"Actor: Mich"

• Tirez Sur Le Pianiste | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The opening of Shoot the Piano Player, François Truffaut's second feature film, is one of the signal moments of the French New Wave--an inspired intersection of grim fatality and happy accident, location shooting and lurid melodrama, movie convention and frowzy, uncontainable life. A man runs through deserted night streets, stalked by the lights of a car. It's a definitive film noir situation, promptly sidetracked--yet curiously not undercut--by real-life slapstick: watching over his shoulder for pursuers, the running man charges smack into a lamppost. The figure that helps him to his feet is not one of the pursuers (they've oddly disappeared) but an anonymous passer-by, who proceeds to escort him for a block or two, genially schmoozing about the mundane, slow-blooming glories of marriage. The Good Samaritan departs at the next turning, never to be identified and never to be seen again. And the first man--who, despite this evocative introduction, is not even destined to be the main character of the movie--immediately resumes his helter-skelter flight from an as-yet-unspecified and unseen menace. At this point in his career--right after The 400 Blows, just before his great Jules and Jim--the world seemed wide for Truffaut, as wide as the Dyaliscope screen that he and cinematographer Raoul Coutard deployed with unprecedented spontaneity and lyricism. Anything might wander into frame and become part of the flow: an oddball digression, an unexpected change of mood, a small miracle of poetic insight. The official agenda of the movie is adapting a noir-ish story by American writer David Goodis, about a celebrated concert musician (Charles Aznavour) hiding out as a piano player in a saloon. He's on the run as much as the guy--his older brother--in the first scene. But whereas the brother is worried about a couple of buffoonish gangsters, Charlie Koller is ducking out on life, love and the possibility that he might be hurt, or cause hurt, again. Decades after its original release, Shoot the Piano Player remains as fresh, exhilarating, and heartbreaking--as open to the magic of movies and life--as ever. --Richard T Jameson

• The Call Of The Wild | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  During the Yukon Gold Rush John Thornton his companion Pete and his dog Buck face an adventure across 200 miles of the frozen north; a battle for survival in sub-zero temperatures. Based on the celebrated novel by Jack London.

• Europa Europa | DVD | (16/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Agnieszka Holland's 'Europa Europa' is the fascinating fact-based story of Solomon Perel (Marco Hofschneider) a German Jew who survived the Holocaust by concealing his identity literally within enemy ranks. When Nazi thugs smash into the Perels' house 13-year-old Solly manages to flee. Upon his reunion with his family they head for Poland hoping to find safety but war soon overcomes that land and once again Solly is forced to run this time with his brother. They become separate

• Aux Petits Bonheurs | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Mario Bava - Vol. 1 | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This collection features a trio of films directed by 'the master of the macabre' Mario Bava. Black Sabbath (1963): Italian horror master Mario Bava's spine-tingling horror anthology. In the first tale A Drop Of Water a woman steals a ring off of the finger of a corpse only to be haunted by the angry spirit of the ring's owner. In The Telephone a woman is harassed by phone calls from the dead. Finally Boris Karloff plays a vampire-like creature in The Wurdalak who feeds off the blood of its family. The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963 aka The Evil Eye): The mystery of the Alphabet Murders in Rome was left unsolved ten years ago. When Nora Davis (Roman) travels there on vacation she gets tangled in a web of death starting with Edith an old friend of the family. As Nora tries to find some help for Edith she witnesses the stabbing murder of yet another woman. She soon discovers that the murder actually happened ten years ago to Emily Craven and that the Alphabet Murderer is looking for is still looking for the letter 'D'. The Mask of Satan (1960 aka Black Sunday/Revenge of The Vampire): Buxom B-movie queen Barbara Steele stars in this atmospheric film about the long dead evil Princess Asa and her brother who are accidentally brought back to life. Asa goes on a quest to murder her twin descendent Princess Katia (also played by Steele) and seduces many unknowing victims along the way.