"Actor: Jacques"

• Nenette Et Boni | DVD | (25/02/2013) from £10.78   |  Saving you £5.21 (48.33%)   |  RRP £15.99

  19-year-old Boni is a sex-starved factory worker who combats loneliness by conjuring vivid fantasies involving the baker's wife. Nenette, his estranged 15-year-old sister, is trapped in a boarding school and is pregnant with a child she doesn't want. When their mother dies and fate brings them back together the two warily embark on a journey that will help them heal each other in a most unpredictable yet compelling fashion. A dazzling, mesmerising and deeply moving study of adolescent desire, directed by one of the world's leading contemporary auteur, Clarie Denis.

• Laissez Passer | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bertrand Tavernier directs this epic film set in 1942 Paris during the country's occupation by Germany. The French film industry during that period is the focus of the story told from the point of view of two characters: an actor and a director.

• Merci pour le Chocolat | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  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

• Carry On Sergeant | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The first of the Carry On movies, 1958's Sergeant is rather different from its successors, much more a film of its time (the latter days of National Service) and rather less a bawdy picture postcard. Sergeant Grimshaw (William Hartnell long before Doctor Who) is about to retire and hopes that he can get his last platoon into shape as Champion Platoon of its intake. Unfortunately, the new recruits include the clumsy Golightly (Charles Hawtrey), the barrack-room lawyer Bailey (Kenneth Williams) and the hypochondriac Horace Strong (Kenneth Connor). Love interest is provided by Bob Monkhouse and Shirley Eaton--newlyweds separated by the call-up and reunited by her taking a job in the canteen--and by the pursuit of Horace by Dora Bryan's Nora. The film relies heavily on a mixture of slapstick and paradoxical revelations of character complexity--the obnoxious Bailey nonetheless takes the trouble to coach the incorrigibly dense Herbert (Norman Rossington); the series' later obsession with low comedy only really emerges in the scenes between Horace and the medic Captain Clark (Hattie Jacques). The platoon's eventual coming together as other than total incompetents is predictable, but likable.On the DVD: The DVD has no frills whatever except for a widescreen picture and chapter selections; it has been cleaned up however so that we get a remarkably crisp mono picture and mono sound, which brings out the quality of the military-band score by Bruce Montgomery, who was also the writer Edmund Crispin. --Roz Kaveney

• The Threepenny Opera | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £7.66   |  Saving you £12.33 (160.97%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The original French and German versions of this Brecht-Weill musical are included with subtitles - 'Die Dreigroschenoper' and 'L'Opera De Quat' Sous'. Set in a dreamlike Victorian London this musical tells the story of Mack the Knife and Polly Peachum.

• Carry On Cabby | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £7.44   |  Saving you £8.55 (114.92%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The seventh entry in the Carry On series and the first not to feature Kenneth Williams. Charlie (Sid James) owner of the Speedee Cabs company finds he has some serious competition when his wife Peggy (Hattie Jacques) sets up a rival firm consisting only of glamorous female drivers. Cabbies driven to distraction include Charles Hawtrey Kenneth Connor and Jim Dale (in his first Carry On appearance).

• Toni | DVD | (17/04/2006) from £32.37   |  Saving you £-12.38 (-61.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Financed by Marcel Pagnol's production company Jean Renoir's Toni is a landmark in French filmmaking. Based on a police dossier concerning a provincial crime of passion it was lensed by Claude Renoir on location (unusually for the time) in the small town of Les Martigues where the actual events occurred. The use of directly-recorded sound authentic patois lack of make-up a large ensemble cast of local citizens in supporting roles and Renoir's steadfast desire to avoid m

• Offenbach: Des Contes D'Hoffmann | DVD | (25/04/2001) from £19.85   |  Saving you £6.40 (34.43%)   |  RRP £24.99

  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

• Second Wind | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Second Wind

• Moses The Lawgiver | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £22.66   |  Saving you £-1.41 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The epic story of a man a hero and a nation. An infant escapes the edict calling for the death of all male Hebrew babies and is raised in the Egyptian Court by a princess who gives him the name Moses. After her death Moses (Burt Lancaster) returns to his poverty sticken people including his sister Miriam (Ingrid Thulin) and brother Aaron (Anthony Quayle). He flees into the desert to marry Ziporah the Chief of the Midianites. There he encounters the voice of God in the burning bush. Moses goes back to Egypt confronts the Pharoah predicts the ten plagues leads the Exodus recieves the Ten Commandments takes the Israelites from exile and finally before his death sees the Promised Land.

• Under The Sand | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Marie, a professor of English literature in a Paris university, has been happily married to Jean for 25 years. During their summer holiday he vanishes. Has he left her? commited suicide? drowned? With no clue she acts as if he is still alive.

• LA POISON | DVD | (25/02/2013) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  One of the great late period films by Sacha Guitry - the total auteur who delighted (and scandalised) the French public and inspired the French New Wave as a model for authorship as director-writer-star of screen and stage alike. In every one of his pictures (and almost every one served as a rueful examination of the war between the sexes), Guitry sculpted by way of a rapier wit - one might say by way of the Guitry touch - some of the most sophisticated black comedies ever conceived... and La Poison [Poison] is one of his blackest. Michel Simon plays Paul Braconnier, a man with designs on murdering his wife Blandine (Germaine Reuver) - a woman with similar designs on her husband. When Braconnier visits Paris to consult with a lawyer about the perfect way of killing a spouse - that is, the way in which he can get away with it - an acid comedy unfolds that reaches its peak in a courtroom scene for the ages. From the moment of Guitry's trademark introduction of his principals in the opening credits, and on through the brilliant performance by national treasure Michel Simon (of Renoir's Boudu sauve des eaux and Vigo's L'Atalante, to mention only two high-water marks), here is fitting indication of why Guitry is considered by many the Gallic equal of Ernst Lubitsch. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to introduce Sacha Guitry into the catalogue with La Poison for the first time on video in the UK in a dazzling new Gaumont restoration. Special Features: Newly translated optional subtitles Substantial booklet containing writing on the film, vintage excerpts, and rare archival imagery

• Therese Raquin | DVD | (16/03/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Married at a very early age to her cousin Th''r''se Raquin (Simone Signoret Room at the Top Casque D''Or) leads an uneventful and joyless existence void of romance with her selfish husband (Jacques Duby) and authoritarian aunt. The arrival of the handsome Italian Laurent (Raf Vallone The Italian Job The Godfather: Part III) to whom Camille has taken a liking turns her life upside down. Straight away sparks of love and passion fly between Th''r''se and Laurent however Camille refuses to agree to a divorce and plans to take Th''r''se to Paris away from temptation. En route Camille is pushed off the train after a violent dispute with Laurent. The inquiry draws the conclusion of accidental death. However a young sailor who witnessed the entire scene starts blackmailing Laurent'' Th''r''se Raquin is an adaptation of Emile Zola''s novel by critically acclaimed director Marcel Carn'' (Le Jour se L''ve Le Quai des Brumes). The film won a Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival.

• To Paris With Love | DVD | (02/11/2015) from £8.98   |  Saving you £3.00 (42.92%)   |  RRP £9.99

  British screen legend Alec Guinness gives a sparkling performance in Robert Hamer's romantic comedy set amongst the boulevards of La Ville Lumiere. Co-starring Parisian ingenue Odile Versois and featuring a suitably Gallic score by Edwin Astley, To Paris with Love is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Sir Edgar Fraser, a widowed Scottish baronet, decides that it's about time his 20-year-old son became acquainted with the opposite sex. Not one to do things by halves, he determines that this must be done in Paris, the most romantic city in the world. So off they go, with Sir Edgar determined to find a beautiful, spirited girl for his son. This he certainly does but complications soon arise when he finds that he's falling for her himself! SPECIAL FEATURES: Original Theatrical Trailer Image gallery Promotional material PDFs

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1998--TV movie) | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A lost world that time forgot populated by prehistoric creatures not seen on this earth for 50 million years - that is the astonishing possibility presented by Professor George Edward Challenger (Patrick Bergin) to the Royal Geographic Society of London England. A gruff impossible man Challenger calls for an expedition to prove - or disprove - this incredible claim first presented by Professor White who died on a prior expedition to this supposed lost world. Joined by the effervescent reporter Edward D. Malon the dashing big game hunter Peter Roxton Challenger's nemesis and Professor White's vivacious daughter Amanda (Jayne Heitmeyer) Challenger sets off on a journey to the edge of the earth. The explorers find a land-locked island that time and evolution forgot. By creating a primitive hot-air balloon the hardy adventurers manage to enter this dark cauldron of humanity's infancy venturing on to explore a world of stegosaurs and t-rex brontosaurs and raptors and finally make contact with a race of humanity's ancestors who make human sacrifices to their dinosaur gods. Beaten battered but triumphant Challenger and Amanda White return to England - but report their expedition as a failure. Humanity they have decided is not yet ready for the wonders they have seen.

• Fascination | DVD | (24/01/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A pair of society women dressed in all their finery stand in the middle of an abattoir, animal carcasses hanging behind them and blood splashed across the floor. Giggling and fidgeting, they drink their prescribed glass of ox blood. The startling, unreal image of high-society manners in the midst of gore and death pitches Jean Rollin's 1979 feature Fascination into a turn-of-the-century culture come unhinged. When a well-dressed rogue, fleeing from angry partners he double-crossed, takes refuge in a lavish, moat-protected mansion, servant girls Franca Mai and Brigitte Lahaie cajole, tease and seduce him into staying for their night-time soiree. "You have stumbled into Elizabeth and Eva's life, the universe of madness and death", mutters one of them as they await the cabal where he is the guest of honour. Shot on a starvation budget and populated with stiff performers, Rollin's direction is arch and at times sloppy and his story never more than an outline. It's the mix of dreamy and nightmarish imagery that gives Fascination its fascination: blonde Lahaie stalking victims with a scythe, the bourgeois blood cult swarming over a fresh victim like wild animals, alabaster faces streaked in blood. While it lacks the delirious spontaneity of his earlier vampire films Shiver of the Vampires and Requiem for a Vampire, the languid pace and austere beauty creates an often-mesmerising fantasy. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Edward And Caroline | DVD | (21/08/2017) from £11.89   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Becker's dark, offbeat comedy about a failing marriage stars Daniel Gélin as Édouard, a poor pianist married to Caroline (Anne Vernon), a beautiful girl from a middle-class family. Caroline's uncle Claude (Jean Galland), a complete snob who looks down on Édouard like the rest of his family, invites the couple to a party at which he is expected to play for his supper in front of Claude's important friends. Add the fact that Claude's son Alain (Jacques Francois) is in love with Caroline and this evening is destined for disaster.

• The Hairdresser's Husband | DVD | (25/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  At the age of 12 Antoine's life is dominated by twin passions dancing to Arabic music and getting his hair cut by the voluptuous middle-aged local hairdresser who inadvertently provides him with his first experience of the opposite sex. Antoine reaches middle age with his passion undiminished: upon meeting shy hairdresser Mathilde he is so taken by her that he proposes marriage. She accepts and he moves into her salon where they pursue their romance with an intensity that blinds them to the mundane realities of the outside world.

• Welcome Aboard | DVD | (05/11/2012) from £3.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (300.75%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Taillandier (Patrick Chesnais) is a well-known painter in his sixties, but despite his success he finds himself overwhelmed by depression and decides to give up on his art. With no direction or destination in mind, he leaves his home without giving an explanation to even those closest to him. During his travels he has an unlikely encounter with Marylou (Jeanne Lambert), a young girl rejected by her own mother and also seeking out her path in life. As the pair travels together the bond between them grows closer, akin to a father-daughter relationship, as they give each other the helping hand they both need to make sense of their lives once more.

• Formula 1 2000 - World Championship Review | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £12.61   |  Saving you £0.38 (3.01%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Hours of fun for F1 addicts, this official Formula One 2000 World Championship Review has neat interactive menu options that let the viewer switch back and forth between a number of perspectives during each race. First select the race you want to see, then choose either the "Continuous Version" or the "Interactive Version". Continuous play runs potted highlights (five minutes or so) of each race, but the "Interactive Version" is the really interesting bit: this lets you select the view from the on-board cameras or the trackside cameras, watch the reactions in the pit lane, or even see continually updated race data statistics. The stilted commentary hardly matches Murray Walker for excitement, but does a serviceable job pointing out the significant moments in each race. Gimmicks aside, this was a vintage F1 season anyway: from Australia to waterlogged Silverstone to the first American F1 race since 1991 at Indianapolis and beyond, 2000 was the year that Michael Schumacher gave Ferrari the Constructor's Championship for the first time in 20 years, not to mention winning the Driver's title for himself. But Schuey's race to the finish was not without its setbacks: he suffered his share of crashes and breakdowns, as well as inadvertently breaking the leg of one of his pit crew and bursting into tears at a post-race press conference. New British talent emerged with Jensen Button driving in his first season for the Williams team, and this was also the year that McLaren's David Coulthard (who survived a plane crash early in the season) began to outstrip team mate and former World Champion Mika Hakkinen: it was the Scot who turned out to be Schumacher's closest rival. This disc is an absorbing way to replay the highlights of a memorable F1 year. --Mark Walker