"Actor: Anita Wall"

• Scenes From A Marriage | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £8.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage opens with a couple--Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johann (Erland Josephson)--being interviewed for a magazine. Every moment seems to teeter on the brink of some rupture; just as they start to get comfortable, the interviewer has them freeze for a photograph. After making some bland, general statements, they both start admitting intimate details, confessing that they were brought together by mutual misery, then cheerfully claiming that theirs is a model marriage. The entirety of Scenes from a Marriage--which chronicles their emotional relationship even after a divorce and marriages to other people--continues to have these contradictions, moments of honesty and self-deception, of cruelty and kindness, concern and self-obsession, all laid bare by the skilful actors and the subtle, constantly shifting screenplay. Every scene is a small movie unto itself; in fact, Scenes from a Marriage was originally a six-episode TV show, carefully edited down into a unified film. This is one of Bergman's most immediate and accessible works, concerned more with the facts of human behaviour than symbolism or abstract themes. Bergman understands how to balance what could be horrible pain and despair with the characters' earnest efforts to improve their lives. His imitators reduce everything to sheer suffering and alienation; Bergman sees the best in his characters, even when their actions are terrible. This 1973 film won numerous awards, including several acting honours for Ullmann. --Bret Fetzer

• The Last Musician of Auschwitz | DVD | (17/03/2025) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Jazz-O-Logy - Count Basie And Friends | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The swing era was the most popular period in jazz history. Swing brought to jazz complex harmonies driving rhythms and gave birth to the solo improvisations that were to play such a huge role in the bop era. From great bandleaders such as Count Basie and Lucky Millinder to genius Louis Armstrong and Henry 'Red' Allen. This DVD also features a host of swing era performers encapsulating some of the best moments in jazz.