"Actor: Vladimir"

• Khodorkovsky | DVD | (05/03/2012) from £15.85   |  Saving you £2.14 (13.50%)   |  RRP £17.99

  When Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest oligarch, begins to support the political opposition and challenges Russia's all powerful president Vladimir Putin, he sets in motion a series of events that are still being felt today and most likely for years to come. Enraged, Putin instructs his secret service police to arrest Khodorkovsky in a dramatic raid on his private jet in October 2003 and then banishes him on trumped up charges of tax evasion to a Siberian gulag. Featuring an exclusive interview with Khodorkovsky behind bars (the only one of its kind), and with contributions from major political insiders and journalists, Khodorkovsky traces the metamorphosis of Russia's richest man into its most famous political prisoner. Unveiling the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics and business in post Soviet Russia, director Cyril Tuschi asks the million Ruble question - why did Khodorkovsky leave friends and family behind for life in a Siberian gulag?

• Ballad Of A Soldier (Region 2) | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £11.30   |  Saving you £8.69 (43.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Nominated at the 1962 Academy Awards for Best Screenplay this Russian classic won many international film awards on its release most notably a BAFTA Award for Best Film. The perfect companion piece to The Cranes Are Flying the storyline highlights the effects of war on individuals as well as that of a nation being dragged to its knees. In the middle of the Second World War Alyosha (Vladimir Ivashov) is commended for destroying two German tanks. Rather than take a medal he requests a four-day pass to visit his mother. The film is about this journey and the life enhancing encounters therein. Produced in 1959 it would have been understandable if the film became a vehicle for the Cold War propaganda of the time but director Grigory Chukhrai manages to avoid that trap instead painting his characters as flawed human individuals trying to survive the catastrophic upheaval in which they find themselves.

• The War Collection | DVD | (08/08/2005) from £23.90   |  Saving you £36.09 (151.00%)   |  RRP £59.99

  A collection of 10 all-time classic war films in one box set! Twelve O'Clock High (Dir. Henry King 1940): This gritty WWII action drama starring Gregory Peck Dean Jagger and Hugh Marlowe is seen as one of the most realistic portrayals of heroics at war. Behind Enemy Lines (Dir. John Moore 2001): Gene Hackman and Owen Wilson excel in this high flying action thriller with explosive excitement at every turn. Courage Under Fire (Dir. Edward Zwick 1996): Featuri

• House Of Fools | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £14.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (33.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Janna lives in a small Russian mental hospital close to the Chechen border convinced that the rock star Bryan Adams is her fiance. When fighting starts the hospital doctor becomes concerned for the welfare of the patients and goes out to find transport to move them leaving them to their own devices. When a friendly group of Chechen soldiers enter the hospital Janna falls head over heels in love with one of them but will Bryan give her up without a fight? Directed by Andrei Konc

• Plisetskaya Dances | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £22.89   |  Saving you £0.10 (0.44%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Maya Plisetskaya a prima ballerina of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet is the subject of this documentary. Containing some rare footage of her as a child it covers the development of her career and shows highlights from some of her greatest roles. Included in this film are scenes from Swan Lake Sleeping Beauty Spartacus The Little Humpbacked Horse Raymonda The Stone Flower Romeo and Juliet Don Quixote and others.A fascinating look at a world famous dancer Plisetskaya Dances chronicles the life and work of a performer who bridged the worlds of strict academic classicism and free expressivity. The wonder and excitement of her work is everywhere evident in this award winning film.

• Russia In Revolt | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  No revolution has been portrayed on screen more vividly than that in St Petersburg (aka Petrograd) during October 1917, and if what we see in Russia in Revolt is not the truth as it happened, this box set confirms that fiction can be much more potent than fact. Sergei Eisenstein came of age as a director during this period, putting his innovations into practice and redefining history in the process. Strike (1924) was Eisenstein's first film. Its combination of physical impact and studio experimentation is still impressive, and if the abundance of symbolic images leads to visual overload, the feeling of a "them-against-us" confrontation still packs its punch. The Battleship Potemkin (1925) refines Eisenstein's thinking in 73 minutes of heightened realism that, as late as 1958, was still considered the finest film ever made. The 1905 Potemkin mutiny, the murder of sailor Vakulinchuk, the massacre on the Odessa steps, the triumphal return of the ship to port--these images made history as surely as if they were the real thing. A scrolling synopsis sets the scene, and extracts from Dmitry Shostakovich's symphonies heighten tension. October 1917 (1928), also known as "10 Days that Shook the World", charts the period leading from the Czar's abdication, through the months of indecisive Provisional Government to the Bolshevik storming of the Winter Palace. Eisenstein takes montage technique to new limits, as images of individuals and institutions overwhelm the viewer. The scrolling background story details events as they really were, and Shostakovich's music again sets the scene. Dating from 1927 Esfir Shub's The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty documentary uses archive footage from the Romanov tercentenary in 1913 to the Bolshevik takeover four years on. Here truth really is fashioned into myth. The musical score consists of a medley of Russian favourites, pounded out on an electric piano, making for a rather limited, though not inappropriate, soundtrack. The additional documentary essay is a useful overview, and the on-screen photo collection a valuable bonus. On the DVD: it's good to have Oleg Donskikh's DVD commentary on The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty disc, as he points out economies with the actualité on a scene-by-scene basis. Yuri Sivrin's continuous commentary is required listening as a guide to the film-maker's art, as well as for shutting out the bizarre electronic score which otherwise serves as backing. All four films have been digitally remastered, and the 4:3 aspect ratio has excellent clarity. Stylishly packaged, there's no better way into the absorbing world of Soviet film than this. ---Richard Whitehouse

• Scarlet Street | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In a way, Scarlet Street is a remake. It's taken from a French novel, La Chienne (literally, "The Bitch") that was first filmed by Jean Renoir in 1931. Renoir brought to the sordid tale all the colour and vitality of Montmartre; Fritz Lang's version shows us a far harsher and bleaker world. The film replays the triangle set-up from Lang's previous picture, The Woman in the Window, with the same three actors. Once again, Edward G Robinson plays a respectable middle-aged citizen snared by the charms of Joan Bennett's streetwalker, with Dan Duryea as her low-life pimp. But this time around, all three characters have moved several notches down the ethical scale. Robinson, who in the earlier film played a college professor who kills by accident, here becomes a downtrodden clerk with a nagging, shrewish wife and unfilled ambitions as an artist, a man who murders in a jealous rage. Bennett is a mercenary vamp, none too bright, and Duryea brutal and heartless. The plot closes around the three of them like a steel trap. This is Lang at his most dispassionate. Scarlet Street is a tour de force of noir filmmaking, brilliant but ice-cold. When it was made the film hit censorship problems, since at the time it was unacceptable to show a murder going unpunished. Lang went out of his way to show the killer plunged into the mental hell of his own guilt, but for some authorities this still wasn't enough, and the film was banned in New York State for being "immoral, indecent and corrupt". Not that this did its box-office returns any harm at all. On the DVD: sparse pickings. There's an interactive menu that zips past too fast to be of much use. The full-length commentary by Russell Cawthorne adds the occasional insight, but it's repetitive and not always reliable. (He gets actors' names wrong, for a start.) The box claims the print's been "fully restored and digitally remastered", but you'd never guess. --Philip Kemp

• The Magnificent Seven | DVD | (20/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Yul Brynner stars as one of seven master gunmen who aid the helpless farmers of an isolated village pitted against an army of marauding bandits in this rousing action tale based on Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai. Released in 1960 John Sturges' masterpiece garnered an Oscar nomination for Elmer Bernstein (for Best Score) and launched the film careers of Steve McQueen Charles Bronson Robert Vaughn and James Coburn.

• Treasures Of Russian Ballet (Ballet Extracts) (ICA Classics: ICAD 5074) | DVD | (30/04/2012) from £17.09   |  Saving you £2.90 (16.97%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Otello - Arena Di Verona | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £10.98   |  Saving you £10.00 (125.16%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The spectacular open-air Arena di Verona is the setting for this production of Verdi's last tragic opera Otello a work some consider to be his masterpiece. In this recording from 1982 Otello is sung by the Russian tenor Vladimir Atlantov rightly famous for his magnificent interpretation of the title role. This DVD is the only chance to see and hear one of the great Otellos as no other recordings are currently available of Atlantov in this role. The role of Desdemona is beautifull

• Massenet - Le Roi De Lahore (Viotti) | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-1.59 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The love between Sita the priestess of the temple of Indra and unknown stranger who is actually Alim the king of Lahore is hindered by Scindia who wants to take the throne and to marry Sita. When Scindia discovers the lover's true identity he accuses him before the high priest Timour who condemns him to go into battle against the Muslims. In the battle Alim is defeated and seriously wounded returns to Lahore where he dies in the arms of his beloved Sita. Having risen into the Hindu paradise and been reincarnated. Alim returns to Lahore just in time to witness the usurper's splendid coronation and to reveal Scindia's crimes to the entire populace. In the last act the two lovers take refuge in the temple of Indra to escape from Scindia: Sita takes her own life with a dagger thus provoking Alim's death. The two lovers will be together in the hereafter.

• Speed / Die Hard / Independence Day / Transporter / Behind Enemy Lines | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £39.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Speed Keanu Reeves stars as Jack Traven an LAPD Swat team specialist who is sent to defuse a bomb that a revenge-driven extortionist (Dennis Hopper) has planted on a bus. But until he does Jack and passenger Sandra Bullock must keep the bus speeding through the streets of Los Angeles at more than 50 miles an hour - or the bomb will explode! Die Hard New York cop John McClane facing Christmas alone flies to Los Angeles to see his estranged wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) and their kids in an attempt to patch things up. He arrives at his wife's high tech office building in the middle of their Christmas party just as it is gatecrashed by the ruthless master criminal Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) and a dozen fellow activists intent on relieving the Nakatomi Corporation of six hundred million dollars in negotiable bonds... Independence Day One of the biggest box office hits of all time delivers the ultimate encounter when mysterious and powerful aliens launch an all-out invasion against the human race. The spectacle begins when massive spaceships appear in Earth's skies. But wonder turns to terror as the ships blast destructive beams of fire down on cities all over the planet. Now the world's only hope lies with a determined band of survivors uniting for one last strike against the invaders - before it's the end of mankind. The Transporter Ex-Special Forces operator Frank Martin lives what seems to be a quiet life along the French Mediterranean hiring himself out as a mercenary transporter who moves goods - human or otherwise - from one place to another. No questions asked. Carrying out mysterious and sometimes dangerous tasks in his tricked-out BMW Martin finds his latest assignment could well be his last after his package is revealed to be a beautiful woman (Shu Qi) at the centre of a human trafficking ring... Behind Enemy Lines On a reconnaissance flight over eastern Europe disillusioned naval pilot Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson) and his partner Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) photograph a scene they were not meant to see. When their plane is shot down and Stackhouse is quickly captured and executed Burnett must struggle to survive in unfamiliar hostile territory with a cold-blooded assassin and hundreds of enemy troops on his heels...

• Black Sheep | Blu Ray | (11/07/2011) from £8.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (100.11%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A genetic mutation sees a flock of New Zealand sheep develop a taste for humans in this hilarious splatterfest.

• Gioachino Rossini - La Cenerentola | Blu Ray | (28/04/2008) from £25.79   |  Saving you £4.20 (16.29%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Vladimir Jurowski and Sir Peter Hall are reunited for a fresh and vibrant but timelessly elegant production of Rossini's much-loved setting of the Cinderella story, with a fine cast led by Ruxandra Donose in the title role.

• Khachaturian: Spartacus (Timofeyeva, Liepa) | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £20.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (8.70%)   |  RRP £22.99

  An opera in 3 acts.

• The Little Humpbacked Horse | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £21.35   |  Saving you £-2.36 (N/A%)   |  RRP £18.99

  The Bolshoi Ballet Production of The Little Humpbacked Horse:A magical tour through the land of flying horses dazzling fish and tumbling clowns highlights this magnificent Bolshoi Ballet production of Rodion Shchedrin's The Little Humpbacked Horse.Featuring the legendary Maya Plisetskaya in the role of the Queen-Maiden and with Vladimir Vasiliev as the young man who befriends the little horse with magical powers this fairy tale ballet features dazzling sets and a fine musical score that is bound to enchant children and delight ballet lovers of all ages.

• We Want The Light | DVD | (22/10/2004) from £27.95   |  Saving you £-2.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This is a DVD about many things. It is about freedom and captivity about emancipation acculturation and assimilation; it is about the roles played by Moses and Felix Mendelssohn in the dream of fruitful unproblematic integration of the Jews into German society after their liberation from the ghettos; it is about Richard Wagner his essay Das Judenthum in der Musik (The Jews in Music) and his influence on the thinking of the Third Reich but most of all it is a DVD about how much music can mean to people even in the direst of circumstances or particularly in the direst circumstances.The title We Want The Light is taken from a poem by a 12-year-old girl Eva Pickova written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Her words provide both the title and the climax - in a setting for two choruses and orchestra by the American composer Franz Waxman in his work The Song Of Terezin. The DVD also contains music by Mahler Bach Schoenberg Bruch Schumann Mendelssohn Wagner Schubert Bloch and Brahms.

• Verdi: La Traviata | Blu Ray | (28/07/2014) from £15.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Strauss - Die Fledermaus | Blu Ray | (31/03/2008) from £20.69   |  Saving you £9.30 (44.95%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Glyndebourne's pulsating new production of the Waltz King's much-loved comic operetta.

• 100 Days Before the Command | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Visually astonishing erotically charged and emotionally jarring '100 Days Before The Command' is Hussein Erkanov's courageous and stinging indictment of Communism. Five young Red Army recruits struggle for survival against the merciless violence that surrounds them on a daily basis. Their only means of saving their dignity is by preserving the humanity and compassion they share for each other. Although not an overly gay film Erkenov's '100 Days Before The Command' is remarkably direct in its homoerotic imagery and subtexts. The film includes scenes where the soldiers share an intimacy and tenderness that is far removed from the brutality of most of their waking hours. (Amazingly all the roles are played by real-life soldiers except for one professional actor.) Banned by Soviet censors upon its initial release '100 Days Before The Command' is a unique entry into the world of post-cold war filmaking from behind the former Iron Curtain.