"Actor: Marton"

• The Last Duel (4K Ultra HD) (+ Blu-ray 2D) | Blu Ray | (06/01/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Ponchielli: La Gioconda | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Vienna State Opera's 1986 production of La Gioconda, Amilcare Ponchielli's only lasting success, was an increasingly rare event. The story--based on a long forgotten Victor Hugo drama--is an emotional roller coaster of high passion and self-sacrifice, but has fallen out of favour with the major international opera companies; instead, Ponchielli's contemporary Verdi and one-time pupil Puccini are today's guaranteed crowd-pullers. This is a shame. Ponchielli's score might be sumptuous to the point of occasional over-ripeness but it contains some marvellous arias, not least Enzo's "Cielo e mar". And whenever La Gioconda herself is on stage, it's hard not become enthralled by the richness of her suffering as painted by Ponchielli's lush, explosive music. Here is a woman who is given every opportunity to ensure the removal of her rival (Laura) for Enzo's affections, but who always does the decent thing, ultimately leaving herself with a stark choice between suicide and the repulsive paws of the evil Barnaba who has pursued her since Act I. As La Gioconda, Hungarian soprano Eva Marton is utterly compelling. It's a role that places extraordinary emotional demands on the singer (Callas, not surprisingly, had a field day with it). Marton maintains total credibility. In voice, she is well matched by Placido Domingo's Enzo, who is at the virile peak of his vocal powers, rather suggesting a strength that the suggestible Enzo doesn't really possess. But perhaps the strongest aspect of Ponchielli's opera is the way in which the vocal jewels are distributed throughout the cast. Ludmilla Schemtschuk is an elegant Laura and Margarita Lilowa as La Gioconda's blind mother, La Cieca, sings an unforgettable "Voce di donna o d'angelo". And the ballet within the opera, the "Dance of the Hours", assumes its rightful place as a gleaming component of the whole work. On the DVD: Originally filmed for television, this La Gioconda is presented in PCM Stereo with 4:3 picture format, neither of which do the overall quality any favours. The sound is uneven; when the singers turn upstage it is sometimes impossible to hear what they are singing and the orchestra, conducted by Adam Fischer, sounds dull. The colours are muted. And while the booklet provides the customary comprehensive notes we have come to expect from Arthaus products, it is surprising that the cover photograph is not of the magnificent Eva Marton in the title role.--Piers Ford

• Strauss: Elektra | DVD | (03/07/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Richard Strauss's wildest and most passionate opera gets an almost ideal performance in this 1989 production with three great female singers at the height of their powers. Marton is terrifyingly unreasonable as Elektra, determined to mourn her dead father in the face of her mother who had him killed, and to hope and pray for the vengeance that her brother will one day bring. Told he is dead, her emotional collapse is equally total, and her eventual self-destructive dance of triumph is a bittersweet ecstasy of anger and joy. Studer gives the sometimes underplayed role of the normal, compromising "feminine" sister the weight and sympathy Strauss intended it to have. Fassbaender is electric as Clytemnestra, collapsing under the weight of her guilt and paranoia, but still scarily sexy and regal in her manipulation of those around her. Abbado's conducting is electric--from the opening "Agamemnon" chords to the final dying fall of Elektra's dance, he never puts a foot wrong or misjudges the pacing of this most difficult of opera scores. The DVD has subtitles in English, German and French. --Roz Kaveney

• Evilenko | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-5.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Based on the shocking true story of the former Soviet Union's most notorious serial killer this riveting haunting film explores the mind of a true monster; a man who mutilated and devoured more than 50 children. For years Andrei Evilenko (Malcolm McDowell) eluded the obsessive Detective Lesiev (Marton Csokas) and the psychiatric profiler Aron Richter (Ronald Pickup). Spurred on by his rabid fury at the gradual crumbling of his precious Soviet Union Evilenko is a man who will liv

• XXX | Blu Ray | (23/04/2007) from £10.87   |  Saving you £12.11 (153.68%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Vin Diesel stars as an extreme sports athlete called Triple X hired by a government agency who turn him into a secret agent and send him on a covert mission to destroy a dangerous terrorist cell.

• Tosca - Arena Di Verona | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Tosca is a story of lust crime and idealistic young love originally written for Sarah Bernhardt. Puccini transformed it into an opera of the highest drama and passion and it became central to his career. This production by Sylvano Bussotti of one of Puccini's best loved works comes from the magnificent Roman amphitheatre in Verona and was filmed in 1984. Hungarian soprano Eva Marton is Tosca a role for which she is particularly well-known on stage. Ingvar Wixell is a superbly wick

• Looney Tunes Back In Action / Cats And Dogs / Kangaroo Jack | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £5.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (217.03%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Three fantasitc family favourites on this great boxed set. Looney Tunes Back In Action: David verses Goliath Ali versus Frazier Britney versus Justin all pale in comparison to the earth rending bone-crushing carrot-chomping anvil-dropping tail-feather-scorching gleefully epic smack down that is Rabbit verses Duck or more specifically Bugs Bunny verses Daffy. Set in a live-action world Warner Bros. animated superstars interact with human characters for maximum comic eff

• Xena - Warrior Princess - Series 6 Box Set 2 | DVD | (03/06/2002) from £26.97   |  Saving you £8.02 (22.90%)   |  RRP £34.99

  More action/adventure from the princess who knows how to kick some butt!!!

• Monkey's Mask | DVD | (06/02/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A lady detective is drafted in to look into a string of murders within a chain of strip clubs and finds a web of lies, deceit and death.

• Rain | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £18.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  'Rain' is a provocative and moving rites of passage tale from New Zealand director Christine Jeffs set against the backdrop of the country's beautful coastline. It's the beginning of a long hot summer and thirteen year old Janey (Alicia Fulford-Wierbicki) and her family settle into their isolated cottage for what's set to be another perfect holiday. But for Janey this will be no ordinary holiday it will change her life forever.

• Elektra | DVD | (05/04/2000) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

• Puccini: Turandot -- San Francisco | DVD | (18/07/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Not only is Puccini's final opera Turandot among the composer's most popular works, but following The Three Tenors and a certain football contest, it has in "Nessun dorma!" what is almost certainly the best-loved aria in all opera. Written 20 years after Madame Butterfly (1904), Puccini's version of an 800-year-old fairy-tale is set in a legendary Peking and scored on a grand scale, incorporating not only Chinese musical techniques but a vast range of oriental percussion. Puccini draws heavily on the chorus, and as ever makes intense demands on his heroine, to which Eva Marton rises powerfully, very well complemented by the tenor Michael Sylvester as Calaf. However, what makes this 1994 San Francisco Opera version so enchanting as a visual experience is the realisation by David Hockney, who not only designed the sets and costumes but also directed the production. His vision is highly stylised, richly imagined, atmospheric and very beautiful, and it is a testament to how well this version is directed that much of the original magic is communicated through the confines of a TV screen. --Gary S. DalkinOn the DVD: Other than a well-appointed booklet, and the option to watch with or without subtitles, there are no special features. The 4:3 picture is a major improvement on video, though no doubt due to the original source materials, not as detailed as the best DVDs. The sound is powerful PCM stereo, with a slight tendency to become strident at especially dramatic moments. The layer change is particularly badly done, interrupting the choir in full flow, rather than being placed between tracks.

• Merlin | DVD | (19/03/2004) from £21.21   |  Saving you £8.78 (29.30%)   |  RRP £29.99

  An opera in three acts from the Teatro Real Madrid. Enjoy the world premiere of the full and original version of Merlin by Isaac Albniz over a century after he completed the work. Albniz composed this 'Wagnerian' opera to an English libretto by his patron Francis Burdett Money-Coutts between 1898 and 1902. Many believed the score was lost until the conductor Jos De Eusebio reconstructed it from various manuscript sources and publishers' proofs. For this stunning production dire

• Garage Days | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £4.98   |  Saving you £11.01 (221.08%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A coming-of-age comedy about a young Sydney band trying to get a foothold in the competitive world of rock n' roll.

• XXX | UMD | (01/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Vin Diesel is no James Bond, and he doesn't want to be. That's why XXX announced Diesel as the adrenalin-junkie Bond of the PlayStation generation, copying the Bond formula so shamelessly that this action-packed silliness would be a Bond movie if it starred Pierce Brosnan. Reuniting Diesel with his Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, XXX has an attitude (if not a brain) all its own, plucking Diesel's Xander Cage from his celebrity as an extreme sports renegade, recruited by a National Security Agency big shot (Samuel L. Jackson) to foil a nasty Czech villain (Marton Csokas) who's eager to depopulate Prague with remote-controlled biological weaponry. Toss in a sulky, sultry Russian agent (Asia Argento) and you've got extreme Bond-age for anyone who thinks tuxedos are passé. With a handful of eye-popping action sequences, XXX launched a movie franchise with a cool guy, another cool muscle car, and plenty of box-office sizzle. --Jeff Shannon

• The Bourne Identity/The Bourne Supremacy/The Interpreter | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Bourne Identity: A man who may or may not be Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) is found floating in the Mediterranean Sea and is hauled onto a fishing boat. When the ship's doctor examines the unconscious castaway he discovers two bullet wounds and an implanted device that displays a Swiss bank account number. With nothing but this code the amnesiac Bourne travels to Zurich and gains access to a safe-deposit box containing a gun thousands of dollars in various currencies and valid passports from numerous countries - each listing a different identity. Within minutes Bourne is on the run from a seemingly ever-present agency relying on language and fighting skills he didn't even know he possessed! Offering $20 000 for a ride to Paris Bourne gains the reluctant help of the nomadic Marie (Franka Potente). Meanwhile the shadowy organization headed by a tough-talking bureaucrat (Chris Cooper) sends numerous assassins (including the Professor played by Clive Owen) after Bourne and Marie. As their situation grows more perilous the two strangers struggle to find out who Bourne really is and why they are being hunted... (Dir. Doug Liman 2002) The Bourne Supremacy: They should have left him alone! The Bourne Supremacy re-enters the shadowy world of expert assassin Jason Bourne (Damon) who continues to find himself plagued by the splintered nightmares from his former life. The stakes are now even higher for the agent as he coolly maneuvers through the dangerous waters of international espionage - replete with CIA plots turncoat agents and constantly shifting covert alliances - all the while hoping to find the truth behind his haunted memories and answers to his own fragmented past... (Dir. Paul Greengrass 2004) Interpreter: The truth needs no translation... Director Sidney Pollack's diverse career sees him returning to familiar ground with The Interpreter Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn starring in a film riddled with subterfuge recriminations and deadly secrets. Kidman plays Silvia Broome an interpreter who works at the UN in New York City. One night while collecting a bag she has left behind in the building Silvia overhears a whispered conversation in which an assassination attempt on redoubtable African leader Zuwanie (Earl Cameron) is planned during his future visit to the UN. Secret service agent Tobin Keller (Penn) is assigned to provide security for Zuwanie on the forthcoming trip and conducts an investigation when Silvia explains what she has heard. He quickly discovers that Silvia has a lengthy troubled past as a citizen from the same country as Zuwanie and immediately begins to doubt her story... This is the first film to be shot inside the United Nations Headquarters. Locations include the General Assembly and the Security Council as well as corridors and hallways of the complex. The cast and crew filmed on weekends in order not to disrupt the working week of the Organization. (Dir. Sidney Pollack 2004)

• Xena - Warrior Princess - Series 3 - Part 2 | DVD | (15/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Xena driven to vengeance by Ares nearly kills her friend Gabrielle but is taken to the mystical land Illusia where they are reunited. Gabrielle however is still tormented by her rift with Xena and tries to erase her memory at the Temple of Mnemosyne. After a tortuous ordeal she comes to realise that in order for good memories to exist there must also be bad memories. Enlightened by this they travel on together recovering the North Star jewel stolen from Aphrodite along the way only to discover Hope Gabrielle''s daughter in the process of being re-born into the world with the sacrifice of Gabrielle's friend Seraphin. Xena and Gabrielle realise they must stop this but are battling against their old foes Ares and Callisto again... Features the episodes: The Bitter Suite One Against an Army Forgiven King Con When in Rome Forget Me Not Fins Femmes and Gems Tsunami Vanishing Act and Sacrifice Parts One and Two.

• Andrea Chenier - La Scala Milan | DVD | (27/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Set in Paris at the time of the French Revolution Andrea Chenier is an opera of great passion and real drama and is Umberto Giordano's most popular work. This 1985 production from La Scala Milan conducted by Riccardo Chailly was a great success and features Jose Carreras as the poet Andrea Chenier. His sensitive passionate performance his elegant artistry together with his good looks make him ideal for this part and demonstrate why this became one of his signature roles. There

• Xena - Warrior Princess - Series 4 Boxset 1 | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Where is Gabrielle - is she alive or dead? Xena tracks her down to the land of the Amazons trapped along with Amazon spirits. Xena fights Alti to see her best friend one more time but is it really her? Eventually reunited they travel on but things don''t go smoothly for the adventurous duo as Xena is sent to Shark Island Prison for past crimes and even Argo switches sides and becomes a Warlord's horse! Xena breaks free to continue her fight against injustice never easy as the evil Horde returns with a vengeance! Features the episodes: Adventures In The Sin Trade: Part I Adventures In The Sin Trade: Part II A Family Affair In Sickness And In Hell A Good Day A Tale Of Two Muses Locked Up And Tied Down Crusader Past Imperfect Key To The Kingdom and Daughter Of Pomira.

• Xena - Warrior Princess - Series 2 (Box Set 1) | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  First aired in 1995 Xena: Warrior Princess now boasts a huge cult following. Xena is a charismatic and highly-skilled warrior from ancient times. This DVD box set includes the first half of the second season of this action-packed series.