"Actor: Sandrine Bonnaire"

• East West | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  East West is, fortunately, more than the colour-by-numbers melodrama that the packaging makes it seem. On the cover, a pair of haunted eyes gaze into the middle distance above a superb example of that absurd movie poster copywriting that reads much the same wherever you put the nouns: "In a land without freedom, escape was her only hope", which is hardly more meaningful than, say, "In a land without hope, freedom was her only escape". East West deserves better. A French-Russian production, the film tells the story of a Russian doctor, his French wife and their child. In 1946 they accept Stalin's invitation to exiled Russians to return to the motherland and help rebuild the country; swiftly they discover that the reality doesn't quite match the advertising. The film follows the stresses the situation places on the central couple's marriage and focuses on the wife's dreams of escape, which revolve around an intervention by a grand dame of French theatre (played, appropriately, by Catherine Deneuve). East West suffers slightly from several disorientating lurches forward in time, but is otherwise a superior thriller and a convincing period piece. On the DVD: East West offers two different trailers, filmographies of the stars and director and scene selection. The film is in French with English subtitles. –-Andrew Muller

• Mark Of An Angel | DVD | (16/11/2009) from £9.94   |  Saving you £6.05 (60.87%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Mark Of An Angel tells the story of Elsa who notices a six year old girl at a children's birthday party and immediately becomes convinced it is the daughter she lost during a fire on the maternity ward. Claire the girl's mother at first allows their friendship to develop but as Elsa's behavior becomes more erratic an intense psychological face off between the two mothers ensues. Mark Of An Angel is based on a true story.