"Actor: Gustav"

• Nosferatu | Blu Ray | (18/11/2013) from £12.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (53.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An iconic film of the German expressionist cinema and one of the most famous of all silent movies F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror continues to haunt - and indeed terrify - modern audiences with the unshakable power of its images. By teasing a host of occult atmospherics out of dilapidated set-pieces and innocuous real-world locations alike Murnau captured on celluloid the deeply-rooted elements of a waking nightmare and launched the signature Murnau-style that would change cinema history forever. In this first-ever screen adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula a simple real-estate transaction leads an intrepid businessman deep into the superstitious heart of Transylvania. There he encounters the otherworldly Count Orlok - portrayed by the legendary Max Schreck in a performance the very backstory of which has spawned its own mythology - who soon after embarks upon a cross-continental voyage to take up residence in a distant new land... and establish his ambiguous dominion. As to whether the count's campaign against the plague-wracked populace erupts from satanic decree erotic compulsion or the simple impulse of survival - that remains perhaps the greatest mystery of all in this film that's like a blackout... Remade by Werner Herzog in 1979 (and inspiring films as diverse as Abel Ferrara's King of New York and The Addiction and E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire) F. W. Murnau's surreal 1922 cine-fable remains the original and landmark entry in the entire global tradition of the horror film. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present newly restored on 1080p Blu-ray at long last Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror in its definitive restoration complete with original intertitles and accompanied by the score that played with the film at the time of its initial release. Special Features: Brand new high-definition restoration by Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung Two audio commentaries: one newly recorded by film historian David Kalat; the second by historian R. Dixon Smith and critic Brad Stevens The Language of Shadows a 53-minute documentary on Murnau's early years and the filming of Nosferatu New video interview with BFI Film Classics Nosferatu author Kevin Jackson Newly translated English subtitles with original German intertitles More surprises to be revealed closer to release date! PLUS: a 56-page booklet featuring writings and rare imagery

• The Northman | Blu Ray | (18/07/2022) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From visionary director Robert Eggers comes The Northman, an action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father's murder. With an all-star cast that includes Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Björk, and Willem Dafoe.

• Close | Blu Ray | (29/05/2023) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Winner of the Grand Prix award at Cannes 2022 and selected as the Belgian entry for the 2023 Academy Awards, CLOSE is an elegant, poetic and empathetic study of youth from acclaimed writer-director Lukas Dhont. Thirteen-year-olds Léo and Rémi are inseparable; they spend every waking moment together, racing each other on their bikes, playing in the fields that surround their homes, and sleeping at each other's houses. They are best friends, as close as brothers. However, as they start a new school year, the pressures of burgeoning adolescence challenge their bond with unexpected and far-reaching consequences. With incredibly authentic and emotional performances from newcomers Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele, Dhont's latest film is as evocative as it is visually stunning, set against the rich landscape of the Belgian countryside. A powerful coming of age story, this profoundly moving portrait of male friendship offers a depiction of intimacy and masculinity that is sure to have an enduring impact. Product Features Q&A with Lukas Dhont & Angelo Tijssen

• The Northman | DVD | (18/07/2022) from £8.85   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From visionary director Robert Eggers comes The Northman, an action-filled epic that follows a young Viking prince on his quest to avenge his father's murder. With an all-star cast that includes Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke, Björk, and Willem Dafoe.

• Metropolis | Blu Ray | (22/11/2010) from £15.79   |  Saving you £3.20 (20.27%)   |  RRP £18.99

  With its dizzying depiction of a futuristic cityscape and alluring female robot Metropolis is among the most famous of all German films and the mother of sci-fi cinema (an influence on Blade Runner and Star Wars among countless other films). Directed by the legendary Fritz Lang (M Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse The Big Heat etc.) its jaw-dropping production values iconic imagery and modernist grandeur - it was described by Luis Bu'uel as a captivating symphony of movement - remain as powerful as ever. Drawing on - and defining - classic sci-fi themes Metropolis depicts a dystopian future in which society is thoroughly divided in two: while anonymous workers conduct their endless drudgery below ground their rulers enjoy a decadent life of leisure and luxury. When Freder (Gustav Fr''hlich) ventures into the depths in search of the beautiful Maria (Brigitte Helm in her debut role) plans of rebellion are revealed and a Mariareplica robot is programmed by mad inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) and master of Metropolis Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel) to incite the workers into a self-destructive riot. A Holy Grail among film finds Metropolis is presented here in a newly reconstructed and restored version as lavish and spectacular as ever thanks to the painstaking archival work of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and the discovery of 25 minutes of footage previously thought lost to the world. Lang's enduring epic can finally be seen - for the first time in 83 years - as the director originally intended and as seen by German cinema-goers in 1927.

• Metropolis | DVD | (22/11/2010) from £13.28   |  Saving you £11.70 (103.63%)   |  RRP £22.99

  With its dizzying depiction of a futuristic cityscape and alluring female robot Metropolis is among the most famous of all German films and the mother of sci-fi cinema (an influence on Blade Runner and Star Wars among countless other films). Directed by the legendary Fritz Lang (M Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse The Big Heat etc.) its jaw-dropping production values iconic imagery and modernist grandeur - it was described by Luis Bu'uel as a captivating symphony of movement - remain as powerful as ever. Drawing on - and defining - classic sci-fi themes Metropolis depicts a dystopian future in which society is thoroughly divided in two: while anonymous workers conduct their endless drudgery below ground their rulers enjoy a decadent life of leisure and luxury. When Freder (Gustav Fr''hlich) ventures into the depths in search of the beautiful Maria (Brigitte Helm in her debut role) plans of rebellion are revealed and a Mariareplica robot is programmed by mad inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) and master of Metropolis Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel) to incite the workers into a self-destructive riot. A Holy Grail among film finds Metropolis is presented here in a newly reconstructed and restored version as lavish and spectacular as ever thanks to the painstaking archival work of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and the discovery of 25 minutes of footage previously thought lost to the world. Lang's enduring epic can finally be seen - for the first time in 83 years - as the director originally intended and as seen by German cinema-goers in 1927.

• Metropolis | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Fritz Lang's Expressionistic masterwork continues to exert its influence today, from Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) to Dr Strangelove (1963), and into the late 1990s with Dark City (1998). In the stratified society of the future (Y2K no less), the son of a capitalist discovers the atrocious conditions of the factory slaves, falling in love with the charismatic Maria in the bargain, who preaches nonviolence to the workers. But even the benevolent leadership of Maria is a challenge to the privileged class, so they have the mad-scientist Rotwang concoct a robot double to take her place and incite the workers to riot. The story is melodrama, but it's the powerful imagery that is so memorable. One of the most arresting images has legions of cowed workers filing listlessly into the great maw of the all-consuming machine-god Moloch. Unfortunately, the print used for this DVD is unfocused, scratchy, and five minutes short, altogether unworthy of a visionary masterpiece. It may be too much to hope for the complete film to be restored (only two hours of the original three-hour film are extant), but a clean transfer from a fine-grain negative ought to be possible. And why, when there are other possible future Metropolises to be had, should we downtrodden masses accept this junk? --Jim Gay

• WESTFRONT 1918 & KAMERADSCHAFT (Two films by G.W Pabst) | Blu Ray | (24/07/2017) from £11.29   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Georg Wilhelm Pabst (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl) made a flawless transition from silent to sound filmmaking with, Westfront 1918 and Kameradschaft, a pair of strongly anti-war titles (Pabst himself was a prisoner of war for the duration of WWI) that combined elements of Expressionism and New Objectivity to stunning effect. In Westfront 1918, four infantrymen on the Western Front suffer the everyday hardships and insanity of trench warfare, and in Kameradschaft, a team of German miners risk their lives to rescue a team of French miners left trapped after an underground explosion. Sharing many thematic elements, as well as key cast and crew (most notably cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner, M, Nosferatu, Der müde Tod), Westfront 1918 and Kameradschaft represents a master director at the height of his powers, and The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present both these titles for the first time ever on Blu-ray in a special Dual Format edition. DUAL FORMAT EDITION FEATURES: Limited Edition O-card [First 2000 copies] Both films presented on Blu-ray in stunning 1080p Uncompressed PCM soundtrack for both titles (on the Blu-ray) Optional English subtitles Westfront 1918, an introduction by film scholar and author Jan-Christopher Horak Kameradschaft, an introduction by film scholar and author Jan-Christopher Horak PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by Philip Kemp, alongside rare archival imagery

• Jordskott II | DVD | (08/01/2018) from £18.99   |  Saving you £4.83 (25.43%)   |  RRP £23.82

  Jordskott 2: Following the huge success of its first season in the UK and across the world, critically acclaimed drama Jordskott returns for a brand new series. To escape her dark memories, police investigator Eva Thörnblad, still haunted by the sorrow of losing her daughter, has left the small town of Silverhöjd and moved to a sterile Stockholm apartment. She is totally absorbed in her job, dedicated to stopping the growing trafficking. But she faces an inner struggle, torn between using the enhanced powers the jordskott gives her, which she will forever carry within herself, and facing the inevitable reminder of the devastation it caused.

• Close | DVD | (29/05/2023) from £8.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• My Life As A Dog | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £14.46   |  Saving you £5.53 (38.24%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Simultaneously elegiac and raw, My Life as a Dog is an uneven--but unforgettable--tearjerker which tells the story of Ingemar, a 12-year-old working-class Swedish boy sent to live with his childless aunt and uncle in a country village when his mother falls ill. Beginning with several representations of the most savage, unsentimental domestic intensity imaginable (interplay between a sick parent and loving child has never looked anywhere near as explosive), My Life as a Dog wisely doesn't attempt to maintain that level of danger; rather, the change in locale to rural Sweden is accompanied by a slackening of pace and a whimsical breeziness. Nevertheless, the tragic condition of Ingemar's mother (and later, the indeterminate fate of Sickan, his beloved dog, consigned to a kennel) hovers over the narrative with a gripping portentousness. At times, director Lasse Hallström misplaces the rhythm, and the film threatens to degenerate into a series of rustic vignettes; luckily, Ingemar's relationship with Gunnar, the jocular yet somewhat sinister uncle who essentially adopts him, carries a fascinating charge. This was later rewritten, whether intentionally or not, by Spike Lee, who changed the gender of the child, set the story in New York City, added a 1970s soul soundtrack, and called it Crooklyn. Swedish, with subtitles --Miles Bethany, Amazon.com

• Drifter | DVD | (29/04/2024) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Three Films by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet | DVD | (22/02/2010) from £7.39   |  Saving you £12.60 (63.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), German ( Mono ), Italian ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: 2-DVD Set, Black & White, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: ***ATTENTION***The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach - German audio & English subtitles***Sicily! - Italian audio & English subtitles***A visit to the Louvre - French audio & English subtitles*** Chronicle Of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968): This film, which covers the years of Bach's life from his marriage to Anna Magdalena to his death in 1748, is at once a love story, a documentary, a socio-political statement, and a film of the music of Bach. Sicilia! (1999): Based on Elio Vittorini's seminal 1938-1939 anti-fascist novel Conversations in Sicily, banned by the Fascists in 1942, Sicilia! is a four part film which follows Silvestro, an emigrant who is returning home after fifteen years spent in America. His conversations, with his mother, on the train, or on the price of oranges, as well as the recurrent shot of arid landscape outside the train window, supply some of the most intense and memorable moments in contemporary cinema. Un Visite Au Louvre (2004): As the camera shows us some of the masterpieces held in the Louvre, Julie Kotaï speaks the comments made about the paintings by Cézanne which were put into writing by the poet Joachim Gasquet. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Berlin International Film Festival, ...Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub - 3 Film Collection - 2-DVD Set ( Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach / Sicilia! / Une visite au Louvre ) ( The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach / Sicily! / A visit to the Louvre )

• April 9th | DVD | (12/10/2015) from £9.64   |  Saving you £8.35 (86.62%)   |  RRP £17.99

  In the early morning of April 9th, 1940, the Danish army is alerted. The Germans have crossed the border; Denmark is at war against Europe's strongest army. At the Southern border, the Danish homeguard are ordered out to hold back the forces until the Danish reinforcements can be mobilized. In the fatal hours, we follow second lieutenant Sand (Pilou Asbæk- Lucy, A Hijacking) and his small and inexperienced band as the first Danish soldiers meet the enemy in combat on that fateful day… April 9th, 1940.

• Lethal Weapon | Blu Ray | (20/11/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is no ordinary cop. He's a Mad Max gone maniacal a man whose killing expertise and suicidal recklessness make him a Lethal Weapon to anyone he works against. Or with. Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is an easygoing homicide detective with a loving family a big house and a pension he doesn't want to lose. Imagine Murtaugh's shock when he learns his partner is a guy with nothing left to lose; wild-eyed burnt-out Martin Riggs. Lethal Weapon is the trill-packed story of two Vietnam-vets-turned-cops who have just one other thing in common; both hate to work with partners. But their partnership becomes the key to survival when a routine murder investigation leads to all-out take-no-prisoners martial-arts-and-machine-guns war with an international heroin ring. Director Richard Donner moves that war at two speeds: fast and faster. Hot LA days and nights explode in one show-topping scene after an other culminating in a no-holds-barred battle between Riggs and his Angel-of-Death nemesis (Gary Busey) - an electrifying sequence incorporating three martial-art-styles and requiring four full nights to film. Fierce fast and frequently funny Lethal Weapon fires off round after round of can't miss entertainment.

• Das Testament Des Dr Mabuse | Blu Ray | (24/09/2012) from £12.85   |  Saving you £7.14 (55.56%)   |  RRP £19.99

  With the etching onto glass of a single word - MABUSE - Berlin reawakens into a nightmare. Fritz Lang's electrifying Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse) is the astonishing second instalment in the German master's legendary Mabuse series, a film that puts image and sound into an hypnotic arrangement unlike anything seen or heard in the cinema before - or since.It's been eleven years since the downfall of arch-criminal and master-of-disguise Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), now sequestered in an asylum under the watchful eye of one Professor Baum (Oskar Beregi). Mabuse exists in a state of catatonic graphomania, his only action the irrepressible scribbling of blueprints that would realise a seemingly theoretical Empire of Crime. But when a series of violent events courses through the city, police and populace alike start asking themselves with increasing panic: Who is behind all this?! The answer borders on the realm of the impossible...

• The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set | DVD | (19/10/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  THE COMPLETE FRITZ LANG MABUSE BOX SET - From the early stages of his career across five decades to his final film Fritz Lang built a trilogy of paranoiac thrillers focused on an entity who began as a criminal mastermind and progressed into something more amorphous: fear itself embodied only by a name - Dr. Mabuse. For the first time on home video all three of Fritz Lang's Mabuse films have been collected for one package in their complete and restored forms. 1: Dr. Mabuse der Spieler. [Dr. Mabuse the Gambler.] (1922) - Lang's two-part nearly 5-hour silent epic detailing the rise and fall of Dr. Mabuse in Weimar-era Berlin. 2: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [The Testament of Dr. Mabuse] (1933) - a tour-de-force thriller rife with supernatural elements all converging around an attempt by the now-institutionalised Mabuse (or someone acting under his name... and possibly his will) to organise an Empire of Crime. 3: Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse [The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse] (1960) - Fritz Lang's final film in which hypnosis clairvoyance surveillance and machine-guns come together for a whiplash climax that answers the question: Who's channelling Mabuse's methods in the Cold War era? The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Fritz Lang's complete Mabuse trilogy - a cornerstone in the work of one of cinema's all-time greatest directors. The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set is released on 19 October 2009

• Nosferatu (2013 Restoration) | DVD | (18/11/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An iconic film of the German expressionist cinema and one of the most famous of all silent movies F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror continues to haunt - and indeed terrify - modern audiences with the unshakable power of its images. By teasing a host of occult atmospherics out of dilapidated set-pieces and innocuous real-world locations alike Murnau captured on celluloid the deeply-rooted elements of a waking nightmare and launched the signature Murnau-style that would change cinema history forever. In this first-ever screen adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula a simple real-estate transaction leads an intrepid businessman deep into the superstitious heart of Transylvania. There he encounters the otherworldly Count Orlok - portrayed by the legendary Max Schreck in a performance the very backstory of which has spawned its own mythology - who soon after embarks upon a cross-continental voyage to take up residence in a distant new land... and establish his ambiguous dominion. As to whether the count's campaign against the plague-wracked populace erupts from satanic decree erotic compulsion or the simple impulse of survival - that remains perhaps the greatest mystery of all in this film that's like a blackout... Remade by Werner Herzog in 1979 (and inspiring films as diverse as Abel Ferrara's King of New York and The Addiction and E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire) F. W. Murnau's surreal 1922 cine-fable remains the original and landmark entry in the entire global tradition of the horror film. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present newly restored on 1080p Blu-ray at long last Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror in its definitive restoration complete with original intertitles and accompanied by the score that played with the film at the time of its initial release. Special Features: Two audio commentaries: one newly recorded by film historian David Kalat; the second by historian R. Dixon Smith and critic Brad Stevens The Language of Shadows a 53-minute documentary on Murnau's early years and the filming of Nosferatu New video interview with BFI Film Classics Nosferatu author Kevin Jackson Newly translated English subtitles with original German intertitles More surprises to be revealed closer to release date! PLUS: a 56-page booklet featuring writings and rare imagery

• Pandora's Box | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £17.68   |  Saving you £2.31 (13.07%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Made at the very end of the silent era, Pandora's Box is one of the last flowerings of German cinema's greatest decade. It also marked the highpoint of two careers: Austrian director GW Pabst and American actress Louise Brooks. A merge of two linked plays by the decadent German playwright Frank Wedekind, it's the story of Lulu, the archetypal femme fatale (the same plays served as source for Alban Berg's masterly 1935 opera). At once sensual and innocent, a force of uninhibited sexuality, Lulu brings ruin on all her lovers both male and female, and ultimately upon herself. Hollywood never knew what to do with Brooks who, with her fierce intelligence and her open delight in sex, refused to play the coy flappers then in fashion. In Pabst, whose genius, she wrote, "lay in getting to the heart of a person", she found the director she needed, and he brought out her a screen persona with a depth of eroticism that's still breathtaking to see. The film features some of the finest German acting talent of the period--Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer--but it's Brooks' luminous performance that rivets the eye and makes her a great screen icon. Though the action is nominally set in the late-19th century--Lulu ends up in a shadowy London where she encounters Jack the Ripper--Pandora's Box breathes the gamey air of the Weimar Republic, vividly captured by Günther Krampf's pungent photography. This release runs well over two hours and includes, for the first time in decades, over 30 minutes of cut footage, restoring the film to something very close to Pabst's original masterpiece. On the DVD: Pandora's Box on DVD is a clean, crisp transfer in the classic 4:3 ratio, and the mono soundtrack brings out all the detail of Peer Rubens' Kurt Weill-inflected score, stylishly performed by the Kontraste Ensemble. Dialogue intertitles can be read in either English or German. We also get an outstanding 60-minute documentary, Looking for Lulu, about Brooks' life and career: warmly narrated by Shirley MacLaine, it features excerpts from an interview with Brooks from 1976. --Philip Kemp

• Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) -- Stuttgart | DVD | (06/03/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £4.99 (24.95%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The point of a good production of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia is to have a Rosina and a Figaro who will knock your socks off in their respective arias, while holding back enough in all those crescendo ensembles in which the farce plot reaches its several culminations that the other stars get a chance to shine too. Cecilia Bartoli and Gino Quilico give full-blooded enough performances when on stage by themselves that self-effacement seems far from imminent, yet both are capable of less, and give it when it is needed. Of the others, David Kuebler is an attractively raffish Almaviva, while Robert Lloyd turns Basilio into a memorable cameo. Gabriele Ferro is one of the most intelligent of Rossini conductors--he understands the relationship between the pulse of the music and its dramatic function, and he is also outstanding in the delicacy of phrasing, even in climaxes, that ensures that every voice, every instrument, gets the moment of glory Rossini intended. Michael Hampe's solid reliable unfussy production keeps everything moving without drawing attention to itself. The DVD has subtitles in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, as well as trailers for other Arthaus Musik discs. --Roz Kaveney