2-disc Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (30/09/2019) from £22.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Banned, censored and reviled the world over since its release, Pasolini's final and most controversial masterpiece is presented here fully uncut and uncensored in a new restoration. The content and imagery of Salò is extreme: it remains the power to shock, repel and distress. But it remains a cinematic milestone: culturally significant, politically vital and visually stunning. Based on a novel by the Marquis de Sade - and taking as its setting the miniature fascist republic which Mussolini established in 1944 in Italy - this is a film about power, corruption, and the degradation of the human body. It is a devastating, angry cry from one of the most controversial auteurs in cinema history. Special features: Presented in High Definition Includes both Italian-language and English-language versions Ostia-The Death of Pasolini by Coil the band's 1986 track with a new video accompaniment Original Italian trailer Open Your Eyes! (2008, 21 mins): Pasolini and his actors at work on the set of Salò Walking with Pasolini (2008, 21 mins): documentary featuring Neil Bartlett, David Forgacs, Noam Chomsky and Craig Lapper Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die (1981, 58 mins): the classic documentary on the life and death of Pasolini Fade to Black (2001, 24 mins): documentary exploring the ongoing relevance and power of Pasolini s masterpiece Ostia (1987, 26 mins): a short film about Pasolini starring Derek Jarman with optional director's commentary ***FIRST PRESSING ONLY*** booklet with introduction by Sam Rohdie, reviews, BBFC correspondence exploring the film's troubled history, stills and on-set photographs Other extras TBC

• Madama Butterfly - Puccini | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Of all Puccini's major operas, the intimate tragedy of Madama Butterfly is least in need of elaborate staging and might therefore benefit most from the close scrutiny of film. The story is domestic, the setting Spartan, the incidental characters kept to a minimum. This 1974 version, however, demonstrates that Butterfly still needs a healthy injection of proscenium arch melodrama. Director Jean-Pierre Ponelle's production strives for realism but remains unfortunately studio-bound, having neither the benefit of location filming nor the heightened reality of an opera stage. The exterior is a perpetually fog-shrouded heath of indeterminate locale; the interior is cramped and unadorned. The setting is just too prosaic to contain the epic emotions of grand opera. Thankfully, the cast is superb, headed by Placido Domingo's rakish Pinkerton and Mirella Freni's rubicund Butterfly. Their singing is incomparable, as is Herbert von Karajan's musical direction of the Vienna Phil. The singers mime to pre-recorded music, which is occasionally disconcerting since when film demands close-ups opera provides broad gestures. Musically, this Butterfly is impeccable. Visually it adds nothing that could not be seen to better effect in a stage version. On the DVD: Madama Butterfly is presented disappointingly on disc in a poor NTSC transfer full of distracting graininess that makes every scene, both inside and out, look like it takes place in an omnipresent drizzle. Sound is reasonable stereo and adequate 5.0 surround. There are subtitles in the major European languages as well as Chinese, and the booklet contains a background essay plus synopsis. --Mark Walker

• Rome Unpacked (BBC) | DVD | (12/03/2018) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Andrew Graham-Dixon and Giorgio Locatelli's latest Italian adventure brings them to Rome in search of the greatest food and art that they can find off the beaten track. To really understand Rome, you must understand its people - or the mob, as they were known in ancient times. As Giorgio Locatelli and Andrew Graham-Dixon explore Italy's iconic capital, they are in search of the generations of ordinary Romans who have left their mark on the city's culture and gastronomy. Giorgio insists that they travel, in true Roman style, by moped. They start their journey at the Trevi fountain, immortalised in Fellini's La Dolce Vita - which itself featured countless locals as extras to capture the real faces of Rome. Giorgio leads Andrew to some of his personal favourite districts, including Garbatella, Italy's first 'garden suburb', with its vibrant market stalls and village architecture, and introduces him to the simplest Roman food - the true food of the people . He also insists on showing him how spaghetti carbonara should really be made - add cream and I'll kill you. In turn, Andrew introduces Giorgio to some of the most moving pictures by Caravaggio, the painter of the people , in what was once the city's foremost church for poor pilgrims - and they set out together to enjoy one of the great erotic masterpieces of Baroque painting. La Dolce Vita still exists, you just have to know where to find it. Includes subtitles for the Hard of Hearing.

• Don't Look Now | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £10.22   |  Saving you £6.76 (93.50%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Don't Look Now was filmed in 1973 and based around a Daphne Du Maurier novel. Directed by Nicolas Roeg, it has lost none of its chill: like Kubrick's The Shining, its dazzling use of juxtaposition, colour, sound and editing make it a seductive experience in cinematic terror, whose aftershock lingers in daydreams and nightmares, filling you with uncertainty and dread even after its horrific climax. Donald Sutherland plays John Baxter, an architect, Julie Christie his wife: a well-to-do couple whose young daughter drowns while out playing. Cut to Venice, out of season, where the couple encounter a pair of sisters, one of whom claims psychic powers and to have communicated with their dead daughter. The subsequent plot is as labyrinthine as the back streets of the city itself, down which Baxter spots a diminutive and elusive red-coated figure akin to his daughter, before being drawn into an almost unbearable finale. Don't Look Now is a Gothic masterpiece, with its melange of gore, mystery, ecstasy, the supernatural and above all grief, while the city of Venice itself--which thanks to Roeg and his team seems to breathe like a dark, sinister living organism throughout the movie--deserves a credit in its own right. Not just a magnificent drama but an advanced feat of cinema. --David Stubbs

• Salo | Blu Ray | (23/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  The world's most controversial film comes to DVD and Blu-ray in 2-disc editions. Presented fully uncut and in its most complete version the film has been re-mastered from the original Italian restoration negatives. Pier Paolo Pasolini's final and most shocking film has been banned censored and reviled the world over since its first release in 1975. Salo did not receive UK certification until late 2000 when it was passed uncut. The BFI then released it on DVD in 2001 and despite having been out of print for almost three years the title still ranks amongst BFI's all-time top 10 best-selling DVDs. The film's content and imagery is extreme and it retains the power to shock repel and distress even today. A brutal allegory based on the novel 120 Days of Sodom by the Marquis de Sade the film is a cinematic milestone - culturally significant politically vital and visually stunning.

• The Gospel According to Matthew | Blu Ray | (26/03/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Internationally hailed by critics as his masterpiece, Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to St Matthew is a visually stunning, emotionally stirring film version of the life of Christ, based upon the writings of the apostle Matthew.Pasolini's vision is both deeply religious and determinedly polictical, with the messiah portrayed as a peasant outcast, driven by anger at social injustice. Convincing performances by an entirely non-professional cast, impressive cinematography and an inventive use of music, from Bach to Billie Holiday, combine to great effect in this landmark of world cinema.Pier Paolo Pasolini is one of the most controversial figures of the Italian cultural landscape. Not only a film director, he was also an essayist, poet, novelist and committed communist. His films remain his most enduring legacy.

• A Man on His Knees | Blu Ray | (07/10/2024) from £17.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Mistaken as a witness to a crime, Nino (Giuliano Gemma, The Iron Prefect), learns from a friend he has been put on a Mafia hit list and is being stalked by an assassin (Michele Placido, Romanzo Criminale),A man with a troubled past, Nino knows only too well what he faces and uses all his strength and cunning to keep himself and his family alive,Featuring stunning performances from both leads, Damiano Damiani (The Day of the Owl) applies his trademark realism and socio-political commentary to A Man on His Knees, charting Nino's desperation as he refuses to kneel before the power of organised crime,Newly restored in 4K, Radiance Films is proud to present one of Damiani's finest films on Blu-ray for the first time in the world. LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURESNew 4K restoration from the original negativeUncompressed mono PCM audioArchival interviews with stars Giuliano Gemma, Tano Cimarosa and assistant director Mino GiardaNew interview with Alberto Pezzotta, author of Regia Damiano DamianiTrailerReversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo Di BattistaBooklet featuring new writing by Roberto CurtiLimited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

• LA NOTTE | Blu Ray | (23/09/2013) from £13.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (49.74%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of the masterworks of 1960s cinema, La notte [The Night] marked yet another development in the continuous stylistic evolution of its director, Michelangelo Antonioni - even as it solidified his reputation as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. La notte is Antonioni's Twilight of the Gods, but composed in cinematic terms. Examined from a crane-shot, it's a sprawling study of Italy's upper middle-class; seen in close-up, it's an x-ray of modern man's psychic desolation. Two of the giants of film-acting come together as a married couple living in crisis: Marcello Mastroianni (La dolce vita, 8-1/2) and Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim, Bay of Angels). He is a renowned author and public intellectual; she is the wife. Over the course of one day and the night into which it inevitably bleeds, the pair will come to re-examine their emotional bonds, and grapple with the question of whether love and communication are even possible in a world built out of profligate idylls and sexual hysteria. Photographed in rapturous black-and-white by the great Gianni di Venanzo (8-1/2, Giulietta degli spiriti), La notte presents the beauty of seduction, then asks: When did this occur - this seduction of Beauty? The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Michelangelo Antonioni's haunted odyssey for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Special Features: New 1080p presentation of the film in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio with previously censored sequences restored for the first time. New and improved English subtitles Original Italian Theatrical Trailer 56-page booklet with an essay by film-critic and scholar Brad Stevens, and the transcript of a lengthy Q&A conducted in 1961 with Antonioni upon the film’s release.

• I'm Not Scared | DVD | (09/05/2011) from £5.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (70.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Secrets. Betrayal. Murder. Who can you trust when everyone's a suspect? Something sinister is lurking under the surface of 10-year old Michele's idyllic summer. While the days in his remote southern Italian village are filled with the familiar routines of childhood a chance discovery leads to a shocking revelation. Now suddenly beyond the point-of-no-return Michele digs further to find that even his own parents may be involved in a monstrous crime...

• Sicily Unpacked | DVD | (04/02/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  TV art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon and Michelin starred chef Giorgio Locatelli take us on a delightful journey around their beloved Sicily. Sharing a passion for all things Sicilian they make the perfect travel partners. We accompany them to the heart of the island as they introduce each other to the things they love most. Exploring the island through each other's eyes and hearts, they reveal how the layers of history have created a unique blend of art and architecture. As well as the pleasures of an intense and vibrant culture, they experience the sadness the island has come through and the strength of the Sicilian people as they rose up and challenged the Mafia. Together they document how the various conquering forces and the rich variety of different heritages have helped to shape both the food and the culture of this beautiful Mediterranean island.

• Magnum Force | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £11.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (16.68%)   |  RRP £13.99

  This first sequel to Dirty Harry was written by a couple of strong voices, writer-directors Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) and John Milius (Farewell to the King). But that doesn't mean the film is particularly good. After Don Siegel's ferociously dark style in the first movie, Ted Post's blocky, television-ish direction in Magnum Force is a huge letdown. The story doesn't win any prizes, either. Eastwood's San Francisco detective Harry Callahan (apparently having retrieved his badge after throwing it away at the end of Dirty Harry) takes on a vigilante squad within the city's police force. David Soul is pretty convincing as the major spokesman for these right-wing avengers. Eastwood, on the other hand, had already turned Callahan from fascinating outsider in Siegel's film to purveyor of tough-guy shtick in this one. --Tom Keogh

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

  Romanzo Criminale S1

• Donizetti - Don Gregorio (Recchia, Montanari) | DVD | (01/12/2008) from £21.38   |  Saving you £3.61 (14.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

• The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  TO AVOID FAINTING KEEP REPEATING IT'S ONLY A MOVIE.... ONLY A MOVIE.... ONLY A MOVIE..... ONLY A MOVIE! In a small town in the north of England an experimental pest-control device is being used with horrific consequences. Edna (Cristina Galbo) and George (Ray Lovelock) are unlikey travelling companions - they met en-route when she backed her car into his motorbike and subsequently offered him a lift to his destination. Stopping over near Manchester Galbo is attacked by a man that the locals say has been dead for days. Edna's sister Katie (Jeannine Mestre) is a prostitute addicted to heroin and when her husband is brutally murdered Katie is the chief suspect according to bitter local inspector (Arthur Kennedy). But Edna and George soon realise that inhabitants are being murdered as meals for the re-animated corpses of the morgue: the new pesticides used in the area are bringing the dead back to life and for sustenance they need human flesh. The Living Dead is widely recognised by horror fans as one of the best zombie movies ever made and the unlikely setting of pretty English countryside makes the flesh-tearing bone crunching zombies all the more shocking. The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue was made in 1974 by director Jorge Grau who gave an interview for the forthcoming DVD release by Anchor Bay Entertainment UK in which he talks about the characterisation special effects and the hostile reaction to the film by the British press . Also on the DVD will be several theatrical trailers (featuring many of the names that the film has been known by) behind-the scenes stills alternative beginnings to the film and hidden extras. The DVD comes with a 40 page collector's booklet about the film.

• Giordano: Andrea Chenier - Royal Opera House/Rudel | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-2.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Giordano's Andrea Chenier is one of the greatest of verismo operas, full of heart-stopping big tunes and powerful emotional situations. If it is not as well-known as it should be, it is because in summary it sounds a little too like Puccini's Tosca: there is a tussle between political opponents over a woman, an attempt to save a condemned man, a tenor aria about writing poetry on the eve of execution. The difference is that Gerard (Giorgio Zancanaro) is not a villain like Scarpia, he is an idealist whom the French Revolution has betrayed as much as it has his rival the poet Chenier (Placido Domingo). His temptation to abuse his power to seduce the virtuous Maddalena (Anna Tomowa-Sintow) is a momentary one, though its consequences are terrible. There is a streak of post-Wagnerian decadence in much of this--Maddalena is at least as much in love with death as she is with Chenier, and the final love duet has a deeply sinister aspect. Domingo is at his best in this Covent Garden Opera House performance from 1985; at once ardent and serious-minded, we believe in his Chenier as a poet and political figure. Conductor Julius Rudel gives the rich score all the weight and lyricism it demands and the Covent Garden chorus is at its occasional best in the scenes of revolutionary excess. On the DVD: Andrea Chenier is presented a little disappointingly in NTSC format and 4:3 picture ratio. At least the sound is sumptuous Dolby Digital 5.0. Subtitles are in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. --Roz Kaveney

• Last Year At Marienbad | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Considered by many to be Renais' magnum opus L'Anne Dernire Marienbad is a work of fantasy and experiment in line with the French New Wave films of the 50's and 60's. Renais and co-writer Alain Robbe-Grillet seem less concerned with the conventional use of character and more interested in the intellectual preoccupations of man. The film consists of a series of memories from a man holidaying at an enchanting European hotel. When a woman seems not to recognize him he reveals th

• Salo Or The 120 Days Of Sodom | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò or the 120 Days of Sodom (known in Italian as Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma) provoked howls of outrage and execration on its original release in 1975, and the controversy rages to this day. Until the British Board of Film Classification finally ventured a certificate in 2000, the movie could only be shown at private cinema clubs, and even then in severely mutilated form. The relaxation of the censors' shears allows you to see for yourself what the fuss was about, but be warned--Salò will test the very limits of your endurance. Updating the Marquis de Sade's phantasmagorical novel of the same title from 18th-century France to fascist Italy at the end of World War II, writer-director Pasolini relates a bloodthirsty fable about how absolute power corrupts absolutely. Four upper-class libertines gather in an elegant palazzo to inflict the extremes of sexual perversion and cruelty upon a hand-picked collection of young men and women. Meanwhile, three ageing courtesans enflame the proceedings further by spinning tales of monstrous depravity. The most upsetting aspect of the film is the way Pasolini's coldly voyeuristic camera dehumanises the victims into lumps of random flesh. Though you may feel revulsion at the grisly details, you aren't expected to care much about what happens to either master or slave. In one notorious episode, the subjugated youths are forced to eat their own excrement--a scene almost impossible to watch, even if you know the meal was actually composed of chocolate and orange marmalade. (Pasolini mischievously claimed to be satirising our modern culture of junk food.) Salò is the ultimate vision of apocalypse--and as if in confirmation, the director was himself brutally murdered just before its premiere. You can reject the movie as the work of an evil-minded pornographer, but you won't easily forget it. --Peter Matthews

• Verdi - Aida | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Alagna: Aida