"Actor: Anne Jacques"

• Cyrano von Bergerac - Classic Selection | Blu Ray | (05/09/2019) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• LA POISON | DVD | (25/02/2013) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  One of the great late period films by Sacha Guitry - the total auteur who delighted (and scandalised) the French public and inspired the French New Wave as a model for authorship as director-writer-star of screen and stage alike. In every one of his pictures (and almost every one served as a rueful examination of the war between the sexes), Guitry sculpted by way of a rapier wit - one might say by way of the Guitry touch - some of the most sophisticated black comedies ever conceived... and La Poison [Poison] is one of his blackest. Michel Simon plays Paul Braconnier, a man with designs on murdering his wife Blandine (Germaine Reuver) - a woman with similar designs on her husband. When Braconnier visits Paris to consult with a lawyer about the perfect way of killing a spouse - that is, the way in which he can get away with it - an acid comedy unfolds that reaches its peak in a courtroom scene for the ages. From the moment of Guitry's trademark introduction of his principals in the opening credits, and on through the brilliant performance by national treasure Michel Simon (of Renoir's Boudu sauve des eaux and Vigo's L'Atalante, to mention only two high-water marks), here is fitting indication of why Guitry is considered by many the Gallic equal of Ernst Lubitsch. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to introduce Sacha Guitry into the catalogue with La Poison for the first time on video in the UK in a dazzling new Gaumont restoration. Special Features: Newly translated optional subtitles Substantial booklet containing writing on the film, vintage excerpts, and rare archival imagery

• Edward And Caroline | DVD | (21/08/2017) from £11.89   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Becker's dark, offbeat comedy about a failing marriage stars Daniel Gélin as Édouard, a poor pianist married to Caroline (Anne Vernon), a beautiful girl from a middle-class family. Caroline's uncle Claude (Jean Galland), a complete snob who looks down on Édouard like the rest of his family, invites the couple to a party at which he is expected to play for his supper in front of Claude's important friends. Add the fact that Claude's son Alain (Jacques Francois) is in love with Caroline and this evening is destined for disaster.

• Welcome Aboard | DVD | (05/11/2012) from £3.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (300.75%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Taillandier (Patrick Chesnais) is a well-known painter in his sixties, but despite his success he finds himself overwhelmed by depression and decides to give up on his art. With no direction or destination in mind, he leaves his home without giving an explanation to even those closest to him. During his travels he has an unlikely encounter with Marylou (Jeanne Lambert), a young girl rejected by her own mother and also seeking out her path in life. As the pair travels together the bond between them grows closer, akin to a father-daughter relationship, as they give each other the helping hand they both need to make sense of their lives once more.

• Farinelli - Il Castrato | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Girl On A Motorcycle | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Caught midway between 1970s soft-porn clunker The Story of O and Bunuel's sado-masochistic fantasy Belle de Jour, the 1968 erotic curio Girl on a Motorcycle is one of Marianne Faithfull's chief claims to notoriety. She stars as Rebecca, a leather-clad, former bookstore clerk in search of sexual fulfilment who flees her dependable schoolteacher husband for a dangerous liaison with Daniel (Alain Delon), a dashing Professor addicted to speed. The story is told entirely in flashbacks as Rebecca rockets along the road, having donned her leathers and walked out on her sleeping husband at the crack of dawn. It all must have seemed fairly daring and provocative in 1968, providing viewers with ample opportunities to view a naked Faithfull at the height of her allure. But today the existential musings of the lead character seem achingly pretentious, the erotic symbolism merely gawky and unintentionally amusing: the sight of Alain Delon with a phallic pipe dangling from his mouth is like something out of a Rene Magritte painting. The sex scenes between Delon and Faithfull are all swamped in a polarised visual effect that, while garish and psychedelic, is dated and distinctly unerotic. Director Jack Cardiff is better known as a cinematographer on classics such as The African Queen and Black Narcissus. Among Cardiff's other directorial credits is a worthy adaptation of DH Lawrence's Sons & Lovers, but Girl on a Motorcycle is a saucy road movie with no final destination. On the DVD: This DVD version is misleadingly presented as being the fully restored and uncut version of the film. Yet it was the US version not the European one that was heavily cut (and titillatingly re-titled "Naked Under Leather"). The restoration certainly does not refer to the print quality: although the colours are vivid and bright, the print used to master the DVD (in 16:9 anamorphic format) is extremely grainy and, at times, speckled with dirt and scratches. Included as one of the special features, a theatrical trailer loaded with innuendo shows just how much the film was marketed to a prurient audience. Director Jack Cardiff provides an audio commentary but has few revelatory things to say about his film beyond technical considerations, and even makes several clunking errors (recalling his casting decisions concerning a scene that takes place in a provincial German café, he raves about how he strove to find authentic French locals!). He does reveal that the film's use of a voice-over was inspired by the internal monologue that forms the basis of James Joyce's Ulysses. Given Cardiff's age and experience one feels that he must have more interesting anecdotes and insights, making this commentary feel like a wasted opportunity. --Chris Campion

• Adam - Giselle - Ballet in Two Acts | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £20.36   |  Saving you £4.63 (18.50%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Adam - Giselle - Ballet In Two Acts

• Christo And Jeanne Claude - Five Films - A Maysles Films Production | DVD | (13/12/2004) from £68.83   |  Saving you £-18.84 (-37.70%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The vision of environmental/conceptual artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude creates a whirlwind of controversy in many of the communities where they install their work. Known for projects as seemingly incomprehensible as surrounding islands around Miami in flamboyantly pink fabric and using fabric to disguise the Pont-Neuf in Paris the pair aim to change the way people view their surroundings - both natural and manmade. In a series of films spanning their creations from 1974 to 1995 le

• Canary (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (26/08/2019) from £17.45   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Drafted during Apartheid by the South African Army, Johan Niemand's love for Boy George and Depeche Mode lands him a spot in the SADF Choir - the 'Canaries.' In a landscape where law and religion oppress individuality, Johan and the Canaries have to survive military training and go on a nationwide tour. An unexpected romance on the battlefield forces Johan to reckon with his long-repressed sexual identity. This musical comedy revels in the discovery of finding your voice and learning to fly.

• Les Valseuses | DVD | (04/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Les Valseuses is the controversial groundbreaking classic that shot Gerard Depardieu to stardom and also marked the arrival of a major new talent in director Bertrand Blier. One of the key French films of the seventies. Two aimless drifters spend their days wandering the French countryside looking for trouble and women. Their hedonistic spree of petty crime and debauchery usually results in them fighting or running their way out of trouble. The delinquent pair are joined by a supporting array of characters played by Jeanne Moreau Miou-Miou and Isabelle Huppert in one of her earliest roles.