"Director: Roman Polanski"

• Macbeth | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Roman Polanski's adaptation of the Shakespearean tragedy Macbeth remains one of the most infamous for a number of reasons: the copious amounts of bloody gore, its expert use of location settings (filmed in North Wales) and Lady Macbeth's nude sleepwalking scene. Despite its notoriety, though, this does remain one of the more compelling film adaptations of the Scottish tragedy, if one of the more pessimistic takes on the story of Macbeth and his overreaching ambition. If you think the play is normally a bit of a downer, you haven't seen Polanski's bleak version of it, made in reaction to the murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson "family". Jon Finch (Hitchcock's Frenzy) is a forceful Macbeth, bringing out the Scot's warrior instincts, and Francesca Annis is a memorable Lady Macbeth but the main thrust of the film belongs to Polanski's and noted British playwright and critic Kenneth Tynan's take on the play: extremely violent, nihilistic and visceral; this is down-in-the-dirt, no-holds-barred Shakespeare, not fussy costume drama. Pay close attention to the end, a silent coda that puts a chilling twist on all the action that has come beforehand and foreshadows more tragedy to come. --Mark Englehart

• Rosemary's Baby | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £6.73   |  Saving you £6.26 (93.02%)   |  RRP £12.99

  For Rosemary’s Baby, his modern horror tale about Satanic worship and a pregnant woman’s decline into madness, Roman Polanski moves from the traditional monolithic mansions of Gothic flicks to an apartment building in New York City. Based on Ira Levin’s novel, the story concerns Rosemary (Mia Farrow) and Guy Woodhouse who find the apartment of their dreams in a luxurious complex in Manhattan. Soon after moving in and making friends with a group of elderly neighbours, Guy’s career takes off and Rosemary discovers she is pregnant. Their happiness seems complete. But gradually Rosemary begins to sense that something is wrong with this baby, and slowly and surely her life begins to unravel. Polanski uses such subtle means to build up the sense of preternatural disquiet that initially you suspect Rosemary’s prenatal paranoia to be a figment of her imagination. But the guilty parties and their demonic plan to make Rosemary the receptacle of their master’s child are eventually revealed and, as Rosemary looses her grip on reality, she realises that no one can be trusted. The performances are excellent throughout; Farrow as the young wife is so fragile that you wonder how she made it unscathed to adulthood and John Cassavetes is horrifyingly duplicitous as her husband Guy. But the real star is Polanski’s masterful direction. The mood is at the same time oppressive and hysterical with the mounting terror coming from the situation and gradually unravelling plot rather than any schlock horror moments. On the DVD: the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack shows off Christopher Komeda’s eerie "lullaby" score to it’s haunting best. The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and is relatively free of speckle and dust, some scenes filmed in low light are slightly grainier but this adds to the oppressive tension that Polanski is building up in the film. In terms of extras there is a 20-minute "making of" feature from 1968 and retrospective interviews with Polanski, production designer Richard Sylbert and producer Robert Evans. --Kristen Bowditch

• The Ninth Gate | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £7.04   |  Saving you £2.95 (41.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Dean Corso is highly skilled at his work, a position which requires dexterity, cultural expertise, nerves of steel...and few scruples.

• Rosemary's Baby | Blu Ray | (07/10/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Under ROMAN POLANSKI's chilling direction, a classic thriller is born. Rosemary (MIA FARROW) and Guy Woodhouse (JOHN CASSAVETES) are newlyweds, but Rosemary has no idea that her wedded bliss is about to come to a horrific end. Her husband's ambition as a struggling actor is about to plunge her into an abyss of terror like she has never known. In exchange for a taste of fame, Guy makes a deal with the devil that puts his wife and soul in jeopardy. When Rosemary becomes pregnant, her husband b...

• The Ghost | DVD | (20/09/2010) from £3.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (350.88%)   |  RRP £17.99

  From acclaimed director Roman Polanski and resonating with topical themes, this atmospheric and intriguing political thriller charts one man's determination to discover the truth and to tell it, if necessary, from beyond the grave.

• The Pianist | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £5.89   |  Saving you £12.10 (205.43%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A talented musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and the concentration camps of World War II.

• The Fearless Vampire Killers | DVD | (30/01/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Clever comedy-horror film directed by Roman Polanski. An expert on bats Professor Abronsius and his dim-witted assistant Alfred travel to Transylvania to try to find and destroy vampires. Alfred falls for the vampire's latest target - the inn-keeper's daughter. Also known as 'Dance Of The Vampires' and 'Pardon Me But Your Teeth Are In My Neck.'

• Tess (DVD & Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (17/04/2019) from £9.85   |  Saving you £10.14 (102.94%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Roman Polanski adapted Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles and came up with this moody, haunting film starring Nastassia Kinski as the farm girl who is misused by the aristocrat for whom she works and who is then caught in a marriage where her initial happiness soon turns to grief. Fans of the novel may feel unpersuaded by Polanski's effort to marry Hardy's Dorset vision with his own fascination with psychosexual impulses toward survival, but the film is an often stunning thing to see, and Kinski's sensitive, intelligent performance lingers in the memory. --Tom Keogh

• Frantic | DVD | (25/10/1999) from £5.38   |  Saving you £8.61 (61.50%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A doctor and his wife go to Paris for a medical conference. While showering, his wife disappears.

• Chinatown | DVD | (05/11/2007) from £13.53   |  Saving you £-3.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A landmark movie in the film noir tradition Roman Polanski's Chinatown stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husbands extra-marital affair Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one unforgettable night in ... Chinatown. Co-starring film legend John Huston and featuring an Academy Award-winning script by Robert Towne Chinatown captures a lost era in a masterfully woven movie that remains a timeless gem.

• The Pianist | DVD | (18/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A talented musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and the concentration camps of World War II.

• The Pianist | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £5.05   |  Saving you £4.94 (97.82%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A talented musician struggles to survive the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and the concentration camps of World War II.

• Chinatown | DVD | (14/01/2013) from £6.91   |  Saving you £13.08 (189.29%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Roman Polanski's brooding film noir exposes the darkest side of the land of sunshine, the Los Angeles of the 1930s, where power is the only currency--and the only real thing worth buying. Jack Nicholson is JJ Gittes, a private eye in the Chandler mould, who during a routine straying-spouse investigation finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a jigsaw puzzle of clues and corruption. The glamorous Evelyn Mulwray (a dazzling Faye Dunaway) and her titanic father, Noah Cross (John Huston), are at the black-hole centre of this tale of treachery, incest, and political bribery. The crackling, hard-bitten script by Robert Towne won a well-deserved Oscar, and the muted colour cinematography makes the goings-on seem both bleak and impossibly vibrant. Polanski himself has a brief, memorable cameo as the thug who tangles with Nicholson's nose. One of the greatest, most completely satisfying crime films of all time. --Anne Hurley, Amazon.com

• Chinatown | Blu Ray | (28/05/2012) from £7.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A landmark movie in the film noir tradition, Roman Polanski's Chinatown stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes, living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one, unforgettable night in ... Chinatown.Co-starring film legend John Huston and featuring an Academy Award-winning script by Robert Towne, Chinatown captures a lost era in a masterfully woven movie that remains a timeless gem.

• Oliver Twist | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £5.33   |  Saving you £10.66 (200.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Oscar-winner Roman Polanski brings the classic Charles Dickens tale to life.

• The Ghost | Blu Ray | (20/09/2010) from £6.99   |  Saving you £16.00 (228.90%)   |  RRP £22.99

  From acclaimed director Roman Polanski and resonating with topical themes, this atmospheric and intriguing political thriller charts one man's determination to discover the truth and to tell it, if necessary, from beyond the grave.

• Roman Polanski Collection | DVD | (01/09/2008) from £14.57   |  Saving you £1.68 (12.62%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Rosemary's Baby: Like most first time mothers Rosemary experiences confusion and fear. Her husband an ambitious but unsuccessful actor makes a pact with the devil that promises to send his career skyward... Possibly the best horror film ever made this brilliant adaptation of Ira Levin's best-selling novel is the story of a loving young New York city couple who are experiencing their first child. Director Roman Polanski elicits uniformly extraordinary performances from the all-star cast. Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for her performance as an oversolicitous next-door neighbour in this classic chiller. Chinatown: Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one unforgettable night in ... Chinatown. The Tenant Roman: Polanski directs and stars as Trelkovsky an expatriate Pole in Paris who takes over the lease of a gloomy apartment and comes to believe that the other tenants in the block are conspiring to drive him to kill himself. The real or imagined conspiracy is supported by the suicide of the previous tenant. Trelkovsky finds himself assuming the identity of his predecessor but the twist that sets this film above the competition is that this previous occupant was a girl. Polanski uses this twist to explore the character's latent bisexuality in an atmosphere of paranoia and delusion.

• Bitter Moon | DVD | (09/02/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From acclaimed director Roman Polanski comes this erotically-charged drama starring Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas as a respectable married couple. While on a trip to Istanbul they come across Oscar and his young Parisian wife Mimi who take it upon themselves to tell the story of their passionate relationship from its sexual beginnings to its current abusive and spiteful stage.

• Cul-De-Sac: Digitally Remastered | DVD | (26/07/2010) from £9.45   |  Saving you £8.54 (90.37%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A mismatched couple (he effeminate and petulant she sensual and enigmatic) share a bizarre sexual relationship living in a remote castle. Their very isolation from the world prevents their eccentric partnership from foundering. Only an outsider can disrupt their make-believe lifestyle. That disruption arrives in the belligerent form of Richard and Albert two oddball gangsters straight out of a 1940's film noir wounded desperate and on the run. They demand shelter and as Richard waits for instructions from his gangland boss he slips into a dangerous round of game-playing with his unwilling hosts. But it seems that Richard is not always to have the upper hand...

• Chinatown | DVD | (02/10/2000) from £7.25   |  Saving you £8.74 (120.55%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A landmark movie in the film noir tradition Roman Polanski’s Chinatown stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husband’s extra-marital affair Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for