"Actor: Jarl Kulle"

• Smiles Of A Summer Night | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £10.16   |  Saving you £9.83 (96.75%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The film which established its Swedish writer/director on the stage of world cinema, 1956's Smiles of a Summer Night is what some people would consider a contradiction in terms--an Ingmar Bergman comedy. Set in the 19th century, Smiles features Bergman stalwart Gunner Bjornstrand as Fredrik, a lawyer yet to consummate his marriage to his young wife Anne. He has hankerings after a former mistress, the voluptuous actress Desiree, who is now mistress to the bellicose Count Malcolm, whose own wife attempts to seduce Fredrik in order to make Malcolm jealous. Fredrik's wife, meanwhile, hankers after her own stepson, an austere young man confused by his repressed sexual longings. This web of romantic intrigue is eventually disentangled at a weekend party held by Desiree's mother, a formidably acerbic, fairy godmother-style figure.Smiles of a Summer Night is sparkling but mordant, stronger on absurdism than belly laughs and it is lent shade by the long shadows of existential angst. It conveys all of Bergman's core messages about human relationships but in a light, operatic bundle of cinematic joy.On the DVD: Presented in the original academy ratio, the film is restored here to its original, silvery glory. There are extensive notes from Bergman's memoirs, in which he talks candidly about the near-suicidal depression he was in when he wrote this ironically light script, as well as additional notes from critic Derek Malcolm, who aptly compares the film to a Mozart opera and Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game. --David Stubbs

• Babette's Feast | DVD | (01/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Released in 1987, Babette's Feast is a film which depicts so little, yet says so much. Set in a rural Danish community, it centres around the twin sisters of the village pastor and the French women who serves them after fleeing the 1871 revolution. On winning the lottery she plans a feast to mark the centenary of the sisters' father, bringing a dimension of fine living into the lives of the God-fearing Lutherans and healing festering personal animosities in the process. Director Gabriel Axel captures the rugged timelessness of the Jutland landscape, and draws inspired performances from Stéphane Audran as Babette, and Bodil Keyer and Birgitte Federspiel as the sisters Filippa and Martine. Per Norgard's sparse but affecting score captures the mood of the film perfectly. Altogether it's a heart-warming and affecting experience. On the DVD: Babette's Feast on disc reproduces the vivid colour photography well in widescreen. There’s dubbing and subtitles in English, French and Italian. Both the trailers for the English- and Danish-speaking markets are included, the latter an effective summary of the film.--Richard Whitehouse

• All These Women | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £7.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Pretentious music critic Cornelius is writing a biography on a famous cellist. In order to execute the very best research Cornelius goes to stay in his house for a few days prompting all sorts of comedic consequences... A change of pace for Bergman this black farce (his first feature in colour) is his distinctive way of taking a pot shot at critics a film that proves Berman can be enchanting and amusing without losing his familiar melancholic air.

• Waiting Women | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £9.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (100.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  'Waiting Women' is an episodic work composed of three segments thr third of which represents Bergman's first foray into comedy later honed in the erotic farce 'A Lesson In Love'. Three women (all sisters-in-law) talk about their marital problems while waiting for their husbands at a summer cottage. The first story concerns Rakel (Anita Bjrk) and an adulterous episode that changed her marriage forever. In the next intensely visual segment featuring only limited dialogue Marta (M

• The Devil's Eye (Bergman 1960) | DVD | (11/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The devil has a stye in his eye caused by the purity of a vicar's daughter. To get rid of it he sends Don Juan up from hell to seduce the 20 year old Britt-Marie and to rob her of her virginity and her belief in love. She however can resist him and things get even turned around when Don Juan falls in love with her. The fact that he feels love for the first time now makes him even less attractive to her and Don Juan returns to hell.