"Actor: Mirella"

• Madama Butterfly - Puccini | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Of all Puccini's major operas, the intimate tragedy of Madama Butterfly is least in need of elaborate staging and might therefore benefit most from the close scrutiny of film. The story is domestic, the setting Spartan, the incidental characters kept to a minimum. This 1974 version, however, demonstrates that Butterfly still needs a healthy injection of proscenium arch melodrama. Director Jean-Pierre Ponelle's production strives for realism but remains unfortunately studio-bound, having neither the benefit of location filming nor the heightened reality of an opera stage. The exterior is a perpetually fog-shrouded heath of indeterminate locale; the interior is cramped and unadorned. The setting is just too prosaic to contain the epic emotions of grand opera. Thankfully, the cast is superb, headed by Placido Domingo's rakish Pinkerton and Mirella Freni's rubicund Butterfly. Their singing is incomparable, as is Herbert von Karajan's musical direction of the Vienna Phil. The singers mime to pre-recorded music, which is occasionally disconcerting since when film demands close-ups opera provides broad gestures. Musically, this Butterfly is impeccable. Visually it adds nothing that could not be seen to better effect in a stage version. On the DVD: Madama Butterfly is presented disappointingly on disc in a poor NTSC transfer full of distracting graininess that makes every scene, both inside and out, look like it takes place in an omnipresent drizzle. Sound is reasonable stereo and adequate 5.0 surround. There are subtitles in the major European languages as well as Chinese, and the booklet contains a background essay plus synopsis. --Mark Walker

• Verdi-Don Carlo | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £19.29   |  Saving you £5.69 (34.91%)   |  RRP £21.99

• L'Eclisse | DVD | (28/09/2015) from £9.00   |  Saving you £8.99 (99.89%)   |  RRP £17.99

  L’Eclisse was the final film in Antonioni’s informal trilogy on contemporary malaise (following L’Avventura and La Notte), a series of films that redefined the concept of narrative cinema. Filmed in sumptuous black and white, and full of scenes of lush, strange beauty, it tells the story of Vittoria (the beautiful Monica Vitti - Red Desert - Antonioni’s partner at the time), a young woman who leaves her older lover (Francisco Rabal – Viridiana), then drifts into a relationship with a confident, ambitious young stockbroker (Alain Delon – Le Cercle Rouge). But this base narrative is the starting point for much, much more, including an analysis of the city as a place of estrangement and alienation and an implicit critique of colonialism. Using the architecture of Rome - old and new - as a backdrop for this doomed affair, Antonioni achieves the apotheosis of his style in this return to the theme that preoccupied him the most: the difficulty of forming true connections amidst the meaninglessness of the modern world. The final shot remains one of the greatest endings in cinema.

• Le Nozze Di Figaro - Mozart | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  This luxuriously cast film of Mozart's beloved opera buffa features a host of legendary interpretations including Kiri Te Kanawa's exquisite Countess Almaviva Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as her philandering husband Hermann Prey as the wily title character Mirella Freni a delight as his no less savvy bride Susanna and Maria Ewing hilarious as the lovesick page Cherubino. Director Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's imaginative camera-work tellingly emphasizes character and mood of this immortal story of love intrigue and class struggle set against the historical background of ancien regime Europe sliding inexorably towards revolution.

• Kill Baby... Kill! | Blu Ray | (11/09/2017) from £54.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In 1966, after a three-year hiatus, director Mario Bava (Black Sunday, The Girl Who Knew Too Much) returned to his preferred stomping ground of horror, conjuring up a spine-tingling tale of Gothic terror whose influence would resonate within the genre for years to come. In the early 20th century, pathologist Dr Paul Eswai (Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, The Last Man on Earth) is summoned to a remote Carpathian village to perform an autopsy on a woman who died under mysterious circumstances. With the locals convinced they are being haunted by the spirit of a young girl who died years ago, can the steadfastly rational doctor find a logical explanation to the strange goings-on... or will his rational beliefs be destroyed by the dark secret that lies within the crumbling walls of the ancient Villa Graps? Co-starring the unforgettable Erika Blanc (The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, So Sweet... So Perverse), Kill, Baby... Kill! arrived at the tail-end of the golden age of Italian horror and is regarded by many as Bava s masterpiece. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS Restored 2K high definition digital transfer High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc) English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack New audio commentary by Tim Lucas, author of Mario Bava All the Colors of the Dark The Devil s Daughter: Mario Bava and the Gothic Child, a new video essay by critic Kat Ellinger Kill, Bava, Kill!, an interview with assistant director Lamberto Bava Yellow, Semih Tareen s short film homage to the cinema of Mario Bava Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector s booklet featuring new writing by critic Travis Crawford

• Puccini - La Boheme | DVD | (12/06/2006) from £14.78   |  Saving you £-3.79 (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  Zeffirelli's 1963 Milan production of La Boheme, preserved in this 1965 film, provides a richly satisfying take on Puccini's much-loved romantic tragedy. The staging is opulent, not least in the way Zeffirelli opens up the Cafe Momus and turns it into a warm, vibrant haven for the bohemians and their followers. But it's the relationships which really matter here. Puccini's score--conducted with restrained passion by Herbert von Karajan--develops in a wonderfully linear way, with some of his most intensely moving arias and duets underpinning the evolution of the bohemian artists, particularly Rodolfo and Marcello, from immature egotists to rounded human beings, touched by tragedy. The film does look dated now--Mirella Freni's Mimi, sung with moving clarity, has the doe-eyed look of a 1960s pop star and the camera work is a tad unsophisticated--but the singing still puts the listener through the wringer. Gianni Raimondi's Rodolfo ("Che gelida manina") struggles manfully to come to terms with his emotional shortcomings and Adriana Martino (Musetta) has some fine comic moments before playing her vital part in the overwhelming sadness of the final scenes. Soul food for the tragically inclined. On the DVD: La Boheme has no extras here, but excellent booklet notes accompany the disc. The PCM Stereo soundtrack has been digitally remastered to decent effect. The 4:3 picture format inevitably imposes some limitations and the 1960s video quality is a little dull, but after all, this is a product of its time and a vital record of one of Zeffirelli's most successful productions.--Piers Ford

• Puccini: La Boheme -- San Francisco/Severini | DVD | (28/08/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  One way to use the DVD format for opera is to provide a video format with a clear picture and sumptuous sound and let a good performance speak more or less for itself. Severini's La Boheme comes with a minimum of trimmings--subtitles in English, French and German; even a short account of the performance history is relegated to text in a booklet. The live performance has real theatrical presence, even to the extent that, at times, the vocal and orchestral subtleties get lost in wild applause. Pavarotti's Rodolfo was, in 1988, as plangently lyrical as ever and Freni's care-worn Mimi is a deeply touching and musical performance; Pacetti is a beefy full-blooded no-nonsense Musetta--the waltz song and ensuing duet with Marcello is for once the Broadway show-stopper it ought to be. Of the supporting roles, though, perhaps the most moving is Ghiaurov's Colline--his farewell to his old coat is a short passage of deep pathos which he has rarely sung as well as he does here. --Roz Kaveney

• L'Eclisse | Blu Ray | (28/09/2015) from £11.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (91.74%)   |  RRP £22.99

  L’Eclisse was the final film in Antonioni’s informal trilogy on contemporary malaise (following L’Avventura and La Notte), a series of films that redefined the concept of narrative cinema. Filmed in sumptuous black and white, and full of scenes of lush, strange beauty, it tells the story of Vittoria (the beautiful Monica Vitti - Red Desert - Antonioni’s partner at the time), a young woman who leaves her older lover (Francisco Rabal – Viridiana), then drifts into a relationship with a confident, ambitious young stockbroker (Alain Delon – Le Cercle Rouge). But this base narrative is the starting point for much, much more, including an analysis of the city as a place of estrangement and alienation and an implicit critique of colonialism. Using the architecture of Rome - old and new - as a backdrop for this doomed affair, Antonioni achieves the apotheosis of his style in this return to the theme that preoccupied him the most: the difficulty of forming true connections amidst the meaninglessness of the modern world. The final shot remains one of the greatest endings in cinema.

• Tenebrae | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £17.90   |  Saving you £-0.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  After several excursions into supernatural horror, Dario Argento returned to the homicidal frenzy that made his reputation with this mystery that plays more like a grown-up slasher movie than a detective thriller. Anthony Franciosa stars as Peter Neal, a best-selling horror novelist whose promotional tour in Italy takes a terrible turn when a mysterious killer recreates the brutal murders from his book with real-life victims. The first to die are so-called "deviants", Neal's own friends and finally there comes a promise that the author himself is next on the list. Columbo it ain't, but Argento has always been more concerned with style than story and his execution of the crimes is pure cinematic bravura. From the simple beauty of a straight razor shattering a light bulb (the camera catches the red-hot filament slowly blacking out) to an ambitious crane shot that creeps up and over the sides of a house under siege in a voyeuristic survey that would make Hitchcock proud, Argento turns the art of murder into a stylish spectacle. He even lets his kinkier side show with flashbacks of an adolescent boy and a teasing dominatrix in red stiletto heels that become a key motif of the film. The objects of Argento's homicidal tendencies are traditionally lovely, scantily clad Italian beauties, and with self-deprecating humour he even inserts a scene in which Neal is taken to task for the misogynist violence of his stories--an accusation Argento himself has weathered for years. --Sean Axmaker

• Ernani - Giuseppe Verdi - Teatro Alla Scala | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £15.43   |  Saving you £2.56 (14.20%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The hugely successful production of Verdi's romantic drama Ernani features four legendary opera stars: Placido Damingo Mirella Freni Renato Bruson and Nicolai Ghiaurov all at the height of their powers. They were described in The Times review as 'possibly the best quartet of singers any opera house has managed to assemble this year'. They give an impassioned electric performance under the conductor Riccardo Muti an acclaimed Verdi interpreter. The producer Luca Ranconi has cre

• L'Eclisse | DVD | (09/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Alongside L'Avventura and La Notte L'Eclisse completes director Michelangelo Antonioni's ambitious 60s trilogy on doomed relationships in a fractured world. The tale involves a woman Vittoria (Monica Vitti The Red Desert) who has just suffered the break-up of an imperfect relationship with a staunch intellectual (Francisco Rabal). Piero (Alain Delon The Leopard) a brash young stockbroker casts his romantic gaze in Vittoria's direction and Vittoria's

• The Last Summer of La Boyita | DVD | (23/04/2012) from £7.48   |  Saving you £8.51 (53.20%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In the tradition of tender coming-of-age tales such as Lucia Puenzo’s XXY and Celine Sciamma’s Tomboy, comes Julia Solomonoff’s The Last Summer of La Boyita, a sumptuously-shot ode to childhood summers past, executive produced by Pedro Almodovar.'La Boyita', a little bubble-shaped caravan, has always been a place of refuge, games and confessions for Jorgelina and her older sister Luciana. As Luciana enters puberty she begins to seek privacy and independence from her adoring sibling. Rather than tag along after her sister at the beach, Jorgelina decides to spend her summer holidays with her father in the country. There she develops a close friendship with Mario, a local farm boy and jockey. As the children explore the sun-drenched Pampas prairies and each other, they begin to question the similarities they share, and what makes them different.

• Carmen - Bizet | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  This famous film of the world's best loved opera, directed by Herbert von Karajan, features the three greatest exponents of their respective roles at the time: Grace Bumbry's magnificently seductive-toned Carmen, Mirella Freni's ineffably lovely, touching Micaela, and Jon Vickers's thrillingly manic-depressive Don Jose.

• Umberto Giordano - Fedora | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £19.51   |  Saving you £8.47 (51.27%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Giordano: Fedora (Gavazzeni / Freni / Giordano / Umberto)

• Graveyard Disturbance | DVD | (04/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Five teenage friends avidly take up a challenge from a spooky innkeeper - to spend a night in an eerie crypt in return for a prize that has remained unclaimed for centuries. In spite of a warning that the place is haunted by every imaginable horror from beyond the grave the friends refuse to believe they will come to harm ...provided they stick together. Will they survive? Will they overcome the terror...and win the bet? You'll hold your breath. Original music by Simon Boswell.

• Giacomo Puccini - La Boheme | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £22.11   |  Saving you £4.14 (19.86%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Puccini: La Boheme (Severini SFOO Pavarotti Freni)

• Django Kill! | DVD | (01/09/2008) from £7.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (87.61%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In the ultra-violent Spaghetti Western Django Kill! Tomas Milian stars as The Stranger a half-breed bandit left for dead by his double-crossing gang members who have made off with the gold they have stolen from a US army detachment. Rising from the grave he sets about seeking revenge aided by a pair of mystic Native Americans and armed only with a pistol and a supply of golden bullets. The Stranger's quest leads him to a strange town known only as The Unhappy Place. There he fin

• The Grapes Of Death | DVD | (13/08/2018) from £7.90   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The grapes used to produce the wine for a village's annual Grape Harvest Festival has been polluted by toxic chemicals and induces a form on zombified insanity in the villagers who have drunk the wine. The victims' flesh also melts adding another layer of torment to their crazed suffering and madness. For director Jean Rollin Grapes of Death was a major departure from his usual dream-like vampire films in that he set out to frighten and horrify rather than to captivate and astound and he does so with great success.

• Puccini - La Boheme, Madama Butterfly | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  La Boheme: Recorded in the San Francisco Opera House in 1988, this performance of Puccini's La Boheme contains an international cast of singers and players. ; ; Madama Butterfly: Puccini's classic opera which was completed in 1904. This performance is the 1986 La Scala production.

• The Great Silence | DVD | (16/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Bounty killers led by Loco (Kinski) prey on outlaws hiding out in the snowbound Utah mountains. After Pauline's husband becomes Loco's latest victim she hires a gunman for revenge... Director Sergio Corbucci brings this spaghetti western to life with great acting and a brillant villian in Klaus Kinski. Enhanced with Ennio Morricone's original music score this movie is what the genre should be.