Underground
This Palme d'Or winning film, directed by Emir Kusturica, uses the epic story of two friends to portray the history of Yugoslavia. The film follows two underground black market weapons manufacturers, Marko and Blacky, in Belgrade. Their story begins in WWII, selling weapons to the Communist resistance, and culminates when they re-emerge from the subterranean shelter during the Yugoslavian Civil War in the 1990s. The film is a testament to Kusturica's talent and won him his second Palme d'Or something which only seven directors have ever managed to achieve. One of the most iconic features of the film is its unique soundtrack by Goran Bregovi several songs from the album such as Mese cina and Kalasnjikov, became classic brass-band hits. This Blu-ray premier release of Kusturica's celebrated film is presented with the complete 5-hour TV version, Once Upon a Time There Was One Country and Aleksandar Manic's Shooting Days: Emir Kusturica Directs Underground.
Special Features:
- Newly remastered master
- Once Upon a Time There Was One Country (1995, Kusturica, 300 minutes): 6-part TV re-working of Underground
- Shooting Days: Emir Kusturica Directs Underground (1996, Aleksandar Manic, 73 mins): on-set documentary
- Other Extras TBC
- Illustrated booklet with new writing and full film credits
Bande à part
Gleefully putting into practice D W Griffith's maxim that all you need to make a film is a girl and a gun, Bande à part (The Outsiders) is Godard's playful tribute to the Hollywood pulp crime movies of the 1940s, executed with typically Gallic cool. Franz and Arthur, a couple of streetwise chancers, team up with the shy Odile (a beguiling performance from Anna Karina, Godard's wife and muse at the time) to plan a robbery. As the trio of misfits roam the cafes of suburban Paris, do a lightning tour of the Louvre, and play-act shoot-outs, the suspicion grows that this is one heist that is not going to go according to plan. As well as superb photography by Raoul Coutard and music by Michel Legrand, Bande à part features one of the most exhilarating dance sequences in film, which so impressed Quentin Tarantino that he paid homage to it with John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, and named his production company, Band Apart, after the film.
Shot in just 25 days, Bande à part was greeted with puzzlement and even distaste when first released. Over the years it has become one of Godard admirers' favourite films and is one that no French film collection should be without.
Special Features:
- Comprehensive interactive A-Z guide including a specially commissioned video interview with Anna Karina, Quentin Tarantino on the dance sequence, clips, stills, on-set footage and commentary by Dr Roland-Francois Lack, lecturer in the Department of French at University College London
- An interview with cinematographer Raoul Coutard
- Original theatrical trailer
- Fully illustrated booklet with full film credits
Farewell My Concubine
Critically acclaimed as one of the best films of the year, this seductive, award-winning triumph captivated moviegoers the world over. It's the compelling tale of two lifelong friends unexpectedly caught in a passionate love triangle with the woman who becomes between them Academy Award-nominated,
Farewell My Concubine (1993-Best Foreign Language Film) earned the Golden Globe as best foreign film in addition to claiming Best Picture honors at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Packed with vivid, provocative imagery throughout, this sensual story of love and betrayal is the hot and exotic must-see movie of the year.
Valentino
Controversial British director Ken Russell's film starring ballet-dancer-turned actor Rudolf Nureyev as Rudolf Valentino, the adored silent screen actor of the early Hollywood age. The film begins at his funeral in 1926 and, using flashbacks, backtracks to his glory-days when the former ballroom dancer used his good-looks and charm to mould a very successful career in the movies and become one of the first male screen idols.
Ken Russell: The Great Composers Box Set
Monitor and Omnibus: Elgar (1962)
The Debussy Film (1965)
Delius: Song of Summer (1968)
Ken Russell: The Great Passions Box Set
Always on Sunday (1965)
Isadora: the Biggest Dancer in the World (1966)
Dante's Inferno (1967)
Shooting Stars
Shooting Stars opens in a British movie studio in the 1920s, where a western and a slapstick comedy are being filmed back to back. It's a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse and a searing comment on the shallowness of the star system. Despite the director credit going to veteran filmmaker AV Bramble, this is demonstrably the original work of rising talent Anthony Asquith – his dynamic cinematographic style and professional approach to the design and lighting was a step change in the quality of British features. And there's a killer ending too! Restored from material held at the BFI National Archive by our specialist team. It completes the BFI's revival of Asquith's silent film work, following on from A Cottage on Dartmoor and Underground. The new BFI-commissioned score for a hand-picked 12-piece ensemble (from the Live Film Orchestra) is by composer, conductor, arranger and saxophonist John Altman. Among his notable film scores are Little Voice and Funny Bones. He produced all the period music for Titanic and was, appropriately, a recipient of the Anthony Asquith Award for Hear My Song. (Synopsis courtesy of BFI).
Culloden
The first of two films Peter Watkins made for the BBC. Culloden Moor, 16th April 1746: the last pitch battle on British soil. The Jacobite Scottish Highlanders, under the inept command of Bonnie Prince Charlie, are faced with the Duke of Cumberland's well-drilled and ruthless English army. Based on John Prebble's meticulous historical study, Watkins' groundbreaking reconstruction parallels the escalating "pacification" under way in Vietnam in the 1960s. Winner of the Society of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) BBC Award of Merit and the British Screenwriters' Award of Merit.
The War Game
Peter Watkins' controversial and harrowing depiction of the effects of a nuclear attack on England hit the headlines when it was banned on the grounds of being too graphic and horrifying. It single-handedly opened up the nuclear debate and went on to theatrical success on both sides of the Atlantic. In spite of winning an Oscar, two Society Of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards and a Special Prize at the Venice Film Festival, The War Game remained unshown on British television for over 20 years.