"Actor: Pierre Jolivet"

• Le Dernier Combat | Blu Ray | (14/09/2009) from £9.09   |  Saving you £15.90 (63.60%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The sky is raining fish. Skyscrapers sit in mountains of sand. Bandits sleep in trunks of used cars. It's a world of the future. A world called Planet Earth. And he's one man just trying to survive. In Besson's haunting beautifully realised vision of a post-apocalyptic world few have held onto life and fewer still to humanity. An unknown trauma has robbed mankind of their ability to speak and they remain mute in the unexplained wreckage of what once was. The Man (Pierre Jolivet) is an isolated survivor wandering the hostile streets of a collapsed civilization. He lives in a long-abandoned office building fighting off attacks from nearby thugs and gathering together disused car parts for a makeshift airplane hoping to fly away from his sombre prison. Escape however offers little respite as he leaves one dead city for another. In the midst of this new wasteland The Man encounters his nemesis The Brute (Jean Reno); a violent aggressor who becomes determined to destroy him. By chance he stumbles into a derelict hospital and finds there an old doctor who is hiding from The Brute. Together the two seek sanctuary from The Brute and gradually in the grey and sterile world a friendship begins to grow. Luc Besson's debut feature film Le Dernier Combat has been much lauded by audiences and critics alike since its release in 1984 and enjoys a richly deserved cult status in the annuls of film history.

• Le Dernier Combat | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £9.95   |  Saving you £3.04 (30.55%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Le Dernier Combat (1983) finds Luc Besson setting out his directorial convictions in vividly direct terms. He honours the French New Wave through spartan, documentary-style presentation and--save for possibly the two most meaningful "Bonjours" in cinema history--the total absence of dialogue, appropriate for a film in which devastation has robbed survivors of the power of speech. The action centres on Pierre Jolivet, good-guy in a society where vigilantism and subjugation are the primary tools of survival. Gladiatorially clad Jean Reno makes a characteristic showing as his ruthless opponent, while Jean Bouise is the taciturn doctor who comes to Jolivet's aid. Eric Serra offsets the chill austerity with a motley score of modernist clichés and easy listening soundbites. To be honest, there's little about this film that could be considered ground-breaking, but if a Mad Max scenario filtered through European surrealist sensibilities appeals, then Le Dernier Combat will make absorbing viewing. On the DVD Le Dernier Combat's 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen picture has a suitably stark immediacy, enhanced by the surround sound option. There are no subtitles, hardly a stumbling block in this instance, and no special features apart from the chance to see trailers for two rather different Hollywood productions. There's no directorial commentary, which is a pity, as Besson's subsequent career has been an eventful one and it would have been good to hear him discuss it from the perspective of his first feature. --Richard Whitehouse

• Le Dernier Combat | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £12.75   |  Saving you £3.24 (25.41%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Experience Luc Besson's dark vision of the future a cult classic exploration of the post-apocalyptic survival. In a world populated with savages living amongst the wreckage of a devastated civilization one man wages war against brutality and isolation. Filmed in black and white and almost entirely without dialogue Besson's first film presents in every detail a haunting premonition of a hostile tomorrow.