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Home › Drama › Period
Actors & Directors
  • Steven E. Miller
  • Seanna McKenna
  • Milan Cheylov
  • Leon Pownall
  • Gerard Parkes
  • Tod Fennell
Release date: 2004-11-30
Run time: 51 min.
Price: £13.90

Review Handel's Last Chance [1996] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Devine Entertainment:


Review Merchant Ivory CV0024 / Howards End [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Vanessa Redgrave
  • Helena Bonham Carter
  • Joseph Bennett
  • Anthony Hopkins
  • James Ivory
  • Humphrey Dixon
  • Emma Thompson
Release date: 2005-02-15
Run time: 142 min.
Creator: Ismail Merchant
Price: £13.37

Review Howards End [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Merchant Ivory CV0024:

Howards End is E M Forster's beautifully subtle story of the criss-crossing paths of the privileged and those they disdain-and of a remarkable pair of women who can see beyond class distinctions. Dramatic and tragic but also surprisingly funny, this James Ivory film focuses on a pair of unmarried sisters (Emma Thompson, who won an Oscar, and Helena Bonham Carter) who befriend a poor young clerk (Sam West) and, without meaning to, ruin his life. Meanwhile, Thompson also makes the acquaintance of a dying neighbour (Vanessa Redgrave), who leaves her a family home in her will-which her husband (Anthony Hopkins) destroys. But, ironically, he meets and falls in love with Thompson, even as their paths once more intersect with the increasingly miserable young clerk. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's beautifully economical script also won an Oscar. -Marshall Fine.

Review 20th Century Fox / Anna Karenina [1948] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Vivien Leigh
  • Ralph Richardson
  • Julien Duvivier
  • Kieron Moore
  • Mary Kerridge
  • Hugh Dempster
Release date: 2007-04-24
Run time: 139 min.
Creator: Guy Morgan
Price: £8.63

Review Anna Karenina [1948] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / 20th Century Fox:


Review Image Entertainment / Jack the Ripper [1979] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Herbert Fux
  • Andreas Mannkopff
  • Klaus Kinski
  • Lina Romay
  • Josephine Chaplin
  • Jesus Franco
Release date: 2003-01-28
Run time: 87 min.
Creator: Erwin C. Dietrich
Price: £5.00

Review Jack the Ripper [1979] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review Lolafilms Home Ent / El Embrujo de Shanghai [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Antonio Resines
  • Rosa María Sardà
  • Jorge Sanz
  • Ariadna Gil
  • Fernando Fernán Gómez
  • Fernando Trueba
Release date: 2005-06-21
Run time: 119 min.
Creator: Antoine Duhamel
Price: £9.11

Review El Embrujo de Shanghai [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Lolafilms Home Ent:


Review A&E Home Video / Tess of the d'Urbervilles [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Ian Sharp
  • Lesley Dunlop
  • Justine Waddell
  • Oliver Milburn
  • Jason Flemyng
  • John McEnery
Release date: 2003-03-25
Run time: 180 min.
Creator: Thomas Hardy
Price: £9.27

Review Tess of the d'Urbervilles [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / A&E Home Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Shogun (Box Set)
Actors & Directors
  • Frankie Sakai
  • Yôko Shimada
  • Jerry London
  • Alan Badel
  • Richard Chamberlain
  • Toshirô Mifune
Release date: 1994-01-17
Run time: 552 min.
Creator: Kerry Feltham
RRP: £24.99
Price: £5.75

Review Shogun (Box Set) / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Originally broadcast in 1980 as a 5-part, 12-hour mini-series, Shogun stood out from the pack of television events at the time with its boldness of action and calculated risks. Based on James Clavell's epic novel, Shogun stars Richard Chamberlain as John Blackthorne, a 17th-century English pilot commanding a Dutch ship that wrecks off the coast of Japan. Viewed suspiciously by local authorities, Blackthorne is at first in some danger of being executed. But with little hope of returning to Britain anytime soon, he begins to assimilate into the feudal society, befriending a powerful warlord (Toshiro Mifune) and wearing the robes of a samurai. Inevitably, Blackthorne begins to think of himself as Japanese, defending his hosts in battle, learning the language and falling in love with an interpreter (Yoko Shimada). At the same time, his presence there exacerbates a problem with would-be European colonialists gazing at Japan covetously. Directed by journeyman Jerry London, Shogun immediately caught on with its blend of romance, exoticism and compelling myth of an outsider's reinvention-a story that becomes sadder as it becomes clear that Blackthorne may never see his home again. The production deliberately pushed hard against various television taboos and audience expectations, including the extensive use of Japanese dialogue, startling violence, near nudity and profane behaviour. That all looks tamer now, of course, but Shogun is still a unique entry in the phenomenon of prestige miniseries from the late 1970s and early 80s. -Tom Keogh, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review Artificial Eye / The Horseman On The Roof [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Juliette Binoche
  • Jean Yanne
  • François Cluzet
  • Olivier Martinez
  • Pierre Arditi
  • Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Release date: 1996-06-03
Run time: 131 min.
Creator: Nina Companéez
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.44

Review The Horseman On The Roof [1996] / Artificial Eye:

Olivier Martinez (The Chambermaid) plays Angelo, an exceptionally gallant, Italian soldier-in-exile hiding out from his Austrian enemies in rural France, where a cholera epidemic is sweeping the countryside. Helped in a tough spot by a countess (Juliette Binoche), Angelo swears his unyielding protection to her as she searches for her missing husband. The nobler virtues hold sway as Martinez suppresses his own deepening love and desire for the lady, an admirable posture that has ironic consequences when the countess herself becomes deathly ill. Jean-Paul Rappeneau, maker of the ornamental but empty Cyrano de Bergerac, directs this adventure-romance to a nice pitch of vitality and high drama. The two leads in Horseman on the Roof establish a great chemistry (they became offscreen lovers and parents), like watching a pair of thoroughbreds running in the same race. -Tom Keogh.

Actors & Directors
  • Juan Diego Botto
  • Demián Bichir
  • Ana Ofelia Murguia
  • Luis De Icaza
  • Ana Torrent
Release date: 2006-12-19
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Carles Cases
Price: £12.95

Review Ave Maria [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / DistriMax Inc.:


Review Granada Media / Colour Blind [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Niamh Cusack
  • Dearbhla Molloy
  • Elspeth Charlton
  • Tony Armatrading
  • Alan Grint
  • James Larkin
Release date: 1999-01-04
Run time: 146 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £7.25

Review Colour Blind [1998] / Granada Media:


Review Image Entertainment / Once Upon a Time in China [1991] (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Biao Yuen
  • Rosamund Kwan
  • Jet Li
  • Hark Tsui
  • Steve Tartalia
  • Jacky Cheung
Release date: 1998-11-17
Run time: 134 min.
Creator: Pik-yin Tang
Price: £0.97

Review Once Upon a Time in China [1991] (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:

The first of a popular series (six in all) starring the charismatic and athletically adept Jet Li. Li plays legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hong, a late 19th-century southern Chinese healer and kung fu master. The story begins with Western powers (American, British and French) encroaching on the city of Canton. Wong is asked by the Black Flag army to safeguard the town by creating his own militia of kung fu experts. His assistants include the butcher "Porky" (Kent Cheng), a Chinese-American named Bucktooth So (Jacky Cheung) and his westernised "Auntie" Yee (Rosamund Kwan), a non-blood-related childhood friend for whom he holds a special affection. But the Westerners aren't the only problem in Canton. The ShaHo gang terrorises local businesses and has begun dealing with the Americans in exporting Chinese for slave labour and prostitution. A down-on-his-luck kung fu master named Iron Vest Yim (Yan Yee Kwan) has decided he needs to defeat Wong to open a school and Leung Fu (Jackie Chan contemporary Yuen Biao), a travelling opera troupe groupie, just keeps getting in the way. This epic martial-arts film showcases Li's amazing fighting and acrobatic skills and established Tsui Hark as a top-notch action film director. The final fight scene between Wong and Yim entails a dizzying orchestration of kicks and punches while teeter-tottering on ladders. [+]
The DVD features star bios, filmographies, trailers and clips from early Wong Fei Hong films that starred veteran actor Kwan Tak Hing. -Shannon Gee.

Review Warner Home Video / The Majestic [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Gerry Black
  • Frank Collison
  • Bruce Campbell
  • Jim Carrey
  • Earl Boen
Release date: 2002-06-18
Run time: 152 min.
Creator: Mark Isham
Price: £5.46

Review The Majestic [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:

Like Frank Darabont's other movies, The Majestic attempts, and sometimes achieves, the sheer decency of classic American movies. A cross between The Music Man and The Return of Martin Guerre, it is the film about McCarthyism that Frank Capra might have made if he had not drifted to the populist Right. An amnesiac screen-writer (Jim Carrey) is mistaken for a missing war-hero and becomes the force that reinvigorates a town distraught over its dead young men. The film is so caught up in a pastel-coloured elegiac celebration of small-town life that it at times loses pace altogether and not even Jim Carrey can quite pull it back up to its natural speed. On the other hand, his underplaying of the climactic confrontation with the House Un-American Affairs Committee-his career is at risk because he once followed a girlfriend to a political meeting-is admirable; we believe in his conversion from cynicism to heroism because he is even quieter than Jimmy Stewart in Mister Smith Goes to Washington mode. Martin Landau is a little too lovable as the grieving father who persuades Carrey of his identity, Laurie Holden not quite convincing as the woman for whom he falls. On the DVD: The Majestic on disc is presented in 1. 85:1 visual aspect ratio with crisp, clear visuals that sometimes make us gasp at the complex realism of the period details and has an attractive Dolby 5. 1 stereo acoustic. Extras include some deleted scenes, the trailer and an extended sequence from Sand Pirates of the Sahara, the witty B-movie pastiche that crops up at a couple of important moments in the plot. [+]
-Roz Kaveney.

Review Delta / The Hunchback of Notre Dame [1923]
Actors & Directors
  • Gladys Brockwell
  • John Cossar
  • Winifred Bryson
  • Nigel de Brulier
  • Lon Chaney
Release date: 2004-02-24
Run time: 96 min.
Creator: Tony Kornman
Price: £11.95

Review The Hunchback of Notre Dame [1923] / Delta:


Review MGM / Valmont [1991] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Annette Bening
  • Siân Phillips
  • Meg Tilly
  • Colin Firth
  • Fairuza Balk
  • Milos Forman
Release date: 2002-09-17
Run time: 137 min.
Creator: Jean-Claude Carrière
Price: £4.30

Review Valmont [1991] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review Warner Home Video / Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Alfred Molina
  • Sophie Marceau
  • Bernard Rose
  • James Fox
  • Sean Bean
  • Mia Kirshner
Release date: 1998-06-08
Run time: 104 min.
Creator: Leo Tolstoy
RRP: £5.99
Price: £19.99

Review Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina [1997] / Warner Home Video:


Review Tva Films / Century Hotel [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Colm Feore
  • Joel Bissonnette
  • Lindy Booth
  • David Hewlett
  • David Weaver
  • Albert Chung
Release date: 2007-10-25
Run time: 97 min.
Creator: John Buchan
Price: £18.95

Review Century Hotel [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Tva Films:


Review Universal Studios / The Pianist [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Frank Finlay
  • Roman Polanski
  • Katarzyna Figura
  • Maureen Lipman
  • Thomas Kretschmann
  • Adrien Brody
Release date: 2003-05-27
Run time: 150 min.
Creator: Wojciech Kilar
Price: £8.55

Review The Pianist [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Universal Studios:

Winner of the prestigious Golden Palm award at the 2002 Cannes film festival, The Pianist is the film that Roman Polanski was born to direct. A childhood survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, Polanski was uniquely suited to tell the story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jew and concert pianist (played by Adrien Brody) who witnessed the Nazi invasion of Warsaw, miraculously eluded the Nazi death camps, and survived throughout World War II by hiding among the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. Unlike any previous dramatization of the Nazi holocaust, The Pianist steadfastly maintains its protagonist's singular point of view, allowing Polanski to create an intimate odyssey on an epic wartime scale, drawing a direct parallel between Szpilman's tenacious, primitive existence and the wholesale destruction of the city he refuses to abandon. Uncompromising in its physical and emotional authenticity, The Pianist strikes an ultimate note of hope and soulful purity. As with Schindler's List, it's one of the greatest films ever made about humanity's darkest chapter. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Platinum Disc / Duel of Champions: Gladiator [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Terence Young
  • Ferdinando Baldi
  • Alan Ladd
  • Franca Bettoia
  • Jacqueline Derval
  • Franco Fabrizi
  • Robert Keith
Release date: 2001-06-26
Run time: 105 min.
Creator: Luciano Vincenzoni
Price: £2.83

Review Duel of Champions: Gladiator [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Platinum Disc:


Review Facets / Waiting for the Moon [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • Linda Hunt
  • Jill Godmilow
  • Bernadette Lafont
  • Jacques Boudet
  • Pierre-Alain Chapuis
  • Linda Bassett
Release date: 2006-04-25
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: Sandra Schulberg
Price: £12.12

Review Waiting for the Moon [1987] / Facets:


Review Paramount / Gallipoli [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Bill Kerr
  • Charles Lathalu Yunipingli
  • Mel Gibson
  • Mark Lee
  • Harold Hopkins
  • Peter Weir
Release date: 2005-12-13
Run time: 110 min.
Creator: Ernest Raymond
Price: £5.80

Review Gallipoli [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Paramount:

An outstanding drama, Gallipoli resonates with sadness long after you have seen it. Set during World War I, this brutally honest antiwar movie was cowritten by director Peter Weir. Mark Lee and a sinfully handsome Mel Gibson are young, idealistic best friends who put aside their hopes and dreams when they join the war effort. This character study follows them as they enlist and are sent to Gallipoli to fight the Turks. The first half of the film is devoted to their lives and their strong friendship. The second half details the doomed war efforts of the Aussies, who are no match for the powerful and aggressive Turkish army. Because the script pulls us into their lives and forces us to care for these young men, we are devastated by their fate. -Rochelle O'Gorman. Set against the 1950s Stalinist architecture of Moscow State University, Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygen in Moscow concert celebrated, in September 1997, the 850th anniversary of the founding of Moscow. Witnessed by over 3. [+]
5 million Russians and unspoiled by rain or fog, this remains one of Jarre's finest performances. The 60-minute video includes a dedication to Princess Diana, who had died the week before, a magnesium waterfall during "Oxygene 13", and a live link-up with the Mir space station crew. The highlight is "Oxygene 12", a brilliantly edited mix of projections, fireworks and an onstage film. Jarre's trademarks are all present: the laser harp, fireworks, projections, sky trackers and his own brand of electronic music. Also included is an hour-long, making-of documentary "Making the Steamroller Fly", which features interviews with Jarre and his "tribe" discussing the music and the concerts. For fans this is a chance to see footage of Jarre's earlier concerts in Paris, China, Houston and Lyon as well as insights into a 20-year history of electronic music and mega-concerts. -Colin Neal.

Models & Brands:
Handel's Last Chance [1996] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Howards End [1992] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Anna Karenina [1948] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Jack the Ripper [1979] (REGION 1) (NTSC), El Embrujo de Shanghai [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Tess of the d'Urbervilles [1998] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Shogun (Box Set), The Horseman On The Roof [1996], Ave Maria [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Colour Blind [1998], Once Upon a Time in China [1991] (NTSC), The Majestic [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Hunchback of Notre Dame [1923], Valmont [1991] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina [1997], Century Hotel [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Pianist [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Duel of Champions: Gladiator [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Waiting for the Moon [1987], Gallipoli [1981] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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