"Director: Claude Chabrol"

• Merci pour le Chocolat | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Claude Chabrol's nervy and nasty little 2001 thriller Merci Pour le Chocolat is based on Charlotte Armstrong's novel The Chocolate Cobweb. In Chabrol's hands it becomes a vehicle of considerable power for the unsettling, disturbed qualities of actress Isabelle Huppert, who has been one of his most important muses over the years (their other collaborations include La Cérémonie and Rien ne va Plus). Huppert plays Mika, the owner of a Swiss chocolate factory, now married to a world-class concert pianist (Jacques Dutronc) and with a stepson who is obsessive about making the family's drinking chocolate every day. As the clues unravel, it soon becomes clear that Mika is damaged goods. When Dutronc acquires a piano student (Anna Mougalis) in curious circumstances, Mika is forced to escalate her secret agenda. Huppert is fascinating throughout and the film is sinewy and, for the most part, rather clever, evoking shades of Hitchcock and Clouzot. Liszt's Les Funérailles is the ominous leitmotif, worked on by Dutronc and his protégé, and the Lausanne setting creates an other-worldliness which seems almost sterile. Only at the end does the picture dwindle into an almost Strindbergian inertia as Mika's motivation seems to evaporate in a rather unsatisfactory way. Until then it is spellbinding. --Piers Ford

• The Girl Cut in Two | DVD | (07/09/2009) from £9.98   |  Saving you £6.01 (37.60%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A stunning TV weathergirl (played by Ludivine Sagnier) finds herself torn between two suitors whose intentions remain very unclear

• Rein Ne Va Plus | DVD | (24/09/2012) from £10.78   |  Saving you £5.21 (32.60%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Betty and Victor are a pair of scam artists. One day Betty brings in Maurice, a treasurer of a multinational company. Maurice is due to transfer 5 million francs out of Switzerland, and Betty is convinced he plans to steal the money. On whose side is Betty really on? - Victors, Maurice's or only her own?Starring Isabelle Huppert (White Material) Michel Serrault & Francois Cluzet (Tell No One).

• Que La Bete Meure | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Director Claude Chabrol crafts a claustrophobic and psychologically complex tale of destiny and revenge in This Man Must Die. The film begins with a birds-eye view of a young boy leaving a seaside beach and a speeding black Mustang approaching from the opposite direction. When the two collide in a hit-and-run accident the movie's action is set in motion. The boy's father Charles (Michel Duchaussoy) makes a solemn vow to find and kill the man who ended his son's life. Through a bizarre series of hunches coincidences and lucky guesses Charles tracks down Helene (Carol Cellier) the sister-in-law of the man he suspects is the killer and begins to seduce her in order to insinuate himself into her family life. When he finally comes face to face with Helene's brother-in-law Paul (Jean Yanne) he finds himself unable to act despite the man's monstrous behaviour and callous attitude. When Charles realizes that Paul's son Phillippe (Marc Di Napoli) wishes his father dead as well the forces of destiny and revenge collide. Chabrol's dense and carefully crafted narrative structure explodes in an unexpected and exhilarating chain of events leading to a cathartic and disastrous climax all portrayed through subtly evocative cinematography and terse performances. Decades later the film inspired Sean Penn's similarly themed The Crossing Guard.

• Blood Relatives | DVD | (31/01/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  In this disturbing psychological thriller two young girls are attacked on the street by a violent rapist. Muriel (Langlois) is murdered but her cousin Patricia (Landry) survives. Inspector Carella (Sutherland) soon has a prime suspect - Doniac (Pleasence) - a known sex offender. He is released when Patricia fails to identify him and Carella turns his attention to Armstrong a man known to Muriel who fits the description. Muriel's funeral is marked by an emotional outburst from Patri

• La Ceremonie | DVD | (17/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Claude Chabrol's La Ceremonie the wealthy Lelievre family live in a grand estate in the calm isolation of the French countryside. All that lacks in their lustrous lifestyle is the perfect maid who they believe to have found in the shy and recalcitrant Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire). The match seems to be perfect and Sophie proves to be ""a bit bizarre but a real pearl"" according to Madame Lelievre (Jacqueline Bisset). Sophie remains distanced from the family and only comes out

• Juste Avant La Nuit | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This Claude Chabrol film is a dark tale of secrets erotica and crime. Successful advertising executive Charles Masson is involved in a hot affair with his best friend's wife Laura. When one of their S&M romps goes bad Charles strangles Laura to death in an apartment that was borrowed. While racing from the scene of the crime he bumps into his friend Francois and drives back to their neighborhood. When someone realises that he'd seen Charles and Laura together in the past he decides not to go to the police with the information. With no clues to the crime police have a hard time finding a suspect. Charles however has an even harder time coping with guilt his children and his loyal wife Helene.

• A Comedy of Power | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £8.95   |  Saving you £4.04 (45.14%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Judge Jeanne Charmant Killman (Isabelle Huppert) is assigned the job of investigating a high-profile case of corruption and embezzlement at a giant statesupported company. Under her orders the CEO Michel Humeau (Franois Berland) is taken in to custody. As her investigation gathers momentum Killman uncovers an immense scandal reaching into the upper echelons of government. The deeper she delves and the more she uncovers the more powerful she becomes. However under the pressures of her sudden influence and notoriety Killman's private life begins to unravel and she finds herself probing both the limits of her own power and its intoxicating grip.

• Madame Bovary | DVD | (24/08/2009) from £15.13   |  Saving you £4.86 (32.12%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Gustav Flaubert's celebrated novel of obsessive ardour undergoes a dazzling retrofit for the screen, courtesy of French neurosis-master Claude Chabrol. The basic story (a woman's selfish quest for happiness ends up obliterating all she holds dear) may be the same but Chabrol's talent for biting through to the dark marrow of passion makes this a startling experience, even for people familiar with the source material or the numerous other cinematic adaptations. Casting Isabelle Huppert in the title role (she's at least a decade older than the standard conception of this wilfully tragic heroine) was a potentially risky gambit that paid off big; underneath her glorious surface lies a startling foundation of brilliant ice. The same can be said about this stunning film. Viewers intrigued by this potent actress-director pairing may also want to check out The Story of Women and the wonderful La Ceremonie. The film is in French with English subtitles. --Andrew Wright

• The French Collection Vol 3: Isabelle Huppert | DVD | (21/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

  The French Collection: Vol.3 - Isabelle Huppert

• Rien Ne Va Plus | DVD | (17/04/2006) from £11.05   |  Saving you £8.94 (80.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Claude Chabrol's fiftieth film two lifelong partners in crime Betty (Isabelle Hupert) and Victor (Michel Serrault) operating out of a small RV criss-cross the country hopping from convention to convention and scamming bourgeois businessmen out of petty sums of money. They make enough however to maintain a comfortable if elusive lifestyle. When Victor discovers that Betty has been carrying on her own scam for over a year the blurry lines between secrets and lies break down.

• Les Noces Rouges | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £9.70   |  Saving you £10.29 (51.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Les Noces Rouges Claude Chabrol extends his usual stinging examination of the French bourgeoisie family into the exaggerated realm of the tragi-comic all the while maintaining his signature elements of psychological terror and thrilling yet detached suspense. Based on an actual French murder case Les Noces Rouges is the story of two lovers each stuck in loveless marriages. Lucienne (Stephane Audran) is married to the frigid and obtuse Paul who is the semi-corrupt mayor of their small town. Pierre (Michel Piccoli) is Paul's deputy mayor and is married to a chronically ill and lifeless wife. An illicit affair of exaggerated passion explodes between Pierre and Lucienne and for a while their passion is enough for them. However when Pierre's wife mysteriously dies and Lucienne's husband discovers her infidelity the plot switches from its seemingly sleepy bourgeois tale of marital troubles and delves into the film noir stylings that could be compared to The Postman Always Rings Twice. The political duplicitousness enacted by Paul and Pierre behind closed doors in the small town's government offices is mirrored and magnified in the fractured narrative of the deranged and depraved transaction between the three players in this tale of love and lust gone sour.

• The Japanese Masters Collection | DVD | (09/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Floating Weeds (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1959): Floating Weeds is one of the final films directed by the legendary Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. A remake of one of his own silent features it tells the story of a travelling Kabuki acting troupe led by Komajuro who arrive in a small coastal town. There Komajuro is reunited with his former lover Oyoshi and their illegitimate son who is unaware that the itinerant actor is his father. But the reunion provokes the jealousy of Sumiko Komanjuro's current mistress who plots a devastating revenge. Beautifully composed and surperbly played 'Floating Weeds' is one of Ozu's most affecting poignant and powerful films. The End Of Summer (Dir. Yasujiro Ozu 1961): This penultimate film by Japanese master director Yasujiro Ozu examines the difficulties faced by the Kohayagawa family as they struggle to adapt their traditional values to a rapidly changing post-war Japan. As the family's generations-old sake making business begins to fail in the face of increasingly fierce competition Manbei the incorrigible elderly patriarch rekindles an affair with an old flame much to the disapproval of his daughter Fumiko. He is further distracted by his attempts to marry off his other two daughters: Akiko the eldest and a widow with a small son and Noriko the youngest who is still single. A sublime bittersweet elegy for a vanishing world The End of Summer is beautifully shot in muted colour elegantly acted and masterfully directed by one of the 20th Century's greatest filmmakers. The Lady of Musashino (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1951): Mizoguchi's dissection of the Japanese reaction to the aftermath of war as a fastidiously moral woman faces upheaval with the changing times brought about by the new post-Imperial period... The Life of Oharu (Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi 1952): In feudal Japan the daughter of a samurai Oharu falls in love with a man below her station. Expelled from the castle in Kyoto her family tries to regain respectability but Oharu is forced into a new life as a concubine and then a fallen woman ever hoping to preserve some semblance of purity in a corrupt world...

• Nada | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Claude Chabrol master of suspense tales set in domestic bourgeois surroundings departs into the arena of political terrorism and violence. Nada is the name of a small terrorist group who plans and executes the kidnapping of the American ambassador to Paris from a brothel secreting him away in an isolated farmhouse while they wait for a response to their demands. As the police close in on the kidnappers it becomes apparent that the French authorities are less concerned with the safe return of the ambassador and more with turning the incident against the Nada leading to an explosive and violent confrontation between the police and the terrorists.

• Les Bonnes Femmes | DVD | (04/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Claude Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes is a deft blend of frank eroticism Hitchcockian suspense and cinematic derring-do that characterizes the best films of the French New Wave. In the drab and dingy Paris of the early sixties four shop-keeping girls are looking for love - of one kind or another. While their lecherous and petty boss savors every opportunity to deliver a dressing down the girls find emotional escape by flirting with delivery men wandering the nightclubs and gossiping about the enigmatic motorcyclist who hangs about following Jacqueline (Clotilde Joano) the doe-eyed romantic. For the vulnerable timid Jacqueline his dogged persistence can only signify the true love in which she fervently believes. But when she finally decides to speak to the mysterious stranger her dreams of romantic bliss are marred only by nagging suspicions...