At eighteen the mother of four children and busy housewife Loretta Lynn (Sissy Spacek) still finds time to write and sing songs at small fairs and local honky-tonks. Recognizing her raw talent and huge potential her ambitious husband Mooney (Tommy Lee Jones) prods her into making a record and going to Nashville. After a performance at the Grand Ole Opry the record becomes a smash hit launching her career to super stardom and changing the sound and style of Country Music forever.
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.
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.
Ranch hand Pete Perkins vows to keep his promise and bury a friend in his hometown in Mexico.
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
All three series of the comedy about an out-of-work musician who forges an unlikely alliance with his nephew. Series 1: Andy is a dissolute out of work musician who forges an unlikely alliance with his neurotic 12 year old nephew Errol after being emotionally blackmailed into looking after him by his chaotic sister Sam all on the day Andy was planning to kill himself. Not a natural with kids or responsibility, he tries to keep his new charge out of trouble while knee deep in it himself. Series 2: TIME TO GROW UP? Our latest series picks up a year after we left off. Andy's no longer gigging or writing songs and has resigned himself to a dead-end job. Sam is unaware Andy and Errol are sneaking around, spending time together, while Andy still has a restraining order against him. Can Errol pluck up the courage to ask his father Ben to lift it? And can Andy get out of his creative rut and forgive himself for old mistakes so he's free to make new ones? Series Two also explores Andy, Sam and Errol's love lives in more depth. And Keith Allen guest stars as Andy's estranged uncle, Frank. Series 3: The return of the brilliant and funny series about the comic misadventures and growing pains of irresponsible musician Andy and his neurotic nephew Errol.
Aviation designer Jack Hopkins is notably absent from his creation's latest test flight. He is, in fact, many miles away indulging his greatest passion: an old showman's traction engine called The Iron Maiden! Jack has his heart set on entering the prestigious Annual Steam Rally at Woburn Abbey, but hadn't reckoned on some fierce and devious opposition!Michael Craig is the engineering genius whose hobby spells trouble for boss Cecil Parker, with Alan Hale Jr. as the tycoon who eventually comes to share his passion in this stellar comedy from Carry On's Gerald Thomas. The Iron Maiden is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio.SPECIAL FEATURES:UK and foreign trailer materialAlternative US titles (mute)Image galleryPromotional material PDFs
An epic of the Weimar cinema, The Love of Jeanne Ney follows a young French woman's struggle for happiness amid the political turbulence and corruption of post-World War I Europe. A tour de force for director G. W. Pabst (Diary of a Lost Girl, Pandora's Box), the film blends a variety of cinematic approaches as it weaves its complex narrative of moral chaos and political upheaval: the American Style, evocative of the Hollywood studio blockbuster; the avant-garde techniques of Soviet montage; as well as the eerie moving camerawork and shadowy perspectives typical of German Expressionism. The result is a stunning cinematic experiment that never fails to surprise the viewer as it races towards its exhilarating conclusion. Available for the first time in the UK, the Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Love of Jeanne Ney on Blu-ray. Bonus Features 1080p presentation on Blu-ray, fully restored with a score by Bernd Thewes Optional English subtitles Alternate US release version with music by Andrew Earle Simpson Too Romantic, Too Ghastly Brand New video essay by David Cairns and Fiona Watson PLUS: A collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Philip Kemp *All extras subject to change
Comedian Nick Helm presents a helter-skelter ride of songs, sketches, jokes, poetry, fireworks, stunts, special guests, dance, and whatever else he can muster Star of BBC Three hit comedy series Uncle, Best Breakthrough Artist at 2014 Comedy Awards and regular guest on 8 Out of 10 Cats, Nick Helm - presents a fast-paced variety show with stand up, sketches, audience interaction, songs, poetry, jokes, and everything else he can muster. Each episode, comedian and musician Helm and his band explore heavy issues and set the world to rights, putting aside his personal struggles to entertain the nation.
Here's a film that only a Steven Seagal fan could love. Fire Down Below not nearly as good as Under Siege (the movie destined to remain Seagal's high-water mark), but not any worse than Above the Law. This time ol' Steve is an agent of the Environmental Protection Agency who's busting heads in Kentucky. He's on good terms with the local yokels (including Marg Helgenberger and Harry Dean Stanton), but locks horns with a slimy mogul (Kris Kristofferson) who's using abandoned mines to dump toxic waste. Along with an ecological message, Seagal serves up several broken limbs, cracked skulls, and bloody noses, and he even finds time to do some guitar picking with country boys such as Travis Tritt and Randy Travis. Once you've heard Seagal crooning a country tune, you'll be eager to see him go back to whuppin' the bad guys. --Jeff Shannon
Pop Kwimper (Arthur O'Connell) son Toby (Elvis Presley) and their ragtag clan od adopted orphans wind up marooned on the side of the road in Florida so they make up a makeshift home on the beach.Soon uptight local bureaucrat H Arthur King (Alan Hewitt) orders them off the land but the State government doesn't back him up. An enraged King then sets out to get his way using manipulative social worker Alisha Claypoole (Joanne Moore) as part of his scheme to evict the Kwimpels.
Opera in two acts - Libretto/Livret: Joseph von Sonnleithner with revision by Stephan von Breuning and George Friedrich Treitschke after Jean-Nicolas Bouilly's Leonore, ou L'amour conjugal.Leonard Bernstein's acclaimed 1978 performance of Beethoven's only opera have gone down in the annals as a landmark in Vienna State Opera history - brilliantly staged by the great Viennese producer Otto Schenk and featuring some of the most remarkable singers of the time.
If you think you know Fritz Lang's Metropolis backwards, this special edition will come as a revelation. Shortly after its premiere, the expensive epic--originally well over two hours--was pulled from distribution and re-edited against Lang's wishes, and this truncated, simplified form is what we have known ever since 1926. Though not quite as fully restored as the strapline claims, this 118-minute version is the closest we are likely to get to Lang's original vision, complete with tactful linking titles to fill in the scenes that are irretrievably missing. Not only does this version add many scenes unseen for decades, but it restores their order in the original version. Until now, Metropolis has usually been rated as a spectacular but simplistic science fiction film, but this version reveals that the futuristic setting is not so much prophetic as mythical, with elements of 1920s architecture, industry, design and politics mingled with the mediaeval and the Biblical to produce images of striking strangeness: a futuristic robot burned at the stake, a steel-handed mad scientist who is also a 15th Century alchemist, the trudging workers of a vast factory plodding into the jaws of a machine that is also the ancient God Moloch. Gustav Frohlich's performance as the hero who represents the heart is still wildly overdone, but Rudolf Klein-Rogge's engineer Rotwang, Alfred Abel's Master of Metropolis and, especially, Brigitte Helm in the dual role of saintly saviour and metal femme fatale are astonishing. By restoring a great deal of story delving into the mixed motivations of the characters, the wild plot now makes more sense, and we can see that it is as much a twisted family drama as epic of repression, revolution and reconciliation. A masterpiece, and an essential purchase. On the DVD: Metropolis has been saddled with all manner of scores over the years, ranging from jazz through electronica to prog-rock, but here it is sensibly accompanied by the orchestral music Gottfried Huppertz wrote for it in the first place. An enormous amount of work has been done with damaged or incomplete elements to spruce the image up digitally, and so even the scenes that were in the film all along shine with a wealth of new detail and afford a far greater appreciation for the brilliance of art direction, special effects and Helm's clockwork sexbomb. A commentary written but not delivered by historian Ennio Patalas covers the symbolism of the film and annotates its images, but the production information is left to a measured but unchallenging 45-minute documentary on the second disc (little is made of the astounding parallel between the screen story in which Klein-Rogge's character tries to destroy the city because the Master stole his wife and the fact that Lang married the actor's wife Thea von Harbou, authoress of the Metropolis novel and screenplay!). There are galleries of production photographs and sketches; biographies of all the principals; and an illustrated lecture on the restoration process which uses before and after clips to reveal just how huge a task has been accomplished in this important work. --Kim Newman
Mavis! is the first documentary on gospel/soul music legend and civil rights icon Mavis Staples and her family group, The Staple Singers. From the freedom songs of the 60s and hits like I'll Take You There in the 70s, to funked-up collaborations with Prince and her recent albums with Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Mavis has stayed true to her roots, kept her family close, and inspired millions along the way. Featuring powerful live performances, rare archival footage, and conversations with friends and contemporaries including Bob Dylan, Prince, Bonnie Raitt, Levon Helm, Jeff Tweedy, Chuck D, and more, Mavis! reveals the struggles, successes, and intimate stories of her journey. At 75, she's making the most vital music of her career, winning Grammy awards, and reaching a new generation of fans. Her message of love and equality is needed now more than ever. Click Images to Enlarge
When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico, are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. Many years prior to this incident, a group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) advocated for the construction of a secure laboratory facility that would serve as a base in the event an alien biological life form was returned to Earth from a space mission. Stone and his team - Drs. Dutton, Leavitt and Hall (David Wayne, Kate Reid, and (James Olson, respectively)- go to the facility, known as Wildfire, and try to first isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont (an old wino and a six-month-old baby) survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device should it manage to escape.
When the Kwimper family car runs out of gas on a new Florida highway and an officous state supervisor tries to run them off Pop Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little homesteading. He and his son Toby and their adopted children - Holly Ariadne and the twins - start their own little community along a strip of the roadside. The fishing is good and the living is easy until the mob sets up a gambling operation and the state supervisor sets a sexy social worker on the Kwimpers in an effort to take away Ariadne and the twins.
1956 was Elvis Presley's breakthrough year and this program takes you back including his early television performances on the Dorsey Brothers Show and the Ed Sullivan Show (where the cameramen were instructed not to shoot the lower half of his body!) and an entire hour of rare footage and performances captured during the amazing year when Elvis Presley became not only a star but a phenomenon. So slip on your blue suede shoes and step back to the beginning of an era with rare ea
Werewolf Of London: The first Hollywood film to explore a werewolf on the silver screen a creature rooted in folklore worldwide. Directed by American Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull Warner Oland and Valerie Hobson. Werewolf of London chronicles the life of botanist Dr Wilfred Glendon who sets off on an expedition to the Himalayas to find the marifisa lupina lumina a rare orchid that only blooms by moonlight. When he finds the unique plant he is attacked and injured b
Massenet: Manon (Fischer Wiener Staatsoper Gruberova)
In the era when one could still but only dream of a comprehensive restoration of Fritz Lang's silent sci-fi epic Metropolis, esteemed pop artist/producer and pioneering electronic composer Giorgio Moroder followed his work on Brian De Palma's cult-classic Al Pacino vehicle Scarface by assembling his own version of Lang's 1920s classic. The result was a zeitgeist-infused, high-kitsch/high-art amalgam of some of the quintessential cinema images and then-contemporary 1980s pop-chart melodrama. For millions around the world, it is this version of Metropolis – featuring music by Moroder himself and artistes such as Adam Ant, Pat Benatar, Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, and Jon Anderson – which first comes to mind whenever mention is made of the Lang original or, indeed, the iconic imagery and power of silent cinema.
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