Angela's Ashes (Dir. Alan Parker 1999): Angela's Ashes the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir comes to life in this stirring film from acclaimed director Alan Parker (Evita) starring Academy Award-nominee Emily Watson (Breaking The Waves) and Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty). Life in impoverished Depression-era Ireland holds little promise for young Frank McCourt the oldest son in a tightly knit family. Living by his wits cheered by his irrepressible spirit and sustained by his mother's fierce love Frank embarks on an inspiring journey to overcome the poverty of his childhood and reach the land of his dreams: America. Stepmom (Dir. Chris Columbus 1998): Jackie (Susan Sarandon) is a divorced mother of two. Isabel (Julia Roberts) is the career minded girlfriend of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) forced into the role of unwelcome stepmother to their children. It is the universal dilemma of the 'non-traditional family' they all love the children but the complex interplay between parents step-parents step-children ex-spouses and significant others is decidedly tricky. But when Jackie discovers she is ill both women realise they must put aside their differences to find a common ground and celebrate life to the fullest while they have the chance. Billy Elliot (Dir. Stephen Daldry 1998): Starring Julie Walters and newcomer Jamie Bell the film (based on a real-life story) follows the progress of little Billy Elliot a motherless 11 year-old from a poor Durham pit village. When young Billy chooses ballet classes over boxing lessons his life is changed forever. He decides to keep the lessons secret from his father a coal miner but when his ballet instructor persuades him to try out for the Royal Ballet School in London Billy must make the choice between family responsibilities and his dreams...
Famed character actor (and one of Doctor Who's first companions) William Russell stars in the popular and well-remembered series The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. The classic and inspirational stories of King Arthur and The Knights of The Round Table are brought to life through the adventures of Sir Lancelot - the bravest of all knights. Presented here is the entire series of 30 action packed episodes of this classic show some of them presented here for the first time in colour. This t
In modern-day London a sex criminal known as the Necktie Murderer has the police on alert and in typical Hitchcock fashion the trail is leading to an innocent man who must now elude the law and prove his innocence by ?nding the real murderer. Jon Finch Alec McGowen and Barry Foster head this British cast in the thriller that alternates suspense scenes with moments of Hitchcock's distinctive black humour. Screenplay by Anthony Shaffer. Special Features: The Story of Frenzy Production Photographs Theatrical Trailer
Sir Ernest Pease KBE FRS (James Robertson Justice) is a cantankerous and crotchety old professor. Testing one of his new radar inventions (and travelling incognito as Lt. Farrow RN) the plane he is travelling is shot down and he is incarcerated as a POW. His overbearing and abrasive manner leads his fellow inmates into believing he is a German spy but when they discover who he actually is they realise that his escape is vital to the war effort. Written by Henry Blyth (The Bul
He was born at 6am on the 6th day of the 6th month. The coming of Armageddon the site of the final confrontation between the forces of good and evil as foretold in the Book of Revelations will begin with the birth of the son of Satan - in human form. Unable to tell his wife Katherine the tragic news of their still-born son American diplomat Robert Thorn accepts a new-born orphan as his son. Details of the child's birth remain a secret but as the boy Damien grows older it becom
Enter the action-packed world of espionage with Freewheelers, one of ITVs best remembered childrens series. With adventure on loan, on sea and in the air, Freewheelers was a huge hit that ran from 1968 to 1973. Never before available on Video or DVD, this two-disc set contains the complete sixth series, the earliest colour episodes know to survive. Crime-fighting teenagers Sue Craig (Wendy Padbury), Mike Hobbs (Adrian Wright) and Steve Walker (Leonard Gregory) are recruited by intelligence agent and mast of disguise Colonel Buchan (Ronald Leigh-Hunt). The team put their wits against the mysterious master criminal Professor Nero (Jerome Willis) and his henchmen Dermot Ryan (Richard Shaw) and Cassius Burke (Michael Ripper). Investigating Neros plot to steal a fortune in gold bullion, the youngsters soon uncover an even more daring crime. The professor is kidnapping scientists as part of an insane scheme to hold the world ransom if his demands arent met he will temporarily starve the planet of oxygen before imposing a new world order. Only the Freewheelers stand in his way... Special Features: Includes a 16-page illustrated booklet by film and television historian Marcus Hearn.
Several of the apparently well-to-do women of Midsomer Market belong to a select Reading Club. The women include the recently widowed Marjorie Empson Ginny Stockton a glamorous divorcee Tamsin Proctor the wife of a monumentally mean stockbroker and Lady Lavinia Chetwood. Instead of reviewing books the women meet to invest in the stock market and thanks to some inside information they were rather successful. When the club organiser is found battered to death Barnaby and Troy inv
Not Another Teen Movie: In this over-the-top parody of the classic moments in teen movie history super-jock Jake Wyler makes a bet with his buddies that he can turn the school frump into a prom queen... Loser: American Pie's Jason Biggs will win your heart as lovable loser Paul Tannek a small-town guy just starting college in New York City. With little cash no friends and three hard-partying girl-chasing roommates who taunt him when they're not ignoring him Paul's life is the pits. Then he meets kindred spirit Dora Diamond (Mena Suvari) and things start to look up. But if Dora's jealous boyfriend their literature professor Edward Alcott (Greg Kinnear) doesn't get in the way of the budding romance Paul's conniving roommates will... Evil Woman: A group of young guys who will do anything to save their friend (Jason Biggs) from marrying the wrong girl even if it means kidnapping his ex-girlfriend his true love in order to bring them back together before she becomes a nun...
Into the idyllic town of Brewster comes Whiley Pritcher an intense and enigmatic stranger who begins a public access show that asks the question 'What's wrong with Brewster?' The question soon has neighbour turning on neighbour and before long there are some that are ready to confide in Whiley and reveal the town's darker secrets. But is it wise to talk to strangers?
The HandHenry Cass directed this 1960 support film. Three British soldiers are captured in Burma and incarcerated in a Japanese POW; Corporal George Adams (Bryan Coleman), Private Mike Brodie (Reed De Rouen) and Captain Roberts (Derek Bond). Brodie and Adams are interrogated by the exasperated Japanese officer, who severs their right hands when they refuse to talk. The Ambush of Leopard StreetYears later in London, Inspector Munyard (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) investigates the murder of a drunk who claims to have sold his amputated hand for 500. Scotland Yard begins searching for the killer behind a series of gruesome murders. Made in 1962 this Luckwell production tells the story of an armed holdup in London. A retired thief forms a gang for one last job, heisting a diamond shipment. It's got good period locations and a British cast that make this an enjoyable British B film.
Based on the series of novels written by Dorothy L Sayers in the 1920s and 30s, Lord Peter Wimsey was dramatised for TV by the BBC between 1972-5. Ian Carmichael, veteran of British film comedy, played the genial, aristocratic sleuth; Glyn Houston was his manservant Bunter. The pair are similar to PG Wodehouse's Jeeves and Bertie Wooster (whom Carmichael played in an earlier TV adaptation) though here the duo are equal in intelligence, breezing about the country together in Wimsey's Bentley and stumbling with morbid regularity upon baffling murder mysteries to test their wits. Those for whom this series forms hazy memories of childhood might be surprised at its somewhat stagy, lingering interior shots, the spartan paucity of music, the miserly attitude towards locations, especially foreign ones, and the rather genteel, leisurely pace of these programmes, besides which Inspector Morse seems like Quentin Tarantino in comparison. It seems that initially the BBC was reluctant to commission the series and ventured on production with a wary eye on the budget. The Britain depicted by Sayers is, by and large, populated by either the upper classes or heavily accented, rum-do-and-no-mistake lower orders, which some might find consoling. However, the acting is generally excellent and the murder mysteries are sophisticated parlour games, the televisual equivalent of a good, absorbing jigsaw puzzle. There were five feature-length adaptations in all. "Clouds of Witness" sees Wimsey investigate the death of his brother the Duke of Denver's fiancée. --David Stubbs
An animated adventure from the artistic team behind 'Watership Down'. A pair of dogs Rowf (Christopher Benjamin) and Snitter (John Hurt) escape from an animal research facility situated in a remote part of the English countryside. Rowf is cynical and mistrusting of humans having only known the tortured existence of being a laboratory animal. Snitter on the other hand had previously enjoyed life as a domestic pet and longs to be loved and cared for by a human master once again. Unprepared for life in the wild the pair befriend a fox The Tod (James Bolam) who helps them learn to survive in the bleak environment by feeding on the area's livestock. As the authorities attempt to track down the escapees things take a turn for the worse when a deliberately leaked story suggests the dogs may be infected with the bubonic plague...
The winner of the audience award at this year's Edinburgh Film Festival.
Into the idyllic town of Brewster comes Whiley Pritcher an intense and enigmatic stranger who begins a public access show that asks the question What's wrong with Brewster? The question soon has neighbour turning on neighbour and before long there are some that are ready to confide in Whiley and reveal the town's darker secrets. But is it wise to talk to strangers? A winner at the Sundance Film Festival 'Public Access' was the debut film of director Bryan Singer.
Looking for a benchmark in movie acting? Breakthrough performances don't come much more electrifying than Marlon Brando's animalistic turn as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Sweaty, brutish, mumbling, yet with the balanced grace of a prize-fighter, Brando storms through the role--a role he had originated in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's celebrated play. Stanley and his wife, Stella (as in Brando's oft-mimicked line, "Hey, Stellaaaaaa!"), are the earthy couple in New Orleans's French Quarter whose lives are upended by the arrival of Stella's sister, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh). Blanche, a disturbed, lyrical, faded Southern belle, is immediately drawn into a battle of wills with Stanley, beautifully captured in the differing styles of the two actors. This extraordinarily fine adaptation won acting Oscars for Leigh, Kim Hunter (as Stella) and Karl Malden (as Blanche's clueless suitor), but not for Brando. Although it had already been considerably cleaned up from the daringly adult stage play, director Elia Kazan was forced to trim a few of the franker scenes he had shot. In 1993, Streetcar was re-released in a "director's cut" that restored these moments, deepening a film that had already secured its place as an essential American work. --Robert Horton
Tennessee Williams based his screenplay on Oscar Saul's adaptation of Williams' own Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in a grimy New Orleans project. The story of the fragile sentimentalism of a woman who visits her sister only to be taunted mercilessly by her childish brother-in-law. This classic film garnered 12 Academy Award Nominations (including Best Picture Best Director Best Actor (Marlon Brando) and Best Screeplay) winning 4 including Best Actress (Vivien Leigh) Best Supporting Actress (Kim Hunter) and Best Supporting Actor (Karl Malden). This version features three minutes of footage that was deleted from the final 1951 release version upon demands made by the Production Code footage thought lost until its rediscovery in the early 1990s. This DVD release is the fully restored version of Elia Kazan's original cut and the documentary 'Desire And Censorship' on Disc 2 describes his struggle in getting the past the censors.
A Streetcar Named Desire is the 1951 Elia Kazan/Tennessee Williams triumph that earned 12 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, while also courting controversy with some last-minute edits undertaken to appease the censorship board. Marlon Brando made his first indelible mark on audiences in this powerful adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Gone With the Wind's Vivien Leigh is the neurotic belle Blanche du Bois who struggles to hold on to her fading Southern gentility against the brutish badgering of her brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski (Brando). Leigh, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden and the rich black-and-white cinematography were all awarded Oscars for this cinematic classic. While Brando was the only one of the film's four Oscar-nominated actors not to secure a win, his passionate cries of Stella! Stella! Stella! remain etched forever in Hollywood history. Special Features: Commentary by Karl Malden, Rudy Behlmer and Jeff Young Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey (1995 First Run documentary) A Streetcar on Broadway A Streetcar in Hollywood Censorship and Desire North and the Music of the South An Actor Named Brando Marlon Brando Screen Test Outtakes Audio Outtakes Warner Bros. (1951) 20th Century Fox (1958 Reissue) United Artists (1970 Reissue)
Tennessee Williams based his screenplay on Oscar Saul's adaptation of Williams' own Pulitzer Prize-winning play set in a grimy New Orleans project. The story of the fragile sentimentalism of a woman who visits her sister only to be taunted mercilessly by her childish brother-in-law. This classic film garnered 12 Academy Award Nominations (including Best Picture Best Director Best Actor (Marlon Brando) and Best Screeplay) winning 4 including Best Actress (Vivien Leigh) Best Supp
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