"Actor: Saadi Yacef"

• New York Ripper | DVD | (31/08/2009) from £18.05   |  Saving you £1.94 (10.75%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It's a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to die there! A blade-wielding psychopath is on the loose turning the Big Apple bright red with the blood of beautiful young women. As NYPD detectives follow the trail of butchery from the decks of the Staten Island Ferry to the sex shows of Times Square each brutal murder becomes a sadistic taunt. In the city that never sleeps he's the killer that can't be stopped! Written and directed by acclaimed horror maestro Lucio Fulci The New York Ripper is one of Fulci's most savage and controversial thrillers.

• Battle of Algiers - Dual Format Special Edition | DVD | (05/02/2018) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  CultFilms is proud to present the newly restored 4K version of Battle of Algiers, Gillo Pontecorvo's multi award-winning masterpiece, as never seen before. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 1966 Venice Film Festival and nominated for three Oscars® (Best Director/ Screenplay and Foreign Picture), The Battle of Algiers is a unique ground-breaking film revered by filmmakers such as Ken Loach, Chris Nolan, Spike Lee, Paul Greengrass et al. Summed up by The Observer as One of the most remarkable film of all time, it features Oscars® winner Ennio Morricone's most haunting score. It arrives as a stunning luxury collector's dual-format set full of fascinating special features and a booklet in December 2017. Shot in a gritty documentary style devised by Pontecorvo, with remarkable crowd scenes, it features the then pioneering use of amateur actors including real-life guerrilla fighter Saadi Yacef (who went on to coproduce the film) all adding to the film's realism. To date, the film is used by military organisations including the Pentagon to offer insights in to guerrilla strategy and the effects of foreign occupation. Painstakingly restored in 4k by the multi-awarded L'Immagine Ritrovata - with the participation of the director's son, cinematographer and director Marco Pontecorvo - in collaboration with CultFilms, the 4K preservation of Pontecorvo's unique B&W vision was nominated for the Best Restored Film at the 2016 Venice Film Festival. Battle of Algiers is more topical and burningly relevant today than ever Extras/Episodes: New extra on the 4K restoration Booklet by Alan O'Leary (from his book on BATTLE OF ALGIERS) Interview with Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo on the making of the Battle of Algiers Interview with actor & producer S Yacef, head of FLN guerrillas, now Senator on the real battle Interview with FLN fighter Zohra Drif Bitat (guerrilla bomber and later wife of Algerian President) Exclusive in depth analysis by Director Paul Greengrass Exclusive interview with Director Ken Loach

• The Battle of Algiers | Blu Ray | (09/07/2012) from £18.75   |  Saving you £3.24 (17.28%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Director Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 movie The Battle of Algiers concerns the violent struggle in the late 1950s for Algerian independence from France, where the film was banned on its release for fear of creating civil disturbances. Certainly, the heady, insurrectionary mood of the film, enhanced by a relentlessly pulsating Ennio Morricone soundtrack, makes for an emotionally high temperature throughout. With the advent of the "war against terror" in recent years, the film's relevance has only intensified. Shot in a gripping, quasi-documentary style, The Battle of Algiers uses a cast of untrained actors coupled with a stern voiceover. Initially, the film focuses on the conversion of young hoodlum Ali La Pointe (Brahim Haggiag) to FLN (the Algerian Liberation Front.) However, as a sequence of outrages and violent counter-terrorist measures ensue, it becomes clear that, as in Eisenstein's October, it is the Revolution itself that is the true star of the film. Pontecorvo balances cinematic tension with grimly acute political insight. He also manages an even-handedness in depicting the adversaries. He doesn't flinch from demonstrating the civilian consequences of the FLN's bombings, while Colonel Mathieu, the French office brought in to quell the nationalists, is played by Jean Martin as determined, shrewd and, in his own way, honourable man. However, the closing scenes of the movie--a welter of smoke, teeming street demonstrations and the pealing white noise of ululations--leaves the viewer both intellectually and emotionally convinced of the rightfulness of the liberation struggle. This is surely among a fistful of the finest movies ever made. --David Stubbs