"Director: Peter Watkins"

• Edvard Munch (1974) (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (13/06/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Described by Ingmar Bergman as a work of genius, Peter Watkins' multi-faceted masterwork is more than just a biopic of the iconic Norwegian Expressionist painter; it is one of the best films ever made about the artistic process. Focusing initially on Munch's formative years in late 19th century Kristiania (now Oslo), Watkins uses his trademark vérité style to create a vivid picture of the emotional, political, and social upheavals that would have such an effect on his art. The young artist (Geir Westby) has an affair with Mrs. Heiberg (Gro Fraas), a devastating experience that will haunt him for the rest of his life. His work is viciously attacked by critics and public alike and he is forced to leave his home country for Berlin, where, along with the notorious Swedish playwright August Strindberg, he becomes part of the cultural storm that is to sweep Europe. There have been countless film biographies of famous artists, but only a handful can be considered major works in their own right. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Watkins' extended 221-minute version, in a new Blu-ray presentation. Special Features: Director-approved high-definition restoration of the long version Optional SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 80-PAGE BOOK with a Peter Watkins self-interview, writing by Joseph Gomez, a Munch timeline, and numerous artworks

• Punishment Park - Dual Format (Blu-ray+DVD) | Blu Ray | (23/01/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Both controversial and relentless in its depiction of suppression and brutality, Punishment Park was heavily attacked by the mainstream press and permitted only the barest of releases in 1971. However, like Haskell Wexler's Medium Cool (1969) and Robert Kramer's Ice (1969), Peter Watkins' film has established itself as one of the key, yet rarely seen, radical films of the late 1960s/early 1970s. Giving voice to the disaffected youth of America that had lived through the campus riots at Berkeley, the trial of the Chicago Seven and who were witnessing the escalation of the Vietnam War, Punishment Park was named by Rolling Stone as one of their top ten films of 1971 and has earned many admirers in the four decades since its release.Set in a detention camp in an America of the near-future, Punishment Park's pseudo-documentary style (continuing Watkins' subversive innovations with Culloden and The War Game) places a British film crew amongst a group of young students and minor dissidents who have opted to spend three days in 'Bear Mountain Punishment Park'. The detainees, rather than accept lengthy jail sentences for their 'crimes', gamble their freedom on an attempt to reach an American flag - on foot and without water - through the searing heat of the desert. The pursuit of Group 637 - a lethal, one-sided game of cat-and-mouse with a squad of heavily armed police and National Guardsmen - is contrasted with the corrupt trial of Group 638 by a quasi-judicial tribunal.Unlike Easy Rider's mythologising of American counter-culture, Punishment Park's uncompromising stance, and its uneasy parallels with Guantanamo Bay, retain a powerful and prescient message in the post-9/11 present.

• Culloden + The War Game (Dual Format Edition) | DVD | (28/03/2016) from £7.29   |  Saving you £12.70 (174.21%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Culloden, Watkins' first full-length film, a docudrama made for the BBC, portrays the 1746 Battle of Culloden which in the words of the narrator tore apart forever the clan system of the Scottish Highlands. The film was hailed as a breakthrough for its cinematography, as well as its use of non-professional actors and presentation of an historical event in the style of modern TV reporting. The War Game is Watkins' 1965 Academy Award-winning television drama-documentary depicting a nuclear war, written, directed and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology series. The film shows the prelude to, and immediate weeks of the aftermath, of a Soviet nuclear attack against Britain. Told in the style of a news magazine programme, the cast was made up of non-actors, with narration by Peter Graham and Michael Aspel reading quotations from source material. Watkins is known for pushing boundaries to the extreme with his documentaries and his films continue to inspire today. The films in this collection have been remastered to High Definition, and are presented on Blu-ray for the very first time.

• Privilege (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (24/10/2011) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-20.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Steve Shorter, the biggest pop star of his day, is loved by millions; his approval or endorsement can guide the choices and actions of the masses. But, in reality, he is a puppet whose popularity is carefully managed by government-backed handlers keen to keep the country's youth under control. Only an act of complete rebellion can set him free.Starring Manfred Mann lead singer Paul Jones as Shorter, and iconic Sixties supermodel Jean Shrimpton as the girl who tries to help him defy the system, Privilege is the third feature from provocative British director Peter Watkins, a filmmaker who's unique vrit-style and oppositional themes have continually met with controversy throughout his career.

• Edvard Munch | DVD | (22/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Famously described by Ingmar Bergman as ""a work of genius"" Peter Watkins' multi-faceted masterwork is more than just a biopic of the iconic Norwegian Expressionist painter it is one of the best films ever made about the artistic process. Focusing initially on Munch's formative years in late 19th Century Kristiana (now Oslo) Watkins uses his trademark style to create a vivid picture of the emotional political and social upheavals that would have such an effect on his art. The young artist (Geir Westby) has an affair with ""Mrs Heiberg"" (Gro Fraas) a devastating experience that will haunt him for the rest of his life. His work is viciously attacked by critics and public alike and he is forced to leave his home country for Berlin where along with the notorious Swedish playwright August Strindberg he becomes part of the cultural storm that is to sweep Europe. There have been countless film biographies of famous artists but only a handful can be considered major works in their own right. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Watkins' original extended 211-minute TV version of what is regarded by many as an extraordinary feat of filmmaking.

• Privilege | Blu Ray | (25/01/2010) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Steve Shorter the biggest pop star of his day is loved by millions; his approval or endorsement can guide the choices and actions of the masses. But in reality he is a puppet whose popularity is carefully managed by government-backed handlers keen to keep the country's youth under control. Only an act of complete rebellion can set him free. Starring Manfred Mann lead singer Paul Jones as Shorter and iconic Sixties supermodel Jean Shrimpton as the girl who tries to help him defy the system Privilege is the third feature from provocative British director Peter Watkins a filmmaker who's unique v''rit''-style and oppositional themes have continually met with controversy throughout his career. Remastered in high-definition and made available in the UK for the first time since its original cinema release Privilege is presented here with two of Watkins' earliest film works.

• Culloden | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Described in its opening credits as 'an account of one of the most mishandled and brutal battles ever fought in Britain' 'Culloden' was heralded as a breakthrough after its first broadcast by the BBC in December 1964. Peter Watkins' reconstruction of the famous battle of 1746 that 'tore apart forever the clan system of the Scottish Highlands' shot as a current news report by a television crew stunned viewers with the power of its imagery and the immediacy of its storytelling.

• Punishment Park | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £32.37   |  Saving you £-12.38 (-61.90%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Call it a pseudo-documentary, an outrageous piece of propaganda, perhaps even a paranoid fantasy, but one description that definitely does not apply to Punishment Park is "light entertainment." Brit director Peter Watkins offers a chilling scenario, set in the early '70s, in which, according to an edict called the McCarran Act (which did exist, albeit in different form), the U.S. government has the right to detain (without bail, evidence, or anything resembling a fair trial) anyone who "probably will engage in certain future acts of sabotage." The detainees, most of them '60s radicals, are offered a choice between long prison sentences or three days in "Punishment Park," a scorching stretch of the Southern California desert; should they choose the latter, they will be released upon reaching an American flag planted many miles away, all the while avoiding capture (or, more likely, death) at the hands of a bunch of gung-ho cops, National Guardsmen, and other law enforcement types. The film alternates between the "tribunals" where the radicals' fates are decided (and where the shrill hectoring and sloganeering--on both sides--come fast and furious) and the grim scenes in the desert. And although Watkins clearly takes the side of the prisoners (as does the fictional film crew on hand to document the proceedings), no one emerges entirely unscathed: the politicians, "average" Americans, and others holding forth at the tribunals are all right-wing blockheads ("more spank and less Spock" would have taught those whippersnappers a lesson, says one), the cops and guardsmen are all trigger-happy jerks, and the young radicals are mostly callow, rhetoric-spouting stereotypes. Violent, provocative, and convincingly shot in cinema verite style, Punishment Park will leave many viewers muttering that it can't happen here. Opponents of the Patriot Act and its perceived attack on civil liberties, however, will likely take another view. --Sam Graham, Amazon.com

• The War Game | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Few films have caused such controversy as Peter Watkins' The War Game a drama documentary made for BBC TV in 1965 about a limited nuclear attack on Kent England. Blending fiction and fact to create a moving and startling vision of the personal as well as the public consequences of such an attack Watkins exposes the inadequacy of the nation's Civil Defence programme and questions the philosophy of the nuclear deterrent. Conspicuously absent from TV screens until 1985 it was mainly through cinema release in 1966 - and its Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1967 - that it gained a loyal and vociferous following providing a sharp focus for CND and other peace movements. This special edition DVD also includes Watkins' award-winning The Diary of an Unknown Soldier and The War Game - The Controversy in which Patrick Murphy reveals new information pointing to a definitive account of the banning of the film.

• A Bit of Tom Jones | DVD | (17/05/2010) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In a late night bar Henry is approached by a mysterious woman who offers to sell him the severed manhood of Wales' greatest vocal entertainer... Believing he can make a fortune by selling the infamous appendage he teams up with his slightly dodgy best friend Teddy and takes a journey deep into the celebrity world of celebrity body trading in the wildest funniest comedy of the decade!! With a cast reading like a who's who of British comedy talent - Eve Myles (Torchwood) John Henshaw (Early Doors Cops Emmerdale) Jonathan Owen (Shameless) Roger Evans (Atonement) Margaret John (Gavin & Stacey) Matt Berry (Mighty Boosh) Geno Washington and Denise Welch (Waterloo Rd Loose Women).

• Privilege | DVD | (25/01/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Steve Shorter the biggest pop star of his day is loved by millions; his approval or endorsement can guide the choices and actions of the masses. But in reality he is a puppet whose popularity is carefully managed by government-backed handlers keen to keep the country's youth under control. Only an act of complete rebellion can set him free. Starring Manfred Mann lead singer Paul Jones as Shorter and iconic Sixties supermodel Jean Shrimpton as the girl who tries to help him defy the system Privilege is the third feature from provocative British director Peter Watkins a filmmaker who's unique v''rit''-style and oppositional themes have continually met with controversy throughout his career. Remastered in high-definition and made available in the UK for the first time since its original cinema release Privilege is presented here with two of Watkins' earliest film works.

• British Air Traffic Control - 1963-1973 | DVD | (07/06/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  British Air Traffic Control: 1963 - 1973