The belief in evil - and that evil can be cast out. From these two strands of faith, author William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin wove The Exorcist, the frightening and realistic story of an innocent girl inhabited by a malevolent entity
A BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated Royal Ballet adaptation directed by Paul Czinner, this celebrated 1966 production features mesmerisingly vulnerable performances from both Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn as Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers. Four years into their joint tenure at the Royal Ballet (Nureyev as Principal Dancer and Fonteyn as Prima Ballerina), this production unequivocally captures on film one of the greatest artistic partnerships of the twentieth century.A ballet masterpiece on many levels from Prokofiev's stunning score to Kenneth MacMillan's exquisite choreography Romeo & Juliet is presented here as a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio.SPECIAL FEATURES:Original theatrical trailerImage galleryOriginal promotional material PDFs
Horror classic in which a young doctor commits suicide after a medical committee terminates his research into human embryos considering it too inhumane. His wife then seeks revenge on those who drove her husband to his death by luring each member of the committee into compromising situations and then killing them one by one... Also known as ""Mrs. Hyde"".
Fritz Lang's Expressionistic masterwork continues to exert its influence today, from Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) to Dr Strangelove (1963), and into the late 1990s with Dark City (1998). In the stratified society of the future (Y2K no less), the son of a capitalist discovers the atrocious conditions of the factory slaves, falling in love with the charismatic Maria in the bargain, who preaches nonviolence to the workers. But even the benevolent leadership of Maria is a challenge to the privileged class, so they have the mad-scientist Rotwang concoct a robot double to take her place and incite the workers to riot. The story is melodrama, but it's the powerful imagery that is so memorable. One of the most arresting images has legions of cowed workers filing listlessly into the great maw of the all-consuming machine-god Moloch. Unfortunately, the print used for this DVD is unfocused, scratchy, and five minutes short, altogether unworthy of a visionary masterpiece. It may be too much to hope for the complete film to be restored (only two hours of the original three-hour film are extant), but a clean transfer from a fine-grain negative ought to be possible. And why, when there are other possible future Metropolises to be had, should we downtrodden masses accept this junk? --Jim Gay
Perhaps the most popular ballet video ever released, this version of Tchaikovsky's beloved work stars one of the most famous classical dance partnerships of all time, Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn. Nureyev choreographed this production for the Vienna State Opera Ballet. No ballet lover can afford to be without this DVD, which finds two icons of the 20th-century dance in magnificent form. Ballet authority John Lanchbery, former music director of the Sadler's Wells and Royal Ballet companies, as well as of America Ballet Theatre and Australian Ballet, conducts the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky's enchanting score.
Fritz Lang’s penultimate silent film Spione [Spies] is a flawlessly constructed labyrinthine spy thriller. Hugely influential Lang’s famous passion for meticulous detail combines with masterful story-telling and editing skills to form a relentless tale of intrigue espionage and blackmail. An international spy ring headed by Haghi (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) uses technology threats and murder to obtain government secrets. As master spy president of a bank and music hall clown Haghi leads several lives using instruments of modern technology to spearhead a mad rush for secrets — secrets that assert his power over others. Setting in stone for the first time many elements of the modern spy thriller Spione perhaps represents the zenith of Lang's silent artistry. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Spione in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition.
Premier ballet dancer Rudolph Nureyev makes his acting debut in this lavish story of the life of the famous silent screen actor Rudolph Valentino who caused female moviegoers to riot in the streets upon his death. Controversial director Ken Russell lavishly recreates the glitzy and decadent atmosphere of the roaring 20's and the presence of Nureyev as Valentino imbues the film with passion rarely found in Hollywood.
Hitler - A Career chronicles the life of Adolf Hitler from the German perspective with colour and B&W footage taken from the German military archives. Some of the footage is previously unseen and the programme gives an insight into how Hitler seduced most of the German nation into blind obedience. From the influence of the Teutonic knights and Prussian warriors the documentary explains how Hitler allowed Germany to awake and then sleepwalk into disaster.
NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk has English subtitles.
Simulacron 1 is a highly advanced project designed to elevate conventional computer technology to a new level by creating a virtual reality inhabited by computer-generated people or 'identity units'. When the head of the project dies mysteriously after showing signs of mental disturbance Dr Stiller becomes his successor. However Stiller also begins to behave bizarrely. He speaks of people disappearing whom no one else knows belives someone is trying to murder him and has nausea attacks. As he begins to probe deeper into Simulacron the line between the real and virtual world becomes increasingly blurred and his own existence is questioned. Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 2 part TV production is a science-fiction classic that explores the notion of a computer-generated other world pre-dating The Matrix by 26 years. Since its original broadcast in 1973 it has rarely been shown and following increasing demand the Fassbinder Foundation have restored this remarkable film under the artistic direction of the film's highly acclaimed cinematographer Michael Ballhaus.
Controversial British director Ken Russell (Women in Love, The Devils) tells the story of one of the silver screen's greatest legends, Rudolf Valentino, in this flamboyant and sexually-charged film. Starring world-famous ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev as the adored silent screen actor of the early Hollywood age, Valentino explore the stars humble beginnings as an immigrant in the United States, where he worked for a minimal wage before becoming a New York City gigolo. We then follow him to California, where his good looks allow him to seduce respected actresses. Eventually, his famous lovers help him become a leading man, and he quickly ascends to stardom where he can't escape the media's questions about his past and sexuality. Previously unavailable on Blu-ray, Valentino is an enthralling biopic from one of Britain's most distinctive and celebrated filmmakers.
One of the legendary epics of the silent cinema - and the first part of a trilogy that Fritz Lang developed up to the very end of his career - Dr. Mabuse der Spieler. [Dr. Mabuse the Gambler.] is a masterpiece of conspiracy that even as it precedes the mind-blowing Spione from the close of Lang's silent cycle constructs its own dark labyrinth from the base materials of human fear and paranoia. Rudolf Klein-Rogge plays Dr. Mabuse the criminal mastermind whose nefarious machinations provide the cover for - or describe the result of - the economic upheaval and social bacchanalia at the heart of Weimar-era Berlin. Initiated with the arch-villain's diabolical manipulation of the stock-market and passing through a series of dramatic events based around hypnotism charlatanism hallucinations Chinese incantations cold-blooded murder opiate narcosis and cocaine anxiety Lang's film maintains an unrelenting power all the way to the final act... which culminates in the terrifying question: WHERE IS MABUSE?! A bridge between Feuillade's somnambulistic serial-films and modern media-narratives of elusive robber-barons Lang's two-part classic set the template for the director's greatest works: social commentary as superpsychology poised at the brink of combustion. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Lang's early masterpiece in its fully-restored version on Blu-ray in 1080p for the first time ever. Special Features: New officially licensed transfer from restored HD materials New and improved optional English subtitles with original intertitles Exclusive feature-length audio commentary by film-scholar and Lang expert David Kalat Three video pieces: an interview with the composer of the restoration score a discussion of Norbert Jacques creator of Dr. Mabuse and an examination of the film’s motifs in the context of German silent cinema 32-Page Booklet featuring vintage reprints of writing by Lang
Triumph of the Will is one of the most important films ever made, not because it documents evil--more watchable examples are being made today. And not as a historical example of blind propaganda--those (much shorter) movies are merely laughable now. No, Riefenstahl's masterpiece--and it is a masterpiece, politics aside--combines the strengths of documentary and propaganda into a single, overwhelmingly powerful visual force. Riefenstahl was hired by the Reich to create an eternal record of the 1934 rally at Nuremberg, and that's exactly what she does. You might not become a Nazi after watching her film, but you will understand too clearly how Germany fell under Hitler's spell. The early crowd scenes remind one of nothing so much as Beatles concert footage (if only their fans were so well behaved!).Like the Fascists it monumentalises, Triumph of the Will overlooks its own weaknesses--at nearly two hours, the speeches tend to drone on, and the repeated visual motifs are a little over-hypnotic, especially for modern viewers. But the occasional iconic vista (banners lining the streets of Nuremberg, Hitler parting a sea of 200,000 party members standing at attention) will electrify anyone into wakefulness. --Grant Balfour, Amazon.com
Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn created one of the most memorable partnerships in ballet history. This documentary features clips of the dynamic duo's most popular performances including the pas de deux from ""Le Corsaire"" and ""Swan Lake"" and excerpts from ""Romeo and Juliet"" and ""Les Sylphides"".
Fritz Lang's first sound movie, the serial-killer film M, has often been voted the best German film of all time, but, until now, most of us have never seen it properly. What we have seen is a heavily cut 1950s re-edit with extra sound and music patched in, where Lang was deliberately economical with the new technology. This new "Ultimate Edition" is dominated by a marvellous restoration which is true to his intentions and oft-voiced complaints about what had been done to his best film. The young Peter Lorre is terrifyingly ordinary as the child-murderer whom police and criminals hunt down in what is still one of the best forensic police procedurals ever made, while Gustaf Grundgens has effortless charisma as the chief gangster. Lorre's Hollywood exile and decay, and Grundgens' betrayal of old friends and principles under the Nazis, merely add a layer of irony to all this. Lang's ironic cuts--a gangster's gesture is completed by his police equivalent--and dark, studio-bound cinematography make this one of the great precursors of American film noir. Simply, seen without cracks and pops and lines running down the screen, M is revealed as a true classic--a film that shames everything made in its genre since. On the DVD: M on disc has a great deal of documentary material featuring scholars and technicians telling us just how clever they have been in preparing this splendid restoration. The film also comes with a detailed commentary into which has been spliced interview material with Lang talking in English about specific sequences. There is a German-language film interview with Lang in which he talks through his career and re-enacts the interview with Goebbels that led to his exile; an audio interview with Peter Bogdanovich; and an intelligent video critical essay by film historian R Dixon Smith. The restored film is shown in its correct, unusual visual aspect ratio of 1.90:1 and has vivid cleaned-up digital mono sound: the murderer's whistling of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" has never sounded so chilling. --Roz Kaveney
With the etching onto glass of a single word - MABUSE - Berlin reawakens into a nightmare. Fritz Lang's electrifying Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Testament of Dr. Mabuse) is the astonishing second instalment in the German master's legendary Mabuse series, a film that puts image and sound into an hypnotic arrangement unlike anything seen or heard in the cinema before - or since.It's been eleven years since the downfall of arch-criminal and master-of-disguise Dr. Mabuse (Rudolf Klein-Rogge), now sequestered in an asylum under the watchful eye of one Professor Baum (Oskar Beregi). Mabuse exists in a state of catatonic graphomania, his only action the irrepressible scribbling of blueprints that would realise a seemingly theoretical Empire of Crime. But when a series of violent events courses through the city, police and populace alike start asking themselves with increasing panic: Who is behind all this?! The answer borders on the realm of the impossible...
THE COMPLETE FRITZ LANG MABUSE BOX SET - From the early stages of his career across five decades to his final film Fritz Lang built a trilogy of paranoiac thrillers focused on an entity who began as a criminal mastermind and progressed into something more amorphous: fear itself embodied only by a name - Dr. Mabuse. For the first time on home video all three of Fritz Lang's Mabuse films have been collected for one package in their complete and restored forms. 1: Dr. Mabuse der Spieler. [Dr. Mabuse the Gambler.] (1922) - Lang's two-part nearly 5-hour silent epic detailing the rise and fall of Dr. Mabuse in Weimar-era Berlin. 2: Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse [The Testament of Dr. Mabuse] (1933) - a tour-de-force thriller rife with supernatural elements all converging around an attempt by the now-institutionalised Mabuse (or someone acting under his name... and possibly his will) to organise an Empire of Crime. 3: Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse [The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse] (1960) - Fritz Lang's final film in which hypnosis clairvoyance surveillance and machine-guns come together for a whiplash climax that answers the question: Who's channelling Mabuse's methods in the Cold War era? The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Fritz Lang's complete Mabuse trilogy - a cornerstone in the work of one of cinema's all-time greatest directors. The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set is released on 19 October 2009
Shot in 1969 but banned by the Czech government until the fall of the Communist regime in 1990 Menzel's wry comic drama is a hymn to humanity and nonconformity. The film's principal characters are residents of a state-run junkyard / labour camp for those whose actions have been deemed 'counter-revolutionary'. On one side of the yard live the men most sent here for 're-education'. On the other side are a group of women interned for the crime of attempted defection. Separately the two groups lazily toil sorting out piles of scrap metal (one huge pile is nothing less than a veritable mountain of crucifixes and religious icons); together they flirt philosophize and occasionally sneak off behind the hillocks of slag to make love. Larks On A String is at once a stinging indictment of the repressive politics of Czechoslovakia's past and an endearing comedy and affecting love story.
An Evening With The Royal BalletExcerpts from four different ballets danced by Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev one of the most successful dance partnerships of modern times filmed at the peak of their creative genius with the corps de ballet of the Royal Ballet.Les SylphidesLe CorsaireLa Valsethe Sleeping Beauty (Act 3 Aurora's Wedding)Filmed at Royal Opera House Covent Garden London.
Outside of devoted cult audiences, many Americans have yet to discover the extremely stylish, relentlessly terrifying Italian horror genre, or the films of its talented virtuoso, Dario Argento. Suspiria, part one of a still-uncompleted trilogy (the luminously empty Inferno was the second), is considered his masterpiece by Argento devotees but also doubles as a perfect starting point for those unfamiliar with the director or his genre. The convoluted plot follows an American dancer (Jessica Harper) from her arrival at a European ballet school to her discovery that it's actually a witches coven; but, really, don't worry about that too much. Argento makes narrative subservient to technique, preferring instead to assault the senses and nervous system with mood, atmosphere, illusory gore, garish set production, a menacing camera, and perhaps the creepiest score ever created for a movie. It's essentially a series of effectively unsettling set pieces--a raging storm that Harper should have taken for an omen, and a blind man attacked by his own dog are just two examples--strung together on a skeleton structure. But once you've seen it, you'll never forget it. --Dave McCoy
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