Italy's rubber-faced funnyman Roberto Benigni accomplishes the impossible in his World War II comedy Life Is Beautiful: he shapes a simultaneously hilarious and haunting comedy out of the tragedy of the Holocaust. An international sensation and the most successful foreign language film in US history, the picture also earned director-cowriter-star Benigni Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor. He plays the Jewish country boy Guido, a madcap romantic in Mussolini's Italy who wins the heart of his sweetheart (Benigni's real-life sweetie, Nicoletta Braschi) and raises a darling son (the adorable Giorgio Cantarini) in the shadow of fascism. When the Nazis ship the men off to a concentration camp in the waning days of the war, Guido is determined to shelter his son from the evils around them and convinces him they're in an elaborate contest to win (of all things) a tank. Guido tirelessly maintains the ruse with comic ingenuity, even as the horrors escalate and the camp's population continues to dwindle--all the more impetus to keep his son safe, secure and, most of all, hidden. Benigni walks a fine line mining comedy from tragedy and his efforts are pure fantasy--he accomplishes feats no man could realistically pull off--both of which have drawn fire from a few critics. Yet for all its wacky humour and inventive gags, Life Is Beautiful is a moving and poignant tale of one father's sacrifice to save not just his young son's life but his innocence in the face of one of the most evil acts ever perpetrated by the human race. --Sean Axmaker
An inspired award-winning story about the power of love and the human spirit Life Is Beautiful has been called a modern masterpiece! Guido - a charming but bumbling waiter who's gifted with a colourful imagination and an irresistible sense of humour - has won the heart of the woman he loves and created a beautiful life for his young family. But then that life is threatened by World War IIand Guido must rely on those very same strengths to save his beloved wife and son from an unthinkable fate... Honoured with an overwhelming level of critical acclaim this truly exceptional utterly unique motion picture will lift your spirits and capture your heart.
Director JIM JARMUSCH followed up his brilliant breakout Stranger Than Paradise with another, equally beloved portrait of loners and misfits in America. When fate lands three hapless menan unemployed disc jockey (Short Cuts' TOM WAITS), a small-time pimp (Fishing with John's JOHN LURIE), and a strong-willed Italian tourist (Life Is Beautiful's ROBERTO BENIGNI)in a Louisiana prison, a singular adventure begins. Described by Jarmusch as a neo-Beat noir comedy, Down by Law is part nightmare and part fairy tale, featuring sterling performances and crisp black-and-white photography by esteemed cinematographer ROBBY MÃLLER (Paris, Texas) Special Features High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Thoughts and reflections on the making of the film from director Jim Jarmusch in 2002 Interview with director of photography Robby Müller from 2002 Footage from the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, including a press conference featuring Jarmusch and actors John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, and Nicoletta Braschi, and an interview with Lurie, with commentary Sixteen outtakes Music video for Tom Waits's cover of Cole Porter's It's All Right with Me, directed by Jarmusch Q&A with Jarmusch in which he responds to fans' questions Recordings of phone conversations between Jarmusch and Waits, Benigni, and Lurie Production Polaroids and location stills Isolated music track Optional French dub track, featuring Benigni Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Luc Sante
This "To Ma'am with Love" is much more an escapist popcorn movie than the inner-city document its marketing suggested. Michelle Pfeiffer plays real-life former Marine Louanne Johnson, a high school English teacher who meets resistance from kids and administration alike at a tough urban school in Northern California. Pfeiffer is good and her character's overall development even survives various post-production story cuts. (A romance with Andy Garcia's character was completely eliminated before release; Garcia is nowhere in sight.) The actors who play Johnson's students are also fine and the whole film becomes the latest in a long tradition of sentimental movies about teachers who change the lives of kids. --Tom Keogh
Disc 1 Faust - Programme Start Scene 1 - Rien! En vain j'interroge Scene 2 - Mais ce Dieu que peut-il pour moi? Scene 2 - '' merveille! Scene 1 - Vin ou bi''re Scene 2 - '' sainte m''daille....Avant de quitter ces lieux Scene 3 - Allons amis!....Le veau d'or Scene 3 - Merci de ta chanson! Scene 4 - Nous nous retrouverons mes amis! Scene 5 - Ainsi que la brise l''g''re [Cabaret d'enfer] Scene 1 - Introduction Scene 1 - Faites-lui mes aveux [Flower Song] Scene 2 - C'est ici?....Attendez-moi l'' Scene 2 - Quel trouble inconnu me p''n''tre!....Salut! demeure chaste et pure Scene 2 - Alerte! la voil''! Scene 3 - Je voudrais bien savoir....'Il ''tait un roi de Thul''' Scene 3 - Que vois-je l''?....'' Dieu! que de bijoux! [Jewel Song] Scene 4 - Seigneur Dieu que vois-je! Scene 4 - Prenez mon bras un moment! Scene 5 - Il ''tait temps! Scene 5 - Il se fait tard! Adieu! Scene 5 - '' nuit d'amour ciel radieux! Scene 5 - T''te folle!....Tenez! Elle ouvre sa fen''tre! Disc 2 Scene 1 - Seigneur daignez permettre Scene 2 - D''posons les armes! Scene 2 - Gloire immortelle de nos a''eux [Soldiers' Chorus] Scene 2 - Allons Siebel Scene 3 - Qu'attendez-vous encore?....Vous qui faites l'endormie [Serenade] Scene 3 - Que voulez-vous messieurs? Scene 3 - Par ici par ici mes amis!....''‰coute-moi bien Marguerite! Scene 1 - Entr'acte....Dans les bruy''res Scene 1 - Jusqu'aux premiers feux du matin Scene 2 - Ballet: Qu'as-tu donc?....Ne la vois-tu pas? Scene 3 - Intermezzo Scene 3 - Va-t-en!.... Le jour va luire Scene 3 - Marguerite!....Ah! C'est la voix du bien-aim''! Scene 3 - Alerte alerte ou vous ''tes perdus!....Anges purs Scene 4 - Apotheosis - Christ est ressuscit''!
Includes: All new extras including cast and crew interviews Exclusive Booklet Gold foil special packaging A winner of three Academy Awards
In this U.S. smash hit, a 35-year-old San Franciscan writer (Best Actress Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Diane Lane "Unfaithful") heads to Italy after a recent divorce and one thing becomes clear: in life, there are second chances.
Clint Eastwood had proven so successful in his first foray into European Westerns with A Fistful Of Dollars that a follow up sequel was inevitable. Superbly scripted by Luciano Vincenzoni featuring an unforgettable alliance between ruthless gun-slingers Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef. For A Few Dollars More tells the tale of a ruthless quest to track down the notorious bandit El Indio played by Gian Maria Volonte. The film is also noted for its array of weaponry a veritable arsenal of rifles that became so operatic and Ennio Morricone's atmospheric score keeps the tension taut as the action moves from Jail breaks and hold ups to spectacular gun battles.
In the opening scenes of Central Station, colourful crowds of Brazilians stream into and out of a Rio de Janeiro train, pushing through doors and windows. You're immediately pulled into the brutal vitality of a nation in motion, setting the tone for a picturesque road movie that charts Brazil's renaissance in a little boy's search for his father and an old woman's emotional reawakening. When we first meet Dora (Fernanda Montenegro), this frozen-hearted, sour-faced woman is the epitome of immobility: day after day, she sits in the train station selling her letter-writing skills to all comers, but often doesn't bother to mail these precious messages. When a woman who's paid Dora to write a pleading note to her son's long-missing dad gets run over by a bus, the child, Josue (Vinicius de Oliveira), is up for grabs. (The summary execution of a thieving street kid--seen in longshot--underscores the seriousness of this waif's plight.) After an abortive attempt to sell Josue for a new TV, the aspiring couch potato finds herself reluctantly propelled into an occasionally Fellini-esque odyssey through the hinterlands of Brazil's sertäo, where Dora and her sidekick find unexpected faith and family. Former documentary filmmaker Walter Salles (Foreign Land) mixes magic with realism in his appreciation of striking faces and places, but Central Station is primarily fuelled by the tough/tender performances of Montenegro, Brazil's Judi Dench, and de Oliveira, an airport shoeshine boy Salles cast over 1,500 other hopefuls. (Montenegro was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, and Central Station was in the running for Best Foreign Language Film.) No cloyingly cute child-star, de Oliveira plays Josue as a bracingly idiosyncratic brat. And watching Dora's face and soul slowly, unwillingly unclench as she gets back in motion--and emotion--is potent pleasure, even if Salles' trip does dead-end in soap opera as his Brazilian pilgrim's progress winds down. --Kathleen Murphy, Amazon.com
Contains archival footage from the '70s and '80s amassed by promoter Bob Arum. Focuses on the decade-long four-way rivalry between Sugar Ray Leonard Roberto Duran Thomas ""Hitman"" Hearns and ""Marvelous"" Marvin Hagler.
Leo Delibes: Sylvia - Ballet in three acts
A Heart-Stopping Intelligent Thriller - New York Post The master of the poetical thriller John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) has done it again - this time focusing his astute lens on Rome in the late seventies a time in which the classical city is rocked by political unrest. American journalist David Raybourne (Andrew McCarthy) has arrived in Rome to write a political best seller about The Red Brigade militant left-wing group terrorizing Italy. When a daring photojournalist (Sharon Stone) believes Raybourne's book to be a piece of non-fiction…the manuscript falls tragically into the wrong hands. Now fictional characters named after Raybourne's closest friends and colleagues suddenly become real enemies of both the terrorists and the police. Accused of knowing too much Raybourne's real problem is that he knows too little about the politics of Rome about the secret lives of his friends and about the loyalties of his lovers.
Jimmy has a magic flute that can talk and play tunes on its own. One day he is kidnapped by Witchiepoo the witch and taken to Living Island. Fortunately the island's mayor a six foot dragon named H. R. Pufnstuf and his deputies Kling and Klang rescue him and it's then that his adventures really begin. This release features the complete 17 episode series of Sid and Marty Krofft's much loved and phenomenally successful TV show. Episode titles: The Magic Path The Wheely Bir
Keanu Reeves is completely wooden in this romantic misfire by Alfonso Arau (Like Water for Chocolate). Reeves plays a World War II vet who hits the road as a travelling salesman and agrees to help a desperate, pregnant woman (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon)--who is afraid to let her father (Giancarlo Giannini) see her condition--by pretending to be her husband. Most of the story takes place in the old man's vineyard, and Arau makes a life of swollen fruit, grape-stomping, sunlight and tan flesh that looks amazingly erotic. But there are plenty of sillier distractions, such as the sight of farm hands chasing insects with flapping gossamer wings attached to their arms. Reeves is terribly self-conscious, while stalwart Anthony Quinn is memorable as the damsel's benevolent grandfather. --Tom Keogh
Fantastic five disc box set featuring the superb acting talent of LUCA ZINGARETTI, star of the hit TV detective show Inspector Montalbano Titles included are Cefalonia, Perlasca ,Calling Inspector Marotta, By The Light Of Day and Borsellino: The 57 Days
Wrestlers, mad doctors, and human-fish hybrids abound in The Bat Woman (La mujer murciélago), a colourful showcase for the talents of Italian Mexican sex symbol Maura Monti. When Acapulco's wrestlers start being murdered and their pineal glands mysteriously extracted, the wealthy luchadora Gloria (Monti) adopts her crime-fighting persona of the Bat Woman. Donning her disguise of shiny blue mask, cape, and micro-bikini, she teams up with agent Mario (Héctor Godoy) to foil the evil Dr Williams (Roberto Cañedo) in his dastardly plan to create an army of amphibious 'fish-men'. Produced by Guillermo Calderón (Santo vs. the Riders of Terror) and directed by René Cardona (The Panther Women), The Bat Woman is an eye-popping, high-camp blend of lucha libre and superhero action. Product Features 4K restoration from the original negative Original Spanish mono audio Audio commentary with film historian and Mexican cinema specialist David Wilt (2024) Adventures in Mexicolour (2024): journalist, writer and indie editor of Belcebú, and formerly DC Comics, Mauricio Matamoros Durán examines the position of The Bat Woman within the Mexican and international pop and comic-book culture of the time Fantastique Creatures (2024): José Luis Ortega Torres, film critic, teacher, and author of the book MostrologÃa del cine mexicano, explores the representation of monsters in early Mexican genre cinema Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional and publicity material New and improved English translation subtitles Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with a new essay by Dolores Tierney, archival essays by Doyle Greene and Andrew Coe, archival interviews with Maura Monti, and full film credits UK premiere on Blu-ray Limited edition of 8,000 individually numbered units for the UK and US All extras subject to change
A dentist hired to trade across the state meets up with a runaway and trouble in this romantic comedy.
Diminutive Highway Patrolman, Pedro Rojas (Roberto Soza) is small in stature but high on morals. While his Mexican traffic cop compadres are taking bribes left, right and centre he prefers the straight-and-narrow route to law and order. But life on the highway is not as clear-cut as Pedro would like to believe and he starts to stray off course. After stopping Griselda Marcos (Zaide Silvia Gutierrez) for a minor infraction, he accepts her offer of breakfast at the family home and is before he knows it is betrothed with a child on the way. After taking a kickback from a livestock carrier without the correct health and safety permits, Pedro drinks his guilt away in a border bar and ends up in the arms of Maribel (Vanessa Bauche), a beautiful prostitute strung-out on heroin. In the act of arresting two drunk drivers on a deserted road, Pedro is shot in the leg and left with a permanent limp. Soon after, when his fellow cop and close friend Anibal Morales (Bruno Bichir) is blasted to death by heavily armed drug traffickers, Pedro decides to walk tall and take the cartel on himself. Based on the experiences of a real highway patrolman and shot in a string of northern Mexican border towns, Alex Cox's Spanish-language road movie is flawlessly directed. Cinematographer Manuel Garzon's roaming camera floats like a mirage through the desert landscape, tracking the every move of Soza's scrawny but street tough cop. On the DVD: An audio commentary by Alex Cox and his collaborator on the film, writer/producer Lorenzo O'Brien, details the precarious ins and outs of shooting on location in Mexico and the series of real life dramas that trailed their wake. The feature appears in widescreen. --Chris Campion
A Blu-Ray Boxset of Jim Jarmusch’s first six films: Permanent Vacation Stranger Than Paradise Down By Law Mystery Train Night on Earth and Dead Man.
A poet Dan (Heath Ledger) falls in love with an art student Candy (Abbie Cornish) who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle - and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug their relationship alternates between states of oblivion self-destruction and despair.
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