"Actor: Wepper"

• Cabaret - 30th Anniversary Special Edition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £16.99   |  Saving you £-12.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Cabaret is one of those film musicals whose cultural and stylistic influence extend well beyond the cinema. It confirmed Bob Fosse's status as one of the boldest choreographers of the 20th century and gave Liza Minnelli an early peak in a film career which would never scale such heights again. Minnelli is both the film's strength--on its own merits her performance is an Oscar-winning tour de force--and weakness. The real Sally Bowles was a third-rate performer and just one of a rich gallery of characters; here, the constant allowances for Minnelli's star turns and mannerisms ultimately throw the story off balance. But the source material is impeccable: Kander and Ebb's stage show, based on the autobiographical stories of Christopher Isherwood, has long since been acknowledged a classic. The songs, augmented by some new numbers in the film, are ageless. Joel Grey from the original Broadway production is the Emcee, the master of ceremonies who, with his Kit Kat Klub girls, provides a depraved Greek chorus satirising the rise of the Nazi regime and the lazy complacency of the 1930s Berlin cabaret-goers. The "divine decadence" tag is only part of the story, though. Cabaret still works a sinister, uncomfortable magic which sets it apart as a uniquely powerful film musical. On the DVD: Cabaret's 30th Anniversary Special Edition is packed with extras which include a scratchy "making of" documentary from 1972 and a retrospective from 1997, the latter featuring reminiscences from the cast. There’s also the original theatrical trailer, though in the absence of the late director Fosse the lack of some kind of commentary is a disappointment. The picture itself, presented in widescreen 16:9 letterbox format with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack, gleams as sharply, visually and aurally, as it did on its first release. --Piers Ford

• Cabaret | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £16.08   |  Saving you £-10.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Le Dernier Combat | Blu Ray | (14/09/2009) from £9.09   |  Saving you £15.90 (63.60%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The sky is raining fish. Skyscrapers sit in mountains of sand. Bandits sleep in trunks of used cars. It's a world of the future. A world called Planet Earth. And he's one man just trying to survive. In Besson's haunting beautifully realised vision of a post-apocalyptic world few have held onto life and fewer still to humanity. An unknown trauma has robbed mankind of their ability to speak and they remain mute in the unexplained wreckage of what once was. The Man (Pierre Jolivet) is an isolated survivor wandering the hostile streets of a collapsed civilization. He lives in a long-abandoned office building fighting off attacks from nearby thugs and gathering together disused car parts for a makeshift airplane hoping to fly away from his sombre prison. Escape however offers little respite as he leaves one dead city for another. In the midst of this new wasteland The Man encounters his nemesis The Brute (Jean Reno); a violent aggressor who becomes determined to destroy him. By chance he stumbles into a derelict hospital and finds there an old doctor who is hiding from The Brute. Together the two seek sanctuary from The Brute and gradually in the grey and sterile world a friendship begins to grow. Luc Besson's debut feature film Le Dernier Combat has been much lauded by audiences and critics alike since its release in 1984 and enjoys a richly deserved cult status in the annuls of film history.

• The Bridge (Die Brucke) | DVD | (19/10/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Oscar-nominated classic by Bernhard Wicki. The famous and shocking anti-war movie from the fifties: eight schoolboys still under-age are drafted into the German Army during the last days of the war in April 1945. Entirely unreasonably they receive the order to defend a bridge against advancing American troops. Filled with fervour and patriotic enthusiasm they believe that they must carry out their orders. But one by one they are killed while defending the bridge. When a group of German demolition troops is about to prepare the blasting of the bridge the futility of the order becomes obvious. Only one child survives and apathetically returns home.

• Cabaret | DVD | (04/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Cherry Blossoms | DVD | (12/10/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Only Trudi knows that her husband Rudi is suffering from a terminal illness. It is up to her to tell him or not. The doctor suggests that they do something together perhaps something they were long planning to do...

• Le Dernier Combat | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £9.95   |  Saving you £3.04 (30.55%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Le Dernier Combat (1983) finds Luc Besson setting out his directorial convictions in vividly direct terms. He honours the French New Wave through spartan, documentary-style presentation and--save for possibly the two most meaningful "Bonjours" in cinema history--the total absence of dialogue, appropriate for a film in which devastation has robbed survivors of the power of speech. The action centres on Pierre Jolivet, good-guy in a society where vigilantism and subjugation are the primary tools of survival. Gladiatorially clad Jean Reno makes a characteristic showing as his ruthless opponent, while Jean Bouise is the taciturn doctor who comes to Jolivet's aid. Eric Serra offsets the chill austerity with a motley score of modernist clichés and easy listening soundbites. To be honest, there's little about this film that could be considered ground-breaking, but if a Mad Max scenario filtered through European surrealist sensibilities appeals, then Le Dernier Combat will make absorbing viewing. On the DVD Le Dernier Combat's 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen picture has a suitably stark immediacy, enhanced by the surround sound option. There are no subtitles, hardly a stumbling block in this instance, and no special features apart from the chance to see trailers for two rather different Hollywood productions. There's no directorial commentary, which is a pity, as Besson's subsequent career has been an eventful one and it would have been good to hear him discuss it from the perspective of his first feature. --Richard Whitehouse

• Le Dernier Combat | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £12.75   |  Saving you £3.24 (25.41%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Experience Luc Besson's dark vision of the future a cult classic exploration of the post-apocalyptic survival. In a world populated with savages living amongst the wreckage of a devastated civilization one man wages war against brutality and isolation. Filmed in black and white and almost entirely without dialogue Besson's first film presents in every detail a haunting premonition of a hostile tomorrow.

• The Bridge (Die Brucke) (re-release) | DVD | (04/04/2011) from £27.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This Oscar-nominated classic by Bernhard Wicki is a gripping and shocking anti-war movie. Seven schoolboys still under-age are drafted into the German Army during the last days of the war in April 1945. Without any training they receive the order to defend a bridge against advancing American troops. Filled with fervor and patriotic enthusiasm they believe that fighting for their homeland is the greatest honor. Unaware that the bridge is strategically useless and will be blown up anyway the boys take their orders very seriously with many paying the ultimate price. Soon the pointlessness of the deaths and their orders is realised.