Redmond Barry is an Irish country boy who falls in love with a well-to-do local girl and is subsequently tricked by her family into leaving town. Disillusioned with love, the brokenhearted youngster embarks on an adventure which sees him serve in the Seven Years War, earn a living as a professional gambler, and eventually move into the higher ranks of society, when he meets and marries the beautiful Lady Lyndon. Despite the luck that has brought him such riches, it is this final move, the cynical choice to marry for social advancement rather than love, which brings about his downfall.
Redmond Barry is an Irish country boy who falls in love with a well-to-do local girl and is subsequently tricked by her family into leaving town. Disillusioned with love, the brokenhearted youngster embarks on an adventure which sees him serve in the Seven Years War, earn a living as a professional gambler, and eventually move into the higher ranks of society, when he meets and marries the beautiful Lady Lyndon. Despite the luck that has brought him such riches, it is this final move, the cynical choice to marry for social advancement rather than love, which brings about his downfall.
Harry must compete in the prestigious Triwizard Tournament in this fantasy smash.
Harry must compete in the prestigious Triwizard Tournament in this fantasy smash.
Rosamunde Pilcher's Coming Home: When Judith Dunbar is sent to boarding school she makes friends with the wild and carefree Loveday Carey-Lewis. Loveday introduces Judith to her wealthy and glamorous family and their glorious ancestral home of Nancherrow. The next few years are glorious joyful halcyon days of passion fun and romance as the friends remain blissfully unaware of the spectre of war which is about to overshadow their lives... Nancherrow: Joanna Lumley
Perhaps Stanley Kubrick's most underrated film, Barry Lyndon--adapted from the picaresque novel by William Makepeace Thackeray--inhabits the 18th century in the way A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey inhabit the future: perfect sets, costumes and cinematography capture characters whose rises and falls are at once deeply tragic and absurdly comical. Narrated in avuncular form by Michael Hordern, the film follows the fortunes of Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal), a handsome Irish youth forced to flee his hometown after a duel with a cowardly English officer (Leonard Rossiter). Stripped of his small fortune by a deferential highwayman, Barry joins the British army and fights in the Seven Years War, attempting a desertion that leads him into the Prussian army. A position as a spy on an exquisitely painted con man (Patrick Magee) leads to a life of gambling around the courts of Europe, and just before the intermission our hero achieves all he could want by marrying a wealthy, titled beautiful widow (Marisa Berenson). However, Part Two reveals that Barry can no more be a clockwork orange than the protagonist of Kubrick's previous film, and his spendthrift ways, foolhardy pursuit of social advancement and unwise treatment of his new family lead to several disasters, climaxing in another horrific, yet farcical duel. Shot almost entirely in the "magic hour", that point of the day when the light is mistily perfect, with innovative use of candlelight for interiors, Barry Lyndon looks ravishing, but the perfection of its images is matched by the inner turmoil of its seemingly frozen characters. Kubrick is often accused of being unemotional, but his restraint is all the more affecting when, for example, Barry is struck by the deaths of those close to him, his wife writhes into madness or his stepson (Leon Vitali) vomits before he can stand his ground in a duel.On the DVD: The extras are skimpy, a trailer and a list of awards, a French alternate soundtrack and subtitles in seven languages. However, the film--"digitally restored and remastered"--is served superbly by the medium. Letterboxed to 1.59:1 (which fits the 14:9 option of a widescreen TV), with a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, the print looks and sounds wonderful, which not only allows a fresh appreciation of the wit and beauty of the film but shows just how good the apparent underplaying (unusual in Kubrick films) of the cast is. --Kim Newman
Baron Zorn (Robert Hardy) believes his son Emil (Shane Briant) and daughter Elizabeth (Gillian Hills) are suffering from a madness they inherited from their late mother. He keeps his children locked up, but at night Emil is released and murders women in the local village. Discredited psychologist Falkenberg (Patrick Magee - Dementia 13, The Masque of the Red Death) analyses the family and it transpires that the children witnessed their mother cut her own throat. The villagers, driven on by a manic priest (Michael Hordern) identify Zorn as the ˜demon' responsible for killing their daughters. The deranged Emil escapes with Elizabeth, but the murderous Zorn pursues them. Blood, he vows, will have blood One of the most ambitious and unusual horror films produced by Hammer, Demons of the Mind was directed by Peter Sykes (Venom, To the Devil a Daughter) and released in 1972. The distinguished cast includes Shane Briant, who would go on to appear in three further films for Hammer. EXTRAS: NEW FEATURETTE - Blood Will Have Blood: Inside Demons of the Mind ORIGINAL TRAILER
Danton (Gerard Depardieu) and Robespierre were close friends and fought in the French Revolution but by 1793 with the new Republic in place Robespierre heads the ""Committee For Public Safety"" and has begun his now infamous ""Reign Of Terror"" flushing out any dissenting voices and sending them without hesitation to Guillotine. Danton well known as a spokesman of the people returns to Paris after his self-imposed exile to call an end to the bloodshed but in doing so makes a dangerous
A physician discovers that two children are being kept virtually imprisoned in their house by their father. He investigates and discovers a web of sex incest and satanic possession
When Harry Potter's name emerges from the Goblet of Fire he becomes a competitor in a grueling battle for glory among three wizarding schools - the Triwizard Tournament. But since Harry never submitted his name for the Tournament who did? Now Harry must confront a deadly dragon fierce water demons and an enchanted maze only to find himself in the cruel grasp of He Who Must Not Be Named. In this fourth film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series everything changes as Harry Ron and Hermione leave childhood forever and take on challenges greater than anything they could have imagined.
Based on Ludovic Kennedy's investigative book '10 Rillington Place' is the true and horrifying story of English mass murderer John Christie (chillingly played by Richard Attenborough). When Timothy Evans (John Hurt) his wife Beryl (Judy Geeson) and their young daughter move into Christie's house they unknowingly sign their death warrants. Christie offers to help Beryl have an abortion and uses this opportunity as he has already done with previous victims to strangle and rape her. Believing himself to be an accomplice to a fatal abortion Evans panics and flees with the hope that his child will be looked after; in fact Christie kills her too. Evans is arrested charged with double murder found guilty and hanged. But Christie continues to kill... Attenborough and Hurt give unforgettable performances in this thought-provoking frightening and atmospheric true crime classic directed by Richard Fleischer.
TWILIGHT sensation Robert Pattinson stars in the new, quirky, offbeat, post teen-life crisis comedy HOW TO BE.
A television adaptation of Bram Stoker's oft-filmed classic. Headed by the brash young American investment banker Jonathan Harker (Hardy Krger Jr.) and his fianc Mina (Stefania Rocca) a group of young adventurers are seeking new opportunities in Budapest. When the mysterious Count Tepes (Patrick Bergin) summons Jonathan to his castle in Romania for an important deal little does the banker know what horror he is about to unleash upon the world. Tepes is none other than Dracula an
In some ways, calling this collection James Dean: The Rare Movies is a little misleading. After all, the "all-purpose delinquent"--as described in David Dalton's fascinating booklet notes--made only three feature films and, in true iconic style, died a youthful, violent death. Yet the collection works somewhat on an ironic level. The 1950s was a decade in which television established itself as the biggest threat to the cinematic medium, and this is a selection of some of the television dramas and commercials that Dean made on his way up to Hollywood stardom, presented with the same introductions and sponsors' messages of the original transmissions. So how good was he at the beginning? All the raw material was there: the restless misfit, the damaged juvenile and the complex punk. In 1954's "I am a Fool" he stars with Natalie Wood in what turned out to be a rehearsal for Rebel Without a Cause on the big screen. At times he moves with an almost balletic grace, at others he twitches with that awkwardness that still leaves new generations of fans totally enthralled. Television was never going to contain him. This is like watching history in the making and is all the more compelling because we know the tragedy that lay but a short way ahead. On the DVD: It scarcely matters that these television dramas and commercials are presented in 4:3 format. The picture quality is inevitably poor and the sound rough, sometimes to the point of inaudibility. Made in television's explosive adolescence, they were never intended to be monuments to technological brilliance. We're just lucky they've survived at all. The track selection offers a maze-like array of choices for you to skip between films, introductions and commercial breaks and occasionally this can be confusing. A chronology on the DVD itself would have helped.--Piers Ford
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