Mozart's Clemenza di Tito ("The Clemency of Titus") makes for riveting viewing in this Glyndebourne performance directed by Nicholas Hytner and conducted by Andrew Davis staged in the composer's bicentenary in 1991. Mozart's last opera, Clemenza was for some time considered below par by his own exalted standards. He composed it in a rush, the recitatives are by a pupil and it had to be on an appropriate theme to please the new Hapsburg monarch, for whose enthronement it was designed. There's little character development and the musical style harks back to operatic conventions Mozart had done so much to overthrow. Watching this production one would scarcely credit that such reservations once held sway. Hytner and his team have put a contemporary angle on a story set in Rome AD 78 in which sets, props and the stage itself are constructed to different dimensions offering alternate perspectives on a static tale. A slanting pillar and a sloping corridor allude to the unhinged mind of the scheming Vitellia, the central character, who puts her confidant Sesto on an emotional roller coaster ride as she ensnares him to plot the downfall of Titus. The principals use their eyes to communicate to one another as well as the audience and in the imaginatively staged entrances and exits of the ensembles one senses Hytner's choreographic instincts coming to the fore. The superb cast sing magnificently and look stunning. Philip Langridge is an eloquent Titus, Diana Monatgue a sincere Sesto and Ashley Putnam brings a touch of Alexis Colby to her portrayal of Vitellia. The London Philharmonic are all fired up under conductor Andrew Davis' fervent direction. The performance (the "Overture" accompanied by a visual montage of artefacts of Ancient Rome) is played on modern instruments yet articulated and reproduced with the clarity and definition associated with period ones. On the DVD: La Clemenza di Tito has no special features save for the obligatory subtitles. The picture quality is outstanding with the imaginative and colourful production design caught, like the music, with exceptional fidelity. The high drama at the conclusion of Act 1 justifies running on without a break into Act 2. This is a must for all lovers of opera. --Adrian Edwards
This Hammer Horror Resurrected box set collects Hammer movies from the mid-1960s (plus a stray 1975 title), an era when Hammer was making sequels or even sequels to sequels and occasionally cobbling together films with a lack of care that would not have passed muster in the 1950s. Nevertheless, all of these films have elements that remain pleasing and a good half of the titles represented are in the front-rank of the Hammer canon. Rasputin the Mad Monk is a bloodied-up slice of Russian history, hindered somewhat by the need to limit the sets to those that could be recycled from Dracula Prince of Darkness and a legal injunction to refrain from naming names. Christopher Lee makes a fair fist of the lead role, employing his Dracula staring eyes and wringing hands to go with an impressive false beard and using sheer force of will to dominate the Tsar's court, especially the elegantly masochistic lady-in-waiting Barbara Shelley. Frankenstein Created Woman sends Peter Cushing's Baron back to the drawing board and finds him diverted from his usual brain surgery and corpse-stitching into experimenting with cryogenic suspension and soul transference. Terence Fisher, on his third Hammer Frankenstein, directs the cynical script with cold flair. The side is let down only by Playboy Playmate Susan Denberg's insufficiently devastating lady monster. The Vengeance of She is the mildest effort in this bunch, a quickie sequel to She in which blonde, bosomy Czech "discovery" Olinka Berova did not turn out to be an international sensation along the lines of previous Hammer babes Ursula Andress and Raquel Welch. The feeble storyline peters out as the heroine is plagued by dreams that suggest she is the reincarnation of the evil ice queen Ayesha but then turns out not to be. The Plague of the Zombies is a grimmer Hammer, with cartoonish social comment ladled onto the voodoo goings-on. Cornish squire John Carson (even chillier than the usual Christopher Lee) enjoys rampaging around the countryside with his hunting pals abusing comely lasses while his fortune is kept going by the exploited living dead working his tin mine. Andre Morell has the Peter Cushing role as a concerned expert who recognises that there's voodoo in the air, and Jacqueline Pearce--unforgettable in director John Gilling's companion piece, The Reptile--is suitably affecting as the secondary heroine who turns into a seductive zombie and gets her head lopped off. In Quatermass and the Pit boffin Professor Quatermass (Andrew Keir) unearths an eerie history of insect aliens who have influenced human evolution when workmen extending the London underground discover a five million year old Martian spaceship. This is a rare intelligent science fiction movie with genuine ideas to go along with its creepy moments. 1975's To the Devil a Daughter was the last gasp of Hammer's horror cycle, an attempt to rejig Dennis Wheatley's once-popular Satanist-bashing novel into a post-Exorcist/Omen Devil movie. Fallen priest Christopher Lee tries to get teenage novice Nastassja Kinski pregnant with a monster, while pipe smoking occultist Richard Widmark does his best to foil the dastard. Sloppy, silly and awkwardly structured, with an especially limp climax (the villain is foiled by being bashed with a rock), it does manage some chills along the way, and has an interesting supporting cast of neurotics (especially Denholm Elliott, cowering inside a pentagram). This release presents a fuller version than some video or TV prints, including a strange sequence in which Kinski's womb is invaded by a repulsive demon child. The very young Kinski has a nude scene, but so does Christopher Lee's game stunt double. On the DVD: Hammer Horror Resurrected box set has no extras at all. But the films are presented in nice, anamorphic transfers which bring out the pretty pastels of the landscape around Bray Studios and the rich red splashes of blood. --Kim Newman
Achieve exam success with Peter Andrews B.Ed MA. Head Of English at the King Alfred School in London renowned for it's creative approach to learning. Two of his students will take you through 'Macbeth' for G.C.S.E. National Curriculum Key Stage 4. The two teenage students describe with total clarity act by act scene by scene all aspects of Macbeth. Every key element in this play is covered - action characters themes and language.
When a small town is overrun by the gang of outlaws. The Mayor finds that they are under the thumb of the gang's leader, villainous Hoyt Killian. The town's sheriff takes it upon himself to hire famed outlaw Jesse James to infiltrate the gang and stop their evil plans from inside their ranks. Its outlaw versus outlaw and to the winner goes the town and its secret treasures. An action-packed western featuring Kevin Sorbo and the legendary Peter Fonda.
After 10 years of devastating warfare on Planet Sirius 6B a distant mining planet Commander Joseph Hendricksson (Peter Weller) is assigned to protect his outpost from the New Economic Block. His scientists have created a perfect weapon designed to destroy all enemy life - a blade wielding self-replicating race of killing devices known as Screamers. But something has gone wrong - the Screamers continue to evolve without any human guidance cloning themselves into human form and obliterating all forms of human life. Betrayed by his own political leaders and disgusted by the atrocities of the endless war Hendricksson decides he must negotiate peace with the enemy. But to do so he must first destroy the very weapon he helped to create - the Screamers!
Peter Sellers Collection
The Princess Bride (Dir. Rob Reiner 1987): A young boy confined to bed with the flu is less than thrilled when his grandfather (Peter Falk) arrives to read him the story of The Princess Bride. It tells the adventures of Buttercup the most beautiful woman in the world and Westley the man she loves in the fairy-tale kingdom of Florin. When Buttercup is kidnapped Westley has to overcome some pretty tough obstacles if he is to rescue her from the clutches of three kidnappers - scaling the cliffs of insanity battling rodents of unusual size facing tortue in the Pit of Despair... True love has never been a snap. Willow (Dir. Ron Howard 1988): Timid yet valiant dwarf and apprentice magician Willow Ufgood (Davis) is entrusted with delivering a tiny royal infant from evil queen Bavmorda to fulfil a prophecy that will restore peace and justice to the land... Legend (Dir. Ridley Scott 1985): In Ridley Scott's 'Legend' young Jack (Cruise) lives in a magic forest populated with friendly and exotic creatures. But the delicate balance between good and evil is upset when the Lord of Darkness seizes Jack's beloved Lili (Sara) and a horn from one of the last unicorns thereby gaining control of the universe.
Sit down put your feet up light a fag and join Britain's first family in their sitting room for the complete second series of The Royle Family plus the 1999 Christmas Special. The Royle Family is a real-life comedy set in a Manchester council house. Imagine a secret camera placed in the living room of an average working class family. The intense drama and emotions of everyday life such as whose turn it is to go to the off-licence is set against the continuous hum
In an effort to subdue a bout of depression a millionaire playboy (Cary Grant) makes a 50 000 British pound bet with a psychiatrist that he could become a famous business tycoon without using his family's inheritance. Based on the novel The Amazing Quest by Ernest Bliss.
A little black magic a little black leather.... and a lot of black humour.... Small Satanic creatures are called forth from the Ghoulie Demension and now they roam the streets of Los Angeles trying to find Jonathan Graves who will be able to help them return to their home. But a Satan worshipping dominatrix goes on a killing spree to find Jonathan as well. Which of these will find him first?
A thriller that's nearly devoid of thrills? That's not a complaint--it's what makes The American Friend one of the most stylish (and at the time most expensive) films to emerge from the new German cinema of the 1970s. Loosely adapting Patricia Highsmith's mystery novel Ripley's Game, director Wim Wenders shifted priority from plotting to character, emphasising a richly colourful and atmospheric approach to locations in Hamburg, where a picture-framer (Bruno Ganz) is lured into an assassination scheme involving a mysterious Frenchman (Gerard Blain) and the titular American friend, Tom Ripley (played by Dennis Hopper, a far cry from either Matt Damon's portrayal of the same character in The Talented Mr Ripley or John Malkovich's in the 2003 version of Ripley's Game). The plotting is vague to the point of irrelevance; Wenders prefers to maintain the aura of mystery rather than generating any conventional suspense and expresses his affection for American movies by casting favourite directors Nicholas Ray and Samuel Fuller in pivotal supporting roles. The result is an intoxicating example of cinematic cross-pollination. --Jeff Shannon
The history of horror began when Andre Toulon a benign toymaker became the master of a group of killer puppets. It's a tale of sorcery death resurrection and deadly revenge as told by Eric Weiss a young boy who was once protected from Hitler's SS by Toulon. Weiss now a grown man has spent his life trying to perfect Toulon's secret of giving life to the inanimate. In comes Maclain a rogue agent who wants to peddle the secret on the open market. Maclain breaks into Weiss' lab
Wealthy businessman and skilled huntsman Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart) summons a selection of guests to his home for the weekend one of whom is a werewolf with a taste for blood. It's up to the others to seek out the monster before the full moon reveals the culprit.
Peter Davison stars as gentleman detective Albert Campion with Brian Glover as his trusty manservant Magersfontein Lugg in the 'Look to the Lady' and 'Police at the Funeral' stories adapted from the best selling Margery Allingham novels.
Intergalactic adventure with an interplanetary resistance group battling for survival against a totalitarian super-power. Roaming a universe of boundless space and restrictive discipline freedom-fighter Blake with the crew of spaceship Liberator is locked in combat with the all-powerful forces of the Federation. Episodes comprise: 1. Aftermath 2. Powerplay 3. Volcano 4. Dawn of the Gods 5. The Harvest of Kairos 6. City at the Edge of the World 7. Children of Auron 8. Rumou
Based on Peter Barnes' hit play this caustic hilarious and irreverent black comedy has rightly become a cult classic. The House of Gurney has a family problem - namely the 14th Earl of Gurney (Peter O' Toole) who thinks he is Jesus Christ and when restored to 'normalcy' turns into Jack the Ripper. Unfortunately the young earl is also the sole heir to the family fortune so his relatives go to great lengths to trick him into siring a new heir. Then they can institutionalise him and gain access to the money through the child. But the 14th Earl of Gurney has a few tricks up his sleeve... This controversial tragicomedy managed to condemn just about every section of British society - from the public school system to the Houses of Parliament and from the Church to homosexuality. It also boasts some truly inspirational performances including O'Toole (who received an Oscar nomination for his tour de force role) Alastair Sim as a feeble-minded bishop and Arthur Lowe as a hilariously insolent left wing manservant.
The Case Of The Late Pig: Campion receives an anonymous invitation to an old school friend's funeral. Then rather strangely the same friend is murdered at another friend's house three months later. Campion investigates... Death Of A Ghost: While Campion is enjoying a private view of an artist's work with his friends one of the guests is murdered. Campion sets out to unravel the mystery and discovers more intrigue along the way...
Based on the Australian writer Gordon Graham's highly acclaimed award-winning play The Boys is set in the suburbs of Sydney and follows the life of Brett Sprague as he returns to his family after twelve months in prison. Brett finds life is slightly different after a year inside. His brother Glenn has moved out with his girlfriend his younger brother Stevie's pregnant girlfriend now lives with the family and his mother has taken a shine to a Maori drifter. Having lost the hold he once had over his family Brett can no longer keep his anger and frustration at bay. Intent on restoring order and dominance Brett soon wields his power in a most terrifying way. This unforgettable drama features an outstanding cast including the talented Toni Collette David Wenham and John Polson.
A performance of the Alban Berg opera in two acts plus excerpts from the Lulu Symphony music for the third act which was never completed. Franz Welser-Most conducts.
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