The year is 52 B.C. Four hundred years after the founding of the Republic Rome is the wealthiest city in the world a cosmopolitan metropolis of one million people; epicenter of a sprawling empire. The Republic was founded on principles of shared power and fierce personal competition never allowing one man to seize absolute control. But now those foundations are crumbling eaten away by corruption and excess. A serialized drama of love and betrayal masters and slaves husbands and wives Rome chronicles a turbulent era that saw the death of a republic and the birth of an empire.
An epic saga stretching from 1964 to 1995, Our Friends in the North follows the lives of four young people in North-East England. Nicky Hutchinson (Christopher Eccleston) is initially courting Mary Soulsby (Gina McKee) but the relationship cools when it takes second place to his campaigning for Harold Wilson's Labour Party. She weds Tory Tosker Cox instead, but their marriage is a miserable one, living in a rot-infested high rise block built following a dubious new housing scheme. Meanwhile, "Geordie" Peacock, finally tiring of his drunken, abusive father, headbutts him and hitches down to London, where he ends up working for a surrogate "family" led by Malcolm McDowell's flash Soho sex club baron. Over the years, the paths of these characters intertwine, diverge then cross again, albeit occasionally stretching the bounds of plausible coincidence. The drama takes place against the backdrop of local authority and police corruption in the 60s, the radical far-left militancy of the early 70s, Thatcher's election, the 1984 miner's strike and the subsequent "murder" of Northern communities. What's brilliant about Our Friends is its melding of the personal and the political, with the soap opera of family estrangement played out against a backdrop of social decline. Peter Vaughn, playing Nicky's Dad as a former Jarrow marcher stricken by Alzheimer's, is especially poignant. If you didn't see this the first time, do so now. On the DVD: Our Friends in the North has a bonus disc featuring a discussion with writer Peter Flannery and the producers and directors in which the making of the programme is revealed to have been as epic and protracted a saga as the drama itself. There are interviews also with stars Christopher Eccleston and Gina McKee. --David Stubbs
In seventeenth-century France, a promiscuous and divisive local priest, Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), uses his powers to protect the city of Loudon from destruction at the hands of the establishment. Soon, he stands accused of the demonic possession of Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave), whose erotic obsession with him fuels the hysterical fervour that sweeps through the convent. With its bold and brilliant direction by Ken Russell, magnificent performances by Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, exquisite Derek Jarman sets and sublimely dissonant score by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, The Devils stands as a profound and sincere commentary on religious hysteria, political persecution and the corrupt marriage of church and state.
Based on Charlotte Bronte's classic novel, the romantic drama stars Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) and Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) in the lead roles under the director of Cary Fukunaga (Sin Nombre).
A class of undisciplined, smart and funny history students actively pursue an undergraduate place at Oxbridge.
When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.
Experience the BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning series Pride and Prejudice like never before as the magic of period drama is rekindled with state of the art technology. Returning to the original film negatives this stunning adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel has been painstakingly restored frame-by-frame to reveal the sumptuous costume and detail that makes Austen's world so enchanting. With its outstanding performances and stunning visuals Pride and Prejudice plunges the viewer into a 19th Century world of grand country estates eligible bachelors and exquisite soir''es. Elizabeth Bennett a spirited and independent young woman is the subject of her mother's obsessive goal to marry off her five daughters to the wealthiest gentlemen available. But Mrs Bennett's plan is compromised with the arrival of the proud and enigmatic Mr Darcy as he and Lizzie embark on one of the most famous and compelling romances in history. Adapted by acclaimed screenplay writer Andrew Davies Pride and Prejudice stars the hugely popular Colin Firth Jennifer Ehle Alison Steadman Julia Sawalha along with many other excellent performers.
Based on Raynor Winn's bestseller, The Salt Path tells the emotional and life-affirming story of a couple whose connection with the natural world helps them overcome challenges and ultimately reconnect with one another.
Mary Queen of Scots explores the turbulent life of the charismatic Mary Stuart (Academy Award® nominee Saoirse Ronan). Queen of France at 16, widowed at 18, Mary defies pressure to remarry and instead returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne. By birth, she also has a rival claim to the throne of Elizabeth I (Academy Award® nominee Margot Robbie), who rules as the Queen of England. Determined to rule as much more than a figurehead, Mary asserts her claim to the English throne, threatening Elizabeth's sovereignty. Rivals in power and in love, the two Queens make very different choices about marriage and children. Betrayal, rebellion and conspiracies within each court imperil both Queensdriving them apart, as each woman experiences the bitter cost of power. Bonus Features Include Feature Commentary with director Josie Rourke and Composer Max Richter An Epic Confrontation Tudor Feminism Something About Marys
Two-time Academy Award winner Renée Zellweger returns to the role that established a romantic-comedy heroine for the ages, a woman whose inimitable approach to life and love redefined an entire film genre
World War II Morocco springs to life in Michael Curtiz's classic love story. Colourful characters abound in "Casablanca", a waiting room for Europeans trying to escape Hitler's war-torn Europe.
TULSA KING follows New York mafia capo Dwight "The General" Manfredi (Oscar nominee Sylvester Stallone) just after he is released from prison after 25 years and unceremoniously exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Realising that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a "crew" from a group of unlikely characters to help him establish a new criminal empire in a place that to him might as well be another planet.
Screwball comedy doesn't get any more effortlessly elegant and gleefully irreverent than this roulette wheel of romantic deception, gleaming with cunning wit and Continental élan. A couture-clad Claudette Colbert is divine as a penniless American chorus girl who crashes Parisian high society by posing as a wealthy Hungarian baronessbut both a scheming nobleman (John Barrymore) and a smitten taxi driver (Don Ameche) are soon on to her game. Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's sophisticated scripta typically subversive blend of fairy-tale escapism and caustic social observationand the pitch-perfect direction of master craftsman Mitchell Leisen yield a topsy-turvy Cinderella story with a cynical bite. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack New audio commentary featuring author and film critic Michael Koresky New program featuring audio excerpts of a 1969 interview with director Mitchell Leisen Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1940 Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by film critic David Cairns New cover by Abigail Giuseppe
Midsomer Murders: Complete Series 9
Giuseppe Tornatore's beautiful 1988 film about a little boy's love affair with the movies deservedly won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Philippe Noiret plays a grizzled old projectionist who takes pride in his presentation of screen dreams for a town still recovering from World War II. When a child (Jacques Perrin) demonstrates fascination not only for movies but also for the process of showing them to an audience, a lifelong friendship is struck. This isn't just one of those films for people who are already in love with the cinema. But if you are one of those folks, the emotional resonance between the action in Tornatore's world and the images on Noiret's screen will seem all the greater--and the finale all the more powerful. --Tom Keogh
Superstud Gerard Casanova (Yan Brian, The Lacemaker) is one of the most in demand men in Paris... at least amongst those ladies unsatisfied by their husbands. He's the best 'Call Boy' in town, and takes great pride in his work. But then the worst happens and disaster strikes: he falls in love... Directed by Max Pécas (Her, She and Him), Sexually Yours is widely regarded as one of the very best of the sex comedies that dominated French cinemas during the 1970s. Now beautifully restored back to its best, 88 Films are proud to present this very French lesson in l'amour. HIGH-DEFINITION BLU-RAY PRESENTATION IN 1.66:1 ASPECT RATIO ORIGINAL FRENCH MONO 2.0 AUDIO ENGLISH SUBTITLES STILLS GALLERY
In 1962 Lawrence of Arabia scooped another seven Oscars for David Lean and crew after his previous epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, had performed exactly the same feat a few years earlier. Supported in this Great War desert adventure by a superb cast including Alex Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole gives a complex, star-making performance as the enigmatic TE Lawrence. The magnificent action and vast desert panoramas were captured in luminous 70mm by Cinematographer Freddie Young, here beginning a partnership with Lean that continued through Dr Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). Yet what made the film truly outstanding was Robert (A Man For All Seasons) Bolt's literate screenplay, marking the beginning of yet another ongoing collaboration with Lean. The final partnership established was between director and French composer Maurice Jarre, who won one of the Oscars and scored all Lean's remaining films, up to and including A Passage to India in 1984. Fully restored in 1989, this complete version of Lean's masterpiece remains one of cinema's all-time classic visions. --Gary S Dalkin On the DVD: This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of disc two. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better than here: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the remastered soundtrack, too, is a joy. Thanks are due to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg who supervised (and financed) the restoration of the picture in 1989; on disc two Spielberg chats about why David Lean is his favourite director, and why Lawrence had such a profound influence on him both as a child and as a filmmaker (he regularly re-watches the movie before starting any new project). Other features include an excellent and exhaustive "making-of" documentary with contributions from surviving cast and crew (an avuncular Omar Sharif is particularly entertaining as he reminisces about meeting the hawk-like Lean for the first time), some contemporary featurettes designed to promote the movie and a DVD-ROM facility. The extra features are good--especially the documentary--but the breathtaking quality of both anamorphic picture and digital sound are what make this DVD package a triumph. --Mark Walker
John Malkovich Gary Sinise and Sherilyn Fenn shine in this contemporary remake of the beloved classic about a nomadic farmworker who looks after his dimwitted gentle-giant friend.
Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and featuring an award-winning cast, Jamie Foxx stars as Django a slave who teams up with bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz) to seek out the South's most wanted criminals with the promise of Django's freedom. Honing vital hunting skills, his one goal is to find and rescue the wife (Kerry Washington) he lost to the slave trade long ago. When their search ultimately leads to Calvin Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), the infamous and brutal proprietor of Candyland , they arouse the suspicion of Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson), Candie's trusted house slave. Now their moves are marked and Candie's treacherous organization closes in on them.
MARTIN SCORSESE's cinematic mastery is on full display in this sweeping crime saga, which serves as an elegiac summation of his six-decade career. Left behind by the world, former hit man and union truck driver Frank Sheeran (Taxi Driver's ROBERT DE NIRO) looks back from a nursing home on his life's journey through the ranks of organized crime: from his involvement with Philadelphia mob boss Russell Bufalino (Goodfellas' JOE PESCI) to his association with Teamsters union head Jimmy Hoffa (The Godfather's AL PACINO) to the rift that forced him to choose between the two. An intimate story of loyalty and betrayal writ large across the epic canvas of mid-twentieth-century American history, The Irishman (based on the real-life Sheeran's confessions, as told to writer Charles Brandt for the book I Heard You Paint Houses) is a uniquely reflective late-career triumph that balances its director's virtuoso set pieces with a profoundly personal rumination on aging, mortality, and the decisions and regrets that shape a life. DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital master, approved by director Martin Scorsese, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack Newly edited roundtable conversation among Scorsese and actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, originally recorded in 2019 New documentary about the making of the film featuring Scorsese; the lead actors; producers Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Jane Rosenthal, and Irwin Winkler; director of photography Rodrigo Prieto; and others from the cast and crew New video essay written and narrated by film critic Farran Smith Nehme about The Irishman's synthesis of Scorsese's singular formal style The Evolution of Digital De-aging, a 2019 programme on the visual effects created for the film Archival interview excerpts with Frank the Irishman Sheeran and International Brotherhood of Teamsters trade union leader Jimmy Hoffa Trailer and teaser PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien
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