"Actor: Pope John Paul II"

• Koyaanisqatsi / Powaqqatsi | DVD | (13/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi ("life out of balance") and Powaqqatsi ("life in transformation") are the first two parts of a trilogy of experimental documentaries whose titles derive from Hopi compound nouns (2002's Naqoyqatsi, or "life in war", is the third). Both feature indispensable musical contributions from minimalist composer Philip Glass. Made in 1983, Koyaanisqatsi was shot mostly in the desert southwest USA and New York City on a tiny budget with no script. But it then attracted the support of Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas and reached a much wider audience. Its techniques, merging cinematographer Ron Fricke's time-lapse shots (alternately peripatetic and hyperspeed) with Glass' reiterative music (from the meditative to the orgiastic)--as well as its ecology minded imagery--crept into the consciousness of popular culture. The influence of Koyaanisqatsi has by now become unmistakable in television advertisements, music videos and, of course, similar movies. Dating from 1988, Powaqqatsi finds the director somewhat more directly polemical than before, with Glass's score stretching to embrace world music. Reggio reuses techniques familiar from the previous film (slow motion, time-lapse, superposition) to dramatise the effects of the so-called First World on the Third: displacement, pollution, alienation. But he spends as much time beautifully depicting what various cultures have lost--cooperative living, a sense of joy in labour and religious values--as he does confronting viewers with trains, airliners, coal cars and loneliness. What had been a more or less peaceful, slow-moving, spiritually fulfilling rural existence for these "silent" people (all we hear is music and sound effects) becomes a crowded, suffocating, accelerating industrial urban hell, from Peru to Pakistan. Reggio frames Powaqqatsi with a telling image: the Serra Pelada gold mines, where thousands of men, their clothes and skin imbued with the earth they're moving, carry wet bags up steep slopes in a Sisyphean effort to provide wealth for their employers. While Glass juxtaposes his strangely joyful music, which includes the voices of South American children, a number of these men carry one of their exhausted comrades out of the pit, his head back and arms outstretched--one more sacrifice to Caesar. Nevertheless, Reggio, a former member of the Christian Brothers, seems to maintain hope for renewal. --Robert Burns Neveldine

• Pope John Paul II - 1920 To 2005 - A Special BBC Commemoration | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £7.08   |  Saving you £2.91 (41.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The BBC brings you this commemorative DVD of the life of Pope John Paul II. The youngest serving Pope of the 20th century held the papacy for 27 years and this documentary film takes a look in to the world and work that Pope John Paul II was involved in. Not only a figurehead and voice of morality for Catholics the Pope was revered across the world and his death led to an outpouring for religious and atheists alike. Celebrate the life of a remarkable man with this fantastic and ins

• Credo - John Paul II | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  One year after the passing of John Paul II this is a DVD dedicated to the Holy Father with sacred arias performed by Andrea Bocelli and played by the Orchestra and Choir of Santa Cecilia National Academy directed by Maestro Myung- Whun Chung. The DVD is a project by Caterina Caselli Sugar directed by Alberto Michelini binding the most impressive images of John Paul II's Pontificate to Andrea Bocelli's touching interpretations who performs religious hymns taken from the classica

• John Paul II - His Life, His Pontificate | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £32.37   |  Saving you £-12.38 (-61.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Officially produced by the Vatican Television Centre this DVD is the most comprehensive multimedia presentation ever made on Pope John Paul II. Including 2 feature length documentaries 'His Life' and 'His Pontificate' this touching production reaches out to audiences all over the world offering an unprecedented and extraordinary report on the life an mission of Pope John Paul II.

• Stravinsky - Works (Cbc So) | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £20.15   |  Saving you £2.84 (12.40%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Stravinsky - Works (CBC SO)

• Pope John Paul II - His Life And Teachings | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Two mesmerising documentaries exploring the life of Pope John Paul II filmed at breathtakingly beautiful historic locations in Rome featuring rare and exclusive footage from inside the Vatican: The Life And Teachings Of Pope John Paul II: A poignant look at the life of one of last century's great leaders who has stood against the evils of Nazism and communism in his native homeland of Poland and whose destiny was to become the great spiritual leader of a billion Catholics worldwide. The Christmas And Easter Liturgies Celebrated By Pope John Paul II: A fascinating review of the history and traditions surrounding the commemoration of the birth death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This moving chronicle captures the emotional spirit of the liturgies accompanied by an uplifting musical score performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra.

• Giovanni Paolo II - Santa Subito! | DVD | (19/11/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The first music DVD to embody the voice and the images of John Paul II. As it stands this is a 60 minute film - or series of clips in which John Paul II's speeches have been set to music. It is produced by the Vatican's biggest media company San Paolo Multimedia. This is the only film with the man John Paul II in his own words with a musical interpretation. The film is a celebration of his life words and messages set to music and images with spoken and sung passages (in Italian Polish Latin English French Brazilian and Spanish) which are chants and prayers culled from recordings of the Pope by Radio Vaticana over the years of his papacy.

• Pope John Paul II - Builder of Bridges | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Paul II was one of the most significant figures of the 20th century. Indeed there are those who believe he is nothing less than 'the man of the century'. Until John Paul II most popes were distant unapproachable and if doctrine held infallible. But John Paul has revolutionized the papacy. While a conservative and champion of long-standing church traditions he is also the most-travelled pope in history and very much a man of the world. As a spiritual leader and socia

• Pope John Paul II - Statesman Of Faith | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £12.65   |  Saving you £2.34 (15.60%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The definitive biography of the youngest Pope of the 20th century and one of the longest serving Pope's in history. John Paul's reign was marked by his devotion to justice and peace during our changing times where controversial issues faced the Roman Catholic Church. Through it all he continued to draw crowds bigger than any other political leader could have imagined. This special biography programme allows us a privileged journey through the 85 years of Pope John Paul's life; from his school days at an underground seminary in Nazi occupied Poland to his years as an ethics professor at the University of Lublin through to his elevation to Pope and his outstanding achievements as Head of the Catholic Church.