Drama

• The Sopranos: Series 1 (Vol. 1) | DVD | (16/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home: This ambitious TV series chronicles a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there is the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood.The series' brilliant first season is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his mid-level capo's machismo, yet instantly recognisable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford, and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get.Unlike Francis Coppola's operatic dramatisation of Mario Puzo's Godfather epic, The Sopranos sustains a poignant, even mundane intimacy in its focus on Tony, brought to vivid life by James Gandolfini's mercurial performance. Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful and murderous, Gandolfini is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. Both he and the superb team of Italian-American actors recruited as his loyal (and, sometimes, not-so-loyal) henchman and their various "associates" make this mob as credible as the evocative Bronx and New Jersey locations where the episodes were filmed.The first season's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional", perceptive and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what is not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com

• Villa Des Roses | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  English/Belgian/Dutch/Luxembourgian coproductions don't happen every day, making Villa des Roses of interest from the start. Director Frank van Passel focuses on the pain of remembering in this drama set at the turn of World War I, in which young French widow Louise comes to work as a chambermaid at a dilapidated English guest house. What could have been an offbeat human comedy soon becomes a conventional romantic tragedy, in which the heroine falls for rakish artist Richard Grünewald, with all the frustration and heartache their liaison promises. Julie Delpy is strong on wistful charm, while Shaun Dingwall gives a confident performance. Timothy West and Harriet Walter are characterful as the ill-matched proprietors, but the most memorable showing is that of Shirley Henderson as streetwise "cook general" Ella. The other guests are little more than a background presence, their narrative potential unused. This is stylish film-making, even if an overall feeling of Anna Karenina meets Upstairs Downstairs is hard to escape. On the DVD: Villa des Roses' widescreen format reproduces the film's faded elegance with commendable naturalness, though the sombre half-lights and Paul M van Brugge's moody score make Paris seem anything but "gay". The theatrical trailer is also included. --Richard Whitehouse

• Moulin Rouge | DVD | (26/06/2017) from £12.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the most lavish British films of the silent era in both budget and scope, Moulin Rouge stars Jean Bradin, Eve Gray and Russian-German screen sensation Olga Tschechowa in the story of a young aristocrat driven to a suicide attempt after falling in love with a young dancer and her elegant, ravishingly beautiful mother. Set in and around the famous dance-halls of Paris, Moulin Rouge showcased British International Pictures' engagement of leading Continental film-makers during the late 1920s. The first British film directed by expressionist pioneer Ewald Andre Dupont, it also features Werner Brandes' stylish, distinctively European cinematography and art direction by Oscar winner Alfred Junge. Filmed at Elstree through the winter of 1927, the film was originally trade shown in March 1928 as a silent film with live musical accompaniment. It was re-released in 1929 with a recorded, synchronised score by John Reynders. SPECIAL FEATURES: Image gallery Original script PDF

• Pie In The Sky - The Complete Boxed Set Series 1-5 | DVD | (04/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  Tales of crime and culinary wizardry are interwoven in this classic BBC series about a reluctant detective whose dream of turning restaurateur could be just within his grasp. Henry Crabbe has reached the end of his tetheras a plain clothes DU. After years of toiling in the force he is about to take early retirement. With a passion for food and a talent for cooking he is ready to fulfil his own personal dream - to buy his very own restaurant Pie In The Sky. However nothing is quite that simple. On the eve of his retirement he is suspended from duty. His boss the assistant Chief Constable now has him exactly where he wants him and is not going to allow him to live his dream in peace - Crabbe is free to indulge in his restaurant but always on call when cases need solving! This is the entire Pie In The Sky collection and this beautifully packaged boxed set features eight double DVDs. Series 1: 1. The Best Of Both Worlds 2. The Truth Will Out 3. An Innocent Man 4. Once A Copper 5. A Shot In The Dark 6. Undesirable Elements 7. Passion Fruit Fool 8. A Matter Of Taste 9. Who Only Stand And Wait 10. Endangered Species Series 2: 1. Hard Cheese 2. Brown Bread 3. The Policeman's Daughter 4. The One That Got Away 5. Dead Right 6. Black Pudding 7. Swan In His Pride 8. The Mild Bunch 9. The Mystery Of Pikey 10. Lemon Twist Series 3: 1. Money Talks 2. Game Pie 3. Irish Stew 4. Doggett's Coat And Badge 5. This Other Eden 6. Coddled Eggs Series 4: 1. Devils On Horseback (Part 1) 2. Devils On Horseback (Part 2) 3. Chinese Whispers 4. New Leaf 5. Breaking Bread 6. Gary's Cake Series 5: 1. Squashed Tomatoes 2. Ugly Customers 3. Pork Pies 4. Cutting The Mustard 5. Return Match 6. The Apprentice 7. In The Smoke 8. Smelling Of Roses

• Student Of The Year | DVD | (25/02/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The road from youth to adulthood is paved with myriad emotions and Student of the Year celebrates this colorful coming of age. It is the story of Abhimanyu Singh (Sidharth Malhotra) and Rohan Nanda (Varun Dhawan) who traverse the path of competition, envy, triumph, failure, manipulation and heartbreak in their mini-universe of St. Teresa High School, Dehradun. When Abhi and Rohan's rivalry takes an unexpected turn to friendship, neither pre-empts the complications that would brew. Things are further knotted up when Shanaya Singhania (Alia Bhatt), the most popular girl on the campus enters the equation. As new ambitions are born and old loyalties fall by the wayside, the Student of the Year trophy manages to tear apart both, the participants and the spectators, to redefine the choices of the three protagonists.

• Untouchables: Complete Season 3 | DVD | (20/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Untouchables: Season 3

• Day Of Wrath | DVD | (02/11/2009) from £6.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A 16th Century Spanish sheriff presiding over a provincial city attempts to solve a gruesome series of murders in this period thriller starring Christopher Lambert. When a number of high-ranking nobles are found viciously slaughtered with large letters carved into their chests, it's up to haggard-but-honest lawman Ruy de Mendoza (Lambert) to crack the case. As he gets ever closer to the elusive killer, however, it soon becomes obvious that there is much more at stake than Mendoza originally thought, and that his relentless quest for the truth could very well cost him his life if he's not careful.

• The Interrupters | DVD | (14/11/2011) from £10.10   |  Saving you £4.89 (48.42%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Interrupters, all former gang members, bring 500 years of prison time to the table. As members of the experimental anti-violence programme CeaseFire, they aim to intervene in conflicts before they explode into violence. At their heart is Ameena Matthews, an ex-gang enforcer and daughter of a notorious gang leader who launches herself into the middle of erupting conflicts, using her rhetorical gifts to cool the hottest heads. Academy award nominated director Steve James (Hoop Dreams and Stevie) working with acclaimed author Alex Kotlowitz follows The Interrupters for a year. He delivers an epic and ultimately uplifting film which chronicles the difficulty of breaking generational cycles of violence, and the potential for redemption which lies within every one of us.

• Poetic Justice | DVD | (10/12/2007) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-10.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  After witnessing the murder of her first and only boyfriend young Justice decides to forget about college and become a South Central Los Angeles hairdresser. Avoiding friends the only way for her to cope with her depression is by composing beautiful poetry...

• Shell | Blu Ray | (08/07/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Shell is a 17-year-old woman who lives and works at a petrol station in the desolate Scottish Highlands. Apart from the occasional customers who call by for fuel and a few regulars who acknowledge and catch up with her Shell's only company is her reserved and softly spoken father Pete (Joseph Mawle) to whom she is devoted. A young girl trying to find her place in the world she is on the cusp of womanhood struggling to re-imagine her role within her own family and life in general. Pete meanwhile is damaged goods. He still keenly feels the absence of his wife who ran away when Shell was four while his connection with his daughter is both difficult and disturbing. An assured debut feature starring Joseph Mawle and newcomer Chloe Pirrie Shell marks the arrival of Scottish writer-director Scott Graham as a distinctive new voice in British cinema. Special Features: Short Film Behind the scenes Trailer

• Wings - Series 2 | DVD | (19/10/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Available to own for the very first time this prestigious and acclaimed 1970s BBC drama series follows the lives of the daring young pilots of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. The air war on the Western Front is becoming ever more violent and brutal. Commanding C Flight based at Sainte Marie Captain Triggers (Nicholas Jones) and his young pilots Alan Farmer (Tim Woodward) and Charles Gaylion (Michael Cochrane) face a deadly new threat. A new German Fokker monoplane with a forward firing machine gun is devastating the obsolete British BE2s. Pilots and observers are dying faster than they can be replaced and the fledgling RFC is in danger of being decimated... Unofficially C Flight are given 'Forward Action' status - and told to develop new weapons and tactics to take on and destroy the German fighters... With breathtaking aerial film sequences using authentic vintage aircraft replicas and gripping air-to-air filming Wings is one of the very finest war drama series ever produced by British television. The aircraft were provided by Bianchi Aviation Services (Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines The Blue Max) This series was first broadcast on BBC1 from 5th January 1978 to 30th March 1978 and this set includes all thirteen episodes.

• Road To Perdition / Miller's Crossing / The Funeral | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Road To Perdition Two-time Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks stars as Michael Sullivan a father fighting to keep his only son from traveling the Road To Perdition. Directed by Oscar-winner Sam Mendes this towering motion picture achievement has been acclaimed by audiences and critics alike as one of the year's most extraordinary films. Miller's Crossing The year is 1929. The place is an gangster-ridden American city run by Leo (Albert Finney). But the real power lies with Tom (Gabriel Byrne) the power behind the man. Their friendship is severed when they both fall in love with the same woman (Marcia Gay Harden) and a bloody gang war erupts... The Funeral Petty mobsters Ray Tempio (Christopher Walken) and Chez Tempio (Chris Penn) have just lost their younger brother Johnny (Vincent Gallo) -he was shot three times gangland style at a movie theatre. Ray vows revenge - he suspects the leader of a rival crime syndicate is responsible but his wife Jeanette (Anabella Sciorra) pleads for him to leave it alone. Meanwhile Chez already on the verge of a breakdown is just making life hell for his wife Clara (Isabella Rossellini) and those around him.

• Buffalo 66 | DVD | (04/10/2010) from £34.99   |  Saving you £-25.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  After serving a five year sentence for a crime he didn't commit a bitter violence-prone Billy Brown (Vincent Gallo who also directs) is released from prison. Billy is hell-bent on convincing his dysfunctional parents that he is leading a respectable life and has spent the last five years doing top-secret CIA work. To back up his story he impulsively kidnaps Layla (Christina Ricci) and forces her to pose as his girlfriend. Layla's understanding of the comical grimness of Billy's life leads him to explore new levels of redemption acceptance and ultimately...love.

• Tokyo! | DVD | (25/05/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Three stories depicting each director's non-native take on Tokyo.

• The Embezzler | DVD | (15/05/2017) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Having been told he has only two years to live due to a heart condition Henry Paulson (Charles Victor), a bored bank clerk, makes a decision about his life. Fed up with his job and feeling unloved by his wife Henry Paulson hits upon a plan to steal money from the bank and escape to South America to live out his days in a blaze of fun and wealth. Whilst stealing the money however Paulson is discovered by the bank manager who he proceeds to imprison in his own office. On the run Paulson seeks refuge in an Eastbourne hotel but will he escape and rebuild his shattered life?

• Across the Line - The Exodus of Charlie Wright | Blu Ray | (01/08/2011) from £10.48   |  Saving you £9.50 (111.90%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Charlie (Aiden Quinn) a Los Angeles billionaire financial whiz goes into self-imposed exile in Tijuana after his empire is revealed to have been a Ponzi scheme. While looking for the woman he abandoned there 25 years before Charlie is pursued by a Mexican gangster a federal agent and thugs sent by a former client looking to retrieve his money...But who will find him first?

• The Irish R.M. - Series 1 | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Peter Bowles stars in this comic drama series about a retired English army officer who becomes a resident magistrate in turn-of-the-century West Ireland. Living in a ramshackle house surrounded by the community's eccentric inhabitants Major Sinclair Yates struggles to apply judicial logic in a country where in the words of a former Lord Chief Justice ""The inevitable never happens but the improbable frequently does"". First shown on Channel 4 this DVD set contains the entire first

• Screen Icons: Judi Dench | DVD | (24/03/2014) from £22.37   |  Saving you £7.62 (34.06%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Judi Dench Screen Icons - ChocolatIrisA beautifully written portrait of a marriage.The Importance of Being Earnest

• The Wait (L'Attesa) | DVD | (14/11/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In the vast rooms of a beautiful Sicilian villa, Anna (Academy-Award winner Juliette Binoche, The English Patient) receives an unexpected guest. Twenty-something Jeanne (Lou de Laage, The Innocents) has arrived from France, declaring herself to be the girlfriend of Anna's son, Giuseppe, who has invited her to the house to spend Easter together. But this is news to Anna, and Giuseppe is not yet there. Despite the disruption to her routine, Anna invites her young guest to stay, and as the two women await Giuseppe's arrival, they slowly begin to form a connection. Jeanne, dislocated and a little mystified at first, gradually gives in to the charms of the volcanic island. She swims in the nearby lake and makes new friends, while Anna watched over by a long-time family friend comes out of her shell. Yet still, her son's absence remains unexplained Spectacularly shot, measured and contemplative, THE WAIT navigates a complex range of emotions in the telling of this stirring encounter between two women from different generations.

• Tar | Blu Ray | (17/04/2023) from £38.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From writer-producer-director Todd Field comes TÁR, starring Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár, the groundbreaking conductor of a major German Orchestra. We meet Tár at the height of her career, as she's preparing both a book launch and much-anticipated live performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Over the ensuing weeks her life begins to unravel in a singularly modern way. The result is a searing examination of power, and its impact and durability in today's society.