"Actor: Franz"

• Weber: Hunter's Bride | DVD | (02/09/2013) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-1.59 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Hunter's Bride is a film opera based on the romantic opera Der Freisch�tz by Carl Maria von Weber. Dreams and hopes of young people are told in this exquisite fairy tale. Max and Kaspar, both hunters, fight side by side in the Napoleonic Wars, as well as each other to conquer Agathe's love. European cultural history becomes visible in an opulent historical panorama and one of the most beautiful pieces of music. The pictures of Norwegian director of photography Harald Gunnar Paalgard give a sp...

• Berg: Wozzeck | DVD | (15/11/2001) from £34.31   |  Saving you £-9.32 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The bleakness of Berg's operatic masterpiece Wozzeck is relatively easy to bring off: the plot, after all, tells of a man who is bullied, cuckolded and mocked by the society around him. What are harder to realise are the gallows humour and pitch-black comedy--and it's those qualities, along with the brilliant acting and edge-of-seat orchestral playing, that make this 1987 Vienna Staatsoper staging a stunning televisual operatic production. Everything works: the simple yet evocative sets translate effortlessly to the small screen, the pacing of the 15 short scenes is worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster and the singing is beautifully focussed. Baritone Franz Grundheber is vocally and dramatically outstanding as Wozzeck, cringing and shuffling around the stage in a bewildered hang-dog manner and yet never losing sight of the character's humanity. Hildegard Behrens (Marie) has rarely sounded better, and switches between Straussian lushness and spiky sluttishness with ease. The direction is also full of wonderful touches, such as Wozzeck squeezing the Captain's nose while he's shaving him (and making his voice sound like a kazoo), and the musicians of the on-stage band being fully integrated into the tavern scene. Ironic, emotionally rich, musically faultless--this one's got it all. On the DVD: the production works beautifully on DVD, and bar one or two moments in the second tavern scene (Act 3, Scene 3) the voices rarely move out of microphone range. There are subtitles in English, German, French and Spanish and four trailers for other Arthaus DVD operas, but no other special features. --Warwick Thomson

• The Pallbearer | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £15.77   |  Saving you £-0.78 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  David Schwimmer plays a drifting twentysomething who receives a telephone call out of the blue to be a pallbearer at the funeral of someone he supposedly knew in school. Trouble is, the caller has mistaken Schwimmer's character for someone else, but our hapless hero--who still lives with his mother at home--doesn't know how to say no. An encounter with the dead man's mother (Barbara Hershey) leads to a sexual relationship, while an old flame (Gwyneth Paltrow) from high school is suddenly on the horizon if only Schwimmer's loser character can quickly get his act together. The Pallbearer is the umpteenth variation on the Oedipal conflicts made famous in Mike Nichols's The Graduate, but it doesn't have the imagination, vitality, or authority to take classic themes about growing up all the way to the finish line. But in its brooding, comic way, The Pallbearer is honest about the difficulties of crossing the line into adulthood when one doesn't know how. --Tom Keogh

• The Fall Of The Romanoff Dynasty | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  No revolution has been portrayed on screen more vividly than St Petersburg (Petrograd) in October 1917, and if what we see in Soviet films of the 1920s is not exactly the truth as it happened, The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty confirms that even fact can be reinterpreted. Esfir Shub’s 1927 documentary uses a wealth of archive footage--beginning with Romanov tercentennial celebrations in 1913, and ending with the Bolshevik takeover four years on. Here truth really is fashioned into myth: it’s good to have Oleg Donskikh's introduction and continuous commentary as to what actually happened, pointing out economies with the actualité on a scene-by-scene basis. The musical score consists of a medley of Russian favourites, pounded out on an electric piano, making for a rather limited, though not inappropriate, soundtrack. On the DVD: the additional documentary essay is a useful overview, worth consulting beforehand; the on-screen Romanov photo collection reproduces well and is a valuable bonus. The documentary has been digitally remastered, the 4:3 aspect ratio having excellent clarity. Stylishly packaged, this is a period piece of considerable historical and cultural importance. --Richard Whitehouse

• Sands of Iwo Jima | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £9.43   |  Saving you £6.56 (69.57%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Alone and outnumbered they had one thing in their favor... the American dream. Blazing action and spectacle are on the menu as battle-toughened sergeant John M Stryker (John Wayne) prepares a group of soldiers for action in the Pacific. The men have got their biggest test ahead on Iwo Jima where they have to inch their way up Mt. Suribachi under constant Japanese fire.

• Berg: Lulu - Zurich/Welser-Most | DVD | (05/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A performance of the Alban Berg opera in two acts plus excerpts from the Lulu Symphony music for the third act which was never completed. Franz Welser-Most conducts.

• Elektra | DVD | (05/04/2000) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

• Christmas With The Kranks | UMD | (14/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Slapstick humor gets a full-body workout in Christmas with the Kranks. Critics were unanimous in their derision, and John Grisham must have gnashed his teeth over what studio-boss-turned-director Joe Roth did to his bestselling novel Skipping Christmas, to which this broad-stroked comedy bears little or no resemblance. The title characters are played by Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis, who decide to skip Christmas because their daughter's in Peru with the Peace Corps. Thus begins a rabid program of enforced conformity when their neighbors (led by Dan Aykroyd) coerce the Kranks into changing their holiday attitude--a change that comes easily when the daughter announces she'll be home for Christmas after all. Imagine if a suburban lynch mob said "Have a Merry Christmas or we'll kill you," and you'll get some idea of what spending Christmas with the Kranks is really like. And if you laughed at the frozen cat, you're probably on Santa's "naughty" list. --Jeff Shannon

• Mozart: Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail (C Major: 709204) | Blu Ray | (31/01/2012) from £21.70   |  Saving you £8.29 (38.20%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Ratto Dal Serraglio (Il) / Die Entfuhrung Aus Dem Serail

• Cosi Fan Tutte | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £12.65   |  Saving you £2.34 (15.60%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Opera in two acts from the Glyndebourne Festival Opera 1975. Sung in Italian.

• Hunter's Bride | Blu Ray | (04/09/2013) from £20.10   |  Saving you £2.88 (16.83%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Hunter's Bride is a film opera based on the romantic opera Der Freisch�tz by Carl Maria von Weber. Dreams and hopes of young people are told in this exquisite fairy tale. Max and Kaspar, both hunters, fight side by side in the Napoleonic Wars, as well as each other to conquer Agathe's love. European cultural history becomes visible in an opulent historical panorama and one of the most beautiful pieces of music. The pictures of Norwegian director of photography Harald Gunnar Paalgard give a sp...

• Strauss: Die Fledermaus -- Bavarian State Opera | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

• Wagner: Gotterdammerung (Gotterdammerung Staged By La Fura Dels Baus) | Blu Ray | (18/01/2010) from £25.65   |  Saving you £4.34 (16.92%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Crepuscolo Degli Dei (Il) / Gotterdammerung

• Wagner: Siegfried (Siegfried Staged By La Fura Dels Baus) | Blu Ray | (18/01/2010) from £25.64   |  Saving you £5.61 (23.01%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Sigfrido / Siegfried

• DER SALZBARON-DER KOMPLET - MO | DVD | (26/07/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Wagner: Gotterdammerung | DVD | (15/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Gotterammerung is the 'third day' of Wagner's great tetra logy of music dramas Der Ring Des Nibelhngen.

• Edge of Tomorrow Ultimate Collector's Edition | Blu Ray | (28/11/2022) from £16.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Limited to 800 unitsAn alien race, undefeated by any existing military unit, has launched a relentless attack on Earth, and Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) finds himself dropped into a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage is thrown into a time loop, forced to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again and again. Training alongside warrior Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), his skills slowly evolve, and each battle moves them one step closer to defeating the enemy in this intense action thriller.Bonus FeaturesStorming the Beach: Dive into the trenches for a gritty look at creating the film's epic sci-fi battle.Weapons of the Future: Watch Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt tackles the challenges of strapping on exo-suits to become super soliders.One the Edge with Doug Liman: Follow the passion-fuelled director as he confronts the pressures of making a futuristic war film look real.Deleted Scenes and more!

• Sands Of Iwo Jima | DVD | (19/08/2002) from £22.96   |  Saving you £-9.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Blazing action and spectacle are on the menu as battle-toughened sergeant John M Stryker (John Wayne) prepares a group of soldiers for action in the Pacific. His training methods are harsh and the men dislike him especially new recruit Peter Conway (John Agar).Slowly however this dislike turns to respect especially when Stryker saves Conway's life. But the men have got their biggest test ahead on Iwo Jima where they have to inch their way up Mt. Suribachi under constant Japanese fire.One of John Wayne's finest performances it earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Terrifying battle sequences and an excellent cast also earned three further Oscar nominations for Best Screenplay Best Editing and Best Sound Recording.

• Tannhauser - Wagner | DVD | (17/01/2005) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-8.29 (-51.80%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This newest release in the EMI Classics Opera on DVD series is a stunning production of Wagner's masterpiece Tannhauser from the Zurich Opera conducted by Franz Welser-Most featuring Peter Sieffert as Tannhauser Solveig Kringelborn as Elisabeth and Thomas Hampson as Von Eschenbach. Initially produced in Dresden in 1845 Tannhauser provoked by a few ardent friends and admirers among them Schumann and Liszt. The history of the Zurich Opera is rich in cultural highlights: in 1913 Wag

• Puccini - La Boheme (Welser-Moest, Zurich Opera House Orch.) | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Puccini based his opera La bohme on the autobiographical novel ""Scnes de la vie de Bohme"" by Henri Murger. The novel reminded him of his own bohemian existence as an impoverished student at the conservatory in Milan. During the composition process Puccini learned that Ruggero Leoncavallo was also working on turning the novel into an opera and writing his own libretto for it. The two composers swiftly became rivals but Puccini managed to finish his opera first which premiered over a year before Leoncavallo's version. The way in which Puccini managed to combine comedy and tragedy in this opera is superb and Franz Welser-Mst's conducting aims to really bring out the libretto. The Belgian director of this production Philippe Sireuil was heavily inspired by Aki Kaurismki's film version of Henri Murger's novel ""Scnes de la vie de Bohme"". Kaurismki's great melancholic sensitive and totally unpretentious cinematic impressions led Sireuil to picture the state of a ""carefree poverty"" in which the bohemian students live on the edge of society. Stage designer Vincent Lamaire has been working closely with Sireuil for years and the key aspect in the set design for both of them was to place the characters in completely realistic surroundings. Furniture and props are only used very sparingly.