MovieMail May 2011 Film Catalogue by MovieMail

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May 2011

Monthly Film Catalogue

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The King’s Speech

A resounding British success

Over 250 films The Killing Enter the Void Of Gods and Men Exclusive Howard Hawks DVD Order Now

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About MovieMail Moviemail Team Q. With the titles from this month’s epic film sale fresh in our minds (you’ll find it on page 29), our question is simply, ‘what is your favourite epic film?’

Dan Hunter Editor Marketa Lazarová (František Vlácil, 1967)

It’s the year of our fifteenth anniversary but the idea stays the same – to share interesting films and to celebrate one of the world’s great communal art forms. Thousands of DVDs are released every month; we select the best and most worthwhile and let you know about them – in our monthly film catalogue, on our website, in email newsletters and in the podcast.

MovieMail HQ

The Monthly Film Catalogue Graeme Hobbs Writer Dr Mabuse, Der Spieler (Fritz Lang, 1922)

Here we present the best new DVD & Blu-ray releases from a wide range of genres to bring great films, documentaries and TV programmes to your attention in an easily digested format. Those films we particularly recommend are highlighted with a star or ‘recommended’ badge and a review.

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Buyer Rocco and his Brothers (Luchino Visconti, 1960)

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Titanic (James Cameron, 1997)

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May 2011 MovieMail Film Catalogue

MovieMail News

ollowing the success of The Singer Not The Song last month, we present two more MovieMail exclusives – Howard Hawks’s western The Big Sky and Robert Wise’s film noir The Set-Up (see pages 13-14). They are the first in a number of Hollywood classics that we will be announcing over the next few months, so keep an eye out!

The keen eyed will notice a light sprinkling of gold stars throughout this catalogue. We’ve spruced up the ‘recommended’ badge we use for reviewed releases, and now you’ll also see a star next to releases that for one reason or another didn’t get a full review, but which are worth extra attention.

Contents Film of the Month 5 The King’s Speech

World Cinema Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic Of Gods and Men Enter the Void

Classic Movies Lastly, this month’s issue has an inescapably royal theme. Our Film of the Month is The King’s Speech and whether you are royalist, republican or anarchist, we think you’ll appreciate it for being simply excellent British cinema about the very human drama of overcoming a limitation. Enjoy your films,

A. Comrades (Bill Douglas, 1986)

Contributors Peter Wild (Kurosawa’s Ran) Peter is the co-author of Before the Rain and the editor of The Flash, Perverted by Language: Fiction Inspired by the Fall, The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth and Paint a Vulgar Picture: Fiction Inspired by The Smiths. Most days you can find him at http://bookmunch.wordpress.com

The Set-Up Unconquered The Big Sky

Documentaries

Silent Film

The Black Pirate

Blu-ray

Gay and Lesbian 20

Television

Stage The Killing

Contemporary

From the Cheap Seats

Order Form

Special Offers World Cinema Sale 9

Michael Brooke (Miklós Jancsó’s Red Psalm) has a blog over at michaelbrooke.com/kinoblog/ Alex Davidson (Theo Angelopoulos’s The Travelling Players) is a content developer for the BFI mediatheque. Mike McCahill (Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó) writes on film for the Sunday Telegraph and posts reviews at cinesthesiac.blogspot.com James Oliver (Michael Mann’s Last of the Mohicans) is a freelance film

writer. David Parkinson (Edgar Reitz’s Die Zweite Heimat) has just completed his latest book on cinema, 100 Ideas That Changed Film. Nick Riddle (Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace) is an editor at Bristol University. Milo Wakelin (David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia) writes on film for Gay Times.

Vintage Film & TV 15 Top 10 Pastoral

Deanna Durbin

Kings and Queens 19 Epic Cinema Sale 21 British TV

Enquiries enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

27 Page 3

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Key to MovieMail Recommended Recommended by MovieMail is a collection of the very best DVDs. Visit www.moviemail-online.co.uk/ recommended for the full archive

B Bonus Points Within the Highlighted films’ Buying Details you’ll find the number of points awarded for your purchase.

DVD Extras Following the DVD icon, we list details of the supplementary materials found in the package. Page 4

Current Top 10 Chart

1 The King’s Speech

Wonderful Oscar-winning drama from director Tom Hooper telling the story of the relationship formed between King George VI (Colin Firth) and his speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) and how it helped the nation. UK / Australia | 2010 | MOMET | 118 min | Cert 12 | # 64684 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £8

2 Tamara Drewe

Stephen Frear’s adaptation of the Guardian comic strip by Posy Simmonds stars Gemma Arterton as a former ugly duckling who makes a triumphant return to a sleepy Dorset village, leaving an indelible mark. UK | 2010 | MOMET | 111 min | Cert 15 | # 63954 | RRP £17.99

DVD: £10.99 Save £7

3 The Singer Not The Song

Dir: Roy Ward Baker. Bogarde plays man-in-black gunslinger Anacleto, John Mills the determined priest Father Keogh who’d like to save his soul in this curiously compelling psychological western, billed as ‘A New and Powerfully Different Kind of Motion Picture Story.’ UK | 1961 | SPIRI | 133 min | Cert PG | # 64642 | RRP £12.99

DVD: £9.99 Save £3

4 Cobra Woman

A riotously camp Technicolor cult classic from Robert Siodmak. Maria Montez stars as twin sisters in the South Seas who were separated at birth: Tollea, a sweet native girl, and Naja, evil high-priestess of a snake-worshipping cult. USA | 1944 | ODEON | 67 min | Cert PG | # 64516 | RRP £9.99

DVD: £6.99 Save £3

So Long at the Fair DVD: £9.99 Save £3

Boonmee 6 Uncle

DVD: £9.99 Save £6

7 Men

Of Gods and DVD: £10.99 Save £5

Rosenthal 8 Jack at the BBC DVD: £24.99 Save £11

9 senza Camelie La Signora

DVD: £14.99 Save £8

Early Kurosawa DVD: £25.99 Save £14

Reader Feedback In response to last month’s query from Richard Leigh regarding Balabanov’s Happy Days, Michael Brooke got in touch to write: “I’m delighted to confirm that Richard Leigh’s memory has not deceived him – Balabanov did indeed make an extraordinarily bleak black-and-white film ironically titled Happy Days in 1992, which was sporadically shown in Britain in the wake of the cult success of Of Freaks and Men (1998) – I remember seeing it at the ICA in London circa 2000. But it never graduated to full commercial distribution, and when I recently had a Balabanov viewing marathon prior to interviewing the man, it was one of the only titles that proved impossible to track down.” Contact us by postcard or email feedback@moviemail-online.co.uk

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Names of the Month: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Colin Firth, Geneviève Waïte

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May 2011 MovieMail Film Catalogue

MovieMail’s Film of the Month

The King’s Speech Recommended Director: Tom Hooper Starring: Anthony Andrews, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Timothy Spall, Derek Jacobi, Helena Bonham Carter Released: 9th May DVD Extras: Director Commentary; Speeches from the real King George VI; Featurettes; Interviews. UK / Australia | 2010 | MOMET | 118 min | Cert 12 | Item # 64684

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B 55 Bonus Points If purchased for £11.99

Also on Blu-ray The King’s Speech UK | 2010 | MOMET | 118 min | Cert 12 | # 64710 | RRP £24.99

Blu-ray Price: £15.99

See Also Body And Soul Robert Rossen

USA | 1947 | SECND | 110 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 25929 | RRP £15.99

Our DVD Price: £12.99

The Harder They Fall Mark Robson

USA | 1956 | COL-T | 105 min | B&W | Cert 12 | # 12389 | RRP £12.99

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Raging Bull

Martin Scorsese USA | 1980 | MGMHE | 123 min | B&W | Cert 18 | # 3126 | RRP £15.99

Our DVD Price: £13.99

here seem to have been more movies made about boxing than any other sport, from Buster Keaton’s Battling Butler (1926) and Hitchcock’s The Ring (1927) right up to this year’s Oscar winner, The Fighter. Many of those films, moreover, are classics – Raging Bull, The Harder They Fall, Fat City amongst them. Good as those are, Robert Wise’s 1949 film, The Set-Up might be even better. In the red corner, there’s Bill ‘Stoker’ Thompson. He’s a washed-up fighter, eking out the last days of his career fighting in crummy dives. It’s a long time since he was a contender: in fact, since he has got no chance at all in his next fight against ‘Tiger’ Nelson, his manager tells the crooks in The Syndicate that Stoker is going down – without telling Stoker he has to take a dive. But Stoker is tired of being a loser: he’s fighting for his pride now and he means to win. The odds, however, are against him like never before... The Set-Up is widely recognised as one of the greatest film noirs but too often it’s discussed in terms of gimmicks: it’s one of the few films adapted from a poem (by Joseph Moncure March) and also famously plays out in real time. But really that’s just trivia. What makes The Set-Up so great is

A knockout film noir starring Robert Ryan and one of the all-time great boxing movies the tone. Stoker is a long way from the bright lights and big halls he dreamed about; Wise suffuses the whole film with profound melancholy and disappointment (it’s set in a seedy dump with the horribly ironic name ‘Paradise City’) which makes Stoker’s desperate fight back so urgent and so moving. At the film’s heart is a towering performance from Robert Ryan as this nearly-broken warrior. Ryan never quite made it as a star – he was probably too thoughtful – but The Set-Up is all the proof you need to claim him as one of the greats: simply put, it’s one of the finest performances in Hollywood history. OK, maybe it can’t be called the undisputed heavyweight champion of boxing movies: some might give that win to Raging Bull on points. But it’s undeniably a film that packs a devastating punch – a Total Knock Out, in fact. James Oliver

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Page 13

Classic Movies They Were Sisters Arthur Crabtree

An all-star British cast (Phyllis Calvert, Dulcie Gray, Anne Crawford, James Mason) play out this popular drama of three sisters who unite when the cruel, sadistic behaviour of one of their husband’s threatens to send one of their number insane. UK | 1945 | ODEON | 104 min | Cert U Item # 64905 | RRP £12.99 | Released 18th April

Recommended

Our DVD Price: £9.99

The Danziger Collection

Celebrating the work of Harry Lee and Edward Danziger at the New Elstree Studios in the 1950s, this collection features five classic films produced there as well as a documentary, Danziger Studios: The Untold Elstree Story, which celebrates the history of the Studios that produced over 140 ‘B’ features between 1956-62 and includes behind-the-scenes archive footage, rare photographs and interviews with many key individuals who worked there. Films included are The Tell-Tale Heart, a dark and dramatic adaption of the classic Edgar Allan Poe story, The Battleaxe – a comedy starring Francis Matthews and Jill Ireland as an engaged couple whose pre-connubial is shattered by the future bride’s domineering mother, Part-Time Wife, Two Wives at One Wedding and Fate Takes a Hand, in which a mailbag full of post taken in a robbery is discovered fifteen years later. A Post Office employee and local reporter decide to deliver the letters to their original intended addressees – with their action having profound 4 discs. ramifications for the recipients. UK | 1962 | PEGS | 460 min | Cert 15 Item # 65219 | RRP £24.99 | Released 18th April

Our DVD Price: £17.99

Pre-ordering from MovieMail If you see a DVD listed here that you want but is due for release in the future, you’re welcome to pre-order it from us. It will be delivered around the release date with your card being charged only on despatch. Page 14

Unconquered

The Big Sky Recommended Exclusive!

Director: Cecil B. DeMille

Director: Howard Hawks

Starring: Gary Cooper, Paulette Goddard, Howard Da Silva, Boris Karloff, C. Aubrey Smith

Starring: Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin

Released: 18th April

Released: 9th May USA | 1952 | ODEON | 121 min | B&W | Cert U | Item # 65223 | P&P £1

USA | 1947 | ODEON | 93 min | Cert 15 | Item # 64906 | P&P £1

Although most famous for his biblical epics, Cecil B DeMille developed a useful sideline with films about America’s past. Unconquered is the most tremendous entertainment, the sort of galloping pot-boiler that no director ever did so well. It begins in London, where Abby Hale (Goddard) is found guilty for killing a man in self defence. She’s given a choice of punishment – the rope, or 14 years of indentured slavery in the new world. She chooses slavery and, on the boat that takes her to America, meets the two men who will shape her immediate destiny – the thoroughly nasty Martin Garth (da Silva), who tries to buy Abby but is foiled by Gary Cooper’s Chris Holden, who frees her. So begins an epic dance of betrayal and love that plays against the most turbulent period of the young country’s history. Sensitive souls should be warned that the film dates from an era when ‘Native Americans’ were still ‘Injuns’, but then again, who expects taste and sensitivity from DeMille? Surely shamelessness is one of his principal virtues. Unconquered is thoroughly typical of the man: big, brash and a lot of fun. JO

In the early 1830s, America was mostly a wilderness, unexplored by the white settlers. Jim Deakin (Kirk Douglas) makes his living out there, trapping and trading with the Natives. After befriending Boone Caudill (Dewey Martin), the pair join an expedition to go up the wide Missouri river to trade with the Blackfeet tribe – and to return one of their princesses, Teal Eye, who had been kidnapped by a war party years before. It’s a dangerous journey and they’re threatened both by the elements and by rival traders, who want to preserve their monopoly. But the greatest danger for Jim and Boone comes from Teal Eye: both have fallen in love with her and their friendship starts to fray at the edges... Had The Big Sky been directed by anyone else, this rich character driven adventure, shot on location in Wyoming, would be widely acclaimed for its confidence, humour and personality. But over the course of his long career, Hawks directed so many masterpieces that his merely excellent work, like this, tends to be overlooked. It can more than hold its own amongst the better known titles in his canon – this is a Hawks film to its very heart. JO

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Vintage British Film & TV Sale Delve into a treasure-filled archive with this sterling sale from Simply Media. Hugely-popular TV series from the 70s and 80s feature here at bargain prices, while lovers of old film have plenty to enjoy too with films starring Mills, Ustinov and Olivier. Reawaken fond memories or create new ones – prices start at just £5.99!

Look at Life: Swingin’ London

The Million Pound Note

No Orchids for Miss Blandish

A joyous celebration of 1960s London from the colourful Look at Life series, produced by the Rank Organisation every week for screening in Odeon cinemas. Features sixteen short films.

Ronald Neame

St. John Legh Clowes

Gregory Peck stars in this anglicised update of the Mark Twain story in which a penniless man finds his life transformed as the result of a wager in which he gets a £1m note.

Troubling the British censors on release and decried by critics as being cruel and sadistic, this scandalous US-set British gangster film sees an heiress abducted for ransom.

UK | 1953 | DD | 91 min | Cert U | # 20191 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1948 | SMPLY | 98 min | Cert U | # 29203 | RRP £9.99

DVD: £5.99 Save £4

Gert and Daisy’s Weekend

Piece of Cake

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Anna Karenina Dir: Rudolph Cartier. Sean Connery and Claire Bloom star in the BBC’s 1961 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s romantic masterpiece. UK | 1961 | SIMP | 105 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 62598 | RRP £14.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £7

Dir: Maclean Rogers. British music hall legends Elsie and Doris Waters star in this wartime comedy. UK | 1942 | SIMP | 76 min | B&W | Cert U | # 63693 | RRP £12.99

Dir: Ian Toynton. A topnotch BBC drama telling the stories of the men of the RAF Hornet Squadron during the early days of WWII. 2 discs. UK | 1988 | DD | 312 min | Cert PG | # 30629 | RRP £16.99

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As You Like It

The Lotus Eaters: S1

Sailor Beware!

Dir: Paul Czinner. A treasure from the archives. A young Laurence Olivier plays Orlando. Camerawork by Jack Cardiff, editing by David Lean.

Dir: Douglas Camfield. Ian Hendry and Wanda Ventham star in this engrossing BBC drama about the lives of various ex-pats in Crete.

Dir: Gordon Parry. The unsinkable Peggy Mount stars is this classic British film as the bolshy matriarch who terrorises her family.

UK | 1936 | SMPLY | 96 min | B&W | Cert E | # 32322 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1972 | SMPLY | 450 min | Cert PG | # 60628 | RRP £29.99

UK | 1956 | DD | 77 min | B&W | Cert U | # 30631 | RRP £9.99

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Dark Journey

The Mikado

School for Secrets

Dir: Victor Saville. Vivien Leigh stars in this mix of romance and action, in which a dress shop owner acts as a spy for British intelligence.

Dir: Victor Schertzinger. One of the earliest film adaptations of the beloved Gilbert and Sullivan musical, starring Kenny Baker as Nanki-Poo.

Comedy drama written, produced and directed by Peter Ustinov, focussing on the wartime exploits of a group of radar boffins in 1940.

UK | 1937 | SMPLY | 77 min | B&W | Cert U | # 32323 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1939 | DD | 86 min | Cert U | # 32325 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1946 | DD | 102 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 20202 | RRP £9.99

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Dick Barton - Special Agent: Complete

Millions Like Us

Tanamera

Dirs: Launder & Gilliatt. A sincere and effective flagwaver evoking the trials and tribulations of a working class English family during WWII.

Mini-series telling an epic story of passion, war and forbidden love in the twilight years of the British Empire in Singapore and Malaya. 2 discs.

Dir: James Hill. Tony Vogel stars as the clean-living war vet turned crimefighter in these four tales. 2 discs.

UK | 1943 | DD | 98 min | B&W | Cert U | # 20173 | RRP £9.99

Australia | 1989 | DD | 348 min | Cert 15 | # 32774 | RRP £19.99

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Freedom Radio

Nurse Edith Cavell

That Hamilton Woman

Dir: Anthony Asquith. A stirring wartime adventure that celebrated the people of Austria and Germany who risked their lives to oppose Hitler.

Dir: Herbert Wilcox. Anna Neagle takes the lead in this true story of a WWI nurse who joins an underground resistance movement.

Dir: Alexander Korda. Vivien Leigh plays the beautiful woman who raises herself from poverty to become Nelson’s mistress.

UK | 1940 | DD | 90 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 22983 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1939 | DD | 94 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 22975 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1941 | DD | 120 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 24591 | RRP £9.99

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UK | 1979 | SIMP | 335 min | Cert 12 | # 58029 | RRP £19.99

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UK | 1960s | SMPLY | 124 min | Cert E | # 27639 | RRP £14.99

The Top 10 Pastoral Films

by James Oliver

While much of cinema is confined to the busy city streets, many of the greatest films are set in the heart of nature. Inspired by the coming of Spring and the recent release of two pastoral films – Tamara Drewe and City Girl – James Oliver chooses his top 10 films in which you can really smell the clean air...

10 Tamara Drewe

9 City Girl

8 A Canterbury Tale

7 Days of Heaven

F.W. Murnau

Powell & Pressburger

Terrence Malick

After sending country folk to the city in Sunrise, Murnau surprised audiences with a cunning reversal – he sent a young lady from the city to the countryside in this painterly study of an impulsive and fragile marriage among the wheatfields of Minnesota. One of cinema’s great pastorals – tenderly romantic, rapturous and tough-minded in equal measure.

Perhaps the oddest, and maybe the greatest of Powell and Pressburger’s achievements, this suggestive and profound study of Englishness, made during wartime, is a film about history, topography and finding one’s destiny. It’s also one of the few films that understands how magical the British countryside is.

To 1900s America, and the vast wheat fields of Texas, where a young, impoverished couple move to a Texas farm to escape city squalor. Shot almost entirely during the so-called ‘magic hour’, this is one of the most purely beautiful films ever made. All of Malick’s films have a special affinity with nature, but this might be the most glorious.

USA | 1930 | EUREK | 88 min | B&W | Cert U | # 64541 | RRP £19.99

UK | 1944 | CRLTN | 120 min | B&W | Cert U | # 4358 | RRP £6.99

USA | 1979 | PARAH | 89 min | Cert PG | # 7938 | RRP £9.99

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6 Earth

5 Jean de Florette / Manon des Sources

4 Blood on Satan’s Claw

Claude Berri

The country isn’t all beauty and fecundity – it can be a dark and dangerous place too, as any number of horror films warn us. This unsettling pastoral peculiarity, set in a superstitious 17th century England, is one of the best. Much more atmospheric film than its lurid title might suggest. A classic British horror.

Talking about celebrations of country life, they don’t come any more glorious that this silent Russian masterpiece. It was commissioned to promote the collectivisation of the Soviet rural economy, but its story of rural prosperity through technical progress takes a back seat to the incredible images that fill the screen in this great film poem. Russia | 1930 | Bongo | 78 min | B&W | Cert 18 | # 61909 | RRP £12.99

DVD: £6.99 Save £6

A pairing of famed adaptations from Marcel Pagnol’s story of greed, betrayal and revenge. Soaked in the sights and sounds of Provence, they sent thousands running off to discover the joys of rural France. Stars Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu and Emmanuel Béart. France | 1986 | PATHD | 225 min | Cert PG | # 25185 | RRP £19.99

A big-screen adaptation of Posy Simmonds’ Guardian comic strip about an ugly duckling turned glamourpuss who returns to a sleepy Dorset village, Frears’ witty romp captures the myriad delights of rural living – the beauty, the tranquility – and throws in Gemma Arterton wearing tight shorts for good measure. The Archers was never like this... UK | 2010 | MOMET | 111 min | Cert 15 | # 63954 | RRP £17.99

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Piers Haggard

UK | 1970 | ODEON | 93 min | Cert 18 | # 57422 | RRP £14.99

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3 The Wicker Man

2 Withnail and I

Robin Hardy

Bruce Robinson

1 Shaun the Sheep Box Set (Aardman)

When visiting the countryside, why not bond with the locals by participating in traditional rural revels, such as the annual May Day celebrations? There are pagan rituals, shameless sex and colourful costumes – though do avoid any large, flammable structures. Edward Woodward plays the Christian copper fired up with love for his lord.

A justly celebrated cult comedy starring Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann as the two unemployed actors who escape from ‘the smoke’ into the great outdoors, as found in Uncle Monty’s Lakeland retreat. And if you like this, check out its prototype – Barney Platts Mills’ 1971 film Private Road (which stars Bruce Robinson).

It’s easy to sentimentalise the countryside and paint it as a bucolic paradise when in fact it is a workplace geared to the mechanised cultivation of crops and livestock. Here, then, is a depiction of the rural economy and a serious study of animal husbandry. Box set contains Shape up with Shaun & Off the Baa! 2 discs.

UK | 1973 | OPTIM | 100 min | Cert 15 | # 57887 | RRP £15.99

UK | 1986 | ANBAY | 107 min | Cert 15 | # 32932 | RRP £5.99

UK | 2007 | 2ENT | 110 min | Cert U | # 51642 | RRP £19.99

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Film still on page opposite from Manon des Sources

Aleksandr Dovzhenko

Stephen Frears

Documentaries

Deanna Durbin

“The Creative Interpretation of Actuality”

Holst: In the Bleak Midwinter

New Releases

All 12 are just £6.99 each on DVD Christmas Holiday Robert Siodmak A surprisingly dark, noir-tinged film based on a Somerset Maugham story. The characters act against type, with Durbin playing a sleazy night-club chanteuse and Gene Kelly a convicted murderer. USA | 1944 | SMPLY | 89 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 15026 | RRP £12.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £5

Because of Him Richard Wallace

USA | 1946 | 84 min | B&W | PG | # 15024 | £12.99

First Love

Henry Koster USA | 1939 | SMPLY | 81 min | B&W | U | # 18238 | £12.99

For the Love of Mary Frederick De Cordova

USA | 1948 | SMPLY | 87 min | B&W | U | # 18242 | £12.99

It Started with Eve Henry Koster

USA | 1941 | SMPLY | PG min | B&W | U | # 19501 | £12.99

Mad About Music Norman Taurog

USA | 1938 | SMPLY | 92 min | B&W | U | # 15045 | £12.99

One Hundred Men and a Girl Henry Koster

USA | 1937 | SMPLY | 81 min | B&W | Cert U | # 15047 | £12.99

Something in the Wind Irving Pichel

USA | 1947 | 86 min | B&W | U | # 19062 | £12.99

That Certain Age Edward Ludwig

USA | 1938 | SMPLY | 97 min | U | # 19060 | £12.99

Amazing Mrs Holliday Bruce Manning

USA | 1943 | SMPLY | 94 min | B&W | U | # 18233 | £12.99

Three Smart Girls Henry Koster

USA | 1936 | SMPLY | 81 min | B&W | U | # 15049 | £12.99

Up in Central Park

Art Lives: Helmut Newton Adrian Maben

A biopic of the photographer, whose work, featuring strong women in provocative poses, blurs lines between art and pornography and holds up a mirror to extravagances in western society. Includes interviews with Catherine Deneuve and Faye Dunaway. UK | 2011 | I-MIN | 100 min | Cert 12 Item # 64937 | RRP £18.99 | Released 30th April

Our DVD Price: £14.24

A Year to Remember: 1960s Using rare news footage and interviews from the incredible British Pathé archive, this extraordinary series provides a unique look at what made the news of yesteryear, devoting a comprehensive hour long programme to each year of 3 discs. the 1960s.

UK | 2011 | SFE | 585 min | Cert E Item # 65038 | RRP £24.99 | Released 25th April

Our DVD Price: £17.99

British Royal Weddings of the 20th Century

Events of majestic splendour attracting worldwide attention, royal weddings are celebrations of nationhood and pageantry. This comprehensive collection includes the most memorable days from all major Royal Weddings of the 20th century, starting with Princess Mary in 1922.

UK | 2011 | SFE | 180 min | Cert E Item # 64866 | RRP £19.99 | Released 4th April

Our DVD Price: £13.99

Dancer’s Dream: The Great Ballets of Rudolf Nureyev François Roussillon A documentary set chronicling Nureyev’s ballets – Raymonda, La Bayadère, Romeo and Juliet and Sleeping Beauty. The films follow the productions from rehearsals to the ballets 4 discs. themselves.

Tony Palmer

The first ever film about Gustav Holst, an extraordinary man who taught himself Sanskrit, lived in a street of brothels in Algiers, allied himself in WWI with a ‘red priest’, who hated the words used to his most famous tune ‘I Vow to Thee My Country’, who distributed The Socialist Worker and who died of cancer, broken and disillusioned, before he reached 60. UK | 2011 | TONYP | 137 min | Cert E Item # 65143 | RRP £13.99 | Released 25th April

Our DVD Price: £10.49

King George VI: The Man Behind the King’s Speech

The award winning movie The King’s Speech has taken the film world by storm. Using archive footage of King George VI and new interviews, this documentary charts the life of the man who never wished to be King, but overcame his limitations for the sake of a nation. Includes King George VI’s Coronation speech. UK | 2011 | ODEON | 80 min | Cert E Item # 64867 | RRP £14.99 | Released 18th April

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Two in the Wave Emmanuel Laurent

The story of a friendship and estrangement, charting the relationship between Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Drawing on archive footage, the film shows how the pair’s political and artistic differences led them to such vehement disagreement that they remained apart until Truffaut’s death. France | 2010 | NW | 91 min | subt | Cert E Item # 64691 | RRP £15.99 | Released 11th April

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Unmistaken Child Nati Baratz

A film following the fouryear journey of a Tibetan monk, who after the death of his master at the age of 84, is charged by the Dalai Lama with the task of searching for the boy he believes to be his reincarnation.

William A Seiter

France | 2002 | ART-H | 363 min | E Item # 64989 | RRP £29.99 | Released 28th March

USA | 1948 | SMPLY | B&W | U | # 19492 | £12.99

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Page 18

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Kings & Queens

Few British films have ever achieved the success of The King’s Speech (our Film of the Month, see page 5), which happily is well deserved. It stands on the shoulders of a long tradition of great cinema and TV focussed on Britain’s monarchs. Here, we’ve selected some of our favourites (and thrown in a French Queen), with prices set so low that even us commoners can afford them! Edward and Mrs Simpson

The Queen

One of cinema’s legendary pairings – Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole – plays out the story of the tempestuous friendship between King Henry II and his troublesome priest, Thomas a Becket.

Waris Hussein

A superb fictionalised account of the events that followed in the wake of Princess Diana’s death. In an outstanding turn, Helen Mirren plays the monarch and Sylvia Syms her mum.

UK / USA | 1964 | SECND | 142 min | Cert PG | # 33491 | RRP £17.99

UK | 1978 | NWORK | 350 min | Cert U | # 23037 | RRP £19.99

Peter Glenville

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Anne of the Thousand Days Dir: Charles Jarrott. Lavish costume drama starring Richard Burton as the king infatuated with Anne Boleyn.

Award-winning 1978 Thames TV drama of a king forced to choose between the throne and the woman he loves, Wallis Simpson. Edward Fox plays King Edward VIII.

Stephen Frears

UK | 2006 | FOX | 98 min | Cert 12 | # 32443 | RRP £19.99

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Henry V

Monarchy: Series 1-3

Dir: Kenneth Branagh. Branagh’s finest hour as actor and director, with his film sparking the Shakespeare film renaissance of the 1990s.

David Starkey explores the rich heritage of Kings and Queens of England and their relationship with the people, laws, and land throughout history

UK | 1989 | UPV | 132 min | Cert PG | # 10951 | RRP £9.99

UK | 4DVD | 219 min | Cert U | # 50857 | RRP £19.99

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BBC TV Shakespeare

The Lion in Winter

Mrs Brown

All 37 of the Bard’s plays in the BBC Shakespeare series. Great directors and great Shakespearian actors bring his works to life. 37 discs.

Dir: Anthony Harvey. Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn star in this period drama about Henry II and his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Dir: John Madden. Billy Connolly plays John Brown, the irreverent ghillie to a grieving Queen Victoria (Judi Dench). A poignant drama.

UK | 1979-85 | BBC | min | Cert 12 | # 24869 | RRP £199.99

UK | 1968 | OPTIM | 128 min | Cert 12 | # 54775 | RRP £12.99

UK | 1997 | BUENA | 101 min | Cert PG | # 3720 | RRP £17.99

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Bertie and Elizabeth

The Lost Prince

La Reine Margot

Dir: Giles Foster. This dramatic portrait of the young life of the Queen Mother was ITV1’s big attraction for Golden Jubilee night.

Dir: Stephen Poliakoff. The true story of a British royal prince locked away because of his epilepsy. Simply outstanding television.

Dir: Patrice Chéreau. Isabelle Adjani stars in this bloody, streetwise account of the infamous 1572 St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.

UK | 2002 | G-VEN | 98 min | Cert PG | # 64845 | RRP £12.99

UK | 2002 | BBC-DD | 179 min | Cert 12 | # 13079 | RRP £15.99

France | 1995 | PATHD | 138 min | subt | Cert 18 | # 5162 | RRP £19.99

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British Royal Weddings of the 20th Century

The Madness of King George

Richard III

UK | 1969 | UPV | 140 min | Cert PG | # 27490 | RRP £9.99

A comprehensive collection of major Royal Weddings, from 1922 onwards. UK | 2011 | SFE | 180 min | Cert E | # 64866 | RRP £19.99

Dir: Nicholas Hytner. An impressive version of Alan Bennett’s play. Nigel Hawthorne plays the eccentric king. UK | 1994 | 4DVD | 105 min | Cert PG | # 50891 | RRP £15.99

Dir: Laurence Olivier. Noel Coward described Olivier’s Richard as the greatest male performance he had ever witnessed. 2 discs. UK | 1955 | NWORK | 152 min | Cert U | # 26715 | RRP £14.99

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Fire Over England

Mary, Queen of Scots

Dir: William K. Howard. Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh star in this espionage film set in Elizabethan England. Flora Robson plays QE I.

Dir: Charles Jarrott. Oscar-nominated drama with a fine cast. Vanessa Redgrave takes the lead, Glenda Jackson plays the Queen of Scots.

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

UK | 1937 | DD | 92 min | Cert | # 32771 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1971 | SECND | 126 min | Cert 12 | # 60933 | RRP £15.99

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The complete BBC Bafta-winning dramatisation of Henry VIII’s marital affairs. 4 discs. UK | 1970 | CCLUB | 535 min | Cert 15 | # 32100 | RRP £34.99

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Becket

Silent

Gay & Lesbian Blu-ray Going South

Sebastian Lifshitz

The Black Pirate Recommended

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Director: Albert Parker Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove Released: 18th April DVD Extras: Restored; Original 1926 orchestral score or organ score; Commentary by film historian Rudy Behlmer; Also includes black and white ‘talkie version’, narrated by Douglas Fairbanks Jr. USA | 1926 | PARKC | 88 min | Cert U | Item # 64978 | P&P £1

The screen swashbuckler came of age with this high-seas tale of derring-do. Audiences had come to expect gymnastic swagger from Douglas Fairbanks, but now they could see him scaling rigging, swimming underwater and sliding down sails on his sword in Technicolor. The delicate beauty of Henry Sharp’s two-strip imagery makes this so much more exhilarating than the monochrome sound version (with narration by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) that is included among the extras. Whether duelling with pirate captain Anders Randolf or preventing lascivious lieutenant Sam Grasse ravishing captured princess Billie Dove, Fairbanks dominates the action with a blend of brains, brawn and breezy bonhomie. He’s ably supported by Donald Crisp as the one-armed Scottish salt who comes to his aid when he’s forced to walk the plank. But, as he proves in taking a merchantman single-handed, Fairbanks steals every scene with the macho panache that Errol Flynn would suavely emulate and Johnny Depp would gleefully subvert. DP

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Page 20

A sun-drenched, sexuallycharged road trip in which Yannick Renier’s brooding Sam, on a journey to unravel his troubled past, is joined by a pair of hitchhikers – sexually adventurous Léa and her hesitant younger brother Matthieu, who both take a shine to the driver.

Loose Cannons Ferzan Ozpetek

Highlights Bicycle Thieves Vittorio De Sica

Italy | 1948 | ARROW | 90 min | subt | B&W | U | # 60677 | RRP £24.99

Our DVD+Blu-ray Price: £15.99

Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back D. A. Pennebaker

USA | 1965 | SY-BG | 96 min | Cert E | # 65135 | RRP £14.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £11.99

Les Diaboliques

Henri-Georges Clouzot France | 1954 | ARROW | 117 min | subt | B&W | Cert 12 |

A coming-out comedy drama set in southern Italy, where the Cantone’s pasta-making business is under threat, not from one gay son, but two! When incensed patriarch Vincenzo casts one brother out of the family home, the other has to withhold his own revelations. Italy | 2010 | PECCA | 110 min | subt | Cert 12 Item # 63883 | RRP £17.99 | Released 18th April

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# 64010 | RRP £24.99

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The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest Daniel Alfredson

Sweden | 2009 | MOMET | 147 min | subt | 15 | # 64673 | £19.99

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Pt 1 David Yates

UK | 2010 | WHV | 146 min | Cert 12 | # 64698 | RRP £28.99

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Stage

Lunch Hour James Hill

UK | 1961 | BFI | 70 min | B&W | U | # 65126 |

La Traviata

RRP £19.99

Richard Eyre Antonio Pappano is the conductor for Richard Eyre’s production of Verdi’s opera staged at the Royal Opera House in 2009. American soprano Renee Fleming heads an all-star cast including Johan Botha, Joseph Calleja, Thomas Hampson and Eddie Wade. UK | 2009 | OPUS | 135 min | Cert E Item # 65072-73 | RRP £19.99 | Out Now

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Tales of Beatrix Potter Reginald Mills

With music from John Lanchbery and masks by Rotislav Doboujinsku, this ballet sees Potter’s beloved characters come to life in a colourful interpretation of her tales, beautifully danced by the 2 discs; Royal Ballet. Newly restored. UK | 1971 | OPTIM | 85 min | Cert U Item # 64954 | RRP £22.99 | Released 4th April

Our DVD+Blu-ray Price: £11.99

Macbeth

Rupert Goold UK | 2010 | I-MIN | 180 min | Cert E | # 64945 | RRP £21.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £16.49

Midnight Cowboy John Schlesinger

USA | 1969 | FOX | 108 min | 18 | # 64974 | £17.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £12.99

Of Gods and Men Xavier Beauvois

France | 2010 | ART-E | 121 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 64672 | RRP £19.99

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The Princess Bride Rob Reiner

USA | 1987 | LGATE | 94 min | PG | # 64949 | £19.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £13.99

Rififi

Jules Dassin France | 1955 | ARROW | 117 min | subt | Cert 12 | # 65114 | RRP £24.99

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Epic Cinema Pronunciation:/epik/, Noun, “A long film, book, or other work portraying heroic deeds and adventures or covering an extended period of time.” Inspired by the healthy running time of Enter the Void, we celebrate the best in epic cinema. This sale presents grand films whose scope and length have been employed to transport the viewer into other worlds for a truly cinematic experience. And, if that wasn’t enough, they offer fantastic value for money! Ben Hur

Marketa Lazarová

William Wyler

František Vlácil

100,000 costumes, 8,000 extras, 300 sets, 11 Academy Awards and in its day the biggest budget in movie history. Charlton Heston brings a muscular presence to the lead role of Judah Ben-Hur.

Set in the 13th century, this ambitious, multi-layered medieval epic about warring families, filmed in monochrome widescreen, is a stunning work of cinema. Voted the best-ever Czech film.

Ermanno Olmi

USA | 1959 | WHV | 217 min | Cert PG | # 8892 | RRP £19.99

Czech | 1967 | 2RUN | 173 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 32128 | RRP £12.99

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Italy | 1978 | ARROW | 179 min | subt | Cert 12 | # 33019 | RRP £15.99

1900

Comrades

Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci. Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu. Ambitious, majestic, out of control, this epic needs to be seen. 2 discs.

Dir: Bill Douglas. The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs made into a richly nuanced tale about history, injustice and storytelling. 2 discs.

Italy | 1976 | FOX | 301 min | Cert 18 | # 33560 | RRP £15.99

UK | 1986 | BFI | 183 min | Cert 15 | # 58812 | RRP £22.99

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2001: Space Odyssey

Edvard Munch

Lawrence of Arabia

Dir: Stanley Kubrick. A magnificent treatment of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel. One of the most amazing films yet made (but there’s a long way to go).

Dir: Peter Watkins. A multi-faceted biopic of the iconic Norwegian painter, described by Ingmar Bergman as ‘a work of genius’.

Dir: David Lean. One of the most sumptuous of the postwar Hollywood epics. Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif star in the 7 Oscar winner.

USA | 1968 | WHV | 136 min | Cert U | # 30976 | RRP £16.99

Norway | 1976 | EUREK | 221 min | subt | PG | # 51378 | RRP £19.99

UK | 1962 | COL-T | 217 min | Cert PG | # 64661 | RRP £5.99

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La Belle Noiseuse

Les Enfants du Paradis

The Leopard

France | 1991 | ART-E | 229 min | subt | 15 | # 59107 | RRP £29.99

DVD: £14.99 Save £15

The Best Years of Our Lives Dir: William Wyler. A poignant study of veterans re-adapting to civilian life after the horrors of war.

Dir: Marcel Carné. A richly romantic masterpiece, often voted as ‘The Best French Film Ever Made’. France | 1945 | SECND | 181 min | subt | B&W | PG | # 407 | £19.99

An elegaic, Palme d’Or-winning portrait of the lives of four peasant families in turn-of-the-century Lombardy, where their life is revealed in a mosaic of wonderful sequences. DVD: £6.99 Save £9

Knights of the Teutonic Order Dir: Aleksander Ford. An action-filled film acclaimed as one of the very best historical movies. Poland | 1960 | 2RUN | 165 min | Cert PG | # 29128 | RRP £12.99

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Dir: Luchino Visconti. Alain Delon. A beautiful masterpiece and a true epic based around an aristocratic Sicilian family threatened by political turmoil. Italy | 1963 | BFI | 178 min | subt | Cert PG | # 14870 | RRP £19.99

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How the West was Won

Rocco and His Brothers

Dirs: Ford, Hathaway, Marshall. One of the great epic Westerns, filled with stars of the silver screen. 3 discs.

Alain Delon plays the beatific Rocco in Visconti’s brilliant study of family, sex and betrayal. 2 discs.

USA | 1946 | MGMHE | 163 min | B&W | Cert U | # 18713 | RRP £15.99

USA | 1962 | WHV | 165 min | Cert PG | # 54603 | RRP £16.99

Italy | 1960 | EUREK | 170 min | subt | B&W | 15 | # 52966 | £22.99

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Celine and Julie Go Boating

Kings of the Road

Sátántangó

Dir: Wim Wenders. A multi-layered, marvellously meandering, black and white road movie, filmed entirely near the old East German border.

Dir: Béla Tarr. An exceptional, unforgettable, haunting cinematic experience about the end of Communism in Eastern Europe. 3 discs.

Ger | 1976 | Axiom | 168 min | subt | B&W | 18 | # 54838 | RRP £19.99

Hung | 1994 | ART-E | 419 min | subt | B&W | 15 | # 30749 | £29.99

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Dir: Jacques Rivette. A magical meditation on the nature of fantasy. 2 discs; Toute la Memoire du Monde. France | 1974 | BFI | 192 min | subt | 12 | # 30162 | RRP £19.99

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Dir: Jacques Rivette. An engrossing film about artistic creation. Michel Piccoli and Emmanuelle Béart star. 3 discs; Includes Divertimento.

The Tree of Wooden Clogs

Television Programmes Originally Broadcast

The Boy Merlin: Complete

New Releases Alan Plater at ITV

Jarrow-born Alan Plater is one of Britain’s most cherished playwrights, with his dialogue described as combining ‘the voice of Coronation Street with the spirit of Chekhov’. This anthology celebrates the diversity of his work with single plays – Play for Love, Coming Through and classic episodes from Shades of Darkness, Oranges and Lemons, Beiderbecke, The Loner 2 discs; Plater interview. and Flambards. UK | 1985 | NWORK | 355 min | Cert 12 Item # 64902 | RRP £19.99 | Released 25th April

Our DVD Price: £13.99

Annika: Complete Series A Swedish-British co-production which sensitively portrays a romance between an 18 year-old English boy and a 15 year-old Swedish girl one summer on the Isle of Wight. When Annika has to head home, Pete faces a life-changing decision.

ITV1’s big attraction for Golden Jubilee night in 2002, offering a dramatic portrait of the Queen Mother’s early life. Juliet Aubrey stars as Elizabeth and James Wilby as George VI, with Alan Bates playing George V, and Robert Hardy, Roosevelt.

USA | 2010 | COL-T | 348 min | Cert 15 Item # 65018 | RRP £24.99 | Released 2nd May

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Page 22

In series 3 of the early 1990s ITV police drama it’s all change, as former Metropolitan Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Cade (Martin Shaw) takes over as Chief Constable when John Stafford (Tim PiggottSmith) moves on to a role with Europol. Like his predecessor, however, Cade soon finds himself at 2 discs. odds with his superiors.

Geoffrey Sax

Giles Foster

When a schoolteacher receives a life-changing diagnosis, she decides to live it up, and no-one – from her self-absorbed family to her smart-ass students – is safe! A Golden Globe-winning Laura Linney stars in role in this unapologetically 3 discs. funny series.

The Chief: Series 3

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The Big C: Season 1

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Christopher and His Kind

Bertie and Elizabeth

Our DVD Price: £9.99

UK | 1979 | NWORK | 175 min | Cert PG Item # 65082 | RRP £12.99 | Released 2nd May

UK | 1993 | NWORK | 300 min | Cert 12 Item # 65056 | RRP £19.99 | Out 18th April

UK | 1984 | NWORK | 150 min | 15 Item # 65040 | RRP £14.99 | Released 18th April

UK | 2002 | G-VEN | 98 min | Cert PG Item # 64845 | RRP £12.99 | Released 18th April

An enchanting children’s drama series, developed from a 1978 play shown as part of Thames TV’s supernatural anthology series, Shadows. Set in Wales in the Dark Ages, it tells the story of young apprentice magician Merlin, who is schooled in witchcraft by his fostergrandmother, Myfanwy. However, constant danger awaits from Saxon High King Vortigern.

An involving BBC drama written by Kevin Elyot and based on the life of writer Christopher Isherwood (Matt Smith). Feeling suppressed in the restrictive society of 1930s England, Isherwood follows W.H. Auden to Germany to experience Berlin’s gay subculture. There he meets and falls in love with German street cleaner Heinz (Douglas Booth) but the outbreak of war brings a Nazi threat into their lives. UK | 2010 | G-VEN | 90 min | Cert 15 Item # 63711 | RRP £19.99 | Released 21st March

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The Choir: Series 1 & 2 Both series of the awardwinning BBC documentary, available separately, following choirmaster Gareth Malone as he attempts to motivate untrained school children into song. Series 1 features Northolt High School, series 2 Lancaster School. 2 discs each.

UK | 2009 | ACORN | 240 min | Cert E # 59649 / 64841 | RRP £19.99 | S2 Out 18th April

S1 DVD: £15.99 S2 DVD: £13.99

Daniel Deronda Recommended Director: Tom Hooper Starring: Hugh Dancy, Jodhi May, Romola Garai, Greta Scacchi, Edward Fox, Kate Maberly, Celia Imrie, Hugh Bonneville Released: 2nd May UK | 2002 | 2ND | 207 min | Cert TBC | Item # 64976 | P&P £1

To celebrate Tom Hooper’s recent Oscar triumph with The King’s Speech, this is a perfect time to re-discover his acclaimed three-part adaptation from 2002 of George Eliot’s final novel, a powerful tale of love, identity and self-discovery set in late Victorian England. Hugh Dancy stars as Deronda, a young man who finds himself caught between Gwendolen (Romola Garai), a spoilt English rose trapped in a loveless marriage to the villainous Henleigh Grandcourt (Hugh Bonneville), and Mirah (Jodhi May), a tragically beautiful Jewish singer who he rescues from drowning. It’s an evocative depiction of a man forced to choose between two worlds, and the series contrasts the superficial facade of upper-class English society with the warm spirituality of working-class Jewish life. Helmed by Hooper, then aged only 28, from a screenplay by Andrew Davies, this lavish BBC production features many of the director’s characteristic touches – meticulously staged interiors, inventive cameraangles, wide-angle lenses – as well as a superlative cast.

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May 2011 MovieMail Film Catalogue

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£40.99

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B 200 Bonus Points If purchased for £40.99

See Also Prime Suspect (Complete) UK | 1991-2006 | G-VEN | 1402 min | Cert 18 | # 55692 | RRP £99.99

Our DVD Price: £80.49

Spiral: Series 1 & 2 France | 2008 | 2ENT | 800 min | subt | Cert 18 | # 62669 | RRP £34.99

Our DVD Price: £27.49

The Wire: Complete Seasons 1-5 USA | 2002-08 | WHV | 3600 min | Cert 18 | # 57180 | RRP £125.99

Our DVD Price: £108.99

gripping, well-paced Danish TV crime thriller spanning the course of a 20-day murder investigation, The Killing has drawn in over 500,000 viewers an episode during its recent BBC4 run – generating much in the way of semi-bemused column inches (of the ‘why are all of these people watching a foreign show?’ variety) along the way. Well, simply put, people are tuning in for a good reason – this is a tense and thoroughly absorbing whodunit. The drama concerns the murder of a teenage school girl called Nanna Birk Larsen. Inspector Sarah Lund, on her last week on the job and set to leave Denmark for a new life, swiftly finds herself caught up in a murder mystery that seems to involve up and coming politician Troels Hartmann, himself busy trying to rid City Hall of corruption. Some people see a connection between the success of The Killing and the success of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo film trilogy. There may be some truth in that, just as there is some truth in the fact that Scandinavian crime fiction is something of a big deal at the moment (connoisseurs of the genre point out that The Killing’s principal detective Sarah Lund is far closer to Henning Mankell’s hangdog Wallander

A gripping Danish thriller that has been a huge hit on BBC4 than Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander). But there is a third theory as to the popularity of The Killing: BBC4 are very carefully building a following for very good TV sourced from other countries, a following that started with the excellent French police drama, Spiral. There is much to like about the show, from the fact that it is as slow burning as David Simon’s Treme to the fact that it demands you sit, watch and pay attention, tiny details having pivotal significance as the show proceeds. Episode to episode, small revelations stand shoulder to shoulder with larger questions of what the programme says about Danish culture and, for that matter, police procedurals in general. The show is as much about the failure of not recognising the big picture as it is about some police trying to track down a villain. If you’re yet to be bit by The Killing bug, all you need to know is that this is Cracker by way of State of Play. Essential TV in other words. Peter Wild

Enquiries enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

Page 23

FRO FR OM THE OM HE SC SCAR SCAR R®- WIN INN NING NIN NG DIR IREC ECCTO TOR OF OF

THE KING’S SPEECH HUGH

Y

ROMOLA



HUGH

BVLL

‘Outstanding’

‘Extraordinary’

DAILY TELEGRAPH

MAIL ON SUNDAY

‘Garnering comparisons with Pride and Prejudice’

‘The very model of a BBC costume drama’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

GUARDIAN

02.005.100

May 2011 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Television Doctor Finlay: Series 1-4

All four series, available separately, of the popular Scottish drama series set in the 1940s, chronicling life in Tannochbrae as people come to terms with post-war life and Dr Finlay (David Rintoul) copes with personal and professional upheaval. 3 discs each.

UK | 1993 | DELTA | 304 min | Cert 12 Item # 65150-2/54 | RRP £19.99 | Out 25th April

Our DVD Price: £13.99 each

Anne Bancroft, James Mason, Laurence Olivier, Claudia Cardinale, Ralph Richardson. Zeffirelli’s epic TV retelling of Jesus’ life, filmed in Morocco and Tunisia with an all-star cast, including Robert Powell in the lead role. The script, co-written by author Anthony Burgess, attempts to remain faithful to its source by 2 discs. using material from all four Gospels.

Our DVD Price: £17.99

Barry Letts

Land of the Giants: Series 1

2 discs.

UK | 1974 | 2ENT | 148 min | Cert PG Item # 65094 | RRP £19.99 | Released 18th April

Our DVD Price: £13.99

Fallen Hero: Complete Series

1970s drama about the fluctuating fortunes of former rugby star Gareth Hopkins (Del Henney). Forced to retire early after injury, Gareth’s life soon goes from bad to worse when his wife Dorothy (Wanda Ventham) leaves him, forcing him to raise their baby daughter on his own. Then, just when he feels he’s reached his lowest point, an unexpected windfall changes 3 discs. the course of his life. UK | 1979 | NWORK | 600 min | Cert TBC Item # 65046 | RRP £29.99 | Released 25th April

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Canned Carrott: Volume 1

Jasper Carrott’s classic TV series finally served up for the first time on DVD. It features Jasper performing his hilarious monologues and his famous accident-prone character Wiggy getting in to all sorts of scrapes. It also introduces The Detectives to the world, with fellow cop Robert Powell, and has regular sketches from Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. UK | 1990 | SPIRT | Cert TBC Item # 64998 | RRP £17.99 | Released 11th April

Our DVD Price: £12.99

Franco Zeffirelli

UK | 1977 | G-VEN | 383 min | Cert PG Item # 64846 | RRP £24.99 | Released 11th April

Doctor Who: Planet of the Spiders The last Doctor Who adventure to star Jon Pertwee sees him travel to Metebelis 3, where he discovers an invasion plan of Earth by the Metebelis Spiders. To save the planet the Doctor must absorb a lethal dose of radiation – triggering his third regeneration.

Jesus of Nazareth

All 26 episodes from the first series of the Irwin Allen-produced sci-fi TV drama which sees a spacecraft crash land on an planet whose inhabitants are 12 times their size. When the ‘little people’ find themselves hunted by the locals, they face a race against time to repair their ship and return safely to Earth. 7 discs; Interviews; Pilot Episode.

Niall Ferguson Presents Civilization

The financial historian and writer follows up his documentary The Ascent of Money with this equally compelling exploration into Western civilization’s global dominance. It looks at the ‘killer apps’ of the West’s success: competition, science, democracy, modern medicine, consumerism and the work ethic. But are we living through the beginning of the end of the West’s 2 discs. ascendancy?

UK | 2011 | 4DVD | 280 min | Cert E Item # 64748 | RRP £19.99 | Released 11th April

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Rawhide: Series 2

The complete second series of the trailblazing western that jump-started Clint Eastwood’s illustrious movie career. Eastwood plays Rowdy Yates, the tough-as-nails cowhand, with Eric Fleming as Rowdy’s strong-minded trail boss. Features sweeping locations and a stampede of guest stars!

USA | 1969 | REV | 1320 min | Cert PG Item # 63971 | RRP £39.99 | Released 28th March

USA | 1960 | REV | Cert PG Item # 64122 | RRP £39.99 | Released 11th April

Our DVD Price: £32.49

Man at the Top: Series 2

Originally screened in the early 1970s, Man at the Top continues to chart the progress of Joe Lampton, the aggressively ambitious anti-hero of John Braine’s best-selling novel Room at the Top, its award-winning film adaptation of 1958, and 1965 sequel Life at the Top. Kenneth Haigh takes the lead, and this series sees him considering a political career – bringing charm 4 discs. and tenacity to the fight for votes.

UK | 1972 | NWORK | 650 min | Cert 12 Item # 65052 | RRP £39.99 | Released 11th April

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Monroe

All six episodes of the ITV medical drama starring James Nesbitt as neurosurgeon Gabriel Monroe, who juggles his highpressure job with the various dramas going on his personal life. Sarah Parish, Tom Riley and Susan Lynch co-star. 2 discs. UK | 2011 | G-VEN | 276 min | Cert 12 Item # 64814 | RRP £19.99 | Released 25th April

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8 discs.

The Sea Wolf Mike Barker

Inspired by Jack London’s classic novel, Sea Wolf is a high-seas adventure starring Tim Roth, Stephen Campbell Moore and Sebastian Koch, who plays the tyrannical captain of a seal hunting vessel. When the daughter (Neve Campbell) of a rival ship owner appears, the three go to war over love. Canada / Germany | 2009 | SHOWB | 178 min | Cert 15 Item # 65183 | RRP £15.99 | Released 11th April

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Silent Witness: Series 11-12 The complete series 11 and 12 of the BBC crime thriller following the investigations of a team of forensic experts. Series 11 kicks off with an RAF helicopter crashing into an asylum seekers’ detention centre, while series 12 finds Leo in the midst of a turf war on a 6 discs. rough London estate.

UK | 2008 | 2ENT | 1254 min | Cert 15 Item # 64849 | RRP £24.99 | Released 11th April

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Page 25

Television Silk

All six episodes of the BBC courtroom drama set in the cut-throat world of British criminal law. Maxine Peake and Rupert Penry-Jones star as the ambitious young barristers who are in the process of applying to become QCs – but will their principles 2 discs. survive?

UK | 2011 | 2ENT | 360 min | Cert 12 Item # 64507 | RRP £19.99 | Released 11th April

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The Sins

Pete Postlethwaite plays a bank robber determined to go straight after a fourand-a-half year stretch in prison. However, he has a wife (Geraldine James) and four daughters to take care of. Offered work in his uncle’s undertaking business, his rose-tinted view of his family life is gradually obliterated as he is faced with a series of challenges, each in 2 discs. the form of a deadly sin. UK | 2000 | 2ENT | Cert 15 Item # 64876 | RRP £19.99 | Released 28th March

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Star Trek: Original Series

All 79 episodes from all three seasons of the original classic science fiction series. ‘Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man 24 discs. has gone before!’

USA | 1966-69 | PARAH | 4300 min | Cert PG Item # 64179 / 83 | RRP £99.99 | Released 2nd May

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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: The Murder at Road Hill House James Hawes

Adapted from Kate Summerscale’s bestselling book, this is a gripping true story of murder, psychological suspense and courtroom drama that has all the hallmarks of a classic Victorian murder mystery: a body, a detective and a country house full of secrets and suspects.

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Page 26

Sitcom legend Mollie Sugden (Are You Being Served?) stars as Ida Willis, a fear-inspiring housekeeper who finds herself in the unusual situation of being unwittingly employed by her own son that she gave up for adoption as a baby. Once she gets over the shock, Ida starts to make her maternal presence felt...

Also Released... Birds of a Feather: Series 9 UK | 1998 | NWORK | 180 min | 12 | # 64991 | £14.99

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Barbara: Series 1 UK | 1999 | NWORK | 175 min | # 62772 | RRP £12.99

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UK | 1984 | NWORK | 200 min | Cert PG Item # 64128 | RRP £12.99 | Released 21st March

Barbara: Series 2 & 3

Our DVD Price: £9.99

UK | 2000-02 | 250 min | PG | # 64143 | £19.99

Twilight Zone: Season 1

Simon Curtis

UK | 2011 | 2ENT | 120 min | Cert 15 Item # 64835 | RRP £15.99 | Released 2nd May

That’s My Boy: Series 3

The complete first season of the original American sci-fi series. In each of the 36 standalone episodes, an ordinary person finds himself in an extraordinary situation, where the laws of reality are suspended. Rod Serling was the series’ host and narrator and also wrote most of the dramas, many of which have become indis6 discs. putable classics. USA | 1960 | PNE | 900 min | Cert PG Item # 65095 / 97 | RRP £34.99 | Out 18th April

DVD Price: £29.99 Blu-ray: £41.99

Waking the Dead: Series 1-9

All 90 episodes of dark murder mystery investigations from the hugely popular BBC crime drama series in which, using modern forensics, a team comes together to try and find answers to long unsolved cases. Trevor Eve and Sue Johnston 46 discs. star.

UK | 2011 | 2ENT | 4735 min | Cert 15 Item # 64382 | RRP £119.99 | Released 2nd May

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Women in Love Miranda Bowen

Rosamund Pike and Rachael Stirling star in this two-part BBC drama based on two novels by DH Lawrence – The Rainbow and Women in Love, which chart the lives and loves of the Brangwen sisters, sculptress Gudrun and lustful teacher Ursula – especially their relationships with two men: the repressed Rupert Birkin (Rory Kinnear) and mine-owning industrialist Gerald Crich (Joseph Mawle). UK | 2011 | 2ENT | Cert 15 Item # 64384 | RRP £19.99 | Released 11th April

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Burnistoun: Series 1 UK | 2010 | 2ENT | 210 min | 15 | # 64992 | £19.99

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Life of Riley: Series 2 UK | 2010 | ACORN | 191 min | 15 | # 64821 | £17.99

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Love Thy Neighbour: Series 3 Ronnie Baxter

UK | | PNE | 142 min | Cert 12 | # 64951 | RRP £15.99

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Love Thy Neighbour: Complete Series 1-8 UK | 1972-76 | PNE | 1350 min | Cert 12 | # 64952 | RRP £59.99

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Nurse Jackie: Series 1 & 2 USA | 2010 | LGATE | 15 | # 65006 | £34.99

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Nurse Jackie: Series 2 USA | 2010 | LGATE | 360 min | 15 | # 65007 | £24.99

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Outcasts UK | 2011 | 2ENT | 480 min | 15 | # 64787 | £20.42

DVD: £15.31 Blu-ray: £17.99

Rock and Chips: Collection UK | 2011 | LGATE | 270 min | Cert | # 65008 | RRP £29.99

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You’re Only Young Twice: Series 4 USA | 1981 | NWORK | 225 min | PG | # 65031 | RRP £12.99

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Super Gran: Series 1 and 2 UK | 1985 | NWORK | 325 min | # 59288 | £19.99

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British TV DVD Bargains Spiked with strong scripts, charismatic characters and rich with resonant and readily recognisable voices, this selection of television titles new and old gives you plenty to discover for whatever your mood. Some titles and faces are familiar, while others tease the memory. All are good to have around for the moment when they are exactly what you need!

Hugh Bonneville and Maggie Smith star in ITV1’s acclaimed costume drama series, written by Julian Fellowes and set in an Edwardian country house on the eve of great change in 1912. 3 discs. UK | 2010 | UPV | Cert 12 | # 63024 | RRP £24.99

Lewis: Series 1-4 Kevin Whately takes the lead in this Oxford-set Inspector Morse spin-off detective drama, in which he is assisted by Laurence Fox’s DS Hathaway in solving murder cases around the University town. 17 discs. UK | 2010 | G-VEN | 1470 min | Cert 12 | # 62973 | RRP £84.99

Swallows and Amazons Forever! Andrew Morgan There’s fun and adventure in these two delightful TV adaptations of Arthur Ransome’s classic children’s books set in the 1930s on the Norfolk Broads – Coot Club and Big Six.

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UK | 1983 | REVEL | 200 min | Cert U | # 12978 | RRP £15.99

Brass: Complete

Galton and Simpson Playhouse: Complete

Marple: Complete

Timothy West stars in this popular, barbed and witty pastiche of soap operas and the gritty realism of period Northern dramas. 5 discs. UK | 1983-1984 | NWORK | 800 min | Cert PG | # 33146 | RRP £39.99

Seven comic plays from Britain’s most successful comedy writing partnership (Steptoe, Hancock...). UK | 1977 | NWORK | 175 min | Cert 12 | # 56935 | RRP £14.99

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Geraldine McEwan stars as Miss Marple in this collection of 12 murder mysteries based on the novels by Agatha Christie. 12 discs. UK | 2007 | G-VEN | 1080 min | Cert 12 | # 57115 | RRP £59.99

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DVD: £42.99 Save £17

The Chain

Harry’s Game

Dir: Jack Gold. Warren Mitchell stars in this sideways look at the potential minefield of moving house, scripted by Jack Rosenthal.

1982 Yorkshire TV series starring Ray Lonnen as the British soldier sent undercover to Northern Ireland to get information to arrest an IRA gunman.

Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: Series 1

UK | 1985 | NWORK | 92 min | Cert PG | # 30413 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1982 | NWORK | 150 min | Cert 15 | # 23605 | RRP £14.99

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Chance in a Million

Inspector Morse

The complete Channel 4 sitcom about the incorrigibly optimistic Tom Chance. Simon Callow and Brenda Blethyn star. All 3 series. 3 discs.

Lavish set that collects all 33 episodes of the long-running detective series starring John Thaw. Features a wealth of guests stars. 17 discs.

UK | 1984-86 | REV | 420 min | Cert 12 | # 62907 | RRP £29.99

UK | 1987-2000 | G-VEN | 3572 min | Cert 15 | # 55690 | RRP £119.99

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Dennis Potter at LWT

The Knowledge

The World at War

Contains Blade on the Feather, Rain on the Roof and Cream in my Coffee, three plays shown on successive weeks in 1980. 2 discs.

Dir: Bob Brooks. An amusing story, scripted by Jack Rosenthal, of four would-be London cabbies trying to get their taxi licences.

Thames TV’s powerful 1974 account of WWII was a powerful moment in television history. Laurence Olivier narrates. 11 discs; Restored.

UK | 1980 | NWORK | 250 min | Cert 15 | # 24003 | RRP £19.99

UK | 1981 | REVEL | 78 min | Cert PG | # 11310 | RRP £12.99

UK | 1973 | PNE | 1949 min | Cert E | # 62077 | RRP £79.99

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Fingersmith

Mapp & Lucia

Wind in the Willows

A flagship BBC drama and a powerful tale of dark deeds and intrigue in Victorian London. Sally Hawkins and Imelda Staunton star.

Prunella Scales, Geraldine McEwan. The complete classic comedy of manners set in 1930 and based on the books by EF Benson. 3 discs.

Dir: Hall & Taylor. The animated version of Kenneth Grahame’s timeless tale, with the voices of David Jason, Michael Hordern and Peter Sallis.

UK | 2005 | FHE | 180 min | Cert 15 | # 22591 | RRP £17.99

UK | 1985 | NWORK | 500 min | Cert PG | # 28356 | RRP £24.99

UK | 1990 | FHE | 231 min | Cert U | # 27965 | RRP £19.99

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Detective series based on anthologies of Victorian and Edwardian detective fiction. 4 discs. UK | 1971 | NWORK | 650 min | Cert 12 | # 57299 | RRP £39.99

DVD: £17.99 Save £22

The Tommy Cooper Hour: Complete Contains over seven hours of the popular programme featuring the much-loved magician. 3 discs. UK | | NWORK | 450 min | Cert PG | # 24144 | RRP £29.99

DVD: £17.99 Save £12

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Offer ends 27th May or while stocks last

Downton Abbey: Series 1

Contemporary Film English Language Films, 1970 – present Macbeth

Rupert Goold

New Releases The Big Chill

Lawrence Kasdan Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt. A friend’s suicide reunites a group of 60s college friends who have gone their separate ways. A compassionate look at a confused generation who have grown through painful self-awareness into adulthood.

USA | 1983 | UCA | 101 min | Cert 15 Item # 64737 | RRP £9.99 | Released 2nd May

Fantastic Factory Collection A collection of four gory films from the Fantastic Factory. Contains Faust: Love of the Damned (Yuzna, 2000), Arachnid (Sholder, 2001), Beyond Re-Animator (Yuzna, 2003) and Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt 4 discs. (Plaza, 2004).

Our DVD Price: £38.49

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 David Yates

The first part of the seventh and final adventure in the Harry Potter series. As Voldemort’s power grows to unprecedented proportions, Harry, Ron and Hermione set out on a quest to destroy the lost Horcruxes, the secret behind his immortality. 2 discs; Many extras; Also available: 9 disc Harry Potter 1-7 Set. UK | 2010 | WHV | 146 min | Cert 12 Item # 64697-700 | RRP £24.99 | Out 11th April

DVD: £11.99 DVD+Blu-ray: £17.99 DVD Box: £44.49 Blu-ray: £52.49

In Our Name Brian Welsh

A hard-hitting drama showing the return of a female soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress to her home on a Middlesbrough council estate after completing a tour of duty in Iraq. UK | 2010 | ART-E | 90 min | 18 Item # 64725 | RRP £15.99 | Released 25th April

Our DVD Price: £10.99

Page 28

1-7

Tony Garnett

Starring Patrick Stewart, this visceral updating of Shakespeare’s play is set in a threatening central European world that is intense and bloody. The film, shot on location in the underground labyrinth of Welbeck Abbey, is based on the Chichester Festival production of the play that enjoyed sell-out runs in the West End and on Broadway. Shown on the BBC in 2010.

This directorial debut of one of British TV’s most controversial figures tells the tale of two women – Sandra (Eleanor Forsythe), an ambitious working girl who moves to London in the hope of securing wealthier patrons, and her social worker friend (Kate Crutchley), fighting to change antiquated prostitution laws. A frank Booklet. exposé presented fully uncut.

UK | 2010 | I-MIN | 180 min | Cert E Item # 64942 / 45 | RRP £17.99 | Released 1st May

UK | 1980 | BFI | 97 min | Cert 18 Item # 65117 | RRP £19.99 | Released 25th April

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Me & Orson Welles

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Prostitute

Richard Linklater

Vampire Circus Robert W. Young

A drama set in the theatrical world of 1930s New York. Zac Efron stars as a young actor thrown into the Mercury Theatre Company the night before their historic staging of Julius Caesar. Before the week is over, he is swept into a romance with a beautiful older woman and is learning all about Welles’s tempestuous egomania.

Hammer horror set in a small village in 19th century Serbia, where rejoicing greets the arrival of a circus and relief after the burden of years of plague. But shortly after the circus’s arrival the children of the village start to die mysteriously...

UK | 2009 | CNXHE | 108 min | Cert 12 Item # 64960 | RRP £15.99 | Out Now

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On Tour

Mathieu Amalric

Actor/Director Amalric won the Best Director award at Cannes 2010 for this lively, unpredictable and moving portrait of a burlesque tour of France. Joachim (Amalric) returns home with a team of American striptease performers, but despite his perfomers’ enthusiasm, the tour is jeopardised by his past enemies. France | 2010 | ART-E | 111 min | Cert 15 Item # 64670 | RRP £15.99 | Released 25th April

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Monsters

Gareth Edwards An ultra-low-budget indie sci-fi which sees alien life emerging in Mexico after a NASA probe crashes there, turning the region into a quarantined zone. A cynical press photographer enters in the hope of capturing the ‘monsters’ on camera. UK | 2010 | MOMET | 93 min | Cert 12 Item # 64658-59 | RRP £17.99 | Released 11th April

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UK | 1971 | SPIRT | 83 min | Cert 18 Item # 64348 | RRP £12.99 | Released 11th April

Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader Michael Apted

The journey of the Pevensie children continues in this third film adapted from CS Lewis’s fantasy novel series, The Chronicles of Narnia. Here, Lucy and Edmund are joined by their cousin, Eustace Clarence Scrubb on their new adventure, in which they head towards 2 discs. the Lone Islands to save Narnia. USA | 2010 | FOX | 107 min | Cert PG Item # 64818 /20 | RRP £19.99 | Out 18th April

DVD: £13.99 DVD+Blu-ray: £25.49

We Think the World of You Colin Gregg

A British comedy drama set in the 1950s. Alan Bates stars as the friend and ex-lover of Johnny (Gary Oldman) who tries to wrest care of Johnny’s alsation from his parents after he is sent to jail. A touching film that captures the stifling discretion of its era. UK | 1988 | GFL | 92 min | Cert 12 Item # 65030 | RRP £14.99 | Released 4th April

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May 2011 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Also Released... Ballast

Lance Hammer USA | 2008 | Axiom | 96 min | 15 | # 63926 | £15.99

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Chatroom

Recommended

Hideo Nakata UK | 2010 | REV | 97 min | 15 | # 64930 | RRP £15.99

DVD: £11.99 Blu-ray: £12.99

Eagle’s Wing

Director: Anton Corbijn

Anthony Harvey

Starring: George Clooney, Thekla Reuten, Violante Placido, Paolo Bonacelli, Irina Bjorklund

UK | 1979 | SPIRT | 100 min | PG | # 64366 | £12.99

Released: 4th April

In God We Trust

DVD Extras: Making-of; Deleted scenes; Audio commentary. USA | 2010 | UPV | 105 min | Cert 15 | Item # 64588 | P&P £1

From the poster to the snazzy European locations to the Hollywood star, The American harks back to the breed of thrillers made in the 1970s like The Day of the Jackal, by way of the existentialism of Le Samourai. George Clooney plays the deadeyed assassin holing up in an Italian hilltop town for the inevitable final job. During his stay he makes friends with the local padre and starts an affair with an implausibly gorgeous prostitute, but his bloody past follows him. Anton Corbijn’s second feature – after the striking Joy Division biopic Control – sloshes on the gorgeous postcard visuals as it muzzles Clooney’s legendary charm. The effect being that a merest hint of a smile convinces you that anything is possible for this marked man. Compared to, say, the relentless pace of the Bourne films there is power here similar to the repose found in In Bruges. Cascading in tension, The American crackles like a thunderstorm by the finale, suggesting that there is still room for a great thriller that takes time to think before it pulls the trigger. DDP

Buying Details Our DVD Price: £12.99 RRP: £19.99 Save £7 (35%)

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Marty Feldman

USA | 1980 | ODEON | 93 min | 15 | # 64950 | £14.99

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Laurel Canyon Lisa Cholodenko

USA | 2002 | UCA | 99 min | 18 | # 64734 | RRP £5.99

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Love and Bullets Stuart Rosenberg

UK | 1978 | SPIRT | 100 min | 15 | # 64372 | £12.99

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Meet the Parents: Little Fockers Paul Weitz

USA | 2010 | PARAH | 97 min | Cert 12 | # 65000 | RRP £19.99

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Rubber

Quentin Dupieux France | 2010 | OPT | 79 min | 15 | # 65010 | £15.99

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Strawberries Need Rain Larry Buchanan

USA | 1970 | Jeff | 85 min | 15 | # 63865 | RRP £12.99

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The Green Hornet Michel Gondry

USA | 2011 | COL-T | 119 min | 12 | # 64806 | £19.99

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The Tourist

Florian von Donnersmarck Italy / USA | 2010 | 107 min | 12 | # 64728 | £19.99

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TRON: Legacy Joseph Kosinski

USA | 2010 | WDHV | 126 min | PG | # 65076 | £17.99

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Film still from On Tour, details on opposite page

The American

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Page 29

James Oliver’s From the Cheap Seats

Green, Unpleasant Land

Film still from Black Death

ttentive readers of this publication will have noticed that a number of films with a pastoral theme have made their appearance on DVD these past few months. Last month’s cover girl Tamara Drewe joins F.W. Murnau’s beautiful City Girl and Alexander Dovzhenko’s rapturous Soviet silent, Earth. Indeed, page 16 of this very catalogue celebrates their release with a ‘Top 10 pastoral films’ sale. It’s hardly a trend but it’s enough to justify a further excursion into the countryside because there’s another side to rural films. Movies don’t always portray the countryside as a bucolic idyll; there are pictures that use those elysian fields as a backdrop for something altogether darker. It’s those that are our subject for today. More specifically, it’s the domestic variety; British filmmakers seem to excel at pastoral horror films. Most famously, there’s The Wicker Man. Set on the remote Scottish isle of ‘Summerisle’, it’s a grand and disturbing union of the ancient and modern. What’s interesting is how it subverts the usual narrative of pastoral films. Most rural movies revere tradition and present the countryside as a place of spiritual rebirth (the townie who’s lost their way in the metropolis re-connects with something more meaningful). Not on Summerisle though: there’s no sense in the old ways but they are followed blindly, whatever the cost. At the other end of the country, Michael Reeves set Witchfinder General in the Suffolk countryside, filming at many of the actual locations where odious sadist Matthew Hopkins – whose life the film dramatises – plied his trade. The beauty of the scenery is a counterpoint to Hopkins’ barbarism. It’s not really a horror film at all: its use of landscape is closer to American westerns rather than British gothics.

British filmmakers seem to excel at crafting pastoral horror films The best of the crop, however, might be Blood on Satan’s Claw. Pay no heed to that sensationalist title. This is a remarkable, richly atmospheric work, constructed around a series of set pieces: a ploughman uncovers something ancient and evil; a man is terrorised by something and ends up hacking off his own hand; a children’s game develops into something more malicious. Director Piers Haggard makes brilliant use of his locations; it’s at once beautiful and unnerving. If they’d given it a better title, it would be as well regarded as The Wicker Man. The British Pastoral Horror as been in eclipse for some years now but there are signs that something is budding. Christopher Smith’s recent film Black Death draws deeply but imaginatively on The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General (as well as Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and Herzog’s Aguirre, Wrath of God) to create the most effective British horror

film since 28 Days Later. Set in medieval times, it tells of a band of warriors and an unwitting monk who journey into the wilds to find a village that has supposedly been spared the plague because of a pact they’ve made with the devil. Although filmed in Germany, it’s a film well attuned to the savagery of the countryside and the dark things that crawl out once you lift up the rocks. It’s a film that every fan of British horror should support. The countryside isn’t all rolling fields and rosy-cheeked yokels. There’s a darkness in the soil and things with a nasty bite. Let us cherish those films that remind us that escaping to the country isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.

Related Films Black Death

Christopher Smith UK | 2010 | COL-T | 101 min | Cert 15 | # 63071 | £15.99

Our DVD Price: £14.99

The Wicker Man Robin Hardy

UK | 1973 | OPTIM | 100 min | Cert 15 | # 57887 | £15.99

Our DVD Price: £5.99 Top 10 Pastoral Films appear on page 16

Visit the Cheap Seats blog and join in on the discussion! blogs.moviemail-online.co.uk Page 30

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The MovieMail Website May Highlights • Extended sales – many more great films to choose from in our Epic Cinema and A Wealth of World Cinema sales • New Trailers – The King’s Speech, Enter the Void, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Of Gods and Men, Vampire Circus, The American, Black Swan • Latest Filmcast – Graeme looks at BFI Flipside’s latest release Lunch Hour, reviewed on page 12 • Full-length reviews – Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic, Of Gods and Men, The King’s Speech, The Big Sky, Unconquered Visit: www.moviemail-online.co.uk

MovieMail Filmcast The MovieMail Filmcast is a fortnightly programme that gives considered and insightful introductions to significant films and directors. Presented by Graeme Hobbs, the programmes aim to inspire you to watch the films with a fresh eye as well as introduce their themes and context. Listening and downloading is simple - you don't need an iPod or mp3 player, just a computer. Those with iTunes can easily subscribe to the podcast. Go to www.moviemail-online/podcasts

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Of Gods and Men A deeply moving winner of the Cannes Grand Prix See page 7 for our full review

Of Gods and Men Xavier Beauvois In a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa, eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace, they slowly realise that they have no choice but to stay, come what may. Based on a true story. France | 2010 | ART-E | 121 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 64669 | RRP £15.99

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