"Actor: Jean"

• Delicatessen | Blu Ray | (13/01/2014) from £24.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Delicatessen presents a post-apocalyptic scenario set entirely in a dank and gloomy building where the landlord operates a delicatessen on the ground floor. But this is an altogether meatless world, so the butcher-landlord keeps his customers happy by chopping unsuspecting victims into cutlets, and he's sharpening his knife for the new tenant (French comic actor Dominque Pinon) who's got the hots for the butcher's near-sighted daughter. Delicatessen is a feast (if you will) of hilarious vignettes, slapstick gags, and sweetly eccentric characters, including a man in a swampy room full of frogs, a woman doggedly determined to commit suicide (she never gets it right) and a pair of brothers who make toy sound boxes that "moo" like cows. It doesn't amount to much as a story, but that hardly matters; this is the kind of comedy that leaps from a unique wellspring of imagination and inspiration, and it's handled with such visual virtuosity that you can't help but be mesmerised. French co-directors of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro have wildly inventive imaginations that gravitate to the darker absurdities of human behaviour, and their visual extravagance is matched by impressive technical skill. There's some priceless comedy here, some of which is so inventive that you may feel the urge to stand up and cheer. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com On the DVD: the special features are pretty standard, with a trailer, "making of" featurette and footage of the rehearsal process. The audio commentary is supplied by Jeunet, which, although interesting, is in French and thus necessitates the use of subtitles which then obliterate the movie's own subtitles. Once the commentary is on it is virtually impossible to turn this option off without reloading the disc. However, the Dolby stereo works wonders for this film, which is rich in sound, and surprisingly the 1.85:1 letterbox ratio is perfect for a film that is grainy by design. --Nikki Disney

• Tenko - Series 2 - Part 1 | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The story of ex-patriot European women living in Singapore at the outbreak of war in the Far East and their capture by the Japanese. Episodes 1 to 5 of the second series.

• The Bride Wore Black | Blu Ray | (15/05/2023) from £16.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim) stars as the titular bride, who after marrying her love sees him murdered on the steps outside the church. From here she enacts her ruthless revenge on the group of men responsible. Undoubtedly an influence on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill, François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black was itself influenced by the director's idol, Alfred Hitchcock. Adapting celebrated crime writer Cornel Woolrich (who was also the author of the short story Hitchcock's Rear Window is based on) Truffaut's film is a deliciously entertaining tale that was one of the director's biggest hits. Alongside Moreau, the film boasts a sensational cast, including Michael Lonsdale, Jean-Clude Brialy, Charles Denner and Michel Bouquet among others, and features a score by the maestro, Bernard Herrman (Psycho). Limited Edition Special Features High-Definition digital transfer Original uncompressed mono PCM audio Archival interviews with François Truffaut and Jeanne Moreau (1968, 1969) Appreciation by filmmaker Kent Jones (Hitchcock/Truffaut) Barry Forshaw on Cornel Woolrich and the adaptation Trailer Optional English subtitles Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film, archival writing by Truffaut and more

• In Hell | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kyle Lord (Van Damme) is arrested and convicted for the vigilante killing of his wife's murderer. Kyle must survive life in a maximum-security prison where inmates are made to battle to their death in a brutal no holds barred fight called ""The Shu"" for the warden's entertainment and profit. Kyle fights his oppressors and is quickly sent to ""The Shu"" where his unbridled rage catapults him to the victor's circle. Kyle has become one of the monsters he despises and must now battle within

• The Robe | DVD | (12/05/1994) from £14.97   |  Saving you £-1.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Robe was designed by 20th Century-Fox to show off the wonders of CinemaScope, and taken simply as a vehicle for widescreen photography the movie is undeniably a visual treat. Perhaps the clumsy early 'Scope cameras were partly to blame, but from any other perspective--plot, dialogue and acting--The Robe is a flat, overly reverential and turgid piece of film making. Richard Burton is the Roman Centurion on duty at Christ's crucifixion who bets on and wins Jesus' robe, then spends the rest of the movie agonising about becoming a Christian. Victor Mature is his sanctimonious slave Demetrius. So confident were the producers of box-office success that they commissioned the sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators, even before The Robe had been released. --Mark Walker

• A Town Like Alice | DVD | (24/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  One of the all-time great wartime love stories shot on location in Malaya.

• The Cunning Little Vixen - Janacek | DVD | (15/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Janacek's The Cunning Little Vixen is a real charmer of an opera, a tale that shows the natural world the composer had loved from childhood in its true colours: miraculous, beautiful, mysterious but also cruel. The inspiration came from a series of illustrated stories published in a Czech newspaper. The Vixen of the title is captured by a forester and taken home as a plaything for his children. She is soon thrown out of the house and has to make her own way in the world, encountering lust, stupidity, pride, love and ultimately death. This 1995 performance was taken from the Chatelet Theatre in Paris. Visually, Nicholas Hytner's production is a triumph, the animals wonderfully wittily wrought (the mosquito with its syringe for a nose, the mangey old dog, distasteful in baggy Y-fronts, the hideous, goggle-eyed frog). And it's also brilliantly cast: Eva Jenis's Vixen is funny, sexy, endearing and youthful enough in voice and figure to convince. Thomas Allen is a veteran of the role of the Forester, a huge presence and singing in impeccable Czech. In fact, there's not a weak performance here, and that goes for the dancers and instrumentalists as well as the singers. And at the helm, who better than Sir Charles Mackerras, arguably the greatest living interpreter of Janacek's music? This is in essence a grown-up fairy tale, ravishingly done and extremely highly recommended. On the DVD: The Cunning Little Vixen is presented on disc in vividly remastered PCM stereo, with 16:9 picture format that does full justice to the alluringly colourful designs. The disc is encoded for regions 2 and 5, and the menu and subtitle languages are English, German, French and Spanish. The useful booklet gives coherent background information and synopsis as well as full casting details. There's also a substantial (23-minute) trailer of other offerings from Arthaus Musik. --Harriet Smith

• Replicant (Limited to 3000 Units) | Blu Ray | (19/10/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A deranged serial killer is on the loose and only one man can catch him! Garrotte aka The Torch (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is being tracked by veteran police detective Jake Riley (Michael Rooker) to no avail. Each time Jake gets one step closer to Garotte, another victim surfaces. Tormented by Garrotte's insanity, Jakes quits the police force and joins a special agency in a top secret mission to eliminate Garrote. As part of Jakes' new assignment, he is teamed with a Replicant (Jean-Claude Van Damme) cloned from Garotte's DNA. In a race against time Jake must learn to trust the mind of the one person he has been trained to kill and control the thoughts of a madman he cannot stop.

• Maigret | DVD | (03/10/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Collection of six episodes from the crime drama series which follows French detective Jules Maigret (Bruno Cremer) as he takes on a number of complex cases in his unique, unhurried style. The storylines feature, amongst others, a burglar who discovers a murder while robbing a house, an exotic dancer who is murdered after tipping off police and the mysterious disappearance of a diamond merchant. The episodes are: 'Maigret in Montmartre', 'Maigret and the Burglar's Wife', 'Maigret and the Flemish Shop', 'Maigret and the Judge', 'Maigret and the Headless Corpse' and 'Maigret at the Crossroads'.

• Neil Simon's The Odd Couple 2 | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £27.23   |  Saving you £-14.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sequels might be the lifeblood of mainstream Hollywood film production but it took 30 years for The Odd Couple 2 to reunite Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and writer Neil Simon for a follow-up to their scintillating 1967 success. Now Felix (Lemmon) and Oscar (Matthau), once mismatched flatmates, are forced to renew their old friendship when their respective children get married. Cue all the ingredients for a disaster-riddled journey to California for the wedding: lost luggage, allergies, dangerously wanton women (and their husbands), illegal immigrants and repeat visits to the same police station. All the old irritations rise quickly to the surface, Simon's dialogue is as sharp as ever and the vocal sparring skills of these two magnificent comedy players are undiminished, though there's a certain poignancy in their physical frailty: "I'm too old to hit but I could spit you to death", threatens Matthau at one point. Crumpled and puffy, neither of them looks in great shape. But the film gives a neat symmetry to two of the finest cinematic careers. As Matthau says towards the end, it's "the biggest goddamndest déjà vu anyone's ever had". On the DVD: The Odd Couple 2 on disc has no extras apart from the original theatrical trailer. The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with a Dolby Digital Surround soundtrack. It looks and sounds good. Alan Silvestri's score borrows the Neal Hefti theme from the 1967 original from time to time. --Piers Ford

• A Christmas Tale | DVD | (01/06/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Arnaud Desplechin comes home for Christmas in his outrageous daring and emotionally bountiful new movie. Catherine Deneuve is Junon the family matriarch who greets the news of her life-threatening illness with calm equanimity. Jean-Paul Roussillon is her wise tender husband. Desplechin regular Mathieu Amalric is the black sheep banished from the family by his imperious sister (Anne Consigny both actors last seen in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) who arrives with his bemused Jewish girlfriend in tow (Emmanuelle Devos). Melvil Poupaud is the most sensitive of the children happily married to the divine Chiara Mastroianni. It''s hard to miss with such a cast but A Christmas Tale is much much more than a good ensemble comedy. In this midwinter night''s dream unrequited love collides with bitter resentment nostalgic longing crosses paths with abject fear and pure hatred gives way to vivacious affection.

• Jesus Of Montreal | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jesus of Montreal' is a surprising and dazzling tragi-comic satire on modern life based around a group of actors who gather together to perform a new interpretation of the Passion Play. Awarded the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1989 Denys Arcand's film has been a major succes throughout the world combining wild comedy with the absurd dramas of life around us.

• Albert Herring - Glyndebourne Festival Opera | DVD | (05/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Set in an English market town at the turn of 20th century a gangling greengrocer's lad is crowded May King. The break with the tradition of choosing a girl is virtuous enough to May Queen... The comic opera at Glyndebourne was conducted by Bernard Haitink. 'A Vintage production with a vintage cast.' - Sunday Times.

• Is Paris Burning? | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £12.88   |  Saving you £3.11 (24.15%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The explosive courage-filled story of the Allied Resistance and the Paris Liberation of 1944. As the Nazi jackboot marches through Europe the freedom fighters of Paris mount a brave resistance. An insane and desperate Hitler sends a top general to determine if the Nazis can hold the city. If not Paris will be burned. With a powerful script by Gore Vidal and Francis Ford Coppola this epic film boasts an international cast of screen legends including Jean-Paul Belmondo Kirk Douglas Yves Montand Leslie Caron Anthony Perkins and Orson Welles. Is Paris Burning? is a staggering portrait of heroism and brotherhood and one of the most riveting stories to come out of World War II.

• Les Enfants Du Paradis (2 discs, limited edition packaging) | DVD | (17/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Voted 'The Best French Film ever made' by the French Film Academy. Les Enfants du Paradis is a film of such dazzling proportions it has been labelled the French Gone With The Wind.Set amidst the glittering theatre world of 19th century Paris, the story revoles around the beautiful and free-spirted courtesan, Garanace, and the four men who compete for her affections; a mime-artist, an actor, an aristocrat and a criminal. As the melodrama unfolds, we are treated to one of cinema's greatest love stories, a captivating tale of passion, deception and murder.

• Lips Of Blood | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £11.70   |  Saving you £6.28 (72.10%)   |  RRP £14.99

  There's no director like Jean Rollin, the French horror fantasist who mixes the poetry of Jean Cocteau with the emotionless performances of Robert Bresson in his erotic vampire films. Lips of Blood is one of his best, an Oedipal tale of a young man haunted by visions of a forgotten childhood when he spies a poster of a coastal castle at a party. Jean-Louis Philippe, a hopelessly bland and flat performer, wanders through the deserted piazzas and fountains of his suddenly odd and alien hometown, eerily lit up in the dead of night. He's a man lost in a world where a woman in white silently materialises like a supernatural muse, gunmen appear from the inky-black night, and four naked vampire girls prowl the streets for blood and watch over him like dark angels. It's a tale of blood, sex, and haunting desire full of nudity and death and told in an austere, surreal style born of forced budgetary austerity. Rollin is slipshod with his action scenes and stiff with performers, but once he leaves the confines of the "real" world (where he's oddly uncomfortable) his style creates a trancelike mood to complement the beauty of his poetically macabre vision. The film our hero watches early in the picture is Rollin's own Shiver of the Vampires. --Sean Axmaker

• Partie De Campagne | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £14.49   |  Saving you £1.50 (10.35%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An adaptation of a story by Guy de Maupassant which tells the tale of a young girl on an idyllic country picnic who leaves her family and fiance for a while and embarks on an all to brief romance. Includes discarded takes and screen tests. Shot on location on the banks of two small tributaries of the Seine Renoir's sensuous tribute to the countryside - and to the river - has seldom been surpassed. In its bittersweet lyricism its tenderness and poetic feel for nature its tolera

• Swimming Pool | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.39   |  Saving you £12.60 (170.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From acclaimed director Francois Ozon (8 Women) comes the seductively sinister Swimming Pool. Sarah Morton is a best-selling murder-msytery writer, tired of London life. looking for fresh inspiration for her next novel, she accepts an invitation from her publisher John (Charles Dance) to stay in his rural French holiday home for some much needed peace and quiet....But before long the silence is shattered as John's teenage daughter, Julie, arrives without warning, and the battle begins between her easy-living and wild one-night stands and Sarah's old-fashioned values. Part siren, part seductress, Julie systematically unleashes her charms on the men of the village and seems destined for real disaster. Unsettling truths and disturbing events are unearthed as life at the house and in the village takes one bizarre turn after another. Special Features: Cast Interviews Cannes 2003 - Red Carpet Footage Stills Gallery Promo Reel & Trailers

• Breaking The Waves | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £5.38   |  Saving you £7.61 (141.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bess a young girl falls in love with an oil-rig worker called Jan. In a short space of time they marry and have a brief physical relationship before Jan returns to his rig. When an accident paralyses Jan he encourages Bess to take a lover...

• The Beauty Jungle | DVD | (03/06/2013) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  1960s British comedy drama in which a young woman finds a new career as a beauty queen. Attractive typist Shirley Freeman (Janette Scott) is encouraged by newspaper man Don Mackenzie (Ian Hendry) to enter a beauty pageant while on vacation. After winning she decides to quit her job and become a full-time contestant, proving to be very successful. However, her success won't last forever...