"Actor: Rijk de Gooyer"

• Soldier Of Orange | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on real events, Soldier of Orange tells the story of Dutchman Erik Lanshof (a star-making performance by Rutger Hauer) and a small group of students as they struggle to survive the Nazi occupation to the end of the Second World War. The destinies of the characters range from joining the German army to making for England, the OSS and the Resistance. Across a canvas lasting almost three hours director Paul Verhoeven unfolds a saga of friendship, espionage and romance with almost documentary realism--though not as graphically violent as his later American films the torture scenes are intense--crafting a deeply affecting film widely regarded as the greatest ever made in Holland. Comparable recent films such as Enigma (2001) and Charlotte Gray (2002) do not come close. Hauer is brilliant at the heart of what is a detailed and thoughtful drama made with integrity and passion. Co-star Jeroen Krabbé has gone onto a notable career in Hollywood, while Edward Fox and Susan Penhaligon provide more familiar faces for British audiences. The film is shot in Dutch, German and English and subtitled as necessary. Twenty years later Verhoeven made Starship Troopers in 1997, a satirical science-fiction companion to this modern European classic.--Gary S Dalkin

• Nosferatu The Vampyre | DVD | (10/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It is 1850 in the beautiful perfectly kept town of Wismar. Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) is about to leave on a long journey over the Carpathian Mountains to finalise real estate arrangements with a wealthy nobleman. His wife Lucy (Isabel Adjani) begs him not to go and is troubled by a strong premonition of danger. Despite her warnings Jonathan arrives four weeks later at a large gloomy castle. Out of the mist appears a pale wraith-like figure with a shaven head and deep sunken eyes who identifies himself as Count Dracula (Klaus Kinski) The events that transpire slowly convince Harker that he is in the midst of a vampire. What he doesn't know however is the magnitude of danger he his wife and his town are about to experience as victims of the Nosferatu. Directed by Werner Herzog a leading figure in German Cinema's 'new wave' of the 1970's Nosferatu is widely recognised as one of the finest films of the vampire genre. A homage to F. W. Murnau's 1922 original Herzog's Nosferatu is driven towards tragedy and visual splendour rather than the gory bloodfests of later remakes. Herzog's frequent leading man and eccentric live wire Klaus Kinski (Android Lifespan Dr Zhivago) gives a sensational performance as the eerie goblin-like Dracula.