"Actor: Jean Le"

• Howl's Moving Castle (Limited Edition Sleeve Design Exclusive to Amazon.co.uk) | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Black Narcissus | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £22.94   |  Saving you £-2.95 (-14.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When Bernardo Bertolucci went to the Himalayas to film Little Buddha, so the anecdote runs, he was disappointed by the scenery. Somehow, the real thing didn't quite live up to what he'd been led to expect by Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. It's not hard to see why he felt let down. Their film is almost ridiculously gorgeous--a procession of saturated Technicolor, Expressionist angles, theatrical lighting and overwrought design. It has a good claim to being the high watermark of lushness in the British cinema (and, incidentally, every original foot of it was actually shot in Britain). No wonder it took the Oscar for colour cinematography (shot by Jack Cardiff) as well as for art direction and set decoration (created by Alfred Junge).Audiences loved it on its first release, but the critics were cooler: hadn't the story been upstaged by the baroque images? Well, probably, but that's not altogether a bad thing, since the plot--quite faithful to Rumer Godden's popular novel --isn't wholly free of corn. A group of five Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) establish a school and hospital in a former harem among the Himalayan peaks. The wind blows, the drums pound, the Old Gods stir, and one by one the celibate sisters succumb to unchaste thoughts, above all Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron, terrific in the role), so consumed by erotic yearning for the one Englishman in sight (David Farraar) she puts on crimson lipstick, wears her wimple-free tresses like an early Goth and takes a downward turn. (Black Narcissus features the greatest scene involving a nun and a high place this side of Hitchcock's Vertigo and Jacques Rivette's La Religieuse.) Silly, to be sure, but also sublime at times and as curiously entertaining as it is picturesque. --Kevin Jackson

• Ma Vie Est Un Enfer | DVD | (26/05/2003) from £12.96   |  Saving you £7.03 (35.20%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A dowdy nurse Leah (Josiane Balasko) is in love with her boss (Richard Berry) but he only has eyes for bimbos. She sells her soul to the Devil's apprentice Abargadon (Daniel Auteuil) in return for a new bimbo makeover to snare her boss...

• Offenbach: La Vie Parisienne | DVD | (14/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Offenbach's 1867 La Vie Parisienne is perhaps the quintessential French comic operetta: a broad satire on Paris society set against the backdrop of the 1867 Exposition and the descent of easily lampooned foreigners on to the city; sharp moments that Molière would be proud of; undercurrents of quick-fire farce, confusion, lust and mistaken identity; and a rich cast of characters racing inexorably to a can-can finale. This 1991 production by the Lyon National Opera presents a welcome opportunity to revel in a uniquely Gallic confection rarely seen outside France. It's also a chance to enjoy one of Offenbach's most inventive, melodic scores in which the starring musical role and many of the best tunes go to the orchestra, here conducted by Jean-Yves Ossonce. This is no accident: the operetta was originally created for a company of actors who relied on pastiche and the composer's help to get them through their "numbers". Not so these singers, of course. As Metella, the languorous courtesan who is responsible for the unravelling debacle, Helene Delavault is in meltingly good voice for her show-stopping rondeau, "A minuit sonnant commence la fete". Her sparring suitors Gardefeu (Jean-Francois Sivadier) and, particularly, Bobinet (Jacques Verzier) combine marvellous visual comedy with fluid singing and there is some dazzling vocal work from the supporting cast. It's a long piece, but hugely enjoyable. On the DVD: La Vie Parisienne has the usual, excellent booklet notes of ArtHaus DVD releases, which go some way to compensate for a disappointing lack of extras. Time, surely, to introduce some on-screen history or cross-references to other relevant works. The picture quality is good and sharp, although the 4:3 format does little justice to Carlo Tommasi's sweeping, stylish sets. The PCM Stereo soundtrack provides an adequate orchestral experience while managing to muffle much of the spoken dialogue. --Piers Ford

• Coronation Street - 1973 | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Coronation Street was first broadcast in December of 1960 and since then has gone from strength to strength in establishing itself as the nation's favourite soap opera. With a more light hearted slant on the genre Coronation Street has always drawn viewers from across the generations and its longevity is tribute to it's across the board appeal. On this DVD we take a look back to 1973 and eight classic episodes from that year.

• Tarare - Salieri | DVD | (21/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Salieri opera peformed at the 1988 Schwetzinger Festspiele. 'Tarare' tells the story of the Spirit Of Nature who creates new people in an attempt to cleanse the human race. The results bring love and jealousy. Sung in French.

• Undue Influence | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Available for the first time on DVD! Things look bad for Laurel when her ex-husband's pretty new and much younger wife Melanie is murdered after the two have a fight. Her lawyer is frustrated because he knows Laurel is innocent but her lies keep her the number one suspect. Laurel has a secret which she is not prepared to reveal - that Melanie seduced Laurel's 16-year-old son and was pregnant to him. The son enraged that she would choose his father over him shot her. But will Laurel continue to take the blame for her son even to the chair?

• Coronation Street - 1977 | DVD | (16/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Coronation Street was first broadcast in December of 1960 and since then has gone from strength to strength in establishing itself as the nation's favourite soap opera. With a more light hearted slant on the genre Coronation Street has always drawn viewers from across the generations and its longevity is tribute to it's across the board appeal. On this DVD we take a look back to 1977 and eight classic episodes from that year.

• The Big Combo | DVD | (22/10/2012) from £16.18   |  Saving you £-3.19 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Police Lt. Diamond is told to close his surveillance of suspected mob boss Mr. Brown because it's costing the department too much money with no results. Diamond makes one last attempt to uncover evidence against Brown by going to Brown's girlfriend, Susan Lowell.

• Laurel And Hardy - Flying Deuces | DVD | (27/08/1999) from £5.98   |  Saving you £18.01 (301.17%)   |  RRP £23.99

  One of their best movies digitally remastered. The boys are still indulging in their same old head bumping pants falling dead-pan slapstick comedy routines with water squirting in Oliver's eyes as the most persistent device to win a laugh. The story devised from a French farce - is a situation and a little more. Stan and Ollie join the French foreign legion in order that they may forget a lost love. They try to desert because of the insufficient pay (3 cents a day) are caught and

• Luis Bunuel DVD Collection - Vol. 2 | DVD | (04/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  A triple bill of classic Luis Bunuel films, comprising 'That Obscure Object Of Desire', 'Phantom Of Liberty' and 'The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie'. That Obscure Object Of Desire: A passenger on a train pours a bucket of water over a young girl at the platform. Seemingly a random act, the man recounts in flashback how he came to be so obsessed with the girl... Phantom Of Liberty: Perhaps Bunuel's most surreal film, consisting of a series of loosely realted vignettes. <...

• Domicile Conjugal | Blu Ray | (29/09/2014) from £9.99   |  Saving you £12.99 (185.57%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Francois Truffaut's filmic alter ego Antoine Doinel (first seen in 'Les Quatre Cents Coups') is once again the subject in this fourth of a series of five films. Antoine experiences the early years of marriage and faces fatherhood and adultery with a beautiful Japanese girl.

• Bloodsport / Enter The Dragon | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in what may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. Bloodsport is a guilty-pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon) and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. --Andrew Wright

• The Scarlet Tunic | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £6.98   |  Saving you £9.01 (129.08%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Stuart St. Paul's adaptation of the classic Thomas Hardy short story 'The Melancholy Hussar'. Deserting German Hussar Matthaus Singer (Barr) falls madly in love with solicitor's daughter Frances Groves (Fielding) whereby she is torn by her duty and her desire. Frances' father (Shepard) would prefer her to marry the weasly suitor Humphrey (Sessions). The passion flows but will the heart be stronger than the outside forces set on keeping the lovers apart?

• Upstairs Downstairs - Series 4 - Episodes 1 To 7 | DVD | (18/08/2003) from £12.91   |  Saving you £5.07 (51.11%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In this collection of episodes from Series Four of 'Upstairs Downstairs' a series of dramatic events befall the residents of Eaton Place. The events of World War I are having some harrowing effects on British society as the country is struggling to get through the hardships that take place from 1914-1918...

• Godzilla --Superbit | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In the steamy jungles of the South Pacific an enormous creature is created by nuclear fallout. Lost for decades the power and the fury of the world's largest monster are about to be unleashed. He's the most spectacular creature in cinematic history with a foot the size of a bus a body as tall as London's Big Ben and strength and agility the likes of which the world has never seen...

• Singin' In The Rain / Seven Brides For Seven Brothers | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  SINGIN'IN THE RAIN:; With fame, fortune and fans galore, silent screen idol Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) thought he had it all. But one look at aspiring actress Kathy Seldon (Debbie Reynolds), and he knew exactly what he was missing. Now he's swinging from lampposts, singing in the raindrops and ready for love. With talking pictures on the rise, Don sets out to make musicals with the woman of his dreams...but one thing stands in his way: his jealous co-star (Jean Hagen), who wants Don--and the l...

• Al Di Meola / Jean-Luc Ponty / Stanley Clarke - Live At Montreux 1994 | DVD | (01/12/2008) from £16.18   |  Saving you £-3.19 (-24.60%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This Montreux concert from July 1994 brings together three of the great talents of jazz fusion. Stars in their own right Al Di Meola (guitars) and Stanley Clarke (bass) had also previously played together in Chick Corea's Return To Forever while Jean-Luc Ponty (violin) had played with Frank Zappa and George Duke as well as carving out a successful solo career. The tracklisting draws on their individual work and also includes many tracks such as Indigo Renaissance Song To John and

• Girl On A Motorcycle | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Caught midway between 1970s soft-porn clunker The Story of O and Bunuel's sado-masochistic fantasy Belle de Jour, the 1968 erotic curio Girl on a Motorcycle is one of Marianne Faithfull's chief claims to notoriety. She stars as Rebecca, a leather-clad, former bookstore clerk in search of sexual fulfilment who flees her dependable schoolteacher husband for a dangerous liaison with Daniel (Alain Delon), a dashing Professor addicted to speed. The story is told entirely in flashbacks as Rebecca rockets along the road, having donned her leathers and walked out on her sleeping husband at the crack of dawn. It all must have seemed fairly daring and provocative in 1968, providing viewers with ample opportunities to view a naked Faithfull at the height of her allure. But today the existential musings of the lead character seem achingly pretentious, the erotic symbolism merely gawky and unintentionally amusing: the sight of Alain Delon with a phallic pipe dangling from his mouth is like something out of a Rene Magritte painting. The sex scenes between Delon and Faithfull are all swamped in a polarised visual effect that, while garish and psychedelic, is dated and distinctly unerotic. Director Jack Cardiff is better known as a cinematographer on classics such as The African Queen and Black Narcissus. Among Cardiff's other directorial credits is a worthy adaptation of DH Lawrence's Sons & Lovers, but Girl on a Motorcycle is a saucy road movie with no final destination. On the DVD: This DVD version is misleadingly presented as being the fully restored and uncut version of the film. Yet it was the US version not the European one that was heavily cut (and titillatingly re-titled "Naked Under Leather"). The restoration certainly does not refer to the print quality: although the colours are vivid and bright, the print used to master the DVD (in 16:9 anamorphic format) is extremely grainy and, at times, speckled with dirt and scratches. Included as one of the special features, a theatrical trailer loaded with innuendo shows just how much the film was marketed to a prurient audience. Director Jack Cardiff provides an audio commentary but has few revelatory things to say about his film beyond technical considerations, and even makes several clunking errors (recalling his casting decisions concerning a scene that takes place in a provincial German café, he raves about how he strove to find authentic French locals!). He does reveal that the film's use of a voice-over was inspired by the internal monologue that forms the basis of James Joyce's Ulysses. Given Cardiff's age and experience one feels that he must have more interesting anecdotes and insights, making this commentary feel like a wasted opportunity. --Chris Campion

• Jean-Luc Godard DVD Collection - Vol. 2 | DVD | (04/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Includes the classic Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) Godard films 'Pierrot Le Fou' Made In USA and Prenom Carmen. Pierrot Le Fou: Described as the film where Godard tried everything and almost pulled it off 'Pierrot Le Fou' is his deconstruction of the American crime thriller. Ferdinand escapes Bourgeious society with the babysitter Marianne in tow... When a dead body is found in Marianne's apartment the two lovers head for the South of France to escape being caught up in gangster activities. On an island on the C''te d'Azur Ferdinand is content to read and write poetry but Marianne's impatience gets the better of her and she disappears to join her brother a notorious gun runner. Another dead body is found then armed gangsters arrive on the scene to menace Ferdinand.... Made In USA: A journalist Paula Nelson arrives in Atlantic City France to look for her missing ex-boyfriend Richard Politzer. Her enquiries soon reveal that he is dead murdered by an unknown assassin. Suspecting that Richard may have been the victim of a political intrigue Paula allies herself with gun-toting gangsters and shady police agents to try to uncover the truth.... Prenom Carmen: During a failed bank raid a terrorist named Carmen is seduced by a security guard Joseph. To escape arrest Carmen appears to submit to her obsessed lover and the two take refuge in a seaside apartment. However Carmen remains committed to her terrorist activities and plans a kidnapping whilst pretending to film a documentary for her uncle once a great film director. How will Joseph react to Carmen's apparent indifference to their relationship?