"Actor: Roberta Spero"

• LA NOTTE | Blu Ray | (23/09/2013) from £13.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (49.74%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of the masterworks of 1960s cinema, La notte [The Night] marked yet another development in the continuous stylistic evolution of its director, Michelangelo Antonioni - even as it solidified his reputation as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. La notte is Antonioni's Twilight of the Gods, but composed in cinematic terms. Examined from a crane-shot, it's a sprawling study of Italy's upper middle-class; seen in close-up, it's an x-ray of modern man's psychic desolation. Two of the giants of film-acting come together as a married couple living in crisis: Marcello Mastroianni (La dolce vita, 8-1/2) and Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim, Bay of Angels). He is a renowned author and public intellectual; she is the wife. Over the course of one day and the night into which it inevitably bleeds, the pair will come to re-examine their emotional bonds, and grapple with the question of whether love and communication are even possible in a world built out of profligate idylls and sexual hysteria. Photographed in rapturous black-and-white by the great Gianni di Venanzo (8-1/2, Giulietta degli spiriti), La notte presents the beauty of seduction, then asks: When did this occur - this seduction of Beauty? The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Michelangelo Antonioni's haunted odyssey for the first time ever on Blu-ray. Special Features: New 1080p presentation of the film in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio with previously censored sequences restored for the first time. New and improved English subtitles Original Italian Theatrical Trailer 56-page booklet with an essay by film-critic and scholar Brad Stevens, and the transcript of a lengthy Q&A conducted in 1961 with Antonioni upon the film’s release.

• Eating Raoul | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  You'd think a black comedy about murder, tackiness, and sexual perversion would quickly become dated, but Eating Raoul (1982) feels surprisingly fresh and delightful. When Mary Bland (Mary Woronov) gets assaulted by one of the repulsive swingers from the neighbouring apartment, her husband Paul (Paul Bartel) rescues her with a swift blow from a frying pan--only to discover a substantial wad of cash in the swinger's wallet. A lure-and-kill scheme follows, which nicely fills their nest egg until a slippery thief named Raoul (Robert Beltran of Star Trek: Voyager, making his film debut) stumbles onto the truth and insists on getting a share. When Raoul starts demanding a share of Mary as well, Paul has to take drastic steps. The key to Eating Raoul isn't the sensational content, but the blithe, matter-of-fact attitude Bartel and Woronov take to it; their sly underplaying makes the movie sparkle with wicked wit. --Bret Fetzer