"Actor: Libero De Rienzo"

• My House In Umbria | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  An unlikely group of people find solace and friendship after being thrown together in the wake of a terrorist attack.

• A Ma Soeur! | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £18.75   |  Saving you £1.24 (6.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Catherine Breillat's A Ma Soeur! is a touchingly honest but also highly disturbing account of two French middle-class teenage sisters' family holiday. As sexually explicit as Breillat's earlier picture, Romance, this film focuses on the travails of flabby 12-year-old Anais Pingot (Anais Reboux), who is the bane and the opposite of her glamorous elder sister Elena (Roxane Mesquida). Constantly having to live in the shadow of Elena and being nagged by her workaholic father (Romain Goupil), lonely Anais resorts to eating and her imagination for pleasure. Her 15-year-old sister, in contrast, is desperate to find romantic love. Their differences are harshly exposed when Elena starts a frantic affair with Italian law student Fernando (Libero De Rienzo). To minimise the risk of being discovered by their parents, Anais accompanies Fernando and Elena throughout their clumsy encounters. She's even present during the pair's sexual experimentation. Anais Reboux's depiction of an introverted young woman is both shocking and true to life, particularly the scene when she swims around a swimming pool kissing and conversing with the pool's diving board and steps as if they were imaginary lovers. The film actually thrives on very little, a simple plot, a 25-minute bedroom scene, and the monotony of the fatal motorway trip home. Like violence itself, the violent ending is a particularly pointless and baffling finale for an otherwise thought-provoking film. On the DVD: A Ma Soeur! on DVD can be viewed with or without English subtitles. The bonus material includes biographies of the leading actors and the director, a theatrical trailer and promotional images from the film. Tom Dawson's excellent notes booklet provide an informed insight into the production of the movie. The anamorphic picture is good, as is the Dolby Stereo soundtrack. --John Galilee

• Benzina | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Two female lovers Lenni and Stella receive an unexpected visitor in the form of Lenni's mom. Their lives are set to change when they discover that she has a bag full of money...