Available for the first time on DVD! Two totally untalented song-writers are advised by their agent to get away....as far away....as possible. Upon their arrival in Morocco they are separately recruited as spies for opposing sides of a planned revolution while simultaneously vying for the attentions of an attractive left-wing revolutionary. Based on an idea by Elaine May.
Ryan O'Neal plays the driver - an ice-cool getaway ace for hire by whoever can afford his crash course skills. Bruce Dern is the detective - a man obsessed with arresting the speed demon at any cost... The Driver lures his foe into a deadly game of cross and double cross by leaving tantalising evidence at every heist until the vengeance-crazed Detective can stand no more and the film erupts into a frenzy of twisted metal and burning rubber. A 1970's classic from Walter Hill.
Over the last 25 years Michael Haneke has established himself as one of the most important directors in cinema history. From his early work to Amour he has created a unique universe revealing like no other the darkest corners of society our existential fears and emotional outbursts. Through interviews with his actors Isabelle Huppert Juliette Binoche and Emmanuelle Riva and much more as well as previously unseen footage Michael H. depicts the work of a rare artist.
In this sequel to David Cronenberg's original classic a corrupt, power-crazed police official has high ambitions and plans to use the telepathic power of scanners to achieve his goal. With the aid of scientist and a new drug he believes he can control their minds to do his bidding but a rogue Scanner has other plans.
'Le Chignon d'Olga' is the charming first film from writer-director Jerome Bonnell. A tender romantic comedy-drama set in a provincial town it tells the story of brother and sister Julien and Emma who are grieving after the recent loss of their mother. As the summer draws to a close Julien aimlessly wanders the streets until one day he encounters Olga a beautiful young woman who works in a bookshop. Secretly without confiding even in his close childhood friend Alice he tries eve
Two teenage girls Ellie (Liana Liberato) and Max (Isabelle Fuhrman) travel across the U.S. in 1962, during the chaos of the Cuban missile crisis, in search of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Claude Chabrol's nervy and nasty little 2001 thriller Merci Pour le Chocolat is based on Charlotte Armstrong's novel The Chocolate Cobweb. In Chabrol's hands it becomes a vehicle of considerable power for the unsettling, disturbed qualities of actress Isabelle Huppert, who has been one of his most important muses over the years (their other collaborations include La Cérémonie and Rien ne va Plus). Huppert plays Mika, the owner of a Swiss chocolate factory, now married to a world-class concert pianist (Jacques Dutronc) and with a stepson who is obsessive about making the family's drinking chocolate every day. As the clues unravel, it soon becomes clear that Mika is damaged goods. When Dutronc acquires a piano student (Anna Mougalis) in curious circumstances, Mika is forced to escalate her secret agenda. Huppert is fascinating throughout and the film is sinewy and, for the most part, rather clever, evoking shades of Hitchcock and Clouzot. Liszt's Les Funérailles is the ominous leitmotif, worked on by Dutronc and his protégé, and the Lausanne setting creates an other-worldliness which seems almost sterile. Only at the end does the picture dwindle into an almost Strindbergian inertia as Mika's motivation seems to evaporate in a rather unsatisfactory way. Until then it is spellbinding. --Piers Ford
Unfortunately the qualities that make Jacques Offenbach's operetta The Tales of Hoffmann an irresistible melodic profusion of wit, dash and unfailing high spirits are only in evidence in the playing of the Lyon Opera Orchestra under Kent Nagano: operetta, more than its serious cousin, continues to be fair game for the whims of producers and designers. In this case an excellent cast including Daniel Galvez-Vallejo as Hoffmann, Natalie Dessay as Olympia, Brigitte Balley as Nicklausse and Isabelle Vernet as Giulietta, as well as Gabriel Bacquier who sings three roles, are obliged to perform Offenbach's operetta in a lunatic asylum designed by Philippe Starck as a three-dimensional grey set, topped with barbed wire. The production by Louis Erlo adapts and cuts scenes to fit this concept, so the tavern scene where Hoffmann sings his celebrated number "The Legend of Kleinzack" disappears, as do the chorus who are banished to the wings. In this environment there's no room for charm or even a kind of mad-hatter behaviour. The cast are reduced to stereotypes and of necessity singularly unlovable ones. What a wasted opportunity. The sound is excellent as it is on two fillers: a short film of Penderecki conducting his choral work, The Seven Gates to Jerusalem from the Midem festival at Cannes and a trailer for a Lyon Opera House production of Berlioz's Damnation of Faust. --Adrian Edwards
In this Zurich Opera House staging of Mozarts darkly comic cautionary fable Don Giovanni the lighting and stage design keep the characters shaded in half-shadow: even Zerlinas wedding feels like a subdued affair here, and the Dons banqueting room is a suitably gloomy venue for the Stone Guests climactic visit for a spot of dinner and damnation. Both this staging and video director Brian Larges filming play no tricks with the audiences expectations, opting for a largely traditional presentation of this tragedy of swaggering bravado, cuckolded lovers and revenge from beyond the grave. Nikolaus Harnoncourt brings all the sensitivity of his historically informed approach to the orchestra pit. Heading a very strong cast are Rodney Gilfry, defiantly strong-voiced but also haughtily handsome as the seducing Don, and Cecilia Bartoli, a mercurial presence as Donna Elvira. Their scenes together crackle and fizz, even when Bartolis extremely ripe vibrato contrasts a little uncomfortably with Harnoncourts authenticity. Liliana Nikiteanu makes for a pretty, naïve Zerlina, convincingly torn between her Masetto (Oliver Widmer) and the animalistic attraction of the Don. Laszlo Polgars Leporello is wheedling and base, but still the inheritor of his masters charisma; Isabel Rey and Roberto Sacca are solid as the colourless moralists Anna and Ottavio; while Matti Salminens powerful Commendatore isnt expected to do anything more than stand still and declaim. Overall this is an excellent musical performance, unexceptionally staged. On the DVD: Don Giovanni on disc has a good 24-minute "Behind the Scenes" feature, including interviews with Cecilia Bartoli, Harnoncourt, Gilfry and Isabel Rey. Theres also a trailer for other ArtHaus releases. The 16:9 picture sometimes struggles to bring definition to the dimly lit sets; sound though is crisp and clean PCM stereo or Dolby 5.1. There are subtitles in five languages. --Mark Walker
Director Jean Rollin proves he's the master of the sexy vampire movie genre with this cinematic version of his novel of the same name. Louise and Henrietta are two orphans who can't see; unbeknownst to everyone else, though, their sight does return... but only at night, when they roam the streets on the lookout for someone on which to feast.
Betty and Victor are a pair of scam artists. One day Betty brings in Maurice, a treasurer of a multinational company. Maurice is due to transfer 5 million francs out of Switzerland, and Betty is convinced he plans to steal the money. On whose side is Betty really on? - Victors, Maurice's or only her own?Starring Isabelle Huppert (White Material) Michel Serrault & Francois Cluzet (Tell No One).
Episodes Comprise: The Mystery of the Blue Jar: Playing golf early one morning Jack Harrington hears a cry Murder! Help! from a nearby cottage. He runs up to find a beautiful French girl Felise placidly weeding the garden oblivious to any disturbance. When the Jack hears the same cries for many days he begins to think he might be mad. But are more sinister forces at work? The Red Signal: Dermot West is invited to dinner at the home of Jack and Claire Trent. The first is his best friend the second the woman he loves. During the evening the conversation turns to the supernatural; Dermot admits he frequently gets what he calls 'the red signal' to warn him of impending danger. He neglects to mention that he is getting the signal strongly that night!
Yet another serial killer drama, Knight Moves is perhaps a little too in love with its own ingenuity. Chess Grand Master Peter Sanderson (Christopher Lambert) finds himself, in the middle of a crucial tournament, challenged to a game whose rules he does not know, by a killer who will murder women until Sanderson stops him. The local police, headed by Sedman (Tom Skerrit), suspect this is actually a game Sanderson is playing with them; while Kathy, a woman profiler brought in on the case, finds herself falling in love with Sanderson but still suspecting him. None of the performances are more than competent and Lambert's aloof neurotic is perhaps less likable than was intended. Director Carl Schenkel is too fond of odd camera angles and garish lighting, but the end result is a moderately successful detective story for those who are fond of puzzles. On the DVD: Knight Moves is ungenerous with special features, providing a bare minimum of filmographies, photo gallery and trailer. It has a visual aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and Dolby Digital sound. --Roz Kaveney
Adapted from the hugely acclaimed best-selling novel by Marc Dugain writer-director Francois Duperyon's The Officer's Ward is an insightful honest and profoundly moving meditation on love loss and the physical and mental scars inflicted by the horror of war. Screened in competition at the 2001 Cannes Film festival The Officer's Ward atmospherically creates the world of Adrien Fournier (Eric Caravaca) a handsome young French officer who returns from the front with hideous facial
Gabrielle is Patrice Chreau's stunning adaptation of the short story ""The Return"" by Joseph Conrad. Recreating turn-of-the-century France with superb attention to detail Chreau casts an unrelenting gaze on the marital breakdown that overwhelms a middle-aged bourgeois couple played with chilling precision by Isabelle Huppert and Pascal Greggory. As wealthy Parisian Mr. Hervey (Greggory) descends from a train into the teeming bustle of the city. While on his way home he reflects on the sturdiness and success of his life and the fortress of security he has built around himself. It is not long before his self-satisfaction is rudely shattered when he discovers a letter from his wife Gabrielle (Huppert) waiting for him on his sideboard. The contents of the message will crumble that security and plunge him into newfound feelings of vulnerability abandonment and betrayal. The couple soon finds themselves engaged in a parry-and-thrust of emotions that change mid-sentence and stretch their ability to function and live in the same house.
In order to take over the city corrupt police commander Forrester intends to use a telepathic breed of human Scanners. To control the Scanners Forrester enlists the help of evil scientist Dr Morse who wants to conduct mind control experiments on the Scanners with a new drug. Unfortunately the side effects render the Scanners incapable so Forrester finds David Kellum a good rational Scanner who unaware of his own powers agrees to work with him.
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