"Actor: Helmut"

• Cabaret - 30th Anniversary Special Edition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £16.99   |  Saving you £-12.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Cabaret is one of those film musicals whose cultural and stylistic influence extend well beyond the cinema. It confirmed Bob Fosse's status as one of the boldest choreographers of the 20th century and gave Liza Minnelli an early peak in a film career which would never scale such heights again. Minnelli is both the film's strength--on its own merits her performance is an Oscar-winning tour de force--and weakness. The real Sally Bowles was a third-rate performer and just one of a rich gallery of characters; here, the constant allowances for Minnelli's star turns and mannerisms ultimately throw the story off balance. But the source material is impeccable: Kander and Ebb's stage show, based on the autobiographical stories of Christopher Isherwood, has long since been acknowledged a classic. The songs, augmented by some new numbers in the film, are ageless. Joel Grey from the original Broadway production is the Emcee, the master of ceremonies who, with his Kit Kat Klub girls, provides a depraved Greek chorus satirising the rise of the Nazi regime and the lazy complacency of the 1930s Berlin cabaret-goers. The "divine decadence" tag is only part of the story, though. Cabaret still works a sinister, uncomfortable magic which sets it apart as a uniquely powerful film musical. On the DVD: Cabaret's 30th Anniversary Special Edition is packed with extras which include a scratchy "making of" documentary from 1972 and a retrospective from 1997, the latter featuring reminiscences from the cast. There’s also the original theatrical trailer, though in the absence of the late director Fosse the lack of some kind of commentary is a disappointment. The picture itself, presented in widescreen 16:9 letterbox format with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack, gleams as sharply, visually and aurally, as it did on its first release. --Piers Ford

• Salon Kitty | Blu Ray | (09/05/2011) from £12.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (69.28%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Based on a true story this shockingly controversial film is an unflinching portrayal of the criminal depravity of Nazi Germany and the ruthless use of sex to destroy opponents. Now presented fully uncut for the first time in UK in high definition showcasing the stunning production design of Ken Adams (designer of most James Bond sets and twice Oscar winner for Barry Lyndon and The Madness Of King George).

• The Name Of The Rose | DVD | (30/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Unavailable for years 'The Name Of The Rose' finally arrives on DVD. Sean Connery stars as a detective monk who sets about solving murders a chilling tale of dark deeds and murderous mayhem within the shadowy cloisters and forbidding battlements of a 14th-century Italian medieval monastery...

• The Garden of the Finzi Contini | DVD | (08/08/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The celebrated director of neoreliast masterpieces including Bicycle Thieves and Shoeshine Vittorio De Sica once again stuck gold in 1970. After ten years of trying he finally adapted Giorgio Bassani's celebrated novel to great acclaim and an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Set at the outbreak of War De Sica's film tells the story of the Finzi-Continis an aristocratic Jewish family protected by the walls of their idyllic estate. Whilst outside Mussolini bans Jews from tennis courts the Finzi-Continis are not worried as they rally on their own living in their dreamland. Giorgio (Lino Capolicchio) is the middle-class Jew in love with his childhood friend Micol (Dominique Sanda) of the Finzi-Contini family but she is in love with a gentile and wanting of experiences outlawed by the new government. With Giorgio's separation of Micol De Sica tracks the loss of an idyllic way of life from the tennis courts to the waiting rooms where Jews await transportation to the concentration camps. Arrow Academy presents Vittorio De Sica's autumnal masterpiece The Garden of the Finzi Contini on DVD for the first time in the UK.

• Conversation Piece (1974) (Masters of Cinema) Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition | Blu Ray | (15/08/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Eureka Entertainment to release Luchino Visconti's CONVERSATION PIECE, a heartfelt tale of loneliness and intimacy starring Burt Lancaster and an international ensemble cast, in a Dual Format edition as part of the Masters of Cinema Series on 15 August 2016. Eleven years after The Leopard, the revered Italian maestro Luchino Visconti reteamed with the iconic Burt Lancaster on the lavish Conversation Piece [Gruppo di famiglia in un interno]. A retired American professor (Lancaster) lives a solitary and luxurious life in a house in Rome. His world takes an unexpected turn when he is forced to rent part of his house to a countess and her companions: a lover, a daughter and the daughter's boyfriend. Forced into interaction with the unruly younger group, the professor's growing fascination begins to stir the possibilities of a life he had previously kept at arm's length. A sumptuous, grandly enjoyable chamber drama with a wry sense of humour, Conversation Piece features an international ensemble cast including Helmut Berger, Silvana Mangano and Stefano Patrizi (with uncredited cameos by Claudia Cardinale and Dominique Sanda). The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Visconti's penultimate film in a new dual-format edition from a brand new 2K restoration. Click Images to Enlarge

• Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia | Blu Ray | (23/01/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Sam Peckinpah knew he couldn't call a movie Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and get away with it. That's why he did it. When he undertook this nakedly personal project, in self-exile in Mexico, the director was a deeply bitter man out of favour with critics, the media, and the Hollywood establishment, which had just released his Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid in a mutilated version. "Bring Me the Head..." sounded like the parody title of an ultraviolent Sam Peckinpah movie, and he flung it in our faces just as his onscreen surrogate tosses the titular object at the camera. Thing is, the movie is a masterpiece--raw, shocking, beautiful, and brave--in which Peckinpah confronts his enemies and his own demons. Warren Oates plays a gringo piano-player stuck in Mexico who hears that some powerful men are willing to pay a bounty on a guy he knows. They don't know the guy is already dead, killed in a car accident. It'll be easy to exhume the trophy and collect the money--except that it will cost our seedy hero everything he has and ever wanted. John Huston's Treasure of the Sierra Madre had always been a key legend for Peckinpah; this film is a subterranean re-imagining of it, with Oates as both the son of Fred C. Dobbs and the carnival-mirror reflection of Peckinpah himself. And Isela Vega's performance as the sainted whore Elita--bruised and worldly one minute, radiant and clear-skinned as a child the next--is an act of grace. --Richard T. Jameson

• Matrix Revolutions | DVD | (03/04/2004) from £4.90   |  Saving you £9.09 (185.51%)   |  RRP £13.99

  In this final explosive third installment of the Matrix trilogy the city of Zion last bastion of the human race defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo attempts to fulfill his prophecy as 'The One'. As the Machine Army wages devastation on Zion its citizens mount an aggressive defense - but can they stave off the relentless swarm of Sentinels long enough for Neo adrift in a no man's land between the Matrix and the Machine world to harness the full exte

• Cabaret | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £16.08   |  Saving you £-10.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• The Matrix Reloaded | DVD | (10/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Neo, Trinity and Morpheus continue to battle a war against the A.I.s and free more minds from the Matrix.

• The Ultimate Matrix Collection (Ten Disc Set) | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £61.99

  A 10 DVD box set that houses the complete Matrix story stuffed full of everything you could ever want to know & see! Disc 1 - The Matrix: The film in a new digital transfer supervised by the Wachowski brothers and director of photography Bill Pope. Two all-new audio commentaries with written introduction by the Wachowski Brothers - The Critics: Todd McCarthy John Powers & David Thomson / The Scholars: Dr. Cornel West and Ken Wilber Disc 2 - The Matrix Revisited:

• The Damned | DVD | (24/05/2004) from £19.98   |  Saving you £-5.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  In 1930s Germany a wealthy industrialist family struggles to maintain its status and influence in the face of the relentless rising tide of fascism. Divided by the rapidly changing social and economic climate the family members resort to blackmail sexual manipulation and murder in a desperate struggle for power and prestige.

• Maggie And The Ferocious Beast - Pack Up Your Troubles | DVD | (02/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Maggie lives in Nowhere Land where she has drawn a map to explore with her friends The Ferocious Beast (an oversized cuddly yellow creature with red polka dots) and Hamilton Hocks (a fussy little pig with endearing talents). Are you ready to explore 12 colourful episodes with them? Episodes Comprise: 1. Pack Up Your Troubles 2. Rub-A Dub-Dub 3. The Big Carrot 4. My One And Only Box 5. Spot The Spot 6. Recipe For Trouble 7. The Lemonade Stand 8. Walk The Walk 9. What's In A Lu

• Werner Herzog Box Set 2 | DVD | (22/08/2005) from £47.99   |  Saving you £-18.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Werner Herzog: He has taken his camera to parts of the world no other director would dare to go and told stories in ways no one had ever even considered. These five masterpieces which blur the line between 'fiction' and 'documentary' illustrate why Werner Herzog is the most daring visionary and dangerous filmmaker of our lives. Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970): Featuring a cast composed entirely of little people (the first time that had been done since the 1938 western

• Black Gravel | Blu Ray | (23/06/2025) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Sohnen is a town built on vice for the occupying American forces in post-war Germany. Robert, a local truck driver who sells off gravel from the site he works on as a side hustle, runs into an old flame, Inge, who is now respectably married to American officer John. When the pair are driving in Robert's truck, tragedy strikes and they find themselves covering up a terrible secret From Helmut Käutner, Black Gravel was reviled on its release in Germany for its frank depiction of anti-semitism and savage depiction of a country on its knees after the war. Now newly restored, its status as an important and powerful work of European noir is becoming firmly established. SPECIAL FEATURES 2K restoration by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK Original uncompressed mono PCM audio Includes both the uncensored original cut (114 mins) and the re-edited distribution cut (113 mins), featuring alternate ending Audio commentary with film historian Olaf Möller (2020) New interview with writer and programmer Margaret Deriaz (2024, 19 mins) Newsreel footage from the film set featuring behind-the-scenes images and an interview with Käutner (1960, 4 mins) Trailer Optional English subtitles

• Ludwig | DVD | (19/06/2006) from £31.03   |  Saving you £-18.04 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Visconti's 1972 film is a lavish and operatic portrait of Ludwig II the `Mad King' of Bavaria. From his glittering coronation to his mysterious suicide Ludwig II (1845-86) epitomised the doomed nineteenth-century Romantic hero. A loner by nature he was tormented by his unrequited love for his cousin Empress Elisabeth of Austria who sensed his true sexual nature and fragile grip on reality. But as war raged around him Ludwig's sole obsession remained the visionary music of Ric

• World Noir Vol 2 (Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (26/08/2024) from £39.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  AS THE 1960S BEGAN, THE CLASSIC PERIOD OF FILM NOIR CAME TO AN END IN HOLLYWOOD. BUT FILMMAKERS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD WOULD CONTINUE TO PRODUCE FIRST-RATE EXAMPLES OF THE GENRE, WITH THREE SUPERB EXAMPLES COLLECTED HERE. IN HELMUT KÄUTNER'S BLACK GRAVEL AN ILLICIT COUPLE FIND THEMSELVES HAVING TO COVER UP A PAIR OF DEAD BODIES IN POST-WAR GERMANY. IN JACQUES DERAY'S SYMPHONY FOR A MASSACRE FIVE GANGSTERS BUY A CACHE OF DRUGS, BUT ONE OF THEM IS PLANNING A DOUBLE CROSS. IN TAKUMI FURUKAWA'S CRUEL GUN STORY A GANGSTER (JOE SHISHIDO) EXECUTES A DARING HEIST ON AN ARMOURED VEHICLE.

• 1966 World Cup Final: England v West Germany (In Colour) | DVD | (31/10/2022) from £16.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Wagner - Die Meistersinger (Stein, Horst) | DVD | (15/05/2006) from £19.95   |  Saving you £-4.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Stage and directed by Richard Wagner's grandson Wolfgang at the Bayreuther Festspiele in 1984 this production of Wagner's only comedy dispenses with the common cliches to reveal the humanity of each character. Here Beckmesser is no longer a foolish caricature but a cultivated intellectual; Stolzing emerges as a thoughtful individual rather than aggressive aristocrat; and Hans Sachs sheds his solemn patriarchal veneer to become a likeable middle-aged man.

• Wagner - Das Rheingold (Boulez, Mcintyre, Schwarz) | DVD | (11/07/2005) from £15.04   |  Saving you £1.95 (11.50%)   |  RRP £16.99

  In Patrice Chereau's illuminating violent Bayreuth production of Das Rheingold Wotan wears the brocade coat of feudal times while the Rhine seems to be a reservoir with modern-day power station. Yet as Chereau says it could also be many other things ... perhaps a mythological presence the mythology of our time ... The gods' ascent to Valhalla (is) a defiant flight into the future.

• The McKenzie Break | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In the closing days of WWII German POWs plot to escape from their Scottish camp with a plan to rejoin the U-Boat fleet from where they were captured...