"Actor: Emília Vá áryová"

• A Jester's Tale | DVD | (15/09/2014) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The legendary visionary Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman has been a profound influence on whole generations of filmmakers from Jan Svankmajer to Tim Burton the Quay Brothers to Terry Gilliam. His ground-breaking innovations in the use of live-action and animation mark him as one of the great masters of 20th Century fantasy cinema. A Jester's Tale is one of his most renowned and celebrated achievements. Described by Zeman as a pseudo-historical film it is a bold anti-war black comedy following the adventures of a plowboy and a mercenary press-ganged into service on the battlefields of the Thirty Years War of 1618 - 1648. Co-scripted by Pavel Juracek (Ikarie XB1 Daisies Josef Kilián) Karel Zeman's brilliant comic film with its melding of live-action and animation extraordinary matte work along with Escher-inspired impossible constructions anticipates Gilliam's Monty Python animations (not to mention 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail' and Gilliam's own 'Jabberwocky' and 'The Adventures of Baron Munchausen'). It also emerges as a sharp satire of war human nature and of our very understanding of history itself. This dazzling feature is presented for the first time ever in the UK. Special Features: Documentary Booklet Essay

• Dragon's Return (Drak sa vracia) | DVD | (24/08/2015) from £11.70   |  Saving you £2.55 (24.43%)   |  RRP £12.99

  One of the most exciting discoveries in Slovak cinema, Eduard Gre ner's Dragon's Return is an elemental ballad of love, hatred, revenge and desire. A reclusive potter, Martin Lepi - nicknamed 'Dragon' - returns to his isolated community years after being wrongly accused of a crime, punished and shunned by his village. His return immediately engenders an atmosphere of suspicion, fear, and simmering violence. Gre ner's hauntingly poetic film is also a revealing account of peasant life in a world isolated from history and the mainstream of socio-political events - beautifully realised by Vincent Rosinec s luminous monochrome cinematography, and enhanced by an award-winning score from Ilja Zeljenka. The story based on Dobroslav Chrobák s 1940s novella - was later adapted by filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet in The Man Who Lies (L homme qui ment, 1968), and Eden and After (L'éden et après, 1970). The fourth in a series of essential Slovak classic films to be released by Second Run DVD. A compelling film, surely as exciting today as it was originally Senses of Cinema A beautifully poetic piece, big on atmosphere and intense psychological reflection... Just as relevant, exciting, and far more emotionally compelling than most of what gets released today. Another truly special film from a truly special time Bonjour Tristesse It is a work of great visual culture, a slide-show of pure cinematic images. It resembles a classic tragedy yet at the same time thanks to its ideas, it is a contemporary piece R. Hassmann: Gre ner True to Chrobák It lures by its look, enchants by its music, challenges by its defense of the fates of its characters Ivan Gerlach, Gre ner s Film Ballad, ud Extras: New HD master; Booklet essay more TBC Special Features: New filmed introduction by Czechoslovak film expert Peter Hames.