"Actor: Philippe Magnan"

• Spin Series 1&2 | DVD | (03/04/2017) from £18.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The acclaimed French political crime drama comes to DVD in this Series 1&2 Box Set. Spin is a political thriller that brings us deep in the heart of a tension filled political campaign. Games of power, reason, hate and love: these Spin doctors will go to any lengths to see their candidate win. Series 1 France is in shock: the President s been assassinated. Behind the scenes, politicians are already campaigning for the special snap election in 35 days time. Presidential advisor Simon Kapita (Bruno Wolkowitch) wants to preserve his mentor s honour and sides with low-level Minister Anne Visage. He believes she s the only one capable of defeating their political enemy, Prime Minister Philippe Deleuvre. But Simon finds his former protégé (Ludovic Desmeuze played by Spiral's Gregory Fitoussi) in his way, now working for his rival the PM s campaign. Both spin doctors go to war. Series 2 Simon Kapita is back and again at war with Ludovic Desmeuze. Having been called to the heart of the government, Simon must deal with with the politcal and media fallouts from some major political scandals, a any one of which, could bring down the government whilst former protege Ludovic tries all he can to outsmart and out-spin him.

• La Veuve De Saint-Pierre | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £4.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The "widow" referred to in the title of La Veuve de Saint-Pierre isn't a woman, but a mechanism--to be exact, the guillotine, (though the title does take on a second meaning in the tragic final moments of the film). We're on the island of Saint-Pierre, a tiny forgotten French colony off the coast of Newfoundland, midway through the 19th century. A senseless drunken murder is committed and the killer is condemned to death, but zut alors!, there's no guillotine on the island. So one must be requested from the slow, bureaucratic authorities in Paris and, once approved, laboriously shipped over. Meanwhile the killer, a simple-minded giant of a man, is placed in the custody of the Captain, whose beautiful wife starts taking an interest in the prisoner. Director Patrice Leconte has always had an acute feel for place and period--he directed the mordantly witty costume drama Ridicule--and La Veuve vividly captures the sense of remoteness and resentful isolation of this blizzard-swept community. The brooding landscape, all slate-blues and greys, is beautifully framed by Eduardo Serra's camera, and Leconte draws affecting performances from his central trio of actors: Daniel Auteuil, with his intriguingly lopsided face, as the Captain; Juliette Binoche, radiantly vulnerable as his wife; and, in an unexpected but remarkably successful bit of casting, Serbian film director Emir Kusturica as the condemned man. La Veuve de Saint-Pierre may be a touch over-solemn at times, and its message is hardly unexpected; but it's an intelligent, engrossing and richly atmospheric piece of filmmaking. --Philip Kemp

• Le Parfum D'Yvonne | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Available for the first time on DVD!!! A man remembers an idyllic summer in 1958 spent on the shores of Lake Geneva in avoiding participation in the Algerian conflict during which he encountered the beguiling Yvonne and her friend Dr. Meinthe. On their first encounter he was drawn to her and they seemed destined to be together however the sun filled days of social gatherings and passionate assignations would be all too fleeting. Patrice Leconte's erotic masterpiece is available f