"Director: Jack Cardiff"

• Long Ships | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Viking brothers Rolfe (Widmark) and Orm (Russ Tamblyn) steal the Norse king's funeral ship, as well as his beautiful daughter Gerda (Beba Loncar), and head off in search of the fabled 'Mother of Voices,' a huge solid-gold bell and battle a maelstrom, a mutinous crew and vengeful Moorish troops...

• Girl on a Motorcycle | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  Caught midway between 1970s soft-porn clunker The Story of O and Bunuel's sado-masochistic fantasy Belle de Jour, the 1968 erotic curio Girl on a Motorcycle is one of Marianne Faithfull's chief claims to notoriety. She stars as Rebecca, a leather-clad, former bookstore clerk in search of sexual fulfilment who flees her dependable schoolteacher husband for a dangerous liaison with Daniel (Alain Delon), a dashing Professor addicted to speed. The story is told entirely in flashbacks as Rebecca rockets along the road, having donned her leathers and walked out on her sleeping husband at the crack of dawn. It all must have seemed fairly daring and provocative in 1968, providing viewers with ample opportunities to view a naked Faithfull at the height of her allure. But today the existential musings of the lead character seem achingly pretentious, the erotic symbolism merely gawky and unintentionally amusing: the sight of Alain Delon with a phallic pipe dangling from his mouth is like something out of a Rene Magritte painting. The sex scenes between Delon and Faithfull are all swamped in a polarised visual effect that, while garish and psychedelic, is dated and distinctly unerotic. Director Jack Cardiff is better known as a cinematographer on classics such as The African Queen and Black Narcissus. Among Cardiff's other directorial credits is a worthy adaptation of DH Lawrence's Sons & Lovers, but Girl on a Motorcycle is a saucy road movie with no final destination. On the DVD: This DVD version is misleadingly presented as being the fully restored and uncut version of the film. Yet it was the US version not the European one that was heavily cut (and titillatingly re-titled "Naked Under Leather"). The restoration certainly does not refer to the print quality: although the colours are vivid and bright, the print used to master the DVD (in 16:9 anamorphic format) is extremely grainy and, at times, speckled with dirt and scratches. Included as one of the special features, a theatrical trailer loaded with innuendo shows just how much the film was marketed to a prurient audience. Director Jack Cardiff provides an audio commentary but has few revelatory things to say about his film beyond technical considerations, and even makes several clunking errors (recalling his casting decisions concerning a scene that takes place in a provincial German café, he raves about how he strove to find authentic French locals!). He does reveal that the film's use of a voice-over was inspired by the internal monologue that forms the basis of James Joyce's Ulysses. Given Cardiff's age and experience one feels that he must have more interesting anecdotes and insights, making this commentary feel like a wasted opportunity. --Chris Campion

• The Girl On A Motorcycle | DVD | (09/09/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Marianne Faithfull and Alain Delon star in this 1968 Anglo-French psychedelic masterpiece filmed and directed by Oscar-winner Jack Cardiff. Stifled by her meaningless bourgeois marriage and lifestyle beautiful young housewife Rebecca (Marianne Faithfull) slips into her black cycle leathers straddles her Harley Davidson Electra Glide and sets out across Europe in search of her forbidden uncaring lover Daniel (Alain Delon). Revelling in her freedom Rebecca finds herself riding across landscapes of memory abandoned in a past filled with delicious guilt and a dangerous delight in self destruction. Awash in psychedelic erotic imagery she discovers herself even as she is lost enraptured and drawn into an all-consuming union with the powerful machine between her legs... A real treat for all lovers of 1960s cult cinema and fans of the masterful cinematography and direction of the legendary Jack Cardiff The Girl on a Motorcycle has been digitally remastered and restored for this it's first-ever UK DVD release.

• Penny Gold | DVD | (16/09/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Oscar winning Jack Cardiff directs twisting British thriller in which a detective investigating the murder of a young woman makes a startling discovery. Veteran detective Matthews (James Booth) is determined to crack the brutal murder of a young woman. Her face has been badly battered but her body is identified by her identical twin, Delphi (Francesca Annis), towards whom Matthews feels a growing attraction. As Matthews' investigations take him deeper, he uncovers a plot to steal a priceles...

• Sons And Lovers | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Set against the background of a grimy village near Nottingham this story of a coal-miner's son with promising artistic talents unfolds with sensitivity and intelligence in Jack Cardiff's adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's semi-autobiographical novel. Caught up in his mother's possessiveness and his father's violent bouts Paul Morel (Dean Stockwell) sacrifices his chance to study art in London and the local girl he loves and eventually becomes involved with a woman separated from her hus

• My Geisha | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Paul Robaix (Yves Montand) is a well known director married to Lucy Dell (Shirley MacLaine) a famous movie star. Robaix wants to make a movie of the classic play Madame Butterfly but he doesn't want his wife to play the leading part as in his previous pictures. Producer Sam Lewis (Edward G. Robinson) and Lucy Dell think up a scheme to get her in the picture after all. Lucy disguises as a Geisha and gets the leading part in the picture. When Robaix finds out he gets so mad he wants to divorce Lucy...

• Girl On A Motorcycle | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Caught midway between 1970s soft-porn clunker The Story of O and Bunuel's sado-masochistic fantasy Belle de Jour, the 1968 erotic curio Girl on a Motorcycle is one of Marianne Faithfull's chief claims to notoriety. She stars as Rebecca, a leather-clad, former bookstore clerk in search of sexual fulfilment who flees her dependable schoolteacher husband for a dangerous liaison with Daniel (Alain Delon), a dashing Professor addicted to speed. The story is told entirely in flashbacks as Rebecca rockets along the road, having donned her leathers and walked out on her sleeping husband at the crack of dawn. It all must have seemed fairly daring and provocative in 1968, providing viewers with ample opportunities to view a naked Faithfull at the height of her allure. But today the existential musings of the lead character seem achingly pretentious, the erotic symbolism merely gawky and unintentionally amusing: the sight of Alain Delon with a phallic pipe dangling from his mouth is like something out of a Rene Magritte painting. The sex scenes between Delon and Faithfull are all swamped in a polarised visual effect that, while garish and psychedelic, is dated and distinctly unerotic. Director Jack Cardiff is better known as a cinematographer on classics such as The African Queen and Black Narcissus. Among Cardiff's other directorial credits is a worthy adaptation of DH Lawrence's Sons & Lovers, but Girl on a Motorcycle is a saucy road movie with no final destination. On the DVD: This DVD version is misleadingly presented as being the fully restored and uncut version of the film. Yet it was the US version not the European one that was heavily cut (and titillatingly re-titled "Naked Under Leather"). The restoration certainly does not refer to the print quality: although the colours are vivid and bright, the print used to master the DVD (in 16:9 anamorphic format) is extremely grainy and, at times, speckled with dirt and scratches. Included as one of the special features, a theatrical trailer loaded with innuendo shows just how much the film was marketed to a prurient audience. Director Jack Cardiff provides an audio commentary but has few revelatory things to say about his film beyond technical considerations, and even makes several clunking errors (recalling his casting decisions concerning a scene that takes place in a provincial German café, he raves about how he strove to find authentic French locals!). He does reveal that the film's use of a voice-over was inspired by the internal monologue that forms the basis of James Joyce's Ulysses. Given Cardiff's age and experience one feels that he must have more interesting anecdotes and insights, making this commentary feel like a wasted opportunity. --Chris Campion