"Actor: Massimo Serato"

• Don't Look Now | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £10.22   |  Saving you £6.76 (93.50%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Don't Look Now was filmed in 1973 and based around a Daphne Du Maurier novel. Directed by Nicolas Roeg, it has lost none of its chill: like Kubrick's The Shining, its dazzling use of juxtaposition, colour, sound and editing make it a seductive experience in cinematic terror, whose aftershock lingers in daydreams and nightmares, filling you with uncertainty and dread even after its horrific climax. Donald Sutherland plays John Baxter, an architect, Julie Christie his wife: a well-to-do couple whose young daughter drowns while out playing. Cut to Venice, out of season, where the couple encounter a pair of sisters, one of whom claims psychic powers and to have communicated with their dead daughter. The subsequent plot is as labyrinthine as the back streets of the city itself, down which Baxter spots a diminutive and elusive red-coated figure akin to his daughter, before being drawn into an almost unbearable finale. Don't Look Now is a Gothic masterpiece, with its melange of gore, mystery, ecstasy, the supernatural and above all grief, while the city of Venice itself--which thanks to Roeg and his team seems to breathe like a dark, sinister living organism throughout the movie--deserves a credit in its own right. Not just a magnificent drama but an advanced feat of cinema. --David Stubbs

• El Cid | DVD | (30/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sumptuous in every way, visually magnificent, with grandiose sets, panoramic Spanish vistas and intricately detailed costumes, possessor of one of cinema's greatest music scores, boasting vast and astonishingly kinetic battles, and breathing heroic virtue in every scene, El Cid is the very epitome of epic. For this reworking of the medieval legend of the Cid (Arabic for "Lord") who united warring factions and saved 11th-century Spain from invasion, producer Samuel Bronston and director Anthony Mann insisted every set had to be created from scratch, every costume specially made for this movie alone; they also shot entirely on location in La Mancha and along the Mediterranean coast of Spain to enhance the film's authenticity. The cinematography is saturated with the burnished hues of the Spanish landscape, as are the palatial sets and rich costumes; Miklos Rozsa's resplendent score is also the result of painstaking research into medieval Spanish sources. The screenplay is imbued with knightly gravitas and more than a little salvation imagery, from the opening scene of the young Rodrigo rescuing a cross from a burning church, to the movie's indelible finale as The Cid rides "out of the gates of history into legend".Charlton Heston is at his most indomitable as Rodrigo, "The Cid", a natural leader of men and the embodiment of every manly virtue (note that he fathers twins--a sure token of his virility); Sophie Loren is ravishing as Chimene, the woman whose love for Rodrigo conflicts with her filial instincts after he kills her father, the king's champion, over a point of honour. Their scenes together create a humane warmth at the heart of this vast movie: the moment when Chimene finally declares her love (beneath a shrine of three crosses--more symbolism) to the exiled Rodrigo forms a pivotal and very intimate centrepiece. Shortly thereafter he must rise from their rural marriage bed to lead his followers into battle, and the tension between his public and private lives adds a piquancy to the film's stunning battle sequences. The international supporting cast sometimes look like makeweights, especially when chewing on the occasionally stilted dialogue, but any such faults are easily forgiven as the scale and spectacle of El Cid carries the viewer away on a tide of chivalry.On the DVD: This disc is a sadly missed opportunity to present a classic epic in its original form. Although formatted for 16:9 widescreen TVs, which initially gives hope that this might be an anamorphic widescreen presentation, only the opening and closing titles appear in the correct cinematic ratio. Otherwise this is essentially the same picture as the pan & scan VHS version with the same poor print quality. Since a restored 35mm print of El Cid has been shown at cinemas and on TV in recent years there seems to be no excuse for this cut-down presentation. Add some decidedly minimal extras and the result is a disappointing disc. --Mark Walker

• 10th Victim | Blu Ray | (13/09/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Constantine And The Cross | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £9.98   |  Saving you £-4.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Constantine And The Cross (aka Costantino Il Grande)

• Killer Nun | Blu Ray | (24/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Pirates Of Capri | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £8.07   |  Saving you £1.92 (19.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A title informs us that the setting is ""Italy 1798 "" specifically a huge ship whose elaborate riggings and sails Ulmer's camera lovingly tracks in a series of breathtaking compositions. But there's something amiss on the ship which carries both arms and some upper-class snobs. Into this dramatic setting leaps the masked Captain Sirocco (Louis Hayward) a notorious pirate and leader of a proletarian revolt against an increasingly cruel Neapolitan aristocracy. Sirocco and his band att

• The 10th Victim | DVD | (24/02/2014) from £21.58   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Ursula Andress, voted the greatest Bond Girl ever, sports another iconic bikini, and this time it literally kills! Set in the near future, the film opens with Andress killing her penultimate victim in 'The Big Hunt', a reality-TV style game show which selects both 'Hunter' and 'Victim' from participants; the two then chase one another around the globe: kill your 10th victim and you win millions! Andress' final victim is the cool, sun-loving Italian Marcello (Mastroianni) who also needs to no...