"Actor: Teresa"

• Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana / Leoncavallo: Pagliacci | DVD | (14/01/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

• Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) -- La Scala | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Like all successfully filmed operas, Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1974 film of his 1972 La Scala production of The Barber of Seville weaves its magic on multiple levels: naturalistic lighting and camera-work which break through the invisible barrier of the proscenium arch and take the viewer to the heart of the action; wonderful casting and magnificent singing; opera singers who can act to the camera (Teresa Berganza, in particular, is luminous); and conducting which simply revels in the richness of a much-loved score (Claudio Abbado wrings every ounce of levity and brilliance from the music). Rossini's 1816 work, based on Beaumarchais' Figaro characters and an earlier libretto by Paisiello, is one of the great joys of comic opera, crammed with familiar arias and duets, all of which drive the galloping pace of the book without ever interrupting the plot. Its ingredients of romance, disguise and intrigue merge in Rossini's extraordinarily vibrant and increasingly explosive score. At the heart of the tale is the love triangle of Count Almaviva (a lusty Luigi Alva), the wilful Rosina (Teresa Berganza at the peak of her mezzo-soprano powers) and her guardian with an ulterior motive Bartolo (Enzo Dara, constantly foiled). Thanks to the machinations of Figaro (Hermann Prey, making the most of his trademark theme "Largo al factotum") they are put through a series of hoops in which love conquers all and no real harm is ever done. On the DVD: If this Barber has dated at all it's largely thanks to Abbado's pudding-basin haircut and the film's inevitable 1970's quality. It is presented in standard 4:3 format with a PCM Stereo soundtrack, producing a merely average video-standard viewing experience. Apart from a good choice of subtitles there are no extras. A history of the production would have been useful. But these shortcomings, and the occasionally dull sound quality, are soon forgotten in the heat of the action.--Piers Ford

• Queen's Messenger | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  By order of Her Majesty's Secret Service Captain Strong (Gary Daniels) a senior officer of the elite Queen's Messenger Corps is given the dangerous assignment of delivering a delicate communication to the British Ambassador of a troubled eastern European state. If intercepted the document will compromise secret agreements made by the various heads of state for control of the region's lucrative oil resources. Captain Strong is sworn to protect his cargo with his life. Now his comm

• Small Time Obsession | DVD | (05/03/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Erroneously labelled a "gangster film", the independently made British film Small Time Obsession is in fact a thought-provoking essay on generation gaps and loyalties. London's Polish District is the setting, where four long-term friends are used to filling time and their pockets with petty crime. Michael (Alex King) has come to realise he has increasingly less in common with the others, and also with his parents who own a delicatessen. Life's big decisions elude Michael. His exclusively Polish-speaking father wants him to take over the family business, his greyhound Bullitt is starting to win prizes at the track and he's also secretly in love with Ali (Juliette Caton). Unfortunately she's already spoken for by tough guy Chris (Jason Merrells). This love triangle hardly has time to sort itself out since Chris is inadvertently embroiling them all in more Big Time crime. Although the circumstances inevitably lead to bouts of violence , what's refreshing here is that character relationships genuinely resonate with believability. First time writer/director Piotr Szkopiak tells the story with several shades of sympathetic subtlety, sensitively portraying the problems of a generation torn between inheriting their parents' displaced traditions and "fitting in".On the DVD: In this anamorphic widescreen presentation the dirty grey backdrop of London seems to rise up and swamp the characters. A 14-minute documentary ("Behind the Obsession") talks about those locales and how the director and distributor marketed the film. As well as a trailer, the extras package includes numerous text pages devoted to: cast and crew biographies, Production Notes, Locations, Media Reviews and the Polish Community. --Paul Tonks

• Bedtime Stories Magical Gifts DVD Retail | DVD | (21/05/2012) from £6.76   |  Saving you £11.23 (166.12%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Full of daredevil stunts, captivating scenery and lots of laughs, Bedtime Stories is a fun movie families will love watching time and time again. Out on Disney DVD and Blu-ray April 27th.

• Meat Market | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Animal attacks says the TV news are behind a recent spate of grisly killings. But two ex-security agents know the real cause maybe the real culprits...

• Private Vices Public Virtues | DVD | (22/02/2010) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The setting is a Central European kingdom near the turn of the century. Bored by his very proper wife the youthful heir to the throne spends his time in amorous dalliances at a sprawling country estate. His wife departs at the arrival of his friends and they organize a celebration which becomes a wild orgy and culminates in death and tragedy.

• Bedtime Stories/Enchanted | DVD | (27/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Bedtime Stories: A fantastical tale about a man who makes up bedtime stories for his niece and nephew only to find that they magically come true the next day, Bedtime Stories is a funny and enjoyable film about finding happiness in unexpected places. Skeeter (Adam Sandler) grew up with his sister Wendy (Courteney Cox) in a small hotel run by his father Marty (Jonathan Pryce) which was eventually sold to Barry Nottingham (Richard Griffiths) with the caveat that Skeeter would someday assume a leadership role in the business. Expansion transformed the small hotel into the luxury Nottingham Hotel, but Skeeter is just a handyman with little hope of advancement. When his sister needs to leave the state for a job interview, Skeeter ends up sharing the responsibility of watching her two elementary-age children Bobbi (Laura Ann Kessling) and Patrick (Jonathan Morgan Heit), whom he hasn't seen for years, with Wendy's friend Jill (Keri Russell). Initially an awkward situation, Skeeter and the kids bond over bedtime stories which Skeeter and the children make up. When events in the story start coming true, Skeeter tries to spin the stories to benefit his life, but events take some unexpected turns thanks to the kids' wild imaginations and some strange translations between fiction and reality. New relationships flourish and in the end, Skeeter, Wendy, Mr. Nottingham, Bobbi, Patrick, and Jill each find happiness in a most unexpected place and discover what's really important in their own life. Also worth mentioning is the character Bugsy, a guinea pig with enormous eyes that's sure to have every child begging for their own pet guinea pig. Rated PG for mild rude humor and mild language, but appropriate for most ages 6 and older. --Tami HoriuchiEnchanted: If you’re looking for signs that the modern-day Disney has lost neither its touch nor its savvy nature, then there’s evidence in abundance in the smart modern-day fairy tale Enchanted. Bookended by the kind of old-style animation the studio is rightly famed for, the main, live action segment of the film finds Amy Adams’ Giselle--an archetypal Disney princess in pretty much every sense--dropped slap bang into the middle of modern day New York. What follows is ingenious fun, as Giselle walks round very much as a fish out of water, followed quickly by James Marsden’s prince who attempts to come to the rescue. Thing is, modern day New York and old style princesses don’t really mix, and Enchanted studiously mines the comedy of the scenario, thanks to a smart and witty script.What also lifts Enchanted though are the delightful tips of the hat to classics of Disney old. And we’re not just talking the show-stopping numbers: there are references to the likes of Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty to be found here, and a star-making performance from Adams powering the whole film forward. One of the very best family movies of 2007, Enchanted does occasionally stumble through the odd twee moment (and it could really use a villain with more screen time than Susan Sarandon’s wicked stepmother gets), but that can’t hide the fact that it’s terrific fun, lavishly made and, at its best, quite brilliant. A modern day family classic, and great to see Disney once again delivering the kind of entertainment it excels at. --Simon Brew

• Cult Action Extravaganza | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The Cult Action Extravaganza three-disc set offers three very different movies that have nothing in common bar residency in Siren's film archive. They are: The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) and Get Christie Love! (1974). The Most Dangerous Game is a classic, one of the first talkies to get pictures moving after five very static years following the birth of sound. The plot finds resourceful hero Joel McCrea and heroine Fay Wray being hunted on the island of the insane Zaroff (Leslie Banks). One of the grandfathers of the summer blockbuster, the film's setup has been reworked many times since, notably in John Woo's Hard Target (1993). By modern standards it's technically primitive, though still gripping stuff, complete with the jungle set built as a test run for King Kong (1933) and graced by Max Steiner's prototype of all Hollywood action scores. Beneath the 12-Mile Reef is another landmark or rather watermark. The third-ever CinemaScope production, this was a prestige release with Technicolor location filming at Key West, Florida of never-before-achieved underwater cinematography and four-channel stereo recording of a superlative Bernard Herrmann score. Even a still-impressive underwater battle with an octopus pre-dates the more famous giant squid of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). The humans aren't bad either, with a young Robert Wagner making a charismatic if ethnically unconvincing Greek lead as sponge fisherman Tony and Terry Moore playing Juliet to his Romeo with real vivacity. Starring Theresa Graves, Get Christie Love! is a tame TV movie imitation of early 1970s female blaxploitation films such Pam Grier's Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974). Running a standard TVM 73 minutes and with a low budget and content sanitised to US network standards, this is lightweight stuff about an undercover cop determined to smash a drugs ring. Nevertheless the movie was popular enough to spawn a short-lived TV show and is significant for being the first time a black woman took the title role in any American network production. Tarantino completists may be interested, as before he paid homage to Christie Love in the dialogue of Reservoir Dogs (1991). On the DVD: Cult Action Extravaganza presents the films in their original aspect ratio and sound format; The Most Dangerous Game and Get Christie Love! are 4:3, mono. The former is faded b/w with reasonably sturdy sound, though the transfer suffers from compression artefacting. No one would expect great quality from a 1974 TV movie, but Get Christie Love! suffers from both a poor print and a mediocre DVD transfer. Beneath the 12-Mile Reef is presented in the extra wide 2.55:1 of early CinemaScope and though sadly not anamorphic both the seascapes and underwater cinematography are still impressive. The four-channel stereo sound is revelatory, clear, detailed and years ahead of what we have come to expect early 1950s films to sound like. --Gary S Dalkin

• Meat Market 2 | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £18.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (5.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  More than a year after the events of Meat market the few survivors Argenta Nemesis and others struggle for survival against the undead in the ruins of what was once a society. In their search for a safe haven they come across what appears to be the last refuge of humanity - a fortified compund run by former motivational speaker Bill Wilheim and his cult of heavily armed fanatics. But when Argenta is subjected to andoctrination techniques and her comrades imprisoned she begins

• Merchant-Ivory In America | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The Bostonians The daughter of a faith healer is forced to choose between her mother's religious activities and her desire to use her speaking ability to further the women's suffragette movement. To complicate matters more the man she loves is strongly opposed to the feminist cause. The Europeans In 1850 a few miles outside Boston the household of the dour Mr. Wentworth receives two unannounced visitors from Europe Eugenia and Felix the daughter and son of his half sister. Gertrude one of Wentworth's two daughters is instantly infatuated with her cousins and trouble brews... The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe A tangled triangle. In the rural South of the early 20th century Miss Amelia is the town eccentric... Jane Austen In Manhattan Two teachers vie for the right to stage a play written by Jane Austen when she was twelve years old... Roseland Three interlocking stories set in the legendary New York City dance palace make up this charming film the third to be shot by Merchant Ivory Productions in America. In the first segment 'The Waltz' Teresa Wright is a widow who comes to Roseland in order to sustain the memory of her late husband where she meets Stan (Lou Jacobi) a man who offers her an opportunity for happiness in the present. In 'The Hustle' Christopher Walken stars as a gigolo with three women in his life all of whom depend on him for different degrees of romance and companionship. In the final segment 'The Peabody' an older Vietnamese woman (Lilia Skala) sets out to win a dance competition despite warnings that it could imperil her health. The Proprietor A story of changing times constant relationships and reconciliation with the past.

• Teresa Berganza - Live in Concert | DVD | (02/09/2016) from £13.06   |  Saving you £2.19 (18.56%)   |  RRP £13.99

• Mozart - Don Giovanni (Molinari-Pradelli) | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £23.82   |  Saving you £4.17 (17.51%)   |  RRP £27.99

  Mozart - Don Giovanni (Molinari-Pradelli)

• Vivaldi - The Four Seasons - I Musici | DVD | (13/08/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Vivaldi: The Four Seasons - I Musici (DVD and CD)

• Mozart - Cosi Fan Tutte (the Salzburg Marionette Theatre) | DVD | (20/02/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Performed by the Salzburg Marionette Theatre and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by: Georg Solti.

• Bloody Wednesday | DVD | (29/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  After losing his job a young man holes up in a ramshackle hotel where after being terrorised his mind begins to run riot and turns to a bloody revenge against those he perceives to have slighted him...

• A Discovery of Witches - Staffel 2 BD | Blu Ray | (19/11/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Salieri: Falstaff | DVD | (21/06/2000) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Recorded at the Schwetziner Festspiele in 1995.

• The Capture | Blu Ray | (18/01/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Snap / RSVP / Nice Girls Don't Explode | DVD | (06/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Snap: Beaver Bras hand a young executive a cheque for 100 000 dollars to sign up five famous and well-endowed women to model their lingerie... This raunchy adult comedy follows the adventures of this lucky young man as he peruses five very different but similarly endowed beautiful young ladies around the world to get them to sign on the dotted line. R.S.P.V. An expose book launch turns into a wild Hollywood party where the hosts attempt to conceal the death of a guest whose untimely end is caused by a popular erotic stimulus... Nice Girls Don't Explode: Take the psychotic mother-daughter team from 'Carrie'. Add the 'fire girl' premise of 'Firestarter'. Mix in a generous helping of racy irreverent comedy and you get a towering inferno of fun called 'Nice Girls Don't Explode'. Barbara Harris plays Mom a domestic tyrant who makes Joan Crawford seem rather permissive. After seeing an ad for a movie called 'Fire Girl' Mom devises an elaborate scheme to shield daughter April from men and sex. She decides to fight fire with fire. April's date with Ken is an utter disaster. His advances cause April's heartbeat to rise resulting in several spontaneous combustions. Even a simple good night kiss leaves Ken's Corvette a charred wreck. Enter Andy April's old flame. He's eighteen and still has the hots for his childhood playmate. Naturally April avoids him not wanting to cause a meltdown. Over the remains of Andy's Buick April explains her unique condition. Andy is understandbly sceptical and after hearing Mom's explanation - that April has a split personality - he takes April to a mental hospital. But that isn't the real problem...