"Actor: Josephine"

• D.W. Griffith - Monumental Epics | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  There’s little doubt that much of what we now take for granted about cinema owes much to the vision of director D W Griffith. Monumental Epics collects five of his most influential silent masterpieces. The Birth of a Nation (1915) is also the birth of the epic film. Made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War this provocative film unflinchingly shows the humiliation of Southern culture, the "heroism" of the Ku Klux Klan, and links the Union and Confederacy by a common Aryan birthright. All of which has to be viewed in its period context if it is to be viewed at all. Intolerance (1916) is film-making of epic complexity. Human intolerance is related through a modern tale of wrongful conviction, intercut by three stories from Babylonian, Judean, and French history to point up the issue through the ages. The intricacy of the intercutting is breathtaking even now, but those as confused as the first audiences evidently were can opt to see each story separately. Sensitively tinted, this is Griffith's finest three hours. Broken Blossoms (1919) has Griffith venturing into domestic melodrama. Although there's a clear moral to be drawn from this tale of compassion in the face of ignorance and brutality, neither the over-acting of Lillian Gish and Donald Crisp, nor the vein of sentimentality that creeps into their characters' relationship allow the viewer to forget the period-piece nature of the film. Here an appropriately expressive musical score helps keep viewing at an attentive level. Way Down East (1920) shows Griffith moving from the epic to the personal, though still on a large scale. The combining of old-style melodrama with latter-day female emancipation is tellingly brought off, and Lillian Gish excels as the country girl used and abused by male society, until "rescued" by a farmer of true moral scruples. Unconvinced? Then go straight to the climactic snowstorm and ice floe sequences--Eisenstein et al are inconceivable without this as trailblazer. Abraham Lincoln (1930) marked Griffith's entry into the talkie era. Tautly directed, it offers a historically accurate account of the 16th US President's rise to power and his visionary outlook on American society. Civil War scenes are implied rather than enacted, and its Walter Huston's robust yet understated acting that carries the day, with sterling support from Una Merkel as Ann Rutledge and Hobart Bosworth as General Lee. On the DVD: Stylishly packaged, restoration and digital remastering has been carried out to Eureka's usual high standard, and the 4:3 aspect ratio has commendable clarity. Birth of a Nation has Joseph Carl Breil's original orchestral score and a pithy "making of" film by Russell Merritt. Intolerance contains a useful rolling commentary and a great wurlitzer soundtrack too. Way Down East includes a commentary. Abraham Lincoln also has a commentary, though Hugo Riesenfeld's score often verges on the mawkish. Overall this set is a must for anyone remotely interested in film as a living medium.--Richard Whitehouse

• Hard And Brutal - Scum / Romper Stomper / Chopper | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Scum: Alan Clarke's Scum shows a vicious system and doesn't pull any of the punches - or kicks - so relentlessly deployed in the battles between rivals in the power stakes that incarceration promotes. It's the brutal story of life in a modern-day Borstal. Run by the violence and cruelty of both inmates and officers the system is a jungle which brutalizes all within its walls. Carlin who has been transferred from another Borstal for retaliation against violent officers is thrown into this human quagmire - and what follows is a harsh and bitter battle for survival. He realises that the only way is by beating the system at its own game and eventually erupts as leader of a bloody climatic riot. Romper Stomper: Violent but never gratuitous emotionally powerful and never afraid to portray the ugly destructive face of prejudice Romper Stomper excites disturbs and boldly challenges the viewer. Its angry raw story about a brutal lawless group of skinheads is a savage kick in the guts. This is no simplistic street-gang film but a rivetting portrayal of the hopelessness and blind hatred of youth that is both controversial and profound. Chopper: An extraordinary movie about an extraordinary man the highly acclaimed and award winning Chopper is the boldest and grittiest Australian film in decades. Brimming with dangerous excitement and stunning innovation the sensational debut of rock director Andrew Dominik is an exhilarating sharp shock to the system revealing the no-holds-barred story of the notorious Oz criminal Mark 'Chopper' Read. Told in flashback as Read serves one of his many prisons sentences this extreme biography charts the brutal carnage and wicked sense of humour of a man who supposedly committed nineteen vicious murders and got away with it. Mixing startling facts from his nine best-selling books including 'How To Shoot Friends and Influence People ' with stylish pulp fiction to paint an astonishing portrait of a larger-than-life legend Chopper is funny fascinating and frightening and features a show-stopping central performance from Eric Bana Australia's top stand-up comedian.

• Way Down East | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Way Down East was the most successful film of the 1920s, even more so than the original versions of Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments. That says much about tastes and values of the day, since this is no visually spectacular epic designed to wow audiences: director DW Griffith gave it the subtitle "A Simple Story of Plain People". The story follows impoverished New England country girl Anna Moore (Lillian Gish) to Boston in search of family aid. Instead she's duped into a fake marriage by playboy Lennox Sanderson (Lowell Sherman). Pregnancy forces Sanderson to abandon her to care for the child alone, which dies soon after birth. The disgrace sends her back into the countryside to work for Squire Bartlett, whose son David (Richard Barthelmess) begins to fall for her. But the dreadful secret threatens to be revealed, since the dastardly Sanderson turns out to be their neighbour. Themes of loyalty and social change come to a head for a thrilling finale. Amazing stunt work occurs on a frozen river's ice sheets that break up, dashing an unconscious Anna toward a waterfall. Populated by eccentric cameo roles, this view of 1920s' life is a far more fascinating exploration of the contemporary female than the novel or disastrous stage play that preceded it. On the DVD: Naturally a movie from 1920 is in mono and 4:3 ratio (which is effectively the old Academy standard ratio). But with subtle colour tints and using a musical score from its 1931 reissue, it still looks pretty good. Only a few reels have suffered damage (eg some heat blisters), otherwise film historian David Shepard's restoration job is commendable. The only extra is an essay on the history of the film which scrolls up the screen as an introduction. --Paul Tonks

• Cleopatra 2525 - Vol. 1 - Season 1 : Episodes 1-6 | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  One interesting thing about Cleopatra 2525 is that it works far better on video or DVD than as a weekly television show, because the action in the tightly packed half-hour episodes is so fast and furious that you can miss crucial developments in the admittedly simple plots just by nipping into the kitchen to put the kettle on. Furthermore, despite appearances, the scripts do allow for character development, but this has to be delivered in snippets rather than dollops. Far better, then, to settle down with a large pizza and watch several episodes back to back. There's no shortage of humour in this camp post-apocalypse shoot-em-up-fest. Cleopatra is a dippy exotic dancer who suffers complications during surgery for a boob job! Placed in cryogenic suspension until such time as medical science can help her, she wakes up in the year 2525 to find a world seemingly dominated by plot ideas stolen from classic sci-fi movies such as The Terminator--humanity has been driven underground in a world ruled by machines, morphing androids are used as spies etc. etc. etc.--where she's "adopted" by a couple of firm-midriffed female resistance fighters who take their orders from a mysterious voice (called Voice). It's all great fun and the action and effects are excellent (especially the airborne robot thingies). --Roger Thomas

• Out Of Depth | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  "Out of Depth" tells the tragic story of misguided good intentions, of family love and of the personal hopes and fears that lay behind several gangland killings.

• The Mumbo Jumbo | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In Pythonesque fasion Tom runs into good fortune when a magic amulet takes him on a distant journey where he becomes the hero in a fantasy world.

• After Passion | DVD | (05/09/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Jess Franco: Complete Collection | DVD | (17/01/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  The Man The Myth The Legend: Jess Franco With over 190 movies to his name Jess Franco is without a doubt one of the most active and prolific directors in the history of European cinema. His unique style and creativity have garnered him a vast cult following over the years and a reputation as being the master of erotic exploitation. This is a collection of fifteen sexually-charged classics from the underrated genius of superlative art-house. Containing digitally mastered versions of his most revered work including Eugenie: Marquis De Sade's Philosophy in the Boudior (starring Christopher Lee) Barbed Wire Dolls Jack The Ripper (starring Klaus Kinski) and Mansion Of The Living Dead this is the definitive collection for any Jess Franco fan.

• Yours Forever... Shah Rukh Khan | DVD | (09/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  Song compilations of films starring Shah Rukh Khan....

• Freaks | DVD | (20/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  One of the most famous, most shocking and, for much of its existence, most elusive of cult films, Tod Browning's Freaks remains worthy of its dubious top billing by literary critic Leslie Fiedler as the greatest of all Freak movies. At the centre of the story are two circus midgets, Hans and Frieda (already well known in the 1930s through film and advertising appearances as Harry and Daisy Earles), whose marriage plans are blasted when Hans becomes the target of the aerialist Cleopatra's plot to marry him then kill him off for his money. During what is certainly one of the most notorious scenes in cult film history, the wedding party of freaks ritually embrace Cleopatra as one of us. Through her undisguised horror at this and her gruesome punishment by the freaks, the film bluntly confronts viewers about our awkwardness about different bodies while simultaneously stirring up fear and alarm in familiar horror-movie style. Better known for the Bela Lugosi version of Dracula (1931), Brownings showmanship was equally a product of the circus (he was himself an adolescent contortionist in a travelling show). His meshing of circus and cinema--two dangerous entertainments--produces Freaks' uniquely disquieting effect.Startled and indignant preview audiences forced the producers to add an explanatory foreword to the film but even this crackles with sensationalism as it veers between sideshow-style sympathy and fright warning. None the less, protests and local censorship ensued and the film never reached the mass audience for which it was made. Still, some of the real stars of the midway Ten-in-One shows of the 1920s and 30s (Johnny Eck, Daisy and Violet Hilton the Siamese twins, Prince Randian, the Hindu Living Torso) are showcased here as themselves and it is their undeniably real presence in what is otherwise familiar fictional terrain which is still so provocative. --Helen Stoddart

• Son Of The Bride | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £17.96   |  Saving you £5.02 (33.53%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Sonata | DVD | (16/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  We are never alone... This edge-of-your-seat supernatural horror takes you into a disturbing world and explores the fine line between sanity and madness. Locked up in a remote house and kept away from the real world by her overprotective mother Megan has created a secret world of her own. When a mysterious stranger begins sending Megan cryptic love letters mother is furious and assumes that she has been sneaking out of the house behind her back. But mother is soon to fin

• After Truth | DVD | (04/03/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Mia And Me: Volume 1 | DVD | (02/09/2019) from £13.72   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Tovarisch - I Am Not Dead | DVD | (21/09/2009) from £24.28   |  Saving you £-9.29 (-62.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The video diaries of Stuart Urban, that were made over a 14 year journey, delve in to his father's extraordinary KGB records and the fate of his family during the Holocaust.

• January 2nd | DVD | (14/04/2008) from £8.08   |  Saving you £-2.09 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Adam and Claire live in a remote farmhouse in the Brecon Beacons. Their marriage is already imploding when five old friends turn up for a New Year's Eve party. Beth burns her way through her inheritance while mistaking sex for love. Frank pines for Beth while shoving as much coke up his nose as will fit. Suzanne is the sanest; and bitterest. Finally there is Sean who refuses to settle down or grow up and brings his latest girlfriend a lap dancer. A couple of boozy nights of rows bad judgement bed-hopping wilted careers and varying degrees of disappointment.

• The Time Machine (Deluxe Box) | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  In 1960 producer-director George Pal's The Time Machine reshaped HG Wells' thoughtful, ironic novel into a two-fisted action movie, but one that still appeals to children and adults immensely and deserves its classic status. Wells' themes of biological and social evolution are played down, but there is a surprisingly melancholy thread as Rod Taylor's Time Traveller keeps stopping off at future wars to find that human stupidity still persists. In the first week of 1900 a group of fussy Victorians gather in Taylor's chintzy, overstuffed parlour to hear him tell of his expedition to the future, where the world is divided between the surface-dwelling, childish, beautiful Eloi and the hideous, underground, cannibal Morlocks. Wells intended both factions to seem degenerate, the logical final evolution of the class system, but Pal has Taylor pull a Captain Kirk and side with the Eloi and teach them to fight against their oppressors. The time travel sequence remains a tour de force, with a shop window mannequin demonstrating a parade of fashions as the years fly by in seconds and charming but still-effective stop-motion effects. The future is a wonderfully coloured landscape with properly gruesome cave-dwelling monsters and a winning Eloi heroine in Yvette Mimieux. It may not be totally Wells, but it's a treat. On the DVD: The Time Machine arrives on disc in a lovely widescreen print which makes the film seem new all over again. The featurette "Time Machine: The Journey Back" combines some mild behind-the-scenes stuff about the film (and its star prop) with a moving mini-sequel reuniting stars Rod Taylor and Alan Young in a scene that actually addresses a plot point skipped over in the original. --Kim Newman

• Sonata | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  We are never alone... This edge-of-your-seat supernatural horror takes you into a disturbing world and explores the fine line between sanity and madness. Locked up in a remote house and kept away from the real world by her overprotective mother Megan has created a secret world of her own. When a mysterious stranger begins sending Megan cryptic love letters mother is furious and assumes that she has been sneaking out of the house behind her back. But mother is soon to find out that the truth about the mysterious stranger is far more horrifying than even her twisted mind could ever imagine.

• Grass | DVD | (30/09/2007) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Grass marks a welcome return for The Fast Show's overzealous know-it-all Billy Bleach. Written by (along with Andrew Collins) and starring Simon Day he actually created the character of Billy almost ten years ago for use in his stand up routines. After witnessing a gangland murder self-made loser Billy Bleach is forced to grass on villain Harry Taylor and is given a new identity. How will he cope in the village of Little Mockwell in deepest rural Norfo

• Harvey | Blu Ray | (08/02/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A