"Actor: Max Dalban"

• Panique (1947) | Blu Ray | (07/01/2019) from £21.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Julien Duvivier taps into postwar France's paranoia in a long unavailable thriller, adapted from a Georges Simenon novel Proud, eccentric, and antisocial, Monsieur Hire (Michel Simon) has always kept to himself. But after a woman turns up dead in the Paris suburb where he lives, he feels drawn to a pretty young newcomer to town (Viviane Romance), discovers that his neighbours are only too ready to be suspicious of him, and is framed for the murder. Based on a novel by Georges Simenon, the first film made by Julien Duvivier after his return to France from Hollywood, finds the acclaimed poetic realist applying his consummate craft to darker, moodier ends. Propelled by its two deeply nuanced lead performances, the tensely noirish Panique exposes the dangers of the knivesout mob mentality, delivering a pointed allegory of the behaviour of Duvivier's countrymen during the war. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack The Art of Subtitling, a new short documentary by Bruce Goldstein, founder and copresident of Rialto Pictures, about the history of subtitles New interview with author Pierre Simenon, the son of novelist Georges Simenon Conversation from 2015 between critics Guillemette Odicino and Eric Libiot about director Julien Duvivier and the film's production history Rialto Pictures rerelease trailer New English subtitle translation by Duvivier expert Lenny Borger PLUS: Essays by film scholar James Quandt and Borger

• Boudu Saved From Drowning | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £11.98   |  Saving you £8.01 (40.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In an oeuvre permeated with ambivalence toward bourgeois life director Jean Renoir speculates on the result of the abandonment of those values in Boudu Saved From Drowning. Producer Michel Simon stars as Boudu a vagabond who attempts suicide by throwing himself into the Seine grieving over the loss of his dog. But Eduaord Lestingois (Charles Granval) a humane bookseller rescues him and takes him into his home hoping to reform the shaggy bum. Shortly thereafter anarchy

• 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