MovieMail December Film Catalogue

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About MovieMail Moviemail Team Q. As this month we are presenting our selection of ‘Vintage Films of the Year’ released on DVD in 2010 (turn to pages 6-7 for our choices), our question this month is, ‘what’s yours?’

Dan Hunter Editor Night of the Demon (Jacques Tourneur, 1957)

Graeme Hobbs Writer Shadows of Progress: Documentary Film in Postwar Britain

Caroline Hunter

It’s our fourteenth 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 Here we present the best new DVD 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 and directors we particularly recommend are highlighted with longer reviews and features.

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Twin Peaks (Frost & Lynch, 1990-91)

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Matt Wilding Customer Services Manager

Order online for the cheapest prices on over 16,000 films at www.moviemail-online.co.uk

The Party’s Over (Guy Hamilton, 1965)

Call us on 0844 376 0009 to speak to one of our friendly staff. Calls are charged at 5p/min or less from landlines. Customers outside the UK should call 0203 137 1461

Rena Markogiannaki Assistant Buyer M (Fritz Lang, 1931)

Send your order and payment details to: MovieMail Direct, 5 Stucley Place, London NW1 8NS

Sarah Wong Accounts Administrator Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)

David Perilli Publications Assistant Our Friends in the North (1996)

Plus Alan Hunter The War Lord ( Franklin J. Schaffner, 1965)

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For all enquiries give us a call on 0844 376 0009 or email us at info@moviemail-online.co.uk or write to MovieMail Direct, 5 Stucley Place, London NW1 8NS

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Peter Curtis

Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1926) Published by Moviemail Direct Limited, Palm Chambers, 197 Main Street, Tortola, British Virgin Islands

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

MovieMail News

I

was overjoyed to hear that film historian and restorer Kevin Brownlow – a longtime friend of MovieMail – is to be awarded an honorary Oscar. I know of no-one more deserving. Kevin was an innovative film director too – watch It Happened Here and Winstanley for proof. Their appearance on DVD has led to significant reappraisal. I’m also delighted that the director John Krish is finally beginning to receive the acclaim that is his due. Four of his films are on the BFI’s new Shadows of Progress set. They are beautiful, heartfelt and poignant – see p27

Film of the Month 5 Heartbreaker

Vintage DVDs of the Year! 6-7

This month we publish our Vintage DVDs of the Year – turn to p6 to see if you’re favourites are included. Lastly, Christmas will soon be here. Our Gift Guide (p17) has already done the work for you!

12

Metropolis

Classic Movies

14

Ball of Fire Exclusive DVDs!

26

Shadows of Progress

Contemporary

28 34

Inception

Animation

(Fritz Lang’s M) Milo has an eclectic passion for film, and as Screen Editor of Gay Times he upholds the MovieMail tradition of bringing less well-known gems to a wider audience. He thoroughly enjoys revisiting classic films in High-Definition, and his current ambition is to watch Dial M For Murder in the original 3D.

Mike McCahill (Pandora and the

Silent

Rawhide Series 1

Milo Wakelin

Rob Mackie (Heimat) is a Guardian journalist and reviewer

Gay and Lesbian 12

Television

Contributors

Rick Burin (Ball of Fire) was highly commended at this year’s O2 Media Awards

Dawns Here Are Quiet La Signora di Tutti White Material

Documentaries A. Our Friends in the North (1996)

Turn to page 17 for full details!

Michael Brooke (Shadows of Progress) is the curator of Screenonline and has a blog at http://michaelbrooke.com/kinoblog/

8

World Cinema

Enjoy a Free DVD

Mike Bartlett (Ozu’s Late Spring) is a freelance film writer

Contents

Flying Dutchman) writes on film for The Sunday Telegraph. His blog is at http://cinesthesiac.blogspot.com James Oliver (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves) is a freelance film writer David Parkinson (Dovzhenko’s Earth) is just completing his latest book, 100 Ideas That Changed Film

25

Toy Story 3

Blu-ray

28

From the Cheap Seats

30

Order Form

31

Special Offers Christmas Films

11

Arthouse Triple

13

Nick Riddle (Night of the Demon) is an editor at Bristol University

Gift Guide

17

Julian Upton (Modern Times) wrote Fallen Stars

Period Dramas

31

Enquiries enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

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Get more from MovieMail

1 Night of the Demon

Jacques Tourneur’s classic British psychological horror from 1957 in which Dana Andrews’ debunker of the paranormal finds himself facing up to a fiendish adversary in the shape of Julian Karswell (a brilliant Niall MacGuinness).

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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.

UK | 1957 | PNE | 90 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 63072 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £8

2 North West Mounted Police

With sumptuous Technicolor photography in the Canadian Rockies, eclectic setpieces, jaw-dropping stunt work, enthusiastic embellishments, sexual treachery and imperialist tub-thumping, this film could only have been created by Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper and Madeleine Carroll star, and it’s great fun. USA | 1940 | ODEON | 120 min | Cert PG | # 63458 | RRP £9.99

DVD: £8.99 Save £1

3 Heartbreaker

A charming French romantic comedy starring Romain Duris as a professional ladykiller, hired by parents to bring about ends to unwanted liaisons, who finds himself falling in love with one of his cases in the shape of Vanessa Paradis. France | 2010 | REV | 105 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 63430 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £10.99 Save £9 Blu-ray: £10.99 Save £9

4 Three Cases of Murder

A macabre, mysterious and darkly witty British portmanteau film of three curious murders. Alan Badel, John Gregson and Orson Welles star, and the DVD also includes Welles’ short ghost story, Return to Glennascaul (1951), as a bonus. UK / Ireland | 1955 | ODEON | 93 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 63287 | RRP £12.99

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5 Inception

8 Metropolis

6 Toy Story 3

9

7 Progress

10

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Shadows of DVD: £24.99 Save £10

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Room in Rome DVD: £12.99 Save 7

Wild Grass DVD: £9.99 Save 6

Reader Feedback We have an answer to a recent film query regading an Italian comedy about a man who puts his friend in the freezer so he can bag the village cemetery’s last spot for his mother. The film is Roseanna’s Grave (Weiland, 1997), starring Jean Reno. A lot of people contacted us to let us know this, Mr Roy Eaglestone was the first though. And Mr Oliver is glad to see so many Claude Chabrol films now available on DVD. He was recalling the days when he used to drive all the way from west Wales to see a new Chabrol film as soon as it was released in the cinemas. As ever, if you have any queries, titbits or recommendations, do get in touch at feedback@moviemail-online.co.uk

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Names of the Month: Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, H.G. Wells

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

MovieMail’s Film of the Month

Heartbreaker Recommended Director: Pascal Chaumeil Starring: Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis, Andrew Lincoln, Julie Ferrier Released: 15th November DVD Extras: Making of; Interviews; Featurettes; Out takes; Deleted Scenes France | 2010 | REV | 105 min | subt | Cert 15 | Item # 63430

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Also on Blu-ray Heartbreaker

Pascal Chaumeil France | 2010 | REV | 105 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 63432 | RRP £19.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £10.99

See Also Amelie

Jean-Pierre Jeunet France | 2001 | MOMET | 116 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 10074 | RRP £19.99

Our DVD Price: £5.99

Pot Luck

Cedric Klapisch France / Spain | 2002 | CFWF | 135 min | Cert 15 | # 20432 | RRP £17.99

Our DVD Price: £16.99

n Heartbreaker – which came to the UK on the back of a record-breaking cinema run all over Europe – Romain Duris (still probably best known from Jacques Audiard’s modern classic, The Beat That My Heart Skipped) plays Alex Lippi, a tousle-haired Lothario whose job it is to infiltrate the lives of young women at the behest of friends or relatives and – using his not insubstantial charms – break up whatever unsatisfactory relationship they are in. Several spliced scenes later, in which we find out that Alex employs more or less the same routine each time, we learn that he is getting tired of the same-old, same-old and wants a challenge. Enter Juliette Van Der Becq (played with steely precision by Vanessa Paradis), a rich curator on the cusp of marrying rich British financier Jonathan Alcott (Andrew Lincoln). Juliette is treating herself to five days in Monaco prior to the wedding, so, in the employ of her father – who’s concerned Jonathan will bore his daughter – Alex rolls up as a bodyguard and immerses himself in Wham songs, dirty dancing and Roquefort in order to drive a wedge

A sophisticated, and very funny, comedy that will appeal to both sexes between the couple. But then, as you suspect it might, the best laid plans of mice and men being what they are, Alex’s mask starts to slip and love blossoms... Heartbreaker rolls along like a rom-com directed by Steven Soderbergh and is far more fun and less clichéd than it may look on paper. The Monaco setting helps certainly, but the comedy itself is more sophisticated than you might expect, thanks in the main to the hilarious antics of Julie Ferrier and François Damiens who play a husband and wife team in Alex’s employ. The characterisation, too, is a cut well above the norm for romantic comedies. For those who don’t mind a swishy bit of escapism that will leave you with a smile on your face, you won’t do much better than Heartbreaker. Peter Wild

Enquiries enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

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Vintage DVDs of the Year

2010


There are some unfortunate folk who avoid Charlie Chaplin; they’ve heard he’s ‘too sentimental’ and ‘not funny’. Well show them The Kid and they’ll see how wrong they are. A simple plot (Charlie adopts an infant), gags galore and some heartfelt emotion make this the best introduction possible to his genius. JO

USA | 1921 | PARKC | 60 min | B&W | Cert U | # 61378 | RRP £15.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £8

Painted Boats

Familiarity with the story of J.B. Priestley’s famous play in no way dulls its effect or its continued relevance. This classic film version sees a brilliantly mysterious Alastair Sim play the inspector who arrives to quietly, methodically and irrevocably ruin a wealthy family’s evening meal by showing them the meaning of responsibility. GH

UK | 1954 | OPTIM | 76 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 60779 | RRP £15.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £8

Our Friends in the North

Frantisek Vlacil Completed in the same year as the director’s Marketa Lazarová and also filmed in resplendent widescreen black and white, this vivid, haunting and brilliantly photographed tale contrasts the cold asceticism of dogmatic faith in the middle ages with pagan pleasures. A stunning film. GH Czech | 1968 | 2RUN | 97 min | subt | B&W | Cert 15 | # 60973 | RRP £12.99

DVD: £8.99 Save £4

David Lynch

Containing both series of Twin Peaks and a treasure trove of supplementary material, this is simply essential. It celebrates a creative phenomenon that resulted in a seminal series that’s the cause of the recent golden age in quality American TV. If you’ve never indulged, then now is the time. DH

USA | 1991 | UPV | 1410 min | Cert 15 | # 61214 | RRP £69.99

DVD: £37.99 Save £32

DVD: £9.99 Save £10

Germany | 1973 | 2ND | 204 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 61696 | RRP £19.99

Look out for our New DVDs of the Year next month!

Welcome to Part 1 of our celebration of the finest releases of 2010, in which we focus on our favourite films and TV series from the past. To devise the list we polled our contributors and staff, totted up the votes, had a few arguments then mixed things up until we were happy. We couldn’t recommend these DVDs more, so if there are any you don’t own then give yourself a treat!

DVD: £10.99 Save £9

Japan | 1953 | BFI | 135 min | subt | B&W | Cert U | # 60977 | RRP £19.99

A long-unavailable holy grail for fans of intelligent science-fiction, this coolly disorienting series about simulated worlds inhabited by ‘identity units’ sees their controller discover that he may not be human himself. Stylistically influenced by Godard’s Alphaville, it is itself hugely influential and it’s hard to imagine Inception existing without it. DH

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

World on a Wire

Simply one of the best films of all time from one of cinema’s most revered directors. Tokyo Story is an echo chamber of everyone’s thoughts on family, of every parent’s concern for their children’s future, every child’s need to break away and the mixture of guilt and relief that follows. Sublime. 2 discs; DVD & Blu-ray. MBa

Yasujiro Ozu

The Valley of the Bees

DVD: £24.99 Save £10

UK | 1951-77 | BFI | 880 min | Cert 15 | # 63309 | RRP £34.99

A superlative collection of rare and long-unseen postwar documentaries that paints a portrait of a nation in a time of great change. With compassionate film portraits, industrial symphonies, awardwinning shorts and environmental documentaries, this is a collection of endless fascination. GH

Shadows of Progress: Documentary Film in Post-war Britain

DVD: £11.99 Save £8

UK | 1957 | PNE | 90 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 63072 | RRP £19.99

A recipe for success: Take a story by MR James; one of Hitchcock’s favourite screenplay writers; a highly accomplished Hollywood director and throw in a satanic villain in the shape of Niall MacGinnis and Dana Andrew’s sceptical hero. The end result is a masterpiece in atmospheric horror and damned entertaining to boot. DH

Jacques Tourneur

Night of the Demon

DVD: £7.99 Save £8

UK | 1948 | OPTIM | 91 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 60859 | RRP £15.99

Unforgettably creepy, this detonates in the imagination with its sparing use of the supernatural. Dickinson gleefully tosses shocks into this sumptuously shadowed nightmare as Anton Walbrook’s fatally ambitious captain pays the price with his sanity. Martin Scorsese is a big fan and you will be too when you watch it. DP

Thorold Dickinson

Twin Peaks: Definitive Edition

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UK | 1945 | OPTIM | 61 min | B&W | Cert U | # 57903 | RRP £15.99

A beautiful print of a beautiful docudrama about life ‘on the cut’. Filmed on the Grand Union Canal in the summer of 1944, it sets a drama of changing ways on the English canals in the context of their history. Louis MacNeice wrote the evocative commentary; Jenny Laird is the capable heroine the times required. A neglected gem. GH

The Queen of Spades

DVD: £12.99 Save £7

Germany | 1931 | EUREK | 110 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 61015 | RRP £19.99

At once a serial killer film, a sociological study and a cinematic lexicon, M is one of the more plausible candidates for the heavyweight title ‘best film ever made’. It’s 80 years old, but it’s still tough, sardonic and incisive. Fritz Lang made many outstanding films throughout his long career: this might well be his masterpiece. JO

Fritz Lang

M

Tokyo Story

DVD: £24.99 Save £10

UK | 1996 | SIMP | 623 min | Cert 15 | # 62603 | RRP £34.99

This iconic, BAFTA-winning BBC series is the finest example of accessible socio-political drama in the history of British television. Wonderfully acted by Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee, Mark Strong and Daniel Craig, I’ve recently been enthralled by this all over again. CH

Charles Crichton

Charlie Chaplin

Guy Hamilton

Simon Cellan Jones

The Kid

An Inspector Calls

Prices valid while stocks last and end 21st December


World Cinema Films in a Foreign Language

New Releases Aftershock

Feng Xiaogang Action drama based on the Tangshan Earthquake in 1976 that took the lives of 240,000 people, this is a big-budget special effects-laden blockbuster from the director of The Banquet and Assembly. China | 2010 | MET-D | subt | TBC Item # 63641 | RRP £19.99 | Released 27th Dec

White Material Recommended Director: Claire Denis Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Isaach De Bankolé, Christopher Lambert, Michel Subor

Our DVD Price: £13.99

A Perfect Day

Released: 6th December

Ferzan Ozpetek

France / Cameroon | 2009 | ART | 100 min | subt | 15 | Item # 63360

A fast-moving thriller recounting 24 traumatic hours in the life of an Italian family who are desperately attempting to regain control of their lives on the frenetic stage that is Rome – even if it takes an unspeakable betrayal against those they love. Italy | 2008 | VITA | 105 min | subt | Cert 15 Item # 63687 | RRP £14.99 | Released 11th October

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Battle Royale: Box Set (Limited Edition) Kinji Fukasaku

A controversial portrayal of a society in ruins in which a school class is taken to a deserted island and its pupils forced to fight to death. Described as a cross between Clockwork Orange and Lord of the Flies, this is Japanese Shock Cinema 3 discs; at its finest. Theatrical version; director’s cut; many extras. JAPAN | 2000 | ARROW | 117 min | subt | Cert 18 Items # 63306-7 | RRP £24.99 | Released 29th Nov

DVD Price: £17.99 Blu-ray: £23.49

Face to Face Sergio Sollima

A classic spaghetti western and a gripping parable of the rise of fascism. Gian Maria Volonté plays the history professor who stages a takeover. Features stunning Techniscope cinOptional ematography. Italian or English versions.

One of 2010’s most acclaimed dramas, White Material unfolds around a coffee plantation in an unnamed African state, overseen by Maria Vial (Isabelle Huppert). With civil war breaking out and her exhusband threatening to sell up, Maria strives to keep the business running, ignoring the peacekeepers’ advice to leave before the rebels arrive. There’s already been one prominent arrival: The Boxer (Isaach de Bankolé), a local hero stalling for time to recover from a bullet to the gut. Claire Denis’ filmmaking, sensory and experiential, concerns itself less with narrative propulsion than with what it is to be in particular places at particular times. Her sensibility is wholly cinematic: one late sequence – as the workers settle in on the ranch as night falls, aware they may face the possibility of violent death before dawn – could, subtitles aside, be lifted wholesale from any Western. Neither slandering nor exoticising the continent, Denis views Africa less as heart of darkness than a home like any other. The question this searching and engrossing film poses is: whose home? MM

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Italy / Spain | 1967 | EUREK | 91 min | subt | Cert 15 Items # 63685-6 | RRP £15.99 | Released 15th Nov

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La Signora di Tutti Recommended Director: Max Ophuls Starring: Isa Miranda Released: 15th November DVD Extras: Beautiful new transfer; Video essay by film scholar Tag Gallagher; Booklet. Italy | 1934 | EUREK | 86 min | subt | B&W | Cert TBC | Item # 63690

On paper, this looks like a standardissue melodramatic weepie about a suicidal film star, Gaby Doriot (Isa Miranda), looking back on a life that mixed professional success and personal disaster, blighted by a succession of relationships with unsuitable men, including a father and son. But while Ophuls’ early masterpiece (his only Italian film) isn’t as aesthetically extravagant as his postwar classics, it’s technically remarkable for 1934, with baroque visuals, a constantly prowling camera, overlapping dialogue and a complex flashback structure all anticipating Citizen Kane by nearly a decade. The film’s title is also Gaby’s nickname, ‘Everybody’s Lady’, whose multiple meanings are thoroughly investigated – the film is at least as much a study of the fetishism that accompanies fame (and intense romantic passion) as it is a psychological portrait of an individual. Isa Miranda did rather better out of the film than her alter ego: it set her on the road to international stardom, and it’s easy to see why she was subsequently billed as Italy’s answer to Marlene Dietrich. MB

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

The Dawns Here Are Quiet Recommended Director: Stanislav Rostotsky Starring: Andrei Martynov, Yelena Drapeko, Yekaterina Markova Released: 18th October DVD Extras: 2 discs; Woman’s War documentary; Interviews with actresses Irina Shevchuk, Yelena Drapeko and Yekaterina Markova. Russia | 1972 | BIA | 157 min | subt | Cert 12 | Item # 63474

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See Also Ballad of a Soldier

Grigori Chukhrai Russia | 1959 | NOUVE | 89 min | subt | B&W | Cert PG | # 31924 | RRP £19.99

Our DVD Price: £7.99

The Cranes are Flying Mikhail Kalatozov

Russia | 1957 | NOUVE | 97 min | subt | B&W | Cert PG | # 31923 | RRP £19.99

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Ivan’s Childhood Andrei Tarkovsky

Russia | 1962 | ART-E | 96 min | subt | B&W | Cert PG | # 10314 | RRP £19.99

Our DVD Price: £15.99

S

tanislav Rostotsky’s adaptation of Boris Vasilyev’s acclaimed novel, The Dawns Here are Quiet, deserved a much better fate than to be utterly forgotten after being beaten to the 1973 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film by Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. However, its revival by the Russian Cinema Council in a fine two-disc edition reveals this sincere and occasionally innovative epic to be as poignant an account of the sacrifices made by ordinary citizens in the Great Patriotic War as Mikhail Kalatazov’s The Cranes are Flying (1957) and Grigori Chukrai’s Ballad of a Soldier (1959). Sergeant Andrei Martynov is initially dismayed at being placed in charge of an allfemale anti-aircraft unit in the Finnish border region of Karelia in 1941. However, when gunner Irina Shevchuk spots Germans in the forest, Martynov quickly comes to respect the courage and resourcefulness of the five volunteers who accompany him. Their reconnaissance mission soon turns into a desperate rearguard action after they discover the invasion force numbers sixteen and not two. Periodically switching from gritty monochrome to stylised colour, Rostotsky deftly sketches the backstories of the women – a

This Oscar-nominated Soviet war film deserves much wider acclaim single mother, a naive farm girl, a lonely orphan, a Jewish scholar and a disgraced woman – without resorting to the the clichés and caricatures that undermined so many Hollywood combat pictures. These reveries explain what each woman is fighting for, but the immediacy and tension comes with the forest sequences, as Martynov attempts to delay the Nazi advance until reinforcements arrive. Indeed, this action feels closer in tone to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Ivan’s Childhood (1962) and Elem Klimov’s Come and See (1985) than the standard Socialist Realist celebration of patriotic fervour over fascist barbarism. Consequently, while The Dawns Here Are Quiet is primarily propagandist in purpose, it’s also a compelling human drama and a thoughtful piece of film making, with Vyacheslav Shumsky’s contrasting visuals and Kirill Molchanov’s stirring score reinforcing both Rostotsky’s exemplary use of his woodland locations and the spirited playing of Martynov and his unlikely heroines. David Parkinson

Enquiries enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

Page 9


World Cinema The New Barbarians Enzo G. Castellari

One of the cult Italian film director’s post apocalyptic B-movies, set after a nuclear war in a world run by gangs of human predators. Filled with explosions, transparent body armour, shoulder pads and gay psychopaths. Blaxploitation star Fred Williamson plays ‘Nadir’. Italy | 1983 | SHAME | 87 min | Cert 18 Item # 63689 | RRP £12.99 | Released 8th November

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Spinnin’

Eusebio Pastrana A feelgood tapestry of love stories set in Madrid in 1995, a place re-imagined as a city where cynicism doesn’t exist! Starting with the goal of capturing 100 different kinds of kisses, Spinnin’ is a cinematic flight of fancy set in a world where all couples – gay, straight or in between – reside happily in the spectrum of modern families. An award-winning debut to keep viewers smiling. Spain | 2007 | EUREK | 110 min | subt | Cert 15 Item # 63825 | RRP £14.99 | Released 15th Nov

Our DVD Price: £11.99

La Ciénaga (The Swamp) Lucrecia Martel

The debut film from Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel (La Niña Santa) is a sober portrait of middle-class torpor and decadence, offering a glimpse into her country’s dysfunctional class dynamics and tortured race relations, as told through the story of two families’ summer holidays in the mountains. Argentina | 2001 | ICA | 103 min | subt | Cert 15 Item # 63518 | RRP £12.99 | Released 6th December

Our DVD Price: £9.99

Coco and Igor Jan Kounen

French drama set in 1920s Paris, based on the affair between avantgarde Russian composer Igor Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen) and fashion designer Coco Chanel (Anna Mouglalis), who is still raw from the death of her lover Boy Capel (see Anne Fontaine’s Coco Before Chanel). France | 2009 | SodaElev | 120 min | subt | Cert 15 Items # 63271 / 63698 | RRP £15.99 | Out 22nd Nov

DVD Price: £11.99 Blu-ray: £13.99

Page 10

Leaving

The Concert

Recommended

Recommended

Director: Catherine Corsini

Director: Radu Mihaileanu

Starring: Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi López, Yvan Attal, Gerard Lartigau

Starring: Aleksei Guskov, Miou-Miou, François Berléand, Mélanie Laurent, Roger Dumas

Released: 29th November

Released: 8th November

France | 2009 | MET-D | 86 min | subt | Cert 15 | Item # 63517

France / Romania | 2009 | OPTIM | 122 min | subt | 15 | Item # 63367

Catherine Corsini’s erotic thrillerturned-romantic tragedy opens with a bang: Kristin Scott Thomas’s insomniac Suzanne firing a shot into her blithely snoozing bedmate. Flashback to six months earlier, when Suzanne was establishing both a physiotherapy career and a very different rapport with the male body. Suzanne’s dismissive businessman husband (Yvan Attal) has invited a burly builder (Sergi López) into their home to oversee an extension. When the latter breaks his foot, the fledgling physio ends up overseeing his rehabilitation, and eventually massaging more than just his metatarsal. Corsini’s chief concern in the ménage-à-trois that arises is a timely one – the unhealthy links society forges between love and money, allowing Scott Thomas to give another exceptional turn, playing the opposite arc to Tilda Swinton in I Am Love: cheeks that once were rosy turn gaunt and haunted as Suzanne confesses her infidelity to a spouse who grows ever more possessive. Directed with exceptional economy, it’s a less comforting proposition than I’ve Loved You So Long, and makes for punchy, provocative viewing. MM

The Concert starts like an Ealing comedy, but turns into an impassioned drama. Aleksei Guskov stars as a once-celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra who was sacked from the post 30 years previously for hiring Jewish musicians, and who has worked in the menial role of theatre janitor ever since. However, a swiped fax to the Bolshoi enables him to put together a fake version of the Moscow outfit to take up an invite to play in Paris. This requires the old cinematic staple of putting a team together, as well as requiring 60 blank visas and finding a rich sponsor – despite complaints from his disapproving mother. Director Mihaileanu fled Ceausescu’s Romania for Paris and enjoys putting the boot into the city’s remaining communists. The arrival of Mélanie Laurent – so impressive in Inglourious Basterds – as a star violinist signals a change of tone. Hers is a nicely nuanced performance among exuberant stereotypes, enabling a farcical scenario to achieve some surprisingly moving moments around an impressively staged performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. RM

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday

The film that brought Jacques Tati international acclaim also launched his on-screen alter ego: the courteous, well-meaning and eternally accidentprone Monsieur Hulot. In Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Tati takes the theme of a yearly summer seaside holiday, and using the everyday peculiarities of character and place, produces a light-at-heart film that owes as much to dance as it does to slapstick. Gilbert Adair was right on the mark when he described it as resembling a Sempé cartoon crossed with a Cartier-Bresson snapshot, as was Roger Ebert when he said that it’s ‘not a comedy of hilarity but a comedy of memory, nostalgia, fondness and good cheer’. No other filmmaker shared Tati’s continually amused affection for human nature, and no other 2 discs; filmmaker could have made this. DVD & Blu-ray; Newly remastered to High Definition; Contains the original 1953 theatrical version and the restored version of Tati’s definitive 1978 cut; Richard Lester interview; Booklet. France | 1952 | BFI | 114 min | subt | Cert U Item # 63302 | RRP £19.99 | Released 29th Nov

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Playtime

‘Film Tati No.4’ – regarded by many as Jacques Tati’s masterpiece – takes place in the ruinously extravagant but brilliantly effective steel and glass set that Tati constructed for the film – and which brought about his bankruptcy. In the film, a wry comic take on the confusion and alienation of modern living, Monsieur Hulot fades into the background and traditional Tatiesque buffoonery mixes with cool and distanced observational humour. An exercise in calculated comedy brilliantly visualised in widescreen and filmed on 65mm, it’s the director’s most demanding film, challenging you to roam around its spaces looking for the sight gags, some of them immensely subtle, and fully repays repeated rewatching – especially on Blu-ray, where the increased detail of the image is even 2 discs; DVD & Blu-ray; more apparent. Alternative ‘International’ soundtrack revised by Tati; Commentary by Philip Kemp; Audio interview with Tati (1968); Documentaries: Au-delà de Playtime; Script Girl; Tati Story; Booklet. France | 1967 | BFI | 114 min | subt | Cert U Item # 63366 | RRP £19.99 | Released 29th Nov

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The Best

Christmas Films A selection of wonderfully evocative seasonal films to watch with your family this Christmas

The Box of Delights Renny Rye

Miracle on 34th Street

A BBC yuletide gem to awaken nostalgia and affection in which a young boy takes his pre-war Christmas hols at Seekers, the family home, and becomes embroiled in a war of pagan gods.

George Seaton

UK | 1984 | 2ENT | 166 min | Cert | # 58116 | RRP £14.99

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A Christmas Carol Dir: Robert Zemeckis. An animated retelling of the popular Dickens classic. Jim Carrey gives voice to the multiple roles of Scrooge. USA | 2009 | BUENA | 96 min | Cert | # 61125 | RRP £17.99

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A wonderful contemporary fairy tale worthy of Capra in which old department store Santa Kris Kringle claims to be the real one! USA | 1947 | PATHD | 92 min | B&W | Cert U | # 25225 | RRP £12.99

How The Grinch Stole Christmas Dir: Chuck Jones. The much-loved animated adaptation of Dr. Seuss’s Christmas favourite. USA | 1966 | WHV | 50 min | Cert U | # 22290 | RRP £15.99

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A Christmas Tale

It’s a Wonderful Life

Dir: Arnaud Desplechin. A dysfunctional French family gather for Christmas in this quick-witted, wild film, brimming with life and laughter.

Dir: Frank Capra. Prime heartwarming Christmas fare that is probably the best feelgood movie ever made. James Stewart takes the lead.

France | 2008 | NW | 153 min | subt | 15 | # 57856 | RRP £19.99

USA | 1946 | UN | 130 min | B&W | Cert U | # 60314 | RRP £17.99

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Elf

Old Scrooge / Christmas Carol

Dir: Jon Favreau. Family Christmas comedy starring Will Ferrell as the human who has spent his life believing himself to be one of Santa’s elfs! USA | 2003 | EV | 95 min | Cert PG | # 21193 | RRP £19.99

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Two silent versions of Dickens’ tale: Old Scrooge (Bantock, 1913) and Christmas Carol (Greenwood, 1923). UK | 1913-23 | MEDIA | 68 min | B&W | Cert U | # 60532 | RRP £5.99

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Father Christmas

Scrooge

Dir: Dave Unwin. An enduringly popular animated tale from Raymond Briggs. Mel Smith voices the grumpy old soul who just wants a holiday!

Dir: Brian Desmond Hurst. Alastair Sim (who else?) stars as the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge in this much-loved adaptation from 1951.

UK | 1991 | UPV | 26 min | Cert U | # 63789 | RRP £5.99

UK | 1951 | SMPLY | 86 min | B&W | Cert U | # 4690 | RRP £9.99

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The Holly and the Ivy

White Christmas

Dir: George More O’Ferrall. Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson star in this heartwarming vintage British film about the true spirit of Christmas.

Dir: Michael Curtiz. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye play the army buddies who team up to become a successful song-and-dance act.

UK | 1952 | OPTIM | 77 min | B&W | Cert U | # 60096 | RRP £15.99

USA | 1954 | PARAH | 115 min | Cert U | # 58094 | RRP £15.99

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Offer ends 21st December or while stocks last

Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot greets High Definition


Gay & Lesbian

Silent

Fit

Rikki Beadle-Blair Skins meets Glee in this film which sees a last chance dance class stage a therapeutic encounter between adolescents struggling with their ideas about sexuality and adulthood. A very British gay romantic comedy supported by Stonewall. UK | 2010 | PECCA | 108 min | TBC Item # 63523 | RRP £15.99 | Released 29th Nov

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Is It Just Me?

Recommended

J. C. Calciano

Director: Fritz Lang

A gay romantic comedy in which the endearing Blaine hits it off with shy Xander in a chatroom – but then mistakenly sends him a photograph of his roommate! Left behind as they date, he wonders if he has missed his chance for love.

Starring: Brigitte Helm, Rudolf Klein-Rogge Released: 22nd November DVD Extras: Longer cut of the film; special packaging; Commentary; Die Reise nach Metropolis documentary (2010); 56-page booklet. Germany | 1926 | EUREK | 150 min | B&W | Cert PG | Item # 62224

USA | 2010 | TLAUK | 90 min | Cert 15 Item # 63582 | RRP £15.99 | Released 25th October

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The String

Mehdi Ben Attia

Class, cultural and sexual differences are explored in this romantic gay drama set in Tunisia, to where 30-year-old Parisian architect Malik returns after the death of his father. His overbearing mother (Italian icon Claudia Cardinale), puts pressure on him to get married – but then he meets handsome handyman Balil. France / Tunisia | 2009 | TLAUK | 93 min | Cert 15 Item # 63304 | RRP £14.99 | Released 18th October

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Silent The Battle of Ypres Walter Summers

Released in its entirety for the first time, this 1925 documentary re-enacts key scenes from the Battle of Ypres in the actual trenches. A followup to The Battle of The Somme (1916). Ypres: The Shell Shattered City of Flanders (1918); Remembrance Day, Ypres (1922). UK | 1925 | SFE | 105 min | Cert E Item # 63709 | RRP £19.99 | Released 8th November

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Page 12

Metropolis (Reconstructed)

It’s strange to think that one of the best-loved silent films, Fritz Lang’s dystopic vision of a future society, has until now only been available in a heavily edited and confusing version. But thanks to a miraculous discovery of 25 minutes of lost footage, it can now be seen almost in its entirety for the first time since 1927. The added material expands three sub-plots which cast new light on the power struggles in the city, and also ups the action movie quotient. But the film’s principal pleasures remain the same: the vast sets and extraordinary production design, Lang’s depiction of factory workers reduced to a macabre dance of robotic movements that became the definitive representation of the mechanised world, and best of all, Brigitte Helm, playing both the saintly Maria and her diabolical robot double who whips high society into a frenzy with her ‘Whore of Babylon’ dance routine. Seldom have sci-fi and the erotic blended so successfully. MBa

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Choose any 3 DVDs on this page and pay just £18! Alternatively, they’re available individually at the marked price.

The Double Life of Veronique

Samson and Delilah

Still Walking

Krzysztof Kieslowski

Warwick Thornton

Kieslowski’s finest work. Irene Jacob plays the dual role of identical strangers Polish Weronika and French Véronique. Zbigniew Preisner’s score is haunting. 2 discs.

Hailed as one of the all-time great Australian films, this drama details the fledgling romance between two Aboriginal teenagers looking to escape their hopeless situation.

Beautiful cinema distilled to its essentials, channelling the spirit of Ozu, in which Koreeda slowly and subtly peels away the protective layers of a family’s relationships.

France / Pol | 1991 | ART-E | 94 min | subt | 15 | # 27563 | £22.99

Australia | 2009 | TRNTY | 101 min | subt | 15 | # 61794 | RRP £15.99

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4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days

Être et Avoir

Red Sorghum

Dir: Nicolas Philibert. The documentary sensation that followed a year in the life of a rural French village school, its children and their teacher.

Dir: Zhang Yimou. Gong Li stars in this sumptuous Chinese melodrama in which a narrator weaves the tale of his grandmother.

Japan | 2008 | NW | 114 min | subt | Cert PG | # 61441 | RRP £15.99

France | 2002 | ART-E | 94 min | subt | Cert PG | # 58463 | RRP £15.99

China | 1987 | DRAKE | 87 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 55279 | RRP £19.99

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And God Created Woman

Lourdes

Revanche

Dir: Jessica Hausner. Sylvie Testud stars in this award-wining minimalist satire about the recipient of an apparent miracle cure at Lourdes.

Dir: Gotz Spielmann. A gripping thriller that moves from gritty urban character study to a softer portrait of the possibilities of rural redemption.

Romania | 2007 | ART-E | 109 min | subt | 15 | # 53868 | RRP £19.99

Dir: Roger Vadim. The film that made Bardot an object of desire and a symbol of liberated female sexuality.

Austria | 2009 | ART-E | 99 min | Cert U | # 62031 | RRP £15.99

Austria | 2008 | ART-E | 121 min | subt | 15 | # 62207 | RRP £15.99

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Beau Travail

A Man Escaped

Dir: Claire Denis. A beautiful exploration of masculinity in the French Foreign Legion, combining literature, music, poetry and dance.

Dir: Robert Bresson. An undisputed masterpiece of world cinema depicting a man’s painstaking escape from prison with riveting minimalism.

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

France | 1956 | CEST | 92 min | subt | Cert PG | # 19103 | RRP £14.99

France | 1999 | ART-E | 90 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 5939 | RRP £19.99

France | 1956 | ART-E | 95 min | subt | B&W | U | # 53594 | RRP £19.99

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The Beekeeper

No One Knows About Persian Cats

Dir: Theo Angelopoulos. The great Marcello Mastroianni stars in this extraordinary, beautifully photographed tale of self-discovery Greece | 1986 | ART-E | 122 min | subt | 18 | # 61817 | RRP £15.99

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Dir: Bahman Ghobadi. Drama based around the surprisingly vibrant underground music scene of Tehran. Iran | 2009 | NETWR | 106 min | subt | Cert 12 | # 61792 | RRP £15.99

Dir: Sergei Paradjanov. A gloriously exuberant, magical tale of a young man’s yearning for a lost love. Russia | 1964 | ART-E | 93 min | subt | Cert 12 | # 61395 | RRP £15.99

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Sophie Scholl Dir: Marc Rothemund. A moving dramatisation of the last days of a WWII resistance fighter. Julia Jentsch takes the title role. 2 discs. Germany | 2005 | DRAKE | 117 min | PG | # 56986 | RRP £19.99

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Black Cat, White Cat

OSS 117: Lost in Rio

Tulpan

Dir: Emir Kusturica. Dodgy deals, love and magic set amongst gypsy life by the Danube. You’ll feel like the only sober guest at a crazy wedding.

Dir: Michel Hazanavicius. Hilarious French spy film parody featuring the suave but clueless French agent Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath.

Dir: Sergei Dvortsevoy. A lovely Kazakh comedy film which will appeal to anyone who was charmed by The Story of the Weeping Camel.

Yugoslavia | 1998 | ART-E | 124 min | subt | 15 | # 28448 | RRP £19.99

France | 2009 | ICA | 100 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 61158 | RRP £12.99

| 2008 | NW | 103 min | subt | Cert 12 | # 61161 | RRP £15.99

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Offer ends 21st December or while stocks last

Dir: Cristian Mungiu. A brilliant awardwinning suspense film about illegal abortion in communist Romania.

Hirokazu Koreeda


Classic Movies English Language Films, 1930 - 1969

Holiday Inn (Special Edition)

New Releases The Anatomist Dennis Vance

A classic British horror based on the story of the notorious bodysnatchers Burke and Hare. Alistair Sim plays Dr Knox, the anatomist who needs fresh bodies for his classes. At first the men dig up graves to get him the corpses he requires – but they soon start to get ideas of their own about how to acquire bodies. UK | 1961 | Jeff | 85 min | Cert PG Item # 63772 | RRP £12.99 | Released 22nd Nov

USA | 1942 | UPV | 101 min | Cert U Item # 63688 | RRP £12.99 | Released 22nd Nov

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Carol Reed Trevor Howard, William Holden and Sophia Loren star in this war film set in 1940 during the Battle of the Atlantic. NB: This print is a 4:3 presentation of a widescreen picture and appears to miss a portion of the ending.

Bonnie Scotland James W. Horne

Classic Laurel & Hardy comedy in which the duo travel to Scotland to collect an inheritance – which turns out to be a set of bagpipes and a snuff box! Tricked into enlisting they are soon in India impersonating army officers to foil a murder.

UK | 1958 | PALL | 134 min | TBC Item # 63090 | RRP £12.99 | Released 13th Dec

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The Mad Miss Manton

UK | 1935 | ORBIT | 77 min | Cert U Item # 62902 | RRP £12.99 | Released 29th Nov

Leigh Jason

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Drums in the Deep South William Cameron Menzies

Best friends Clay Clayburn and Will Denning graduate from West Point and find themselves on different sides during the Civil War. When the two men meet each other in combat, neither knows it as each is in an artillery position across from the other. USA | 1951 | ODEON | 86 min | U Item # 63819 | RRP £5.99 | Released 15th November

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A romantic crime comedy that saw the first ever pairing of Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda. Stanwyck plays a wealthy Manhattan debutante notorious for headline-grabbing pranks. Then one day she really does discover a body which disappears by the time the police arrive. Fonda’s high-flying newspaper reporter picks up the story... USA | 1938 | ODEON | 80 min | Cert U Item # 63451 | RRP £9.99 | Released 25th October

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Mighty Joe Young E. B. Schoedsack

The Falcon’s Brother Stanley Logan

George Sanders stars as Gay Lawrence, the debonair amateur detective known as The Falcon. In this fourth film in the series, he swoops to investigate his brother’s apparent murder, and finds himself in the murky depths of New York, surrounded by spies, spivs, and racketeers. USA | 1942 | ODEON | 63 min | Cert PG Item # 63521 | RRP £9.99 | Released 1st November

Page 14

Music by Irving Berlin, songs by Bing Crosby and dancing by Fred Astaire all add up to a delightful musical with plenty of lavish song and dance routines and spectacular numbers. It also just happened to launch the hit ‘White Christmas’. 2 discs; Colourised and Original Black & White versions; A Couple of Song and Dance Men; Audio Commentary.

The Key

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Mark Sandrich

A second dose of ape action from the creative team behind King Kong. Here, Jill Young travels with her pet gorilla from Tanzania to Hollywood – but Joe tires of his exploitation and breaks his shackles to go on the rampage. Special effects supervised by Willis O’Brien; the film’s technical staff also included a young Ray Harryhausen. USA | 1949 | ODEON | 94 min | Cert U Item # 63448 | RRP £9.99 | Released 11th October

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Ball of Fire Recommended Director: Howard Hawks Starring: Barbara Stanwyck, Gary Cooper, Dana Andrews, Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers Released: 29th November USA | 1959 | PALL | 111 min | Cert U | Item # 62901

There are a handful of romantic comedies so inspired, so deft in their balance of heart and hilarity, that they seem to touch perfection. Ball of Fire is one such movie. Gary Cooper plays Prof. Bertram Potts, one of eight academics living in a musty townhouse, working on a new encyclopaedia. They’re partway through ‘s’ when an encounter with a lingo-heavy binman flags up a serious shortcoming: their entry on slang is farcically outdated. So Potts ventures into the real world to brush up on his street talk, and encounters nightclub singer and gangster’s moll Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). Forced to lie low after a mob hit orchestrated by lover Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews), she figures the professors’ house was made to fit. The script by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, loosely based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, is simply glorious, and this cast – especially Stanwyck the hard-boiled dame transformed in the face of love and Cooper the smitten bookworm – makes the most of it. Barely a minute passes without a great one-liner, sight gag or bit of character comedy. It’s simply a wonderful film. RB

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Exclusive Hollywood Classic DVDs

The Boy with Green Hair Recommended Director: Joseph Losey Starring: Robert Ryan, Dean Stockwell, Pat O’Brien, Barbara Hale Released: 25th October USA | 1948 | ODEON | 82 min | Cert U | Item # 63460

On hearing that the world is preparing for another conflict, war orphan Peter’s hair changes colour overnight – to the consternation of the inhabitants of the small town where he lives, who want to shave off this all-too visible sign of protest. Joseph Losey made his feature debut with this anti-war allegory that has long divided opinion. New RKO chief Howard Hughes hated it so much that he tried to force 12 yearold Dean Stockwell to change the film’s message by inserting a line about America needing military might to back its moral superiority. But Stockwell refused, despite the fact that he deeply resented Losey informing him that his pet kitten had died to make him cry during a key scene. However fanciful the film’s symbolism it remains potent, and the scene of the visitation of the orphaned ‘poster children’ when Peter is in a lonely woods is every bit as affecting as the returning dead in Gance’s J’Accuse (1919). The film’s charm and sincerity are unquestioned, and lend unexpected power to its ideas on tolerance and pacifism DP

The Lost Patrol Recommended Director: John Ford Starring: Victor McLaglen, Boris Karloff Released: 4th October USA | 1934 | ODEON | 69 min | Cert PG | Item # 63457

Mesopotamia, 1917. A shot rings out and a soldier slumps from his horse, dead. With him go the patrol’s orders. Detached from their brigade, and soon pinned down to a remote oasis, this ragtag band of British soldiers wages war against an unseen enemy, while driven mad by fear, stifling heat and the death of their comrades. This is John Ford’s The Lost Patrol, an enduringly influential mixture of action, suspense and character drama that’s as gruff, tough and sentimental as the great filmmaker himself. Victor McLaglen leads a powerful ensemble as the unnamed, practical sergeant, with Boris Karloff delivering an enormous performance as Sanders, a quivering, wild-eyed religious fanatic with a voice to match. Though a remake, the film has a heightened, Fordian feel throughout, both in its thematic preoccupations – stoicism, family and common humanity – and its presentation, with several scenes of visual poetry that are among the director’s best. Its influence can be seen in everything from Seven Samurai to B Westerns, while even Ford himself borrowed from it in fashioning his masterpiece, The Searchers. RB

North West Mounted Police Recommended Director: Cecil B. DeMille Starring: Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Lon Chaney Jr., George Bancroft, Paulette Goddard Released: 25th October USA | 1940 | ODEON | 120 min | Cert PG | Item # 63458

North West Mounted Police could only have been created by one filmmaker. Full of half-remembered truths, enthusiastic embellishments, broad characterisations, explosive action sequences, sexual treachery, imperialist tub-thumping and sentiment so thick you could pitch a flag in it, it is unmistakably the work of Cecil B. DeMille. Gary Cooper, surely the epitome of the Golden Age star, is cast as Dusty Rivers, a Texas Ranger on the trail of a murderous revolutionary (former silent leading man George Bancroft). Cooper was a delightful performer, and he’s in his element here. Laconic, guileless and still charmingly boyish, he creates moments of quiet levity through a largely unheralded gift for comedy and – when the occasion demands – elicits goose bumps thanks to a beguiling sincerity. Really though, the movie is just great fun, with jaw-dropping stunt work, a gaggle of eclectic set-pieces, sumptuous Technicolor cinematography shot on location in the Canadian Rockies – and a simply extraordinary supporting cast. RB

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Page 15


Classic Movies The Naked Edge

Stage Door

Michael Anderson

Gregory La Cava

The testimony of George Radcliffe (Gary Cooper, in his final film) sends a man to prison for murder and the theft of over 60,000 pounds. When, soon afterwards, Radcliffe comes into a large sum of money, his wife (Deborah Kerr) suspects her husband of the crime. A classic suspense thriller adapted from Max Ehrlich’s novel ‘First Train to Babylon’.

Ginger Rogers, Lucille Ball, Katharine Hepburn, Adolphe Menjou, Andrea Leeds. A classic comedy drama, hailed as one of the best movies about show business ever made, set in a Manhattan boarding house full of aspiring actresses, with their ambitions, dreams and disappointments. Features an amazing roster of golden-era performers.

UK / USA | 1961 | PALL | 97 min | Cert 15 Item # 62859 | RRP £12.99 | Released 29th Nov

USA | 1937 | ODEON | 87 min | Cert U Item # 63449 | RRP £9.99 | Released 11th October

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The Saint’s Double Trouble Jack B. Hively

George Sanders stars in one his most famous roles as the Leslie Charteris creation. In Double Trouble, when a man resembling The Saint turns up in Philadelphia with a haul of smuggled diamonds, the real Saint struggles to prove his innocence. USA | 1940 | ODEON | 67 min | Cert PG Item # 63453 | RRP £9.99 | Released 11th October

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They Made Me a Criminal Busby Berkeley

John Garfield, Claude Rains and The Dead End Kids star in this tale of a young boxer wrongly accused of murder who heads out west, where he holes up at an isolated ranch run by two women and six mobsters. The fugitive soon falls in love with one of the women and agrees to enter a prize fight in order to raise some dough. USA | 1939 | EHE | 70 min | Cert TBC Item # 63822 | RRP £5.99 | Released 15th November

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Sealed Cargo

Alfred L. Werker Dana Andrews and Claude Rains star in this WWII drama set off the coast of Newfoundland, where a whaler tows a helpless Danish schooner and its crew to port – only to find that in doing so, they seem to have picked up a Nazi secret agent. USA | 1951 | ODEON | 90 min | U Item # 63436 | RRP £9.99 | Released 25th October

Blu-rays Peeping Tom Michael Powell

UK | 1960 | OPTIM | 97 min | 15 | # 63357 | £19.99

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White Christmas Michael Curtiz

USA | 1954 | PARAH | 115 min | U | # 63509 | £19.99

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The Seventh Victim Mark Robson

Kim Hunter stars as the woman who heads to New York to get to the bottom of what happened to her sister, and begins to suspect that she has fallen under the influence of a satanist cult, whose penalty for revealing anything about themselves is death. And six people have already been murdered… USA | 1943 | ODEON | 71 min | Cert 12 Item # 63454 | RRP £9.99 | Released 25th October

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Page 16

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Film still from Ball of Fire, page 14

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Christmas Gift Guide

For Friends, Family and yourself! Gift Vouchers

Free DVD when you spend £30 Spend over £30 with us before Tuesday 30th November and you can have a one of these DVDs for free – but be quick, stocks are very limited!

Choose From:

The six to choose from are a very fine bunch indeed, including two highly acclaimed BBC series, two British classics, and two international gems. To qualify, simply spend over £30 – it doesn’t matter whether your £30 is spent from this Gift Guide or not. Quote ‘XMAS2010’ when you place your order (online customers should put the code in the Offer Code field at the Checkout).

Abigail’s Party Mike Leigh

Paris je t’aime 20 films

The Cook, The Ill Met Thief, His Wife By Moonlight and Her Lover Powell & Pressburger

State of Play BBC Series

A Touch of Spice Tassos Boulmetis

Last guaranteed posting date for Christmas – Friday 17th December

Free DVD offer available while stocks last, alternative titles may be substituted

Having trouble choosing the right gift? Let them do the choosing with a MovieMail Gift Voucher! Available in £10 denominations, we can send them to you or directly to the recipient along with a personalised greeting and a copy of our latest monthly film catalogue.


MovieMail Christmas Gift Guide

ClassicCinema World Movies A selection These evergreen of stimulating films have international already proven films that theirwill worth make and will make perfect presents perfect for presents discerning for lovers friends ofand vintage relatives cinema The Ballroom

Father of My Children

Late Spring

An enormous hit in its native Brazil and with a wonderful soundtrack, this is an invitation to experience the loves, passions and dreams of the patrons of a traditional Brazilian dance hall.

Mia Hansen-Løve

The first film in Ozu’s famed ‘Noriko trilogy’, in which a liberal father comes to terms with marrying off his daughter, is a tender meditation on sacrifice and the status quo. 2 discs, DVD & Blu-ray.

Brazil | 2007 | MATCH | 95 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 62209 | RRP £15.99

France | 2009 | FMS | 110 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 61789 | RRP £15.99

Laís Bodansky

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Winner of the Jury Special Prize at Cannes 2009, this is the moving portrait of a successful film producer facing failure. Fully worthy of comparison to other great movies about filmmaking.

Yasujiro Ozu

Japan | 1949 | BFI | 108 min | subt | B&W | U | # 60979 | £19.99

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La Belle et la Bête

Finally, Sunday

Mesrine: Parts 1 and 2

Jean Cocteau A landmark feat of cinematic fantasy in which Cocteau conjures spectacular visions of enchantment, desire and death from the classic fairy tale. Relentlessly romantic and beautifully staged.

Fanny Ardant and Jean-Louis Trintignant star in Truffaut’s final film, a brilliantly entertaining comedy thriller with a Hitchcockian theme. Shot in monochrome in the style of a classic American noir thriller.

France | 1946 | BFI | 90 min | subt | B&W | PG | # 55372 | RRP £19.99

France | 1983 | CC | 110 min | subt | B&W | 18 | # 30174 | RRP £19.99

France | 2008 | MOMET | 243 min | subt | 15 | # 60157 | £19.99

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DVD: £7.99 Save £12

Coco Before Chanel

Heartbreaker

Metropolis (Reconstructed)

Anne Fontaine A lavish biopic recounting the life and work of legendary French fashion designer Coco Chanel, from her humble beginnings in an Auvergne orphanage. Audrey Tautou stars.

A French romantic comedy starring Romain Duris as a handsome, charming and effortlessly cool ladykiller who offers his services as a professional relationship breaker. Then, along comes love...

France | 2009 | OPTIM | 110 min | subt | 12 | # 59856 | RRP £19.99

France | 2010 | REV | 105 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 63430 | RRP £19.99

Germany | 1926 | EUREK | 150 min | B&W | PG | # 62224 | RRP £22.99

DVD: £5.99 Save £14

DVD: £10.99 Save £9 Blu-ray: £10.99

DVD: £14.99 Save £8 Blu-ray: £15.99

D’Artagnan’s Daughter

I Am Love

A Prophet Jacques Audiard

Bertrand Tavernier

Luca Guadagnino

A hugely enjoyable swashbuckling comedy. Sophie Marceau plays the daughter of retired musketeer D’Artagnan (Philippe Noiret), who reluctantly dons his armour once more.

A modern melodrama of repressed passion seething beneath the ordered world of the Italian upper classes. Tilda Swinton stars as the Milanese matriarch who yields to intense desire.

Justly acclaimed as one of the best films of 2009, this Cannes Grand Jury prize winner about an innocent learning to survive in a prison belongs with the all-time great French crime films.

France | 1994 | 2ND | 125 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 62966 | RRP £19.99

Italy | 2009 | MET-D | 119 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 62794 | RRP £15.99

France | 2009 | OPTIM | 149 min | subt | 18 | # 61340 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £8

DVD: £7.99 Save £8

DVD: £6.99 Save £13

François Truffaut

Pascal Chaumeil

Jean-François Richet A terrific double-header containing both parts of the film chronicling the life of the notorious French bank robber. Vincent Cassel dominates as the charismatic anti-hero.

2 discs.

Fritz Lang An astounding realisation of a future dystopian society, now restored to its full length thanks to a miraculous find of 25 minutes of footage previously thought lost to the world.

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For more gifts, don’t forget our Early Bird Gift Guide from last month’s catalogue!

WorldBox Film Cinema Sets Carlos the Jackal: Movie + Trilogy

Louis Malle: Vols 1 & 2

Olivier Assayas The complete TV mini-series plus the 3 hour biopic chronicling the life of Venezuelan revolutionary Ilich Ramírez Sánchez, aka Carlos the Jackal.

3 discs.

France | 2010 | OPTIM | subt | Cert 12 | # 63462 | RRP £19.99

Vol 1: Les Amants, Zazie dans le Metro, Le Feu Follet, Elevator to the Gallows; Vol 2: Le Souffle au Coeur, Lacombe Lucien, Black Moon, Au Revoir les Enfants, Milou en Mai. 4/5 discs. France | 1958-63 | OPTIM | subt | Cert 15 | # 27867 | RRP £39.99

DVD: £14.99 each Save £25

DVD: £10.99 Save £9

Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set

Definitive Ealing Studios Collection

Lang’s trilogy of wonderful paranoiac thrillers: Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), and The 1000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960).

16 Ealing films! Featuring comedy, melodrama, Dickens adaptations, ghost stories, adventures and wartime drama: all of the favourites are here. 16 discs.

4 discs

Germany | 1922-60 | EUR | subt | B&W | 12 | # 60077 | RRP £49.99

UK | 1949-55 | OPTIM | B&W | Cert PG | # 30441 | RRP £119.99

DVD: £27.99 Save £22

DVD: £42.99 Save £77

The Powell & Pressburger Collection A set of eleven films, from 49th Parallel (1941) to They’re A Weird Mob (1966), including all the greats (Blimp, Narcissus, AMOLAD etc) in between. 11 discs. UK | 1943-66 | G-VEN | 1239 min | Cert PG | # 30839 | RRP £59.99

DVD: £29.99 Save £30

Shakespeare at the Globe A limited edition box set containing the Globe Theatre productions of As You Like It (Russman, 2009), Love’s Labour’s Lost and Romeo & Juliet (both Dromgoole, 2009). 4 discs. UK | 2009 | OPUS | 485 min | Cert E | # 63126 | RRP £49.99

DVD: £35.99 Save £14

Television Documentaries Daniel Geller Using a treasure trove of archival footage, this is an enormously entertaining and gossipy portrait of the pioneering ballet artists – many of whom are now over 80 – who transformed ballet. USA | 2005 | REV | 118 min | Cert PG | # 29261 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £6.99 Save £13

British Transport Films Box Set All nine double-disc volumes of the BFI’s fabulous BTF archive, which form an endlessly fascinating and important record of Britain’s transport and social heritage from the 1950s-80s. 18 discs. UK | 1950s-80s | BFI | Cert E | # 56220 | RRP £99.99

DVD: £63.99 Save £36

Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff Cardiff was lauded by the Hollywood greats he photographed films for and was described by Michael Powell as a genius. This film celebrates his life. UK | 2010 | OPTIM | 90 min | Cert | # 61860 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £9.99 Save £10

London in Festival Year 1951 A collection of films in celebration of the 1951 Festival of Britain. Contains Brief City and Festival in London, along with Humphrey Jennings’ final film, Family Portrait. UK | 1951 | PANA | 66 min | B&W | Cert E | # 31574 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £9.99 Save £10

Look at Life This first volume of films from The Rank Organisation’s bright and fondly-remembered 1960s ‘cine-magazine’ features 54 films on the theme of transport – from airliners and glacier pilots to scooters and catamarans! UK | 1959-68 | NWORK | 540 min | Cert E | # 60833 | RRP £49.99

DVD: £35.99 Save £14

The Joy of Sex Education An intriguing anthology drawn from the archives of 60 years of sex education in Britain from the 1910s to the 1970s. Includes the impenetrably euphemistic and the candidly explicit! 2 discs. UK | 1917-73 | BFI | 338 min | Cert 18 | # 57110 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £12

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Offer ends 21st 25th December November or while stocks last

Ballets Russes


MovieMail Christmas Gift Guide

Classic Movies These evergreen films have already proven their worth and will make perfect presents for lovers of vintage cinema An Inspector Calls

Famous Five Have a Mystery to Solve

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

A brilliantly mysterious Alastair Sim plays the enigmatic inspector who slowly reveals a family’s shameful secrets in this classic film adaptation of JB Priestley’s famous play.

Ernest Morris

Albert Lewin

UK | 1954 | OPTIM | 76 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 60779 | RRP £15.99

Children’s Film Foundation adventure following Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog as they solve a mystery on the shadowy Whispering Island.

Ava Gardner and James Mason star in this lushly romantic Technicolor visualisation of the legend of the sea. 2 discs; DVD+Blu-ray; Restored.

UK | 1964 | BFI | 93 min | B&W | Cert U | # 62343 | RRP £17.99

UK | 1951 | PARKC | 124 min | Cert PG | # 62345 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £6

DVD+Blu-ray: £11.99 Save £8

The Bargee

The Gold Rush

Duncan Wood

Charlie Chaplin

The Railway Children

A comedy tale of a canal bargee with an eye for the ladies who is trapped into marriage. Harry H. Corbett plays the self-styled ‘Casanova of the Canals’. Ronnie Barker co-stars.

A much-loved classic starring Charlie’s Tramp as a hapless fortune-seeking pan-handler drawn to the Klondike. 2 discs; Contains the 1925 silent original and the re-edited, narrated 1942 version.

Lionel Jeffries

UK | 1964 | OPTIM | 102 min | Cert | # 60781 | RRP £15.99

USA | 1925 | PARKC | 72 min | B&W | Cert U | # 62357 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £8

DVD: £12.99 Save £7

UK | 1970 | OPTIM | 104 min | Cert U | # 61443 | RRP £12.99

The Big Clock

Modesty Blaise

John Farrow

Joseph Losey

A classic thriller starring Ray Milland as the journalist running out of time. He has to find the killer of his boss’s mistress – but he knows he is also the prime suspect, and the net is closing fast.

Monica Vitti stars as the world’s deadliest female. With outrageous sixties outfits, groovy production design and a score from Johnny Dankworth, the best thing is to sit back and enjoy!

Alex. Mackendrick

USA | 1957 | MGMHE | 92 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 10378 | RRP £15.99

Guy Hamilton

DVD: £7.99 Save £8

Lionel Jeffries’ beloved film version of E.S. Nesbit’s book, starring Jenny Agutter, Sally Thomsett, Dinah Sheridan and Bernard Cribbins. A timeless delight for all. DVD: £7.99 Save £5

Sweet Smell of Success Burt Lancaster’s high-powered columnist and Tony Curtis’s sleazy press agent riff off each other as men prepared to do just about anything in 1950s New York.

USA | 1948 | ODEON | 95 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 62788 | RRP £9.99

UK | 1966 | 2ND | 115 min | Cert 12 | # 62965 | RRP £15.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £2

DVD: £10.99 Save £5

Dougal and the Blue Cat

The Night My Number Came Up

Vera Lynn Collection

A long-unavailable cult classic, this is the 1970 feature length story from the Magic Roundabout, featuring the voices of Fenella Fielding and the incomparable Eric Thompson.

Leslie Norman

Three films starring the ‘Forces’ Sweetheart’: Rhythm Serenade (Wellesley, 1943), We’ll Meet Again (Brandon, 1943) and One Exciting Night (Forde, 1944).

France | 1970 | 2ND | 85 min | Cert U | # 63039 | RRP £15.99

UK | 1955 | OPTIM | 91 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 60747 | RRP £15.99

Serge Danot

DVD: £9.99 Save £6

A gripping piece of psychological filmmaking in which a pilot is tormented by premonitions of a plane crash. Michael Hordern and Michael Redgrave star. DVD: £7.99 Save £8

DVD: £5.99 Save £10

Walter Forde

3 discs.

UK | 1943-44 | SPHE | B&W | Cert U | # 59548 | RRP £12.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £5

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World Cinema Modern Film We present cinematic highlights of 2010 and notable releases from the recent past – all are a safe bet for giving as presents! An Education

Inception

A Serious Man

Lone Scherfig

Christopher Nolan

Joel Coen

A tremendous coming-of-age drama set in 1960s London, adapted for the screen by Nick Hornby from the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber. Carey Mulligan plays the 17 year-old longing for romance.

The must-see blockbuster sci-fi thriller in which Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a fugitive thief who steals the thoughts, dreams and secrets buried in people’s minds. 2 discs.

Bleak and hilarious by turns, this black comedy set in the American mid-west in 1967 sees a put-upon Jewish physics professor seeking the advice of three rabbis to help sort himself out.

UK | 2009 | E1 | 100 min | Cert 12 | # 60592 | RRP £19.99

USA / UK | 2010 | WHV | 148 min | Cert 12 | # 63263 | RRP £22.99

USA | 2009 | UPV | 105 min | Cert 15 | # 61121 | RRP £15.99

DVD: £6.99 Save £13 Blu-ray: £11.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £11 Blu-ray: £17.99

DVD: £6.99 Save £9

Crazy Heart

The Last Station

Shutter Island

Jeff Bridges, in an Oscarwinning performance, stars as a burnt-out country singer who is given a last chance at redemption when he hooks up with Maggie Gyllenhaal’s divorced journalist.

Michael Hoffman

A psychological thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as Marshals sent to investigate the disappearance of a murderer from a psychiatric ward where noone seems to tell the truth.

USA | 2009 | FOX | 112 min | Cert 15 | # 61858 | RRP £19.99

Germany | 2009 | OPTIM | 112 min | Cert 15 | # 61445 | RRP £17.99

Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren star in this fine drama about the final days of Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, whose disciples are urging him to rewrite his will, much to his wife’s outrage.

Television DVD: £10.99 Save £9

La Danse: The Paris Ballet Opera Frederick Wiseman A rare behind-the-scenes look at one of the most famous and revered ballet schools in the world from documentarian Frederick Wiseman. France | 2009 | SodaElev | 159 min | Cert PG | # 62492 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £12

Martin Scorsese

USA | 2009 | PARAH | 148 min | Cert 15 | # 62176 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £7.99 Save £10

DVD: £9.99 Save £10

Moon

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Duncan Jones Critically-acclaimed space isolation drama starring Sam Rockwell as a worker for Lunar Industries who is nearing the end of his three-year contract when curious things start to happen on board...

David Slade

UK | 2009 | COL-T | 97 min | Cert 15 | # 59997 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £8 Blu-ray: £17.99

DVD: £5.99 Save £14

The third instalment of the teen vampire saga in which Bella Swan and Edward Cullen’s forbidden relationship comes under threat. USA | 2010 | E1 | 121 min | Cert 12 | # 63682 | RRP £19.99

The Ghost

Possession

Up in the Air

Roman Polanski

Andrzej Zulawski

Jason Reitman

A Hitchcockian political thriller resonating with topical themes. Ewan McGregor plays the ghostwriter working on the memoirs of a former British PM but who is soon on the trail of a bigger story.

Isabelle Adjani stars in this visceral horror film in which a woman keeps a demonic tentacled lover. At Cannes, Adjani won Best Actress, while in the UK the film banned as a ‘video nasty’!

A satire starring George Clooney as a ‘corporate downsizing expert’ (ie: he fires people) whose own job comes under threat by new procedures implemented by his hotshot colleague...

USA | 2009 | OPTIM | 123 min | Cert 15 | # 62477 | RRP £19.99

France | 1981 | 2ND | 119 min | Cert 18 | # 63031 | RRP £19.99

USA | 2009 | PARAH | 105 min | Cert 15 | # 61760 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £10.99 Save £9 Blu-ray: £15.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £8

DVD: £7.99 Save £12

ine.co.uk/gifts or call 0844 376 0009

Offer ends 21st 25th December November or while stocks last

Scott Cooper


MovieMail Christmas Gift Guide

Classic Movies Television Great value These evergreen for money, films have thesealready releases proven of notable their worth TV series and will will make give hoursperfect of viewing presents pleasure for lovers to theoflucky vintage recipient cinema David Attenborough’s First Life

7-49 Up Michael Apted

Judi Dench at the BBC

The epic BBC story of the beginning of life on Earth from the much-loved broadcaster. Spanning billions of years, the time-travelling history introduces viewers to the very first animals.

25 years of performances from Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench, from Talking to a Stranger (1966) to Absolute Hell (1991), with The Cherry Orchard, Ghosts, Going Gently and more. 6 discs.

UK | 1964 | NWORK | 500 min | Cert E | # 57077 | RRP £49.99

UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert E | # 63637 | RRP £19.99

UK | 1966-1991 | BBC | Cert 15 | # 51504 | RRP £39.99

DVD: £24.99 Save £25

DVD: £12.99 Save £7

DVD: £13.99 Save £26

Alan Bennett at the BBC

Face to Face

Mad Men: Seasons 1-3

An enthralling series in which 14 children from diverse backgrounds are visited every seven years, from the ages of 7 to, most recently, 49, to catch up with their lives. 6 discs.

Stuart Burge An exceptional selection of Bennett’s previously unreleased BBC material, containing A Day Out, Dinner at Noon, The Insurance Man, 102 Bvd Haussman and seven more.

The landmark BBC series broadcast between 19591962, in which interviewer John Freeman asked straightforward, searching questions to the most important personalities of the day. Enthralling. 6 discs.

An expertly scripted, multiple award winning, sophisticated period drama centred around one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies. The best current TV series. Seasons 1-3 available separately. 9 discs.

UK | 1959-62 | 2ENT | 1050 min | B&W | E | # 58281 | RRP £59.99

USA | 2009 | LGATE | Cert 15 | # 61408 | RRP £59.99

DVD: £32.99 Save £27

Box: £39.99 S1-2: £11.99 each S3: £16.99

Colditz

Gormenghast

The complete series of this gem of a TV series from the early 1970s, set in the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle during World War II – not that that stops the Allied prisoners from trying to break 10 discs. out to freedom.

Andy Wilson

Our Friends in the North

UK | 1978-92 | 2ENT | Cert 12 | # 59908 | RRP £29.99

DVD: £13.99 Save £16

UK | 1974 | 2ENT | 1680 min | Cert 12 | # 63581 | RRP £49.99

DVD: £37.99 Save £12

Mervyn Peake’s epic books come to life in this largescale BBC production. Stars a whole host of familiar names, including Stephen Fry, Ian Richardson, Richard Griffiths and John Sessions.

Simon Cellan Jones

UK | 2000 | BBC-DD | 240 min | Cert 12 | # 5401 | RRP £29.99

UK | 1996 | SIMP | 623 min | Cert 15 | # 62603 | RRP £34.99

DVD: £5.99 Save £24

A Dance to the Music of Time

Heimat 1 & 2

Christopher Morahan

The complete first two series of this landmark TV drama, available separately. One of the most highly praised dramas in TV history, it tells the story of Germany from 19191982. 6 discs each series.

C4’s adaptation of Anthony Powell’s 12 novels. Murder, friendship, adultery and ambition are set against a backdrop of life during the pivotal years of the 20th century.

Edgar Reitz

2 discs.

UK | 1997 | ACORN | 415 min | Cert 15 | # 61624 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £12.99 Save £7

Germany | 1984 | 2ND | subt | Cert 15 | # 61920 | RRP £69.99

Series 1 and 2: £44.99 each Save £25

This BAFTA-winning drama was the most ambitious and compelling drama on British TV in the 90s, and follows the lives of four friends from Newcastle from 1963 to 1995.

3 discs.

DVD: £24.99 Save £10

The Prisoner: Ultimate Set All the episodes from THE cult 60s series starring Patrick McGoohan as No. 6. As prime a series of enigmatic, surrealist, paranoiac televison as ever was created. Also includes the recent remake mini-series starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen. 7 DVDs; 3 disc CD soundtrack; documentraies. Restored. UK | 1967 -69 | NWORK | 850 min | Cert PG | # 60210 | RRP £99.99

DVD: £69.99 Save £30

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World Cinema Family Films Famous Five on a Treasure Island Gerald Landau A ripping adventure tale in the spirit of Enid Blyton’s book, cast by the author herself. Here, the gang investigates strange goings-on at a castle. UK | 1957 | BFI | 120 min | B&W | Cert U | # 62344 | RRP £17.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £6

The Gruffalo Max Lang Animated adaptation of the bedtime story favourite that sees a little mouse find he has to outsmart a succession of woodland predators and the purple-prickled, wart-nosed Gruffalo too. UK | 2009 | E1 | 27 min | Cert U | # 60598 | RRP £12.99

DVD: £6.99 Save £6

Fantasia The famously ambitious epic from Disney Studios in which eight animated segments, brought to life by an extraordinary collection of animators, are set to music selections from great composers. 2 discs; DVD & Blu-ray. USA | 1940 | BUENA | 125 min | Cert U | # 63416 | RRP £21.99

DVD+Blu-ray: £15.99 Save £6

Rodgers and Hammerstein: Collector’s Edition Tin Six timeless classics: Sound of Music, King and I, State Fair, Carousel, Oklahoma!, South Pacific. 6 discs. USA | 1945-1965 | FOX | 789 min | Cert PG | # 33752 | RRP £49.99

DVD: £17.99 Save £32

How to Train Your Dragon Chris Sanders An animated comedy adventure in which a teenage Viking befriends an injured dragon and attempts to convince his tribe to abandon its barbaric tradition of dragon-slaying! USA | 2010 | DRMWA | 98 min | Cert PG | # 63249 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £11.99 Save £8

Toy Story 3 Lee Unkrich Funny, thrilling and unexpectedly moving, this third instalment in the series more than lives up to its predecessors, and marries quality storytelling, technical expertise, and artistic excellence. USA | 2010 | BUENA | 86 min | Cert U | # 63728 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £12.99 Save £7

For more gifts, don’t forget our Early Bird Gift Guide from last month’s catalogue!

Spiral S1&2 The first two series of the highly-acclaimed, gritty French political crime drama that unravels a trail of corruption all the way into the upper echelons of government and business. 2 discs per series. France | 2008 | 2ENT | 800 min | subt | 18 | # 62669 | RRP £34.99

Box Set: £25.99 S 1&2: £11.99 each

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Wonders of the Solar System

John Irvin

A vivid tour of the world beyond our planet in which Professor Brian Cox reveals the awesome beauty and wonders of our solar system, using the very latest images sent from space. 2 discs.

John Le Carré’s classic spy thriller is here transformed into an enthralling, intelligent piece of TV drama. Alec Guinness is George Smiley. 2 discs. UK | 1980 | BBC-DD | 315 min | Cert PG | # 13837 | RRP £15.99

UK | 2010 | 2ENT | 250 min | Cert E | # 61456 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £5.99 Save £10

DVD: £9.99 Save £10

The Stephen Poliakoff Box

True Blood Series 1 and 2

Six dramas from the acclaimed British playwright: The Lost Prince, Perfect Strangers, Caught on a Train, Shooting the Past, Friends and Crocodiles, Gideon’s 9 discs. Daughter.

The first two series, available separately, of the refreshingly adult take on the vampire genre created by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under). Another winning creation from HBO. 5 discs each.

Yes, Minister / Yes, Prime Minister

UK | 1980-2005 | BBC | Cert 15 | # 26286 | RRP £59.99

USA | 2008 | WHVHB | Cert 18 | # 59125 | RRP £49.99

DVD: £24.99 Save £35

DVD: £17.99 each Save £32

All the episodes from the two wonderfully witty parliamentset series. Nigel Hawthorne’s corrupt Sir Humphrey Appleby is one of Britain’s great comic creations. 7 discs. UK | 1980-88 | BBC | 1140 min | Cert PG | # 30957 | RRP £49.99

DVD: £14.99 Save £35

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Offer ends 21st 25th December November or while stocks last

Television


MovieMail Christmas Gift Guide

MovieMail Staff Picks An Education

Carlos the Jackal Olivier Assayas

COI Volume 4 - Stop! Look! Listen!

Chosen by Dan Hunter: The Christmas break seems like an ideal time for me to – amongst other things! – be enthralled by Assayas’s epic 5-hour political thriller. 3 discs.

Chosen by Graeme Hobbs: Since the series began, I’ve been looking forward to this particular volume of COI films, filled with cautionary tales on health and safety from their golden age.

France | 2010 | OPTIM | subt | Cert 12 | # 63462 | RRP £19.99

UK | 1946-75 | BFI | 268 min | B&W | Cert E | # 63314 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £10.99 Save £9

DVD: £12.99 Save £7

Metropolis (Reconstructed)

Shadows of Progress

Chosen by Caz Hunter: They simply don’t make many smart blockbusters these days, so the arrival of such a good one is cause to celebrate! 2 discs.

Fritz Lang

USA / UK | 2010 | WHV | 148 min | Cert 12 | # 63263 | RRP £22.99

Germany | 1926 | EUREK | 150 min | B&W | PG | # 62224 | RRP £22.99

Chosen by Carol Hunter: A wonderful collection of postwar documentaries from the BFI including four films from MovieMail favourite John Krish. Look out for The Elephant Will Never Forget.

DVD: £11.99 Save £11 Blu-ray: £17.99

DVD: £14.99 Save £8 Blu-ray: £15.99

Lone Scherfig Chosen by Sarah Wong: The romantic in me wants to see if this love affair that goes against society’s standards will be one filled with joy or pain. UK | 2009 | E1 | 100 min | Cert 12 | # 60592 | RRP £19.99

DVD: £6.99 Save £13 Blu-ray: £11.99

Inception Christopher Nolan

Chosen by Rena Markogianakki: There have been many releases of Metropolis, but this is definitive. With a now complete film complemented by wonderful packaging, this is a collector’s dream.

UK | 1951-77 | BFI | 880 min | Cert 15 | # 63309 | RRP £34.99

DVD: £24.99 Save £10

Stocking Fillers £5.99 each on DVD A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh

Atonement Joe Wright

Badlands Terence Malick

Count Dracula BBC 1977

Creation Jon Amiel

Fish Tank Andrea Arnold

Henry V Laurence Olivier

High Noon Fred Zinnemann

I Know Where I'm Going P&P

Jamaica Inn Alfred Hitchcock

Kiss Me Deadly Robert Aldrich

Le Bossu (1960) Andre Hunebelle

Let the Right One In Tomas Alfredson

Lust, Caution Ang Lee

Ministry of Fear Fritz Lang

The Long Goodbye Robert Altman

The Singing Ringing Tree

Watership Down Martin Rosen

Order now from MovieMail!



Documentaries “The Creative Interpretation of Actuality”

New Releases Erasing David

O Thou Transcendent: The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams Tony Palmer

Released to mark the 50th anniversary of Vaughan Williams’ death, this is the first ever fulllength film biography of the man. Features newly discovered interviews with Williams himself and specially recorded extracts from The Lark Ascending and The Tallis Fantasia.

David Bond

A documentary exploring the implications of surveillance in the UK, which has one of the most intrusive surveillance states in the world. For the film the director decided to find out how much private companies and the government knew about him by trying to ‘disappear’. UK | 2009 | DRAKE | 80 min | Cert 15 Item # 63389 | RRP £15.99 | Released 6th December

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Flow: For the Love of Water Irena Salina

An award-winning investigation into one of the most important political and environmental issues of our time – the world water crisis. With a corporate ‘world water grab’ ongoing, this film builds a case against the growing privatisation of water.

UK | 2008 | TONYP | 129 min | Cert E Item # 52827 | RRP £14.99 | Released 18th January

Our DVD Price: £13.49

Railways in Britain: The Scottish Express The fascinating record of a 1946 steam train journey from London’s King’s Cross to Edinburgh on the famous LNER. Bonus Features: Going North (1945): A travel tour heading north from the lake district; Extract from The Beautiful Trossachs (1938).

UK | 1946 | SFE | 67 min | Cert E Item # 63828 | RRP £14.99 | Released 8th November

USA | 2008 | ARTF | 93 min | Cert E Item # 63543 | RRP £14.99 | Released 13th Dec

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Restrepo

Last Train Home

Hetherington & Junger

Lixin Fan

Sixteen years ago, the Zhang family left their children for work in the city, hoping for a better life. Ironically, because of the parents’ absence, the daughter abandoned school and also went to the city. A portrait of momentous changes in Chinese society. China | 2009 | DOGW | 85 min | subt | Cert E Item # 63206 | RRP £14.99 | Released 25th October

Our DVD Price: £11.99

On-the-ground Afghan war documentary by journalist Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington, chronicling the year that they spent in Afghanistan on assignment for Vanity Fair, embedded with an army unit in the treacherous Korangal valley. USA | 2010 | DOGW | 93 min | Cert E Item # 63476 | RRP £14.99 | Released 29th Nov

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Zimbabwe Countdown

Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire

Michael Raeburn

Newly restored, this long lost film follows Cohen on his 1972 European tour and contains 17 classic performances, tour footage, and Cohen discussing aspects of his life. An intimate portrait of a legendary artist.

Once touted as the saviour of his country, Robert Mugabe has become synonymous with bad government and misrule. But where did it all go wrong? Zimbabwean filmmaker Michael Raeburn, once a Mugabe supporter, takes a look at the crisis now ravaging his country.

UK | 1972 | TONYP | 120 min | E Item # 63683 | RRP £19.99 | Released 6th September

UK | 2003 | HBF | 52 min | Cert E Item # 63011 | RRP £15.99 | Released 25th October

Our DVD Price: £16.99

Our DVD Price: £11.99

Tony Palmer

Page 26

COI Collection: Volume 4 - Stop! Look! Listen! Recommended Released: 15th November DVD Extras: 2 discs; I Stopped, I Looked and I Listened (John Krish, 1975); llustrated booklet with comprehensive film notes. UK | 1946-75 | BFI | 268 min | B&W | Cert E | Item # 63314

The BFI’s three previous collections of public information films (PIFs) from the archives of the Central Office of Information contained some real gems, and Volume 4 is no exception. With a safety and welfare focus, COI4’s 27 films warn against a range of perilous situations, from erratic driving to lifts from strange men. COI4 spans 1949 to 1992, but the PIF really came of age in the 1970s; thankfully, more than half of the films here spring from that decade. John Mackenzie’s 1977 child safety classic Apaches, about the dangers of unsupervised play on a farm, is surely ripe for rediscovery as one of the best British shorts of its era, while 1973’s Lonely Water, about the dangers of playing too near a river bank, is genuinely unsettling. Never Go with Strangers (1971) underlines its titular warning with alarming scenes of would-be kidnappers’ cars glowing red to signal danger – an iconic image for a generation of children. It’s not all doom though; there are plenty of upbeat messages here too, and a host of sparky British talent on hand to drive them home. JU

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Shadows of Progress:

Documentary Film in Post-war Britain Recommended Contains: David, To Be A Woman, The Island, Sunday By the Sea, The Elephant Will Never Forget, Henry, Foot and Mouth, Birthright, They Took Us To The Sea, Faces of Harlow, Thursday’s Children, There Was a Door..., People Apart, Return to Life, Four People, A Time to Heal, Three Installations, Stone into Steel, The Film That Never Was, Time Out of Mind, From First to Last, People, Productivity and Change, Picture to Post, Shellarama, Today in Britain, The Shadow of Progress, I Think They Call Him John, Portrait of Queenie, Education for the Future, Time of Terror, Tomorrow’s Merseysiders, The Shetland Experience Released: 15th November DVD Extras: 4 discs; Book. UK | 1951-77 | BFI | 880 min | Cert 15 | Item # 63309

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hadows of Progress is both an important collection – doing for postwar British documentary filmmaking what its companion volume, Land of Promise, did for the 1930s and 40s – and a mouthwatering one, liberating some rare and long-unseen titles from the archives, including four films each from John Krish and Lindsay Anderson. As a whole, it shows filmmakers capturing a country and its people adapting to a period of great change and growth, cataloguing industrial boom (Stone into Steel, From First to Last) and inequalities (To Be A Woman), new towns (Faces of Harlow) and dereliction (Tomorrow’s Merseysiders), the coming of oil (The Island, Shellarama, The Shetland Experience) and its environmental cost (The Shadow of Progress). A few highlights: Paul Dickson’s David, a touching portrait of collier-poet D.R. Griffiths, made by the Welsh Committee for the 1951 Festival of Britain; Lindsay Anderson’s Thursday’s Children, narrated by Richard Burton, in which a class of 4 year-olds at the Royal School for the Deaf in Margate learn ‘the game called speech’; Anthony Simmons’ Venice Grand Prixwinning Sunday by the Sea, a parade of

An essential look from the BFI at Britain’s postwar history saucy postcards, silly hats, fairground rides and packed beaches in 1953 Southend, and The Shadow of Progress, Derek Williams’ pioneering environmental film sponsored by BP in 1970. Then there are John Krish’s films, including The Elephant Will Never Forget, a nostalgic reflection on the last days of the London trams (which despite it being one of BTF’s most popular films got him the sack from Edgar Anstey), I Think They Call Him John, a profoundly affecting portrait of old age loneliness, and Return to Life, a heartfelt film about of the problems that refugees face in resettling. It’s striking how many concerns current today – pollution, population growth, child abuse and terrorism to name but a few – were clearly and cogently raised in these films decades ago. This is an essential look at Britain’s postwar history, its successes, worries, hopes and preoccupations. Graeme Hobbs

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Page 27


Television Programmes Originally Broadcast

The Best of Jane Austen

New Releases Ancient Worlds

A series unlocking the secrets of lost civilisations, telling how the ideas of the classical world made the western world what it is today, providing fundamental notions of justice, power, freedom and beauty. But where did these ideas really come from? Dr Richard Miles presents his thesis that what we think of as western civilisation is far older than we imagine, and the genius of the Greeks and the Romans 2 discs. was to appropriate others’ ideas. UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert E Item # 63619-20 | RRP £24.99 | Released 6th Dec

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Any Human Heart: Series 1 The complete first series of C4’s adaptation of William Boyd’s novel, adapted for the screen by the author himself, and starring Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Claflin as the writer Logan Gonzago Mountstuart through different stages of his life through every decade of the 20th century. UK | 2010 | UPV | Cert TBC Item # 63745 | RRP £24.99 | Released 27th Dec

Contains Pride and Prejudice (2009) starring Colin Firth, Sense and Sensibility (2008), Emma (2009) and Persuasion (2007) – acclaimed smallscreen adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels which prove it is possible to produce entertaining modern costume dramas and remain true to the plot, characters and 6 discs. dialogue of the original novels. UK | 2009 | 2ENT | Cert PG Item # 63816 | RRP £34.99 | Released 22nd Nov

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Chekhov Comedy Shorts

A four-part series of comedies screened in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Russian writer. Steve Coogan plays Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin in the one act play On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco; MacKenzie Crook appears alongside Johnny Vegas in A Reluctant Tragic Hero and Mathew Horne takes the lead in The Proposal. UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert TBC Item # 63815 | RRP £12.99 | Released 29th Nov

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A Child’s Christmases in Wales Christine Gernon

Paul Kaye, Michael Sheen, Ruth Jones. A one-off comedy drama written by comedian Mark Watson, inspired by Dylan Thomas’s short story and showing the life of young Owen Rhys and his family as they celebrate Christmas in 1983, 1986 and 1989.

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The Art of Spain

We know that Italy and Northern Europe are renowned for their art, but what about Spain? In this absorbing and original BBC series, Spanish art takes centre stage as art historian Andrew GrahamDixon goes on the road to reveal the fabulous art treasures of the country.

UK | 2008 | 2ENT | Cert E Item # 62908 | RRP £19.99 | Released 29th Nov

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The Avengers: Series 6 Patrick Macnee, Linda Thorson, Patrick Newell. The sixth series bids farewell to Diana Rigg’s Emma Peel and introduces her successor, Linda Thorson’s trained but inexperienced agent Tara King. Patrick Newell 8 discs. plays Mother.

UK | 1968 | OPTIM | Cert 12 Item # 60393 | RRP £59.99 | Released 6th Dec

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Page 28

UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert TBC Item # 63723 | RRP £9.99 | Released 29th November

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Christopher and His Kind Geoffrey Sax

A drama written by Kevin Elyot and based on the life of writer Christopher Isherwood (Matt Smith), who moves from the restrictive society of 1930s England to the gay subculture of Berlin, where he falls in love with a street cleaner who he soon has to protect from the Nazis. UK | 2010 | G-VEN | 90 min | Cert 15 Item # 63711 | RRP £19.99 | Released 1st November

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Dexter: Season 4

Dexter’s fourth season brings two new arrivals – a baby, and ‘The Trinity Killer’. Michael C. Hall stars as America’s favourite serial killer, who is now a responsible husband and doting dad – which means he has more to lose than ever when he is drawn into a deadly game 4 discs; Dexter: A Sitdown With with a killer. Michael C. Hall and John Lithgow; Blood, Guts and Body Parts; Tracking Trinity; Commentary. USA | 2009 | PARAH | Cert 18 Item # 63034 / 63116 | RRP £34.99 | 29th Nov

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Downton Abbey: Series 1 All seven episodes from the first series of the ITV costume drama which follows the lives and loves of those above and below stairs in a stately home prior to the outbreak of WWI. Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery and Brendan 3 discs. Coyle star.

UK | 2010 | UPV | Cert 12 Item # 63024 / 63821 | RRP £24.99 | Out 8th Nov

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Father Dear Father: Series 7

The complete seventh and final series of the sitcom which sees Patrick Cargill play a divorced thriller writer who finds himself responsible for the welfare and upbringing of his irrepressible teenage dollybird daughters Anna and Karen. Real power in the household lies with their Also availsplendid St Bernard, H.G. Wells. able: 8 disc Box Set of series 1-7. UK | 1973 | NWORK | 150 min | Cert U Item # 63405-6 | RRP £12.99 | Released 8th Nov

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The First Men in the Moon Damon Thomas

Mark Gatiss stars in his own adaptation of H.G. Wells’ science fiction adventure which sees 90-year-old Julius Bedford (Rory Kinnear) tell the story of his extraordinary journey to the Moon in 1909 with the eccentric scientist Professor Cavor, where they find the apparently lifeless world isn’t quite as dead as it seems! UK | 2010 | 2ENT | 90 min | Cert PG Item # 61888 | RRP £15.99 | Released 25th October

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Getting On: Series 2

The complete second series of the BBC medical sitcom directed by Peter Capaldi and following the fortunes of the staff on an NHS ward. Beset by killer viruses, egomaniacal consultants and endless paperwork, the overworked and underpaid staff struggle on. Jo Brand plays the seen-it-all-before nurse. Also available: Series 1 & 2 Box Set. UK | 2009-10 | 2ENT | Cert 15 Item # 61944-45 | RRP £19.99 | Released 6th Dec

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The Goodies: At Last – Back For More, Again In 1970, the Goodies unleashed their sketches, satire, slapstick and lunacy on unsuspecting viewers, making household names of Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor. This year is the series’ 40th anniversary, and this volume has 2 eight top episodes. discs; Also available: The Goodies...At Last the 40th Anniversary! 8 disc Box Set. UK | 1970s | NWORK | 254 min | Cert TBC Item # 63715-6 | RRP £19.99 | Released 8th Nov

DVD Price: £13.99 Box Set: £49.49

Here Come the Double Deckers!

Get on board, get on board, come and join the Double Deckers... The complete children’s comedy adventure series which followed the secret meetings and numerous adventures of Brains, Billie, Doughnut, Sticks, Scooper, Spring and Tiger – and often Albert the 2 discs. street sweeper too (Melvyn Hayes). UK | 1970-71 | 2ND | 353 min | Cert U Item # 63032 | RRP £19.99 | Released 1st Nov

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Last of the Summer Wine: Series 17 and 18 Bill Owen, Peter Sallis, Brian Wilde. The 1995-97 programmes from Roy Clarke’s long-running sitcom set in and around the Yorkshire village of Holmfirth, playground for the mischief-making pensioners Compo, Clegg 4 discs. and Foggy.

UK | 1995-97 | UPV | Cert PG Item # 63664 | RRP £24.99 | Released 27th Dec

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David Attenborough: First Life Recommended Released: 22nd November DVD Extras: Attenborough’s Journey. UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert E | Item # 63637

As its name suggests, this BBC series sees the naturalist, writer and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough present the amazing story of the beginnings of life on Earth. Spanning billions of years and using the latest technology, First Life’s timetravelling narrative brings the viewer face to face with the first animals that ever existed, revealing what these early animals would have looked like and how they would have lived. Attenborough shows us how the evolution of the first eyes, the first solid body parts and the first feet and backbones came to be, as well as how some of the evolutionary features of these most primitive creatures are alive today in modern animals – including humans. Looking at global ice ages and volcanic eruptions he also explains how evolution is heavily connected with the history of the planet. This is an important investigation in typical Attenborough style, in which he travels the world to unearth the secrets hidden in prehistoric fossils, providing a deeper understanding of the first living creatures and the origins of our evolutionary traits.

Rawhide: Series 1 Recommended Starring: Clint Eastwood, Eric Fleming Released: 15th November DVD Extras: 6 discs. USA | 1959 | REV | 1140 min | Cert PG | Item # 63375

In 1958, Clint Eastwood was a man in dire need of a lucky break. The future star of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Dirty Harry and Unforgiven had yet to find a niche after three years of toiling away in bit parts. Then came Rawhide, an addition to the hugely popular cycle of TV westerns, based around a cattle drive. This time the job was significant. Clint was cast in a central role as Rowdy Yates, a good-hearted but impulsive ramrod. When the show aired the next year, he scored a major hit with audiences, beginning his transition from no-name actor to ‘The Man with No Name’. This first series is good old-fashioned entertainment, with involving storylines, solid production values and a magnificent theme song performed by Frankie Laine. The programme draws its drama both from conflicts within the drovers’ camp and challenges from outside – often provided by guest stars. Western buffs will love it, and so should fans of classic Hollywood, thanks to special appearances from the likes of Kim Hunter, Brian Donlevy, Marie Windsor and Margaret O’Brien. RB

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Page 29



The Best

TV Period Dramas DVDs from £5.99

Britannia may no longer rule the waves but we can keep our upper lips suitably stiff with this pick of the best television period dramas shows ever made. Brideshead Revisited made taking a teddy to college briefly fashionable in the early 1980s, and don’t miss eight BBC Dickens adaptations from the 1970s onwards in one box set. Plus who could forget the sight of a moist Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice!

Charles Dickens Collection (BBC)

Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Eight peerless BBC dramatisations of Dickens’ novels, from A Christmas Carol (1977) to David Copperfield (1999), with six more tales in between. 12 discs.

Anthony Andrews, Jeremy Irons, Gielgud, Olivier, Bloom ... the classic adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s novel. 4 discs. UK | 1982 | G-VEN | 641 min | Cert 15 | # 55696 | RRP £29.99

UK | 1997-99 | BBC | 1921 min | Cert 12 | # 24653 | RRP £99.99

Clayhanger A major 1970s series based on Arnold Bennett’s novels detailing the history of a family in the Victorian-era Staffordshire Potteries. Janet Suzman, Peter McEnery and a host of other famous faces star. 7 discs.

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UK | 1976 | NWORK | 1300 min | Cert 12 | # 62072 | RRP £59.99

The Caesars

John Adams

Made in 1968 and broadcast to great acclaim, this was one of the last great Granada dramas. Ralph Bates and Freddie Jones star. 2 discs.

Dir: Tom Hooper. Paul Giamatti stars in this award-winning series about John Adams and the first 50 years of the United States. 3 discs.

The Monocled Mutineer

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High romance, hilarious impudence and savage retribution define the story of Percy Toplis. 2 discs.

UK | 1968 | NWORK | 300 min | B&W | 15 | # 28342 | RRP £19.99

USA | 2008 | WHV | 481 min | Cert 12 | # 56581 | RRP £40.99

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Cranford

Lark Rise to Candleford S1 & S2

The Oscar Wilde Collection

BBC drama about the romances and rivalries of rural life, from the books 4 discs each. by Flora Thompson.

Ideal Husband (1969), Dorian Gray (1976), Windermere’s Fan (1985), 2 discs. Importance...(1986).

UK | 2008 | BBC | Cert PG | # 53336 | RRP £34.99

UK | 1969-1985 | CCLUB | Cert 12 | # 22052 | RRP £24.99

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David Copperfield

Lillie: Complete

Our Mutual Friend

Dir: Simon Curtis. The Beeb doing what it does best – a classic Dickens adaptation, featuring a veritable who’s who of British actors.

A landmark in TV costume drama. Francesca Annis stars as the incomparable defier of 19th century morality, Lillie Langtry. 4 discs.

Steven Mackintosh stars in this epic BBC adaptation of Dickens’ complex tale of greed, passion and death in Victorian London. 2 discs.

UK | 1999 | BBC-DD | 180 min | Cert PG | # 8533 | RRP £19.99

UK | 1978 | NWORK | 650 min | Cert 12 | # 33924 | RRP £29.99

UK | 1998 | BBC | 350 min | Cert PG | # 8020 | RRP £24.99

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The Forsyte Saga

Love in a Cold Climate

Pride and Prejudice

Star-studded adaptation from Elizabeth Gaskell, following the absurdities and tragedies of life in the 2 discs. small town of Cranford. UK | 2007 | 2ENT | 300 min | Cert 12 | # 52770 | RRP £19.99

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The complete Victorian drama based on the series of novels by John Galsworthy. Susan Hampshire and Kenneth More star. 6 discs. UK | 1967 | BBC-DD | 1320 min | B&W | 12 | # 18886 | RRP £69.99

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Drama adapted from the novels of Nancy Mitford, in which three 1930s girls try to find love before they marry. UK | 2000 | BBC | 154 min | Cert PG | # 55179 | RRP £15.99

UK | 1986 | BBC | 320 min | Cert 15 | # 50318 | RRP £19.99

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Acclaimed BBC adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel about five unmarried sisters. Firth’s brooding Mr Darcy won him a legion of fans. 2 discs. UK / USA | 1995 | BBC | 302 min | Cert U | # 359 | RRP £19.99

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Jane Austen Box Set

Moll Flanders

The Way We Live Now

A collection of three ITV adaptations of novels by Jane Austen: Mansfield Park (2007), Northanger Abbey (2007) and Emma (1996). 3 discs.

Dir: David Attwood. Alex Kingston and Daniel Craig star in this 1996 ITV adaptation of the 18th-century novel by Daniel Defoe.

Dir: David Yates. An adaptation from Trollope’s novel set in London in the 1870s. The winner of 3 BAFTAs, including Best Drama. 2 discs.

UK / UK | 1996-2007 | G-VEN | 347 min | PG | # 33489 | RRP £29.99

UK | 1996 | G-VEN | 220 min | Cert 18 | # 57767 | RRP £17.99

UK | 2001 | CC | 300 min | subt | Cert PG | # 30218 | RRP £24.99

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Brideshead Revisited


Television The Little House

Single Father

Jamie Payne

Starring Francesca Annis, Tim Pigott-Smith and Rupert Evans, this is a thrilling feature length drama adapted from Philippa Gregory’s bestselling novel, which explores the psychological power struggles within a family. Lucy Griffiths plays the young woman pushed to the limits of her sanity when she becomes entangled in the lives of her interfering in-laws. UK | 2010 | G-VEN | 86 min | Cert 12 Item # 63025 | RRP £19.99 | Released 15th Nov

Spooks: Season 9

Nancy Astor

Richard Stroud James Fox, Sylvia Syms, Kathleen Byron, Pierce Brosnan, Julian Glover. A lavish nine-part series about the life and times of the American Nancy Langhorne, who on 19th May 1879 became the first woman to take her seat in the British House of Commons. Lisa Harrow takes the lead and is 3 discs. supported by a fine cast.

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Outnumbered: Series 3

Conspiracy theories, sex education, psychotherapy, colonoscopies, astrology and kangaroo saliva. These are just a handful of the obstacles that the Brockman family must negotiate in the third series of the multi-award winning comedy written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. Hugh Dennis 2 discs. and Claire Skinner star. UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert 12 Item # 61824 / 62897 | RRP £19.99 | 15th Nov

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Page 32

UK | 2010 | UPV | Cert TBC Item # 62979 | RRP £39.99 | Released 28th February

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The show that made its debut on ITV’s opening weekend in 1955 and lasted until 1969 with a revival series in the mid 1970s. Hosted by performers such as Tommy Trinder, Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Tarbuck, this set contains the best of what remains in the archives for the original run, the special ‘strike edition’ from 1961 with Norman Wisdom and Bruce Forsyth, 3 discs. and some shows from the 1970s. UK | 1955-74 | NWORK | 350 min | Cert E Item # 63355 | RRP £24.99 | Released 8th November

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Canada / Germany | 2010 | COL-T | 400 min | Cert TBC Item # 63478 | RRP £29.99 | Released 22nd Nov

Series 9 of the BAFTA award-winning BBC spy drama sees Richard Armitage return as MI5 agent Lucas North. Foul play, international piracy, intrigue and deception: in true Spooks style, it’s all here. And whatever you think is going to happen, 3 discs. probably isn’t.

Sunday Night at the London Palladium: Volume 1

UK | 1982 | 2ENT | 500 min | Cert TBC Item # 63635 | RRP £19.99 | Released 15th Nov

Rufus Sewell, Ian McShane, Sarah Parish, Hayley Atwell, Matthew MacFadyen and Eddie Redmayne star in this epic production of life and love during the political turmoil of 12th century England, adapted from Ken Follett’s novel of the 3 discs. same name.

UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert TBC Item # 63807 | RRP £19.99 | Released 29th Nov

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The Pillars of the Earth

David Tennant stars in this touching four-part drama about a man struggling to raise his four children after the sudden death of his partner. Then things get more complicated when he begins to fall in love with his wife’s best friend, Sarah. Is Dave betraying Rita by falling in love again so quickly, or will he be walking away from happiness if he ignores his feelings?

Ten Minute Tales

The biggest names in writing, acting and directing came together for these highly creative slices of silent cinema that prove actions speak louder than words. Broadcast on Sky over Christmas 2009, many missed this excellent series, so now’s a great chance to catch up. Stars Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy and a host of other major actors. UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert TBC Item # 63704 | RRP £14.99 | Released 29th Nov

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Michael Wood’s Story of England Recommended Presenter: Michael Wood Released: 22nd November DVD Extras: 2 discs. UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert E | Item # 63708

In this new six-part BBC series, historian Michael Wood tells the fascinating and consistently surprising story of one community through the whole of English history. The village is in the heart of England – Kibworth in Leicestershire. With the help of the villagers who dig into local and national archives and uncover archaeological evidence to fill in the unknown history of the village before 1066, and using archaeology, landscape, language and DNA, Michael uncovers the lost history of the first thousand years of the village, featuring a Roman villa, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and graphic evidence of life on the eve of the Norman Conquest. Using documents, landscape, buildings, science and archaeology, Wood explores the lives of ordinary people through history, setting them in the context of great events: from the Viking invasions, the Norman Conquest and the Black Death to the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars. This is valuable, enthralling television that fires you with the enthusiasm to find out just what the history of your own area might be.

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Victoria Wood: Collection

Victoria Wood is unquestionably Britain’s funniest and best-loved female TV star. This extensive collection of BBC titles contains some of her finest programmes, including her BBC breakthrough As Seen on TV, Acorn Antiques, the one-off show Victoria Wood: Live in Your Own Home, the six playlets of Victoria Wood Presents, the feature length drama Pat and Margaret in which she and Julie Walters play very different sisters, and the doc3 discs. umentary series Victoria’s Empire. UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert 12 Item # 63189 | RRP £39.99 | Released 18th October

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Victoria Wood: Live in Your Own Home Geoff Posner

A seasonal special featuring stand-up comedy, monologues and sketches. In this one-off programme, the comedienne treats viewers to sketches taken from her hit live show at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1994. UK | 1994 | 2ENT | 80 min | Cert 12 Item # 63177 | RRP £15.99 | Released 18th October

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Blu-rays Robin of Sherwood: Series 1 and 2 James Allen

UK | 1984 | NWORK | 750 min | Cert PG | # 63525 | RRP £49.99

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Robin of Sherwood: Complete Collection UK | 1984-86 | NWORK | 1250 min | Cert PG | # 63461 | RRP £59.99

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Can’t find the series you’re looking for? We don’t just sell what we can fit in here. If you’d like another series, or even something else entirely, just get in touch.

Also Released... Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Everything UK | 1992-2005 | 2ENT | Cert 15 | # 59931 | £34.99

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The Michael Parkinson Collection Recommended Starring: Muhammad Ali, George Best, Meg Ryan, Madonna, Kenneth Williams, Sir David Attenborough, Nicole Kidman, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Bobby Charlton and many more! Released: 22nd November DVD Extras: 2 discs.

Ladies of Letters: Series 2 UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert 12 | # 63173 | RRP £19.99

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Lip Service: Series 1 UK | 2010 | UPV | Cert 18 | # 63764 | RRP £24.99

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Merlin: Series 3 Volume 1 UK | 2010 | PNE | Cert TBC | # 63597 | RRP £19.99

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Miranda: Series 1 UK | 2009 | 4DVD | 360 min | 15 | # 61900 | £19.99

UK | 1971-2007 | 2ENT | Cert E | Item # 63665

With a career spanning over 40 years, the genial, avuncular Yorkshireman Michael Parkinson – Parky – is without a doubt the most successful interviewer in the country’s TV history. This collection features sections of classic in-depth interviews chosen by Parkinson himself with some of the most famous people in the world, guests who form a veritable who’s who of public personalities across the years. There are celebrated sportsmen – Muhammad Ali, George Best, Bobby Charlton, David Beckham, musicians – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher, international actors – Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Goldie Hawn and Meg Ryan (though perhaps he wishes the last one hadn’t happened), much loved comedians – Kenneth Williams, Robin Williams, Dame Edna and of course Rod Hull and Emu, and many, many more. Parky is a bona fide national treasure and this is a fitting testament to his extraordinary career in the interviewer’s chair.

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Moving On: Series 2 UK | 2010 | G-VEN | 432 min | 15 | # 62975 | £19.99

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Reggie Perrin: Series 2 UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert 12 | # 63713 | RRP £19.99

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River Cottage: Preserves UK | 2010 | RIVER | Cert E | # 63317 | RRP £17.99

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Catherine Tate Show: Nan’s Christmas Carol UK | 2010 | 2ENT | 50 min | 15 | # 62822 | RRP £9.99

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Clarkson Collection The Italian Job, Duel, Supercar Showdown and Heaven & Hell. UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert PG | # 63626 | RRP £32.99

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Victoria Wood: Christmas Selection UK | UPV | Cert 15 | # 63592 | RRP £29.99

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Victoria Wood: Midlife Christmas UK | 2010 | UPV | Cert PG | # 63049 | RRP £19.99

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Whites UK | 2010 | G-VEN | 180 min | Cert 15 | # 63735 | RRP £19.99

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Page 33


Contemporary Film English Language Films, 1970 – present

The Experiment

New Releases The A-Team

Joe Carnahan Big screen spin-off from the 1980s TV series. Four Iraq war veterans, led by Liam Neeson’s Hannibal Smith, on the run from the US military who suspect them of committing a crime, set about trying to clear their names while pursued by Jessica Biel’s Digital Copy. tracker.

USA | 2010 | FOX | 118 min | Cert 12 Item # 63668-9 | RRP £19.99 | Released 29th Nov

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Avatar: Extended Edition James Cameron

The triple Oscar-winning sci-fi blockbuster with Sam Worthington playing a paraplegic war veteran who is sent to the moon 3 discs; Pandora. Contains original theatrical version, special edition rerelease and an extended version with an additional 16 minutes; many documentaries.

The Christmas Twins Esme Lammers

Family drama starring Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy) as twin brothers Tom and Thomas who, despite living in the same city, have never met. Their paths only finally cross when Tom is being chased by child smugglers who mistake Thomas for his brother. UK | 2002 | MET-D | 110 min | Cert PG Item # 63640 | RRP £15.99 | Released 8th November

The Expendables Sylvester Stallone

Thriller about a group of professional killers joining forces to bring down a South American dictator. Boasts an amazing cast of action stalwarts as well as the first on-screen pairing of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger! USA | 2010 | LGATE | 99 min | Cert 15 Item # 63781 | RRP £29.99 | Released 13th Dec

Our DVD+Blu-ray Price: £22.99

Page 34

Michael Patrick King

Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis. The four fashion-obsessed Manhattan girlfriends, navigating the uncharted waters of marriage and motherhood, are yearning for something to break the routine. Luckily for them, a glamorously exotic adven2 discs. ture is just around the corner...

USA | 2010 | MOMET | 96 min | Cert 15 Item # 63426/28 | RRP £12.99 | Out 18th October

USA | 2010 | WHV | 146 min | Cert 15 Item # 63107-08 | RRP £22.99 | Out 29th Nov

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DVD: £17.24 DVD+Blu-ray: £24.49

Father Dear Father William G. Stewart

This spin-off movie from the British sitcom sees divorced thriller writer (Patrick Cargill) struggle to cope with daughters Anne (Natasha Pyne) and Karen (Ann Holloway). Then, when he decides to give love another chance, he mistakenly proposes to Beryl Reid’s charlady!

Our DVD Price: £6.99

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Sex and the City 2

A remake of writer Mario Giordano’s 2001 film, starring Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker, and based on the Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971, in which the subjects were separated into the roles of prisoners and wardens. Soon a mutiny breaks out and the men on both sides must fight for their survival.

UK | 1972 | NWORK | 95 min | Cert U Item # 63447 | RRP £7.99 | Released 8th November

USA | 2009 | FOX | Cert 12 Item # 63769-70 | RRP £19.99 | Released 15th Nov

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Paul Scheuring

Nativity!

Debbie Isitt

A semi-improvised, feelgood British comedy starring Martin Freeman as a shabby primary teacher who idly concocts a lie that his Hollywood producer ex-girlfriend is coming to see the school nativity play with a view to turning it into a film. They haven’t spoken in years – but now school expectations are running high. UK | 2009 | E1 | 106 min | Cert PG Item # 63545 / 554 | RRP £19.99 | Out 22nd Nov

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Salt

Phillip Noyce Espionage thriller starring Angelina Jolie as an ex-CIA officer whose loyalty is tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Attempting to evade capture to gather the evidence she needs to clear her name, she goes on the run, using all the tricks of her trade to stay off the radar of the CIA officers on her trail. USA | 2010 | COL-T | 100 min | Cert 15 Item # 63731-2 | RRP £19.99 | Released 13th Dec

DVD Price: £13.99 Blu-ray: £17.99

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Jon Turteltaub

Comedy adventure starring Nicolas Cage as Balthazar Blake, a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan who combines his awe-inspiring magic powers with state-of-theart technology to defend the city from his archnemesis (Alfred Molina). USA | 2010 | BUENA | Cert PG Item # 63752 / 763 | RRP £15.99 | Out 6th Dec

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The Twilight Saga: Eclipse David Slade

The third instalment of the teen vampire saga based on the novels by Stephenie Meyer. Bella (Kristen Stewart) is now reunited with the love of her life, vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), but their forbidden relationship comes under threat once again as Victoria (Bryce Dallas Howard) continues to seek her revenge. USA | 2010 | E1 | 121 min | Cert 12 Item # 63680-82 | RRP £19.99 | Released 6th Dec

DVD Price: £13.99 SE DVD: £17.24 Blu-ray Price: £17.99

Whatever Works Woody Allen

A romantic comedy based on a script that Allen originally wrote in the late 1970s and marking his return to familiar New York territory. Larry David stars as a ranting, reclusive misanthrope who develops an unlikely friendship with a young country girl from the Bible-thumping backwoods of Louisiana. USA / France | 2009 | WHV | 92 min | Cert 12 Item # 63131 | RRP £15.99 | Released 22nd Nov

Our DVD Price: £11.99

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Inception Recommended Director: Christopher Nolan Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page Released: 6th December DVD Extras: 2 discs; Documentaries. USA / UK | 2010 | WHV | 148 min | Cert 12 | Item # 63263

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£11.99

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Also on Blu-ray Inception USA / UK | 2010 | WHV | 148 min | Cert 12 | # 63264 | RRP £28.99

DVD+Blu-ray: £17.99

See Also The Matrix

Wachowski Brothers USA | 1998 | WHV | 190 min | Cert 15 | # 4943 | RRP £19.99

Our DVD Price: £7.49

Memento

Christopher Nolan USA | 109 min | 15 | # 9445 | £17.99

Our DVD Price: £6.99

World on a Wire RW Fassbinder

Germany | 1973 | 2ND | 204 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 61696 | RRP £19.99

Our DVD Price: £9.99

I

nception is a high-tech heist movie set within the intimate world of dreams, where teams of stony-faced ‘Extractors’ invade their victims’ sleep to purloin high-value business secrets from their subconscious. These dream worlds take the form of labyrinthine cityscapes, full of architectural paradoxes, in which a careless traveller could become lost forever. In Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008), a superhero story played out as a multi-layered drama across a sprawling metropolis, while in Memento (2000), one man’s struggle to regain his memory and avenge his wife’s murder was inscribed in the notes and diagrams tattooed across his body. Inception unites the epic and the intimate – the action is set within vast, teeming cities in which the mind is king, but where personal demons emerge to throw meticulously laid plans into chaos. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Dom Cobb, an expert Extractor, who is hired, not to steal information, but to plant an idea in the mind of the son of a man’s business rival. To do this, he must recruit Ariadne, a skilled young ‘architect’, to build a series of dream worlds that will strip away different layers of the man’s subconscious. But Cobb’s memories of his wife Mal constantly intrude on his work, threatening his grasp

Plays out like a blockbuster as devised by Jorge Luis Borges on reality and his assignment’s success. Inception is immaculately constructed, with each element engineered to the precision of a time-piece, and it is impossible but to be impressed by Nolan’s sheer directorial prowess as he depicts multiple sequences, told in different time scales, without ever losing the sense of the story. Cobb and Mal’s relationship recalls something of Tarkovsky’s Solaris in which an astronaut is forced to constantly re-live a doomed affair with his suicidal wife, and Marion Cotillard’s chilling intensity dominates every scene. DiCaprio delivers another strong performance which edges, ever further, into Brando territory. Shot on location across the US and Europe, the film keeps special effects to a minimum. Nolan steers clear of Gilliamesque fantasy or Matrix-style computergenerated kitsch. Instead, Inception’s dreamscapes are depicted with a crisp, lucid realism. This intelligent, engrossing film is a well- tailored cut above standard blockbuster fare. Milo Wakelin

Enquiries enquiries@moviemail-online.co.uk

Page 35


Contemporary Blu-ray

Animation

Splice

New Releases

Vincenzo Natali

A sci-fi fantasy horror staring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as renegade scientists who transgress legal and ethical boundaries by conducting an experiment in which they ‘splice’ DNA from human and animal sources. Their experiment results in the creation of a new creature – a human female with animal features who continues to grow and learn at an alarming rate. Canada / France / USA | 2009 | OPTIM | 103 min | | Cert 15 Item # 63188 / 90 | RRP £17.99 | Released 29th Nov

DVD: £11.99 DVD+Blu-ray: £16.79

Highlights City Lights

Charlie Chaplin Our DVD+Blu-ray Price: £13.99

The Circus

Charlie Chaplin USA | 1928 | PARKC | 72 min | B&W | Cert U | # 63209 | RRP £19.99

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Coco and Igor Jan Kounen

Our Blu-ray Price: £12.99

Inception

Christopher Nolan

Tim Burton

USA | 2010 | WHV | 148 min | 12 | # 63264 | £28.99

USA | 2010 | BUENA | Cert PG | # 63817 | RRP £26.99

Our DVD+Blu-ray Price: £17.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £17.99

Metropolis

Donnie Darko

Fritz Lang

Richard Kelly

Germany | 1926 | EUREK | 150 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 62225 |

USA | 2001 | MET-D | 108 min | 15 | # 63353 | £15.99

RRP £24.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £11.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £15.99

Also Released...

Metropolis (Limited Steelbook Edition)

Dinner for Schmucks

Germany | 1926 | EUREK | 150 min | B&W | Cert PG | # 63422 |

Jay Roach

USA | 2010 | PARAH | 114 min | 15 | # 63257 | £19.99

DVD: £13.99 Blu-ray: £23.99

Knight and Day James Mangold

USA | 2010 | FOX | 110 min | 12 | # 63790 | £19.99

DVD: £13.99 Blu-ray: £24.99

Piranha (3D Edition) Alexandre Aja

USA | 2010 | EV | 88 mins | 18 | # 63813 | RRP £24.99

DVD: £13.99 Blu-ray: £17.99

Step Up 3 Jon Chu

USA | 2010 | UPV | 103 min | 12 | # 63613 | £19.99

DVD: £13.99 Blu-ray: £17.99

The Karate Kid Harald Zwart

USA | 2010 | COL-T | 140 min | PG | # 63674 | £19.99

DVD: £13.99 DVD+Blu-ray: £17.99

The Twilight Saga: Collection USA | 2008-10 | E1 | 12 | # 63734 | £34.99

DVD: £29.49 Blu-ray: £38.49

Fritz Lang RRP £29.99

Our DVD+Blu-ray Price: £22.99

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday Jacques Tati

France | 1952 | BFI | 114 min | subt | B&W | Cert U | # 63302 | RRP £19.99

Our DVD+Blu-ray Price: £12.99

Peeping Tom Michael Powell

UK | 1960 | OPTIM | 97 min | 15 | # 63357 | £19.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £12.99

Playtime

Jacques Tati France | 1967 | BFI | 114 min | subt | Cert U | # 63366 | RRP £19.99

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Toy Story 3 Lee Unkrich

USA | 2010 | BUENA | 86 min | U | # 63729 | £23.99

Our DVD+Blu-ray Price: £15.99

White Material Claire Denis

France / Cameroon | 2009 | ART-E | 100 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 63361 | RRP £19.99

Our Blu-ray Price: £12.99

Page 36

A feature-length stopmotion animated adventure based on the Belgian cartoon series of the same name. A non-stop barrage of strange and surreal adventures ensues as Coboy, Indien and Cheval set out on a journey that ends up in a parallel universe.

RRP £19.99

# 63698 | RRP £19.99

Alice in Wonderland

Stéphane Aubier

USA | 1931 | PARKC | 87 min | B&W | Cert U | # 63208 |

France | 2009 | SodaElev | 120 min | subt | Cert 15 |

Blu-rays

A Town Called Panic

Belgium / France | 2009 | OPTIM | 75 min | subt | Cert PG Item # 63434 | RRP £17.99 | Released 15th Nov

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Bugs Bunny: Looney Tunes Christmas Chuck Jones

A Christmas TV special of the Bugs Bunny show in which the rabbit is joined by other Looney Tunes favourites – Sylvester, Tweety, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote and Tasmanian Devil – all voiced by Mel Blanc. USA | 1979 | WHV | 23 min | Cert U Item # 63561 | RRP £7.99 | Released 18th October

Our DVD Price: £6.99

How to Train Your Dragon Chris Sanders

Animated comedy adventure based on the children’s novel by Cressida Cowell in which a teenage Viking bucks his destiny of becoming a prized dragon fighter by befriending an injured dragon and embarking on a mission to convince his tribe to abandon its barbaric tradition of ruthless dragon-slaying. USA | 2010 | DRMWA | 98 min | Cert PG Item # 63249 / 278 | RRP £19.99 | Out 15th Nov

DVD: £13.99 DVD+Blu-ray: £25.49

Shaun the Sheep: Gift Set Aardman

Three helpings of fun: Two’s Company, Spring Lamb and Party Animals, in which Shaun, Timmy, Bitzer and the rest of the flock contend with, among other things, alien scientists, power crazy pigs and a King Kong3 discs. sized lamb! UK | 2010 | 2ENT | 175 min | Cert U Item # 63629 | RRP £29.99 | Released 8th November

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December 2010 MovieMail Film Catalogue

Shrek 4: Forever After - The Final Chapter Mike Mitchell

The fourth and final film in the phenomenally successful Dreamworks series sees Shrek duped into signing a pact with the smooth-talking Rumpelstiltskin. He immediately finds himself in a twisted world where ogres are hunted, his friends have different personalities and Shrek and Fiona have never even met! It is now up to Shrek to save his friends, restore his world and reclaim his One True Love. USA | 2010 | DRMWA | 89 min | Cert U Item # 63214-5 / 63250 | RRP £19.99 | 6th Dec

DVD Price: £13.99 SE DVD: £17.99 DVD+Blu-ray Price: £25.49

Toy Story 1-3

Lasseter / Unkrich All of Pixar’s ‘toys in danger’ trilogy starring the pull-string cowboy Woody and flashy, top of the range Space Ranger, Buzz Lightyear. Marrying quality storytelling, technical expertise and artistic excellence, these are wonderful viewing. USA | 2010 | BUENA | Cert PG Item # 63783-4 | RRP £30.99 | Released 22nd Nov

DVD Price: £27.99 Blu-ray: £35.99

The Snowman Dianne Jackson

We’re walking in the air... Raymond Briggs’ classic animated tale about a snowman who comes magically to life after midnight, and – along with the little boy who built him – sets off on a series of amazing adventures. UK | 1982 | UPV | 26 min | Cert U Item # 63667 | RRP £9.99 | Released 15th November

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Wallace and Gromit’s World of Inventions BBC series in which Wallace takes a light hearted look at real-life inventors and gadgets with the help of Gromit. The series aims to inspire a whole new generation of innovative minds by showing them real, mindboggling machines and inventions.

UK | 2010 | 2ENT | Cert TBC Item # 63719 / 722 | RRP £19.99 | Out 13th Dec

DVD Price: £13.99 Blu-ray: £22.49

Fantasia Recommended

Toy Story 3 Recommended

Director: Disney Studios

Director: Lee Unkrich

Released: 8th November

Released: 22nd November

DVD Extras: 2 discs; Audio Commentary.

DVD Extras: Day & Night Short; Commentary.

USA | 1940 | BUENA | 125 min | Cert U | Item # 63416

USA | 2010 | BUENA | 86 min | Cert U | Item # 63728

The 1930s were arguably the golden age of animation; certainly the end of that decade marked Walt Disney’s creative peak. After the triumph of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1938, Disney unleashed another couple of all-out classics: Pinocchio and Fantasia. Neither of them actually turned a profit on their original release, and Fantasia didn’t break even until the late 1960s when music and bright colours were where it was really at. But what a tremendous piece of work it is, unflaggingly inventive, deftly switching between the sinister, the spectacular and slapstick. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is rightly considered the film’s dramatic centrepiece, and The Dance of the Hours its comic highlight, but the whole thing abounds with gorgeously rendered sequences. The animators are bold in their use of colour and unafraid to dabble in the abstract; and even in segments that now seem a tad misconceived, such as the fluffy pastel colours and frolicking centaurs in Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, there are gags and painterly touches to admire. Anyone with the vaguest interest in animation should have Fantasia in their collection. NR

Toy Story 3 has the unenviable task of living up to its critically-acclaimed predecessors and bringing closure to a much-loved series. Thankfully, Pixar’s latest lives up timatioo their tradition of quality storytelling, technical expertise and artistic excellence – and even pays homage to The Great Escape along the way. Andy, just 6 years old in the original Toy Story (1995), is off to college, and his surviving toys must face an uncertain future either in the attic, or the dumpster (a fate worse than death followed by actual death). After a mixup, they are donated to Sunnyside Daycare, presided over by the affable Lotso bear. But Sunnyside is not all that it seems, and Buzz and Woody discover that getting out is far more difficult than getting in. What sets Pixar apart from other recent CGI films is that behind their unmatched technique lies real artistry, and their animators’ ability to bring static plastic to life recalls the magic of Pinocchio (1940), Disney’s most accomplished 2D animation. Funny, thrilling and unexpectedly moving, Toy Story 3 is one of the best films of the year, and a must for fans of animation young or old. MW

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Page 37


James Oliver’s From the Cheap Seats

Going Off the Rails

A

t first glance, writing about the history of trains in movies sounds like a distraction – one of those trivial lists film buffs like to amuse themselves with, of no more significance than detailing the films in which Burt Lancaster wears woman’s clothing (which is more than you might think). But once you get stuck in, you find there’s more to it than that (I’m talking trains here, not Burt in a frock; that can wait for another column). Cars may be sexier and planes more dynamic but the train is surely the movies’ preferred form of transport. More than just a backdrop or a subgenre (the railroad movie?), locomotives have helped shape the medium. The relationship began early; the Lumière brothers startled spectators with one of their first films, L’arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat, which showed a train arriving at a station. In 1903, Edwin S. Porter revolutionised motion pictures with his twelve minute wonder The Great Train Robbery. Amongst its other accolades, that film is credited as the first Western and from then on, the railroad played a huge part in the genre. In fact, I’d argue that the western can be defined by trains. The ‘iron horse’ is the symbol of progress, taming the frontier (best evidenced in Once Upon a Time in the West). Every western is a battle between freedom / anarchy and civilisation; that boundary is determined by the advance of the railroad. Looking elsewhere, the career of Alfred Hitchcock is basically inconceivable without trains. Did he make Strangers in a Bus Queue? Or Strangers Who Share a Cab? No sir, he did not. Some of his most famous set-pieces involve choo-choos, from the screaming sound-bridge in The 39 Steps to the visual euphemism that climaxes North by Northwest. His

Trains are integral to cinema. Hitchcock’s ‘Strangers in a Bus Queue’ anyone? greatest achievement on the tracks was surely The Lady Vanishes, a film that goes some way to explaining why cinema loves trains. It’s pretty obvious that the ‘train’ is a well-crafted set but somehow, the fakery (rear projection, stock footage and sound effects) never matters. It’s about a group of strangers, being transported through an artificial environment... Let’s stop there, before I find myself claiming cinematic trains are a metaphor for cinema itself. Besides, not every railway film is necessarily set onboard a train, as that beloved family favourite The Railway Children shows. Here’s an idea: what about a double bill about life changing experiences at provincial stations: Jirí Menzel’s Czech new wave classic Closely Observed Trains and the, er, Will Hay ‘classic’ Oh, Mr Porter! (which, to be fair, I quite like)? All the above named films are from the steam era, a more more romantic

time than the age of diesel-and-electric we find ourselves living in. But film has not abandoned trains: Ken Loach made The Navigators about railway workers (on your side, comrades); there’s Runaway Train, a great action film (co-written by Akira Kurosawa, fact fans) and Brad Anderson’s Transsiberian, a really solid thriller that continues the grand tradition of The Tall Target or The Narrow Margin. Such a subject deserves a book rather than the 550 words I have at my disposal (and I haven’t even mentioned what is possibly the very greatest train film of them all: Buster Keaton’s The General). Trains aren’t some trivial side-show; they’re an integral part of cinema. Unlike Burt Lancaster in drag.

Related Films The Railway Children Lionel Jeffries

UK | 1970 | OPTIM | 104 min | Cert U | # 61443 | £12.99

Our DVD Price: £7.99

Runaway Train

Andrei Konchalovsky USA | 1985 | ARROW | 104 min | 15 | # 53506 | £15.99

Our DVD Price: £7.99

Visit the Cheap Seats blog and join in on the discussion! blogs.moviemail-online.co.uk Page 38

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The MovieMail Website December Highlights • Exclusive online sales – Milos Foreman, Expanded Gift Guide, Much expanded Arthouse Triple Bill with 160 titles • New Trailers – Inception, Restrepo, Leaving, Toy Story 3, Heartbreaker, How to Train Your Dragon, It’s a Wonderful Life • Latest Filmcast – Graeme looks at Vapor Trail (Clark) a documentary from DocLisboa • Full-length reviews – White Material, North West Mounted Police, Toy Story 3. 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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Claire Denis’

White Material A searching, engrossing drama from one of world cinema’s most acclaimed directors – See page 6

White Material Claire Denis A powerful drama starring Isabelle Huppert and centred around a family of white French settlers in Africa, White Material finds a coffee plantation owner, his son and his wife (Huppert) caught up in the turmoil of a rapidly disintegrating political situation. Refusing to acknowledge the danger of the social unrest that has now reached boiling point, they join forces with a black rebel army hero. France / Cameroon | 2009 | ART-E | 100 min | subt | Cert 15 | # 63360 | RRP £15.99

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