Roberto Benigni

• Life Is Beautiful | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £2.99  |  Saving you £13.00 (81.30%)  |  RRP £15.99

  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

• Jim Jarmusch Collection Vol.1 | DVD | (12/05/2008) from £8.83  |  Saving you £26.16 (74.80%)  |  RRP £34.99

  Permanent Vacation (1980): In downtown Manhattan Allie a twenty-something guy (Chris Parker) whose Father is not around and whose Mother is institutionalized is a big Charlie Parker fan. He almost subconsciously searches for more meaning in his life and meets a few strange and surreal characters along the way. Stranger Than Paradise (1984): Winner of the Camera d'Or for Best First Feature at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival Stranger Than Paradise not only launched Jim Jarmusch's career but also earned him recognition from critics as one of today's more inventive and creative filmmakers. Lounge Lizard musician John Lurie stars as Willie a disenchanted New Yorker who along with his best friend Eddie (Richard Edson) and cousin Eva (Eszter Balint) decides it's time to leave behind their boring lives in search of ""paradise."" But as their unforgettable road trip to Florida unfolds they find that amidst the sunshine blue skies and palm trees their pursuit of happiness is constantly road-blocked by the very thing they can't run away from... themselves. Down By Law (1986): In one of the hippest comedies ever made three misfits find themselves thrown together in a New Orleans jail cell. There's Zach the unemployed DJ Jack the small-time pimp and Bob the crazy Italian tourist. Unavailable for many years this cult hit stars Tom Waits John Lurie and the Oscar-winning director and star of Life is Beautiful Roberto Benigni. A film that firmly established Jim Jarmusch as the coolest director on the American independent scene.

• Johnny Stecchino | DVD | (19/10/2009) from £7.93  |  Saving you £4.50 (34.60%)  |  RRP £12.99

  The Marx Brothers meet The Godfather when the bumbling Dante (Roberto Benigni) discovers that there's nothing organized about organized crime in this hilarious tale of mistaken identity. Dante finally meets the woman of his dreams; unfortunately she only wants him for his body his dead body. Dante doesn't realize he looks just like mobster Johnny Stecchino and that femme fatale Maria is setting him up to be the victim of a hit so that she and husband Johnny can escape their life of crime. Starring Italy's most popular film comedian as Dante and Johnny the Toothpick.

• Coffee And Cigarettes | DVD | (28/02/2005) from £5.87  |  Saving you £14.12 (70.60%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Jim Jarmusch has consistently wowed audiences with his truly distinctive cinematic vision. Shot over the course of a 17-year-period 'Coffee And Cigarettes' proves once again that Jarmusch is a true original. This time around the director tries his hand at the short film genre delivering 11 shorts that are all based around the seemingly insignificant acts of drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. In the first short ""Strange to Meet You "" Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni discuss

• Asterix And Obelix Take On Caesar (1999) | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £2.44  |  Saving you £2.02 (33.70%)  |  RRP £5.99

  'Asterix and Obelix Take On Caesar' is France's second most successful film of all time and stars internationally renowned actor Gerard Depardieu as Gaulish warrior Obelix alongside Oscar winning Roberto Benigni as the wicked Detritus. Journey back 2000 years as Ancient France is on the brink of complete Roman invasion well almost complete... except for one small village of indomitable Gauls that still holds out against the invaders. It is here that Asterix and his friends are con

• Johnny Stecchino | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £14.14  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £9.99

  The Marx Brothers meet The Godfather when the bumbling Dante (Roberto Benigni) discovers that there's nothing organized about organized crime in this hilarious tale of mistaken identity that reveals why Benigni has become Italy's most popular film comedian. A naive schoolbus driver Dante finally meets the passionate woman of his dreams. Unfortunately she only wants him for his body; his dead body. Dante doesn't realize he looks just like mobster Johnny Stecchino and that femme fatale Maria (Nicoletta Braschi) is setting him up to be the victim of a hit so that she and husband Johnny can escape the crime world. The dim-witted innocent doesn't catch on fast; every time a round of gunfire goes off Dante thinks he's being hunted for shoplifting a banana! 'Johnny Stecchino' .

• Son Of The Pink Panther | DVD | (27/02/2006) from £3.76  |  Saving you £9.14 (70.40%)  |  RRP £12.99

  Inspector Clouseau's biggest mistake lives on! Inspector Clouseau is back! Not the original but his illegitimate son... Unfortunatley he's a chip off the old block! Blake Edwards who expertly guided the late Peter Sellers through the most popular comedy series of all time returns after an absence of 10 years with the Italian comedian Roberto Benigni as Clouseau Jr. As the loyal courageous but totally inept young Gendarme sets off in pursuit of the kidnapped Princess Yas

• Son Of The Pink Panther | DVD | (02/02/2009) from £3.99  |  Saving you £1.52 (25.40%)  |  RRP £5.99

  An Arabian princess is kidnapped and it's up to Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Lom) to save her. Fortunately there's no Clouseau around to plague him this time! But when a klutzy local cop with the unfortunate name of Jacques (Benigni) is assigned to help him he manages to run Dreyfus over and blow him up - all on his first day on the job. Soon Dreyfus begins to fear that if Clouseau has a long lost son he would be a lot like this!

• Jim Jarmusch - Down By Law / Night On Earth | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £15.23  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £24.99

  Two classic films from auteur(!) director Jim Jamursch. Down By Law: 'It's not where you start - it's where you start again...' In one of the hippest comedies ever made three misfits find themselves thrown together in a New Orleans jail cell. There's Zach the unemployed DJ Jack the small time pimp and Bob the crazy Italian tourist. Unavailable for many years this cult hit stars Tom Waits John Luries and the Oscar-winning director and star of 'Life Is Beautiful' Roberto Be

• Down By Law | DVD | (31/03/2007) from £13.50  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £15.99

  Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law is in the same minimalist, oddball, black-and-white groove as his classic of American independent cinema, Stranger than Paradise (1984). The setting is Louisiana, where two losers (musicians Tom Waits and John Lurie) find themselves stuck in a jail cell together. One day they are joined by a boisterous Italian (Roberto Benigni), and the chemistry changes--suddenly an escape attempt is on the horizon. Conventional drama is not Jarmusch's intention; one of the emotional high points of this film is the three guys marching around their prison cell shouting, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" Yet the deadpan style creates its own humorous mood, underscored by melancholy (also underscored by the music of Lurie and the gravel-voiced songs of Waits). This was the first American film for Italian comedian Benigni, (Life is Beautiful), and he lights it up with his effervescent clowning. Jarmusch has said that Down by Law forms a loose trilogy with Stranger than Paradise and the subsequent Mystery Train (1989)--a triptych of disaffected, drifting life in the United States. Few filmmakers have ever surveyed ennui so entertainingly. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• Pinocchio | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A