"Actor: Paul Meurisse"

• Army Of Shadows | DVD | (02/03/2009) from £9.39   |  Saving you £8.60 (91.59%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece about the French resistance went unreleased in the United States for thirty-seven years before its triumphant debut release in 2006. Atmospheric and gripping Army Of Shadows is Melville's most personal film featuring Lino Ventura Paul Meurisse Jean-Pierre Cassel and the incomparable Simone Signoret as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their own brand of honor in their fight against evil.

• Diabolique | Blu Ray | (05/06/2017) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Legend has it that Henri-Georges Clouzot beat out Alfred Hitchcock to secure the rights to this novel, which proved to be a veritable blueprint for an icy masterpiece of murder, mystery and suspense. Véra Clouzot plays the sickly wife of a callous headmaster of a provincial boarding school going to seed, and the commanding Simone Signoret is the headmaster's mistreated mistress. Together they plot and carry out his murder, a brutal drowning that director Clouzot documents in chilly detail, but the corpse disappears and a nosy detective starts sniffing around the grounds as threatening notes taunt the women. Clouzot's thriller is as precise and accomplished a work as anything in Hitchcock's canon, a film of gruelling suspense and startling shocks in an overcast, grey world of decay, but his icy manipulations lack the human dimension and emotional resonance of the master of suspense. Many critics have accused the film of being misanthropic, and Clouzot's attitude toward his characters is bitter at best, contemptuous at worst. The viewer is left on the outside looking in, but the razor precision and terrifying twists deliver a sleek, bleak spectacle worthy of attention. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Army of Shadows (Vintage World Cinema) | Blu Ray | (03/06/2024) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The most personal film by the underworld poet Jean-Pierre Melville, who had participated in the French Resistance himself, this tragic masterpiece, based on a novel by Joseph Kessel, recounts the struggles and sacrifices of those who fought in the Resistance. Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and the incomparable Simone Signoret star as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their conception of honor in their battle against Hitler's regime. The atmospheric and gripping thriller Army of Shadows is now widely recognized as the summit of Melville's career, channeling the exquisite minimalism of his gangster films to create an unsparing tale of defiance in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.ARMY OF SHADOWS... THE HIDDEN SIDE OF THE STORY

• L'Armee Des Ombres | DVD | (27/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  October 1942. The German occupation of France and the fate of a group of Resistance workers in Marseille.

• The Jean-Pierre Melville Collection | DVD | (02/03/2009) from £55.87   |  Saving you £-10.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Jean-Pierre Melville (1917 - 1974) is one of the most revered French film directors of all time. Born in Paris he was to become a member of the French Resistance in the Second World War an experience which he drew on as a film director creating underworlds of secrecy and deception. The reluctant godfather of the French New Wave Melville''s highly individual style was influenced by the ideas of existentialism and surrealism but arguably his greatest debt was to the American film noirs of 1930s and '40s Hollywood the traditions of which he wove with inimitable style into his quintessentially French films seeing him hailed by many as the father of the French gangster movie. This set contains six of his finest films from his early bittersweet masterpiece Bob Le Flambeur to his final film Un Flic his wonderfully fatalistic study of loss and deception; a fitting epitaph to one of contemporary cinema''s most exceptional careers. Titles Comprise: Army of Shadows (1969): Regarded as one of the best films ever made about wartime France. Members of the French resistance fight for freedom in the face of constant danger. Extras: Ginette Vincendeau Commentary / Le Journal de la Resistance - a 33 minute documentary / Melville short film Le Doulos (1962): An unforgettable story of trust betrayal and honour. A criminal just free from jail goes in search of revenge. Extras: Selected Scene Commentary / Ginette Vincendeau Introduction / Interview with Assistant Director Volker Schlondorff / Original Trailer Leon Morin Pretre (1961): Unforgettable drama set in occupied France. A beautiful but disillusioned woman becomes friends with a priest but her feelings for him soon deepen dangerously. Extras: Selected Scene Commentary / Ginette Vincendeau Introduction / Interview with Assistant Director Volker Schl''ndorff / Original Trailer Le Cercle Rouge (1970): A suave jewel thief teams up with a fugitive and a reckless ex-cop to carry out an elaborate heist. Extras: Ginette Vincendeau Commentary and Introduction / Interview with Assistant Director Bernard Stora / Original Trailer Bob Le Flambeur (1956): An early foray into the gangster genre Melville's self-confessed 'love letter to Paris' follows the world-weary eponymous hero Bob a down on his luck gambler embarking on his final crime. Extras: Introduction by Melville expert Ginette Vincendeau. Un Flic (1972): A Parisian police commissioner and the leader of a gang of criminals in love with the same woman clash when a daring bank robbery takes place.

• Les Diaboliques | DVD | (25/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Director Henri-Georges Clouzot cast his own wife Vera as the hapless victim in this acclaimed masterpiece of the macabre. A wife plans the murder of her tyrant husband with the help of his mistress yet when his body dissappears panic and confusion ensues... The Great Suspense Film That Shocked the World... And Became A Classic.

• Army of Shadows | Blu Ray | (08/04/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Jean-Pierre Melville's masterpiece completes his triptych about the German Occupation of France and the Resistance after Le Silence de la mer and Leon Morin, pretre. Now I have said everything about the war he told the newspaper Paris-Presse. Atmospheric and gripping, Army of Shadows is Melville's most personal film, featuring Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and the incomparable Simone Signoret as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their own brand of honour in their battle against Hitler's regime. Special Features: Army of Shadows - The Hidden Side of the Story Documentary Booklet on the Movie Written by Professor and Film Critic Ginette Vincendeau

• Les Diaboliques | Blu Ray | (14/07/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Les Diaboliques is a classic suspense film that sets the standard rarely reached by contemporary movies. A blueprint for Psycho among others this film has many imitators but few peers.A tyrant schoolteacher - Delasalle (Paul Meurisse) in a seedy boarding school has both his wife (Vera Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret) looking for a way out as he maltreats them both. They decide to work together to murder their tormentor.The two women drown Delasalle in the bath then dump the body in a swimming pool. When the pool is drained and no body found they start to worry. When his suit is returned cleaned they start to panic.Is he alive? Does someone else know? A spiral of perfectly crafted tension hurtles you to an unparalleled conclusion and an ending you will never forget!Both frightening and intoxicating in equal measures this film stands the test of time and remains a classic.

• Les Diaboliques | Blu Ray | (25/04/2011) from £16.18   |  Saving you £8.81 (54.45%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Legend has it that Henri-Georges Clouzot beat out Alfred Hitchcock to secure the rights to this novel, which proved to be a veritable blueprint for an icy masterpiece of murder, mystery and suspense. Véra Clouzot plays the sickly wife of a callous headmaster of a provincial boarding school going to seed, and the commanding Simone Signoret is the headmaster's mistreated mistress. Together they plot and carry out his murder, a brutal drowning that director Clouzot documents in chilly detail, but the corpse disappears and a nosy detective starts sniffing around the grounds as threatening notes taunt the women. Clouzot's thriller is as precise and accomplished a work as anything in Hitchcock's canon, a film of gruelling suspense and startling shocks in an overcast, grey world of decay, but his icy manipulations lack the human dimension and emotional resonance of the master of suspense. Many critics have accused the film of being misanthropic, and Clouzot's attitude toward his characters is bitter at best, contemptuous at worst. The viewer is left on the outside looking in, but the razor precision and terrifying twists deliver a sleek, bleak spectacle worthy of attention. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• La Tete Contre Les Murs | DVD | (21/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An intense study of the clash between medical ideals the first full-length work from Georges Franju (Les yeux sans visage Judex) is a gripping examination of postwar psychiatric care boasting a memorable cast including Pierre Brasseur Anouk Aim''e Charles Aznavour Paul Meurisse and Jean-Pierre Mocky. Mocky plays Fran''ois G''rane an aimless young man whose delinquent tendencies cause his father to have him committed to a psychiatric ward. There under the cold command of Dr. Varmont (Brasseur) he finds himself fighting for his dignity sanity and freedom barely holding on through the new-found love of his girlfriend Stephanie (Aim''e) and the promise of rival Dr. Emery's (Meurisse) more humane techniques. Compassionate yet unflinching La T''te contre les murs is a bold precursor to the likes of Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor and Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest revealing Franju's poetic gift for creating images both concrete and evocative and an ominous hint of the clinical horrors yet to come in Les yeux sans visage. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the debut feature of a late-flowering great filmmaker.

• Les Diaboliques | DVD | (24/10/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Legend has it that Henri-Georges Clouzot beat out Alfred Hitchcock to secure the rights to this novel, which proved to be a veritable blueprint for an icy masterpiece of murder, mystery and suspense. Véra Clouzot plays the sickly wife of a callous headmaster of a provincial boarding school going to seed, and the commanding Simone Signoret is the headmaster's mistreated mistress. Together they plot and carry out his murder, a brutal drowning that director Clouzot documents in chilly detail, but the corpse disappears and a nosy detective starts sniffing around the grounds as threatening notes taunt the women. Clouzot's thriller is as precise and accomplished a work as anything in Hitchcock's canon, a film of gruelling suspense and startling shocks in an overcast, grey world of decay, but his icy manipulations lack the human dimension and emotional resonance of the master of suspense. Many critics have accused the film of being misanthropic, and Clouzot's attitude toward his characters is bitter at best, contemptuous at worst. The viewer is left on the outside looking in, but the razor precision and terrifying twists deliver a sleek, bleak spectacle worthy of attention. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com