Gena Rowlands

• The Notebook | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £3.29  |  Saving you £16.70 (83.50%)  |  RRP £19.99

  When you consider that old-fashioned tearjerkers are an endangered species in Hollywood, a movie like The Notebook can be embraced without apology. Yes, it's syrupy sweet and clogged with clichés, and one can only marvel at the irony of Nick Cassavetes directing a weeper that his late father John--whose own films were devoid of saccharine sentiment--would have sneered at. Still, this touchingly impassioned and great-looking adaptation of the popular Nicholas Sparks novel has much to recommend, including appealing young costars (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) and appealing old costars (James Garner and Gena Rowlands, the director's mother) playing the same loving couple in (respectively) early 1940s and present-day North Carolina. He was poor, she was rich, and you can guess the rest; decades later, he's unabashedly devoted, and she's drifting into the memory-loss of senile dementia. How their love endured is the story preserved in the titular notebook that he reads to her in their twilight years. The movie's open to ridicule, but as a delicate tearjerker it works just fine. Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember were also based on Sparks novels, suggesting a triple-feature that hopeless romantics will cherish. --Jeff Shannon

• Hope Floats | DVD | (19/04/2004) from £3.75  |  Saving you £9.24 (71.10%)  |  RRP £12.99

  Birdee Pruitt has a life most people would envy. But when her cheating husband reveals his infidelity to her on a national TV talk show her perfect life comes crashing down. Devastated Birdee and her young daughter head home to the small town she left behind. As mother and daughter struggle to adjust to their new lives Birdee slowly gains the strength to open her heart - and find hope again...

• The Skeleton Key | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £2.99  |  Saving you £6.55 (65.60%)  |  RRP £9.99

  It can open any door. From the writer of The Ring (Ehren Kruger) and the director of K-PAX (Iain Softley) comes the supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key. Set largely in the dark atmospheric backwoods just outside of New Orleans The Skeleton Key stars Kate Hudson as Caroline a live-in nurse hired to care for an elderly woman's (Rowlands) ailing husband (Hurt) in their home... a foreboding and decrepit mansion in the

• Opening Night (DVD & Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (27/05/2013) from £13.01  |  Saving you £6.98 (34.90%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Receiving its long-overdue world premiere High Definition release, as part of this BFI Dual Format Edition, John Cassavetes' emotionally charged 1977 film Opening Night stands as one of the great American movies about theatre and the art of performance, and was nominated for 2 Golden Globe Awards. Featuring the great Gena Rowlands (A Woman under the Influence) in an award-winning role as the Broadway legend Myrtle Gordon. When a young fan dies in an accident while trying to meet her, Gordon must confront her personal demons in the run-up to the opening of her latest play. Opening Night also stars John Cassavetes in a rare acting role in one of his own films, alongside regular collaborator Ben Gazzara (Husbands, The Big Liebowski, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie). Special Features: Audio Commentary (Feature length) Memories of John (DVD only) Falk on Cassavetes part 3: the later years (DVD only)

• Another Woman | DVD | (19/08/2002) from £5.38  |  Saving you £10.61 (66.40%)  |  RRP £15.99

  ""Two Thumbs Up! I Was Mesmerized From Beginning To End!"" -Roger Ebert ""Siskel and Ebert"" Writer/director Woody Allen delivers a powerful ""searing adult drama"" (Leonard Maltin) examining the life of an accomplished philosophy professor teetering on the brink of self-understanding. Boasting a superb cast led by Gena Rowlands Mia Farrow Ian Holm and Gene Hackman Another Woman is Allen's 17th triumphant film. Stylistically rich and technically expert the film layers past and pres

• Charlotte's Web/Lassie/Paulie | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £5.00  |  Saving you £7.99 (61.50%)  |  RRP £12.99

  Titles Comprise: Charlotte's Web: Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season because he knows that come that time he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte a spider that lives in his pen to ensure that this will never happen. Lassie: Based on Eric Knight's 1938 novel about the most trustworthy of pooches Lassie Come Home the film is set on the eve of World War II in a Yorkshire mining town in northern England. The Carraclough family fall on hard times and have to sell Lassie to the Duke of Rudling (Peter O'Toole). Transported to the Duke's remote castle in the north of Scotland Lassie is determined to escape from the clutches of the Duke and his evil trainer in an effort to make her way home for Christmas and return to the family she loves... Paulie: When a little bird with a big personality sets out to find the loving girl who raised him he discovers his way with words has a way of landing him in big trouble. But as fast as he can talk himself into a fix he finds his gift of gab a heart full of hope and an odd menagerie of human friends can help him realize his most important dream - to be home at last!

• Something To Talk About | DVD | (08/01/2001) from £2.28  |  Saving you £11.71 (83.70%)  |  RRP £13.99

  Something to Talk About is a well-intentioned but strangely cold tale that concerns an emotionally repressed Southern belle (Julia Roberts) who separates from her husband (Dennis Quaid) after discovering he is an unabashed philanderer. Pressed by her dominating father (Robert Duvall) into reconciling with her spouse, Roberts's character chafes against so much male control over her destiny. Defended by a fiercely independent sister (a catchy performance by Kyra Sedgwick), the heroine develops the nerve to plot her own course in life while her mother (Gena Rowlands) finds the gumption to throw her own mate out of the house. The script by Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) is intelligent but hardly clear, and direction by Lasse Hallström (Once Around) can't keep Khouri's unfocused scenes and uncertain purpose from dissolving like sand castles in the rain. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Taking Lives (Director's Cut) | DVD | (27/09/2004) from £2.70  |  Saving you £11.29 (80.70%)  |  RRP £13.99

  FBI profiler Illeana Scott is called in by French Canadian police to catch a serial killer who takes on the identity of each new victim. Alone in an unfamiliar city with no one she can trust agent Scott suddenly finds herself on a twisted and terrifying journey surrounded by suspects in a case that rapidly becomes chillingly personal... This director's cut features footage not seen in UK cinemas!

• Broken English | DVD | (20/05/2013) from £10.32  |  Saving you £5.67 (35.50%)  |  RRP £15.99

  Made by the daughter of iconoclastic filmmaker John Cassavetes, Broken English is about Nora, beautifully played by Parker Posey, a thirty-something Manhattanite plugging away at her job in a posh downtown hotel, but can't help but wonder what it is she has to do to establish a successful relationship. Nora is constantly reminded by her tactless mother (Gena Rowlands) just how unlucky she has been in love. Though Nora longs to enter into a blissful union she finds that the dating pool just isn't what it used to be. Things soon begin to look up, when Nora makes the acquaintance of handsome but quirky Frenchman with a passion for living. However things don't go quite to plan and Inevitably Nora has to look inward before she can find a new outlook on life and most importantly, love.

• A Woman Under the Influence (The John Cassavetes Collection) (DVD & Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (17/09/2012) from £9.99  |  Saving you £10.00 (50.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Receiving its long-overdue Blu-ray world premiere, A Woman Under The Influence is arguably John Cassavetes' most popular and influential film. Released in 1974 it stars Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands (Gloria, Faces) and the legendary Peter Falk (Columbo) as Mabel and Nick Longhetti, a blue-collar couple struggling to cope with her slip into mental illness. A key work from a golden era of American filmmaking - this masterpiece of American independent filmmaking is as powerful and devastating today as it was when it was first released. The film received two Oscar-nominations - Rowlands was for Best Actress and Cassavetes for Best Director - losing out to Francis Ford Coppola for Godfather Pt II.

• Faces (The John Cassavetes Collection) (DVD & Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (23/04/2012) from £9.89  |  Saving you £10.10 (50.50%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Dual Format Edition containing the DVD and world premiere Blu-ray release of John Cassavetes' astonishingly powerful 1968 feature, Faces, a film which has had a huge and lasting impact on independent filmmaking, evident in the work of Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee and Jim Jarmusch to name only a few. Set in suburban middle-class America of the 1960s, Faces portrays the disintegration of a marriage with an honesty rarely matched in cinema. Originally released when Cassavetes was a big name Hollywood acting star (The Dirty Dozen, Rosemary's Baby) Faces was nominted for 3 Oscars - an unheard-of achievement for an independent film at the time.

• Lonely Are the Brave | DVD | (21/01/2013) from £8.99  |  Saving you £4.00 (30.80%)  |  RRP £12.99

• Paulie | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £3.49  |  Saving you £14.50 (80.60%)  |  RRP £17.99

  The human beings are almost as interesting as the title character in the surprisingly subtle and engaging Paulie, a film about the cross-country adventures of a smart-mouthed parrot. As director John Roberts deploys the footage, the bird becomes a vivid personality; every quizzical twist of his head is oddly expressive. The people who interact with Paulie are a quirky and interesting bunch as well, and the casting is topnotch: Tony Shalhoub (The Siege) as a Russian immigrant janitor, Cheech Marin as an open-hearted mariachi musician, and Gena Rowlands as a widowed painter in a footloose Winnebago--all are vividly eccentric individuals, memorable in their own right. There are some tired swipes at the cold-blooded meanies of Big Science (beady-eyed researcher Bruce Davison has Paulie clapped in irons), but for the most part the film respects the complexity of everyone's motivations, and that's virtually unheard of in today's Hollywood, even in films supposedly designed for grownups. --David Chute

• Tony Rome | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £3.87  |  Saving you £9.12 (70.20%)  |  RRP £12.99

  Tony Rome a tough Miami PI living on a houseboat is hired by a local millionaire to find jewelry stolen from his daughter and in the process has several encounters with local hoods as well as the Miami Beach PD.

• The Mighty | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £5.99  |  Saving you £9.00 (60.00%)  |  RRP £14.99

  With his loving and supportive mother 13-year-old Kevin moves in next door to another teen Max. Though both have problems that label them as outcasts Kevin and Max discover that by proudly combining their strengths and uniting as one they can overcome their individual limitations and triumph over any adversity! As the two set out on a series of courageous adventures they find the mightiest treasure of all: Friendship!

• The John Cassavetes Collection | DVD | (12/09/2005) from £N/A  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £49.99

  A collection of films from famed actor and independent director John Cassavetes comprising: Shadows (1959): A depiction of the struggle of three black siblings to survive the mean streets of Manhattan 'Shadows' was Cassavetes' jazz-scored improvisational film exploring interracial friendships and relationships in Beat-Era (1950s) New York City made from a script entirely improvised by the talented cast heralding a vital new era in independent filmmaking. Faces (1968):

• The Skeleton Key | Blu Ray | (25/10/2010) from £6.95  |  Saving you £11.04 (61.40%)  |  RRP £17.99

  It can open any door. From the writer of The Ring (Ehren Kruger) and the director of K-PAX (Iain Softley) comes the supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key. Set largely in the dark atmospheric backwoods just outside of New Orleans The Skeleton Key stars Kate Hudson as Caroline a live-in nurse hired to care for an elderly woman's (Rowlands) ailing husband (Hurt) in their home... a foreboding and decrepit mansion in the Louisiana delta. Intrigued by the enigmatic couple their mysterious secretive ways and their rambling old house Caroline begins to explore the mansion. Armed with a skeleton key that unlocks every door in the house she discovers a hidden attic room that holds a deadly and terrifying secret...

• The Notebook | DVD | (09/03/2009) from £4.19  |  Saving you £-186.34 (-1,190.70%)  |  RRP £15.65

  Behind every great love is a great story. Adapted from Nicholas Sparks' best-selling novel and directed by Nick Cassavetes (the son of legendary director John Cassavettes). A sweeping love story told by a man reading from his faded notebook (James Garner) to a woman in a nursing home (Gena Rowlands - real-life mother of Nick Cassavetes). 'The Notebook' follows the lives of two North Carolina teens from very different worlds (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams). Though her upbringing takes place in an antebellum mansion and he grew up in the kind of house where musicians strum on the porch that doesn't stop Noah and Allie from spending one incredible summer together before they are separated first by her parents and then by WWII. After the war is over everything is different. Allie is engaged to a successful businessman and Noah lives alone with his 200-year-old house that he lovingly restores. But when Allie reads a newspaper article about Noah's handiwork. She knows that she's got to find him and make a decision once and for all about the path her life - and her love - must take...

• A Child Is Waiting | DVD | (06/07/2009) from £7.40  |  Saving you £8.59 (53.70%)  |  RRP £15.99

  A Child Is Waiting

• Thursday's Child | DVD | (30/04/2007) from £6.72  |  Saving you £3.27 (32.70%)  |  RRP £9.99

  Life is about to change for young Sam Alden. Home for a traditional Christmas celebration the usually robust young man worries his family with his drawn appearance and persistent coughing. Subsequent tests reveal the cause-degenerative heart disease. His condition rapidly deteriorates until his doctors determine that only a heart transplant can offer him any hope of survival. Putting aside their fears Sam's large and loving family rallies round him. Drawing strength from each other and from an optimistic Sam his parents keep watch over him-awaiting decisions that could give him the chance to fulfil the promise of Thursday's Child.