Shirley Valentine

Amazon.com

As movie midlife crises go, Shirley Valentine's is a doozy. A bored Northern England housewife, wondering what her life is about and how to navigate around her clueless husband, Shirley would be at her wits' end--except that she knows how to dream big. As played by the incomparable Pauline Collins (who created the role on Broadway, and won a Tony for it), Shirley embraces not only her own constricted life, but the dreams of the big, beautiful world beyond it.

Directed by Lewis Gilbert (Educating Rita), Shirley Valentine is an anthem to the freedom of the soul--with a generous dose of salt of the earth. As she assesses her life, Shirley's humor never fails her: "I think sex is like supermarkets, you know, overrated. Just a lot of pushing and shoving and you still come out with very little at the end." Yet Collins' Shirley gets as much out of defending her right to her dream (a sunny holiday in Greece) as she does realizing it, and that makes for much of the glow of the film. For while Shirley has a cinematic romance on her vacation (Tom Conti plays the dreamboat), the affair is more of a metaphor for what Shirley insists on having in her real daily life. Watch for Joanna Lumley in a delicious cameo, pre-Ab Fab. And embrace this Valentine, and share it with those you love, all year round. --A.T. Hurley

Stills from Shirley Valentine (click for larger image)

Product Description

In the role that won her Broadway's acclaimed Tony Award, Pauline Collins is the hilariously endearing Shirley Valentine, a wisecracking, completely unpredictable English housewife who proves it's never too late to recapture your dreams. Bored with her suburban life, Shirley takes a chance on adventure when a friend invites her on a vacation to Greece. Within no time she's back to her rebellious teenage roots, saying yes to a wild fling with a handsome rogue (Tom Conti) and the life she's always wanted.

Customer Reviews:

Inspiring and witty.......2007-09-14

Pauline Collins does a fantastic job of portraying this middle-aged, bored woman who finds a new life on a Greek island, away from the dreary and mundane existence of her home in England.
She becomes the person she had once been, but only after she leaves her present life behind. When she jumps into the ocean from the boat, it's the start of her transformation.
Sometimes I think I should do the same!

Absolutely wonderful movie.......2007-08-23

I saw this movie years ago and it is as wonderful as I remembered. It is not a "chick" movie. We all have regrets when we look at our lives in middle age. Shirley gets a chance to escape her boring life and reclaim her true fun-loving nature by living out one of her youthful dreams - a trip to Greece. Both Tom Conti and Pauline Collins are perfectly cast.

Shirley Valetine.......2007-08-23

Quite intertaining. Probably more of a 'Chick-Flik' then not, but I would still recommend it. Quite humorous.

Dean475

Reviewing Shirley.......2007-08-10

One of my all time favorites. From the opening song to the closing scene. If you're not inspired by this movie, you need to rewatch it.

Never a disappointment.......2007-08-07

Finally a DVD viewable in the USA. This movie is a favorite of mine, warm, funny, with heart. All positive comments about it are true. I don't have much to add, but it deserves the five-star rating, and more.

Average customer rating:

A classic
Greatest movie ever?
Independent Cinema's Forebear
Top ten favorites
Movie Buff

Harold and Maude
Starring: Harvey Brumfield , Eric Christmas , Bud Cort , Cyril Cusack , and Gordon Devol
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Black Comedy | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Cult Movies | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: 6305882592
Release Date: 2000-06-27

Amazon.com essential video

Black comedies don't come much blacker than this cult favorite from 1972, and they don't come much funnier, either. It seemed that director Hal Ashby was the perfect choice to mine a mother lode of eccentricity from the original script by Colin Higgins, about the unlikely romance between a death-obsessed 19-year-old named Harold (Bud Cort) and a life-loving 79-year-old widow named Maude (Ruth Gordon). They meet at a funeral, and Maude finds something oddly appealing about Harold, urging him to "reach out" and grab life by the lapels as opposed to dwelling morbidly on mortality. Harold grows fond of the old gal--she's a lot more fun than the girls his mother desperately matches him up with--and together they make Harold & Maude one of the sweetest and most unconventional love stories ever made. Much of the earlier humor arises from Harold's outrageous suicide fantasies, played out as a kind of twisted parlor game to mortify his mother, who's grown immune to her strange son's antics. Gradually, however, the film's clever humor shifts to a brighter outlook and finally arrives at a point where Harold is truly happy to be alive. Featuring soundtrack songs by Cat Stevens, this comedy certainly won't appeal to all tastes (it was a box-office flop when first released), but if you're on its quirky wavelength, it might just strike you as one of the funniest movies you've ever seen. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

A classic.......2007-09-10

Great movie with awesome soundtrack. No violence or nudity. My teenagers loved it too. Very Quirky.

Greatest movie ever?.......2007-09-08

I've loved this movie ever since I was first introduced to it in college 15 years ago. It's filled with very funny scenes, terrific acting, and the most PERFECT movie soundtrack. Buy it! Watch it until you have every line and musical note memorized!

Independent Cinema's Forebear.......2007-08-15

What can be said about Harold and Maude? Beautiful love story of two cosmic souls brought together by death. Hilarious black comedy with a heart of gold. I could think of more cliches but I digress.
Harold is a lonely lost young man, he stages suicides for his mother's benefit in a fruitless attempt for her attention. Upon attending a funeral he meets Maude, an elderly jovial woman so full of life she radiates happiness. Their friendship blossoms and Harold leans how to live instead of just existing. It is amazing how just one person could free him from his mental prison and realize that life is worth living.
Maude is really the muse of this film. Her philosophy is so clear and truthful that all the (explitive deleted) of the world just melts away and she is truly free. It is still is a very fun movie not heavy handed, just a pure delight.

Top ten favorites.......2007-07-21

From beginning to end, you will be blown away by this movie. Hilarious yet moving, creative and real, full of imagination. Excellent acting, directing and filming...Would rate it higher then 5 stars if possible.

Movie Buff.......2007-07-19

One of the funniest "off-beat" comedies I have seen. This will be a cult classic for years to come.

Average customer rating:

WAIT!
The African Queen
The African Queen
A wonderful Import~ Stop Bitching!
Things aren't always what they seem

The African Queen [IMPORT]
Starring: Theodore Bikel , Humphrey Bogart , Walter Gotell , Katharine Hepburn , and Richard Marner
Director: John Huston
Manufacturer: Castaway Nw UK
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000GJ2882
Release Date: 2006-10-31

Customer Reviews:

WAIT!.......2007-09-08

According to the Internet Movie Database, Paramount Home Video is slated torelease "The African Queen" in 2008.

Might as well wait for the real deal.

The African Queen.......2007-07-25

This movie is a total classic, and I saw it in the 1950's and now I have it for my own. The only thing, some might think it's a little slow in the the action, compared to our movies now a days, Humphery Bogart and Katharine Hepburn are both great Actors in there own wright, so if you are looking for a love story and adventure down a river, you have it all in this movie.

The African Queen.......2007-07-20

You can't get any better than Bogie and Hepburn. They are great together and this is a classic

A wonderful Import~ Stop Bitching!.......2007-06-23

Yes, there is not a US edition of The African Queen. So be happy with what we have got in this Asian import. The picture and sound are just fine. The DVD played perfectly in my player, and turing off the subtitles were as easy as reading the instructions on the menu.

So until we get the 2 disc special editon here in the US, order this import edition. It's a must and well worth the money.

Things aren't always what they seem.......2007-06-22

Be somewhat forgiving in criticizing movie releases. It is my understanding that the copyrights for "The African Queen" is privately held which may be why it has never been released on DVD in the USA,i.e., the copyright owner has not released their rights for reproduction. Just recently "Marie Antoinette" with Norma Shearer was put to DVD and that movie, although not on par with "The African Queen" is one of my favorites. Again, the copyright may have been privately held which precluded earlier adaptation to DVD.

Also, I agree with the reviewer regarding "Widescreen". The old movies will not come out in widescreen because that is not how they were filmed.

Average customer rating:

Simply hilarious
Fun movie to watch
Great Family Movie
Fantastic movie!
Doris Day, you still got it!!

With Six You Get Eggroll
Starring: Doris Day , Brian Keith , Pat Carroll , Barbara Hershey , and George Carlin
Director: Howard Morris
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Domestic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( W ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B0007TKHFW
Release Date: 2005-05-03

Amazon.com

After her long and wholesome run as America's Sweetheart, Doris Day quit movies with this well-scrubbed picture. With Six You Get Eggroll--oof, what a title--caught the wave of blended-family comedies, coming just after Yours, Mine and Ours and just before TV's The Brady Bunch. Doris has three sons, and new beau Brian Keith has an 18-year-old daughter (the still-baby-faced Barbara Hershey). It's family-friendly sitcom stuff, with both Day and Keith doing their comfortable, patented thing; when the two of them are onscreen together it's like watching a couple of old sweaters mate. This one is straight formula for fans only, although connoisseurs of camp will enjoy the whiff of Aquarius in the otherwise square proceedings (it was 1968, after all) when Doris goes to a nightclub where the Grass Roots are playing. There's also a hippie gang (featuring Jamie Farr and William Christopher, before M*A*S*H) with ponchos and love beads. The times they were a-changin', and kudos to Day for bowing out gracefully. --Robert Horton

Description

In WITH SIX YOU GET EGGROLL, Abby McClure, a widow with three sons, and Jake Iverson, a widower with a teen-age daughter, begin dating and eventually decide to get married. But they're not prepared for the hostile reactions from their children, who are not very excited about the new union between the two families.

Customer Reviews:

Simply hilarious.......2007-07-12

The team of Doris Day and Brian Keith is perfect in this film. It is a really funny movie. One that you can just put in and watch when you want to relax and have a good laugh.

Fun movie to watch.......2007-06-08

I grew up in the 60's and 70's and especially love to watch old movies and shows from back then. This movie is so fun to watch when you can't find anything on tv to watch in evenings! I especially dislike what's on tv now....reality shows. So the other night I enjoyed this movie all over again.

Great Family Movie.......2007-05-14

This is a great family movie. They don't make movies like this anymore. You can let your kids watch it without worrying about what might be in the movie that is inappropriate for children. This was one of my favorite movies to watch as a kid.

Fantastic movie!.......2007-05-13

This is simply a timeless classic - though many laughs with the hippie age of the late 60's and early 70's, a great movie with Doris Day, Brian Keith, Jackie Joseph, and other all-star talent. The frustrations of two widowers trying to blend a family, each with children of their own, is hilarious, as well as though-provoking. This is a great movie to have in your library to watch over and over again, as well as the book.

Doris Day, you still got it!!.......2007-04-11

What a delightful comedy!! For the time, it really told the story of blending families, and telling of realistic events that occur!!!
Loved the ending and how it came about, made me feel like my family wasn't the only one with these issues!! Highly recommend to all!!

Average customer rating:

Charly
An oldie but goodie DVD to add to your collection
Another example of "never see the movie soon after reading the book."
Awesome
How good it is can be purely subjective.

Charly
Starring: Claire Bloom , William Dwyer , Leon Janney , Barney Martin , and Skipper McNally
Director: Ralph Nelson
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B0002KPHWY
Release Date: 2005-03-08

Amazon.com

Adapted from Daniel Keyes's novel Flowers for Algernon, Charly must be viewed as a soap opera of and for its zeitgeist--the halcyon '60s, when "natural" was nirvana, the air hummed with the mantra "Everybody's beautiful," and all ills stemmed from institutional monoliths such as Science, Government, Education, Religion. Accordingly, Charly (Cliff Robertson) is a 30-year-old retardate whose doofus sweetness makes him superior to most able-minded folk, whether they're the bigoted dolts he sweeps floors for or the ambitious scientists who see him as the human equivalent of Algernon, a mouse they've surgically (but impermanently) smartened up. Naturally, post-op Charly, sporting a genius IQ, "sees things as they are." Trotted out as the neurosurgeons' poster boy, he stands up to the "learned" audience--shot as faceless, inhuman interrogators. He's every '60s flower child, berating his "elders" for blighting their brave new world.

The one gift Charly gets out of becoming Brainiac is sex. In a lengthy montage resembling a retro TV commercial, he and his special-ed teacher (Claire Bloom, madonna with eternal Mona Lisa smile) romp through an Edenic outdoors, their embraces hallowed by sunlight glinting through leaves, moonlight glinting on water, and sappy Ravi Shankar music. (Stylistic clichés also include embarrassing outbreaks of split screens and multiple small screens within the frame, notably when rebellious Charly turns biker.) Robertson's performance is well-meaning but hokey. Still, in the penultimate moments when Charly begins to slide back into retardation, the actor achieves a genuine tragic gravity, and he became a surprise Oscar winner for his pains. --Kathleen Murphy

Description

From the classic Daniel Keyes novel Flowers for Algernon comes this "moving" (Boxoffice) and unforgettable adaptation. Featuring an Academy AwardÂ(r)-winning* performance by Cliff Robertson and a "shrewd, talented" score (Variety) by Ravi Shankar, this timeless tearjerker is "definitely one to see" (Cue). When a mentally retarded man named Charly (Robertson) undergoes experimental brain surgery, he is miraculously freed from the prison of his own mind. As his IQ soars to genius proportions, Charly's eyes are opened to a world he's never truly seen. But when the effects of his operation inexplicably begin to fade, Charly must find a way to halt his regression before his own mind destroys his life, his newfound romance and the man he's become. *1968: Actor

Customer Reviews:

Charly.......2007-08-10

While the film is "outdated" in its photographic methods, the message about how we tend to deal with the mentally retarded still bears our attention. And of course Cliff is superb.

An oldie but goodie DVD to add to your collection.......2007-07-27

When I think of my favorite movie with Cliff Robertson...this is it.
Based on Flowers for Algernon.....this is the movie version. It lets us painfully see sometimes....how ignorance can be bliss and reality can rear it's ugly head. But at the same time there is alot of joy as you watch Charly growth in his learning process. I love this movie.

Another example of "never see the movie soon after reading the book.".......2007-07-18

Charly (Ralph Nelson, 1968)

Any list of Hollywood's greatest screenwriters would have to include Stirling Silliphant. Village of the Damned. Nightfall. In the Heat of the Night. Telefon. The Towering Inferno. But, like most screenwriters, every once in a while, he got it wrong. The Poseidon Adventure. The Swarm. Over the Top. Yes, Over the Top, the infamous Sylvester Stallone arm wrestling movie. That was him. Where Charly falls onto this line probably depends on how you feel about the novel.

Loosely based on Daniel Keyes' classic Flowers for Algernon, Charly is the story of Charlie Gordon, a mentally retarded man who undergoes an experimental brain operation that makes him smart, and the trials and tribulations that come from getting everything you wish for. I tried to look at Charly as being an entirely separate beast from the novel, but I'm not sure that's the way to go with this one. Whether I look at it in comparison or not, the movie still suffers.

Compared to the novel, the difference is that Charlie Gordon (Cliff Robertson, who won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance) himself is an emasculated character, a passive observer of events, where the novel's Charlie was active, a participant in things. Many of the novel's subplots that made Charlie into a man of action have been removed; he's no longer the inquisitive scientist who discovers the seeds of his own downfall, but someone who's asked to help stop that downfall after it's revealed to him. His parents are gone; the complex relationship he has with his teacher Alice (here played by The Haunting's Claire Bloom) is turned into a simple, if slightly confusing, love story. (Confusing because there's a fiance mentioned who pops up nowhere in the book; he disappears again as soon as it's convenient, getting no actual screen time.) I understand that even a slim novel has to be trimmed to fit into movie form, but other things were added that brought nothing of comparable (or measurable) value to the table. Which leads me to the other option.

Taken on its own, it's an intriguing beginning that goes horribly, horribly wrong about two-thirds of the way through, when it stops being a story about a guy in an interesting situation and becomes a one-dimensional piece of political screed barely worthy of existence. (I kept thinking about Slaughterhouse-Five during the awful Q&A scene.) It does improve again after that, but that scene, sitting in the conceptual center of the film with no anchor, and indeed no reason for being there (it's a pivotal scene in the novel, though it plays out in a much different manner), is claptrap of the most nauseating kind.

I know part of my reaction to the movie is my own fault. I usually stick to my rule about not seeing a film adaptation until at least a year after I read the associated book. That said, Flowers for Algernon was such an amazing book, I wanted to see the movie ASAP. Well, the saying "the bigger they are..." applies here, most definitely. It wouldn't be an awful film, without the inclusion of that one horribly offensive scene. That, however, drags the whole thing down. ** ½

Awesome.......2007-07-11

This is an 8th grade middle school reading material story and while the movie has a few variances, it helps the students visualize the injustices many handicapped people face daily.

How good it is can be purely subjective. .......2007-06-02

Unliike many reviewers, I saw this movie when first released before I read the book. Like many movies of its period this one has a distinct 60s flavor to it in many respects. Like movies from the 70s, many of the production qualities of this movie's time seem incredibly dated. But hindsight can put that kind of stamp on any time period (anyone ever watched an episode of "Miami Vice" in hindsight with a straight face?). So just when one saw "Charly" for the first time makes all the difference, as does which they did first- read the book or saw the movie. The impact it had on me when I first saw it was tremendous. I wanted to see it again but before that occurred I read the book. I probably enjoyed the book much more as a result. I agree that the two have dramatic differences, but that has always been the risk when adapting a movie from the book. Robertson gives a solid, award winnng performance that evokes pathos, though today it seems a bit over the top. The direction and camera work are reflective of the late 60s, which unwittingly seems to make this movie that much more of a time capsule, almost worth watching for that reason alone- almost! But that detracts from the film at hand. One could argue that if this movie was produced in a different decade it might still bear trademarks indigenousness to that time and place. When younger I demanded films that suited my taste buds of the age I was at that time. Since then, over the years I've watched lots of movies from different time periods that I either hadn't seen before, or now viewed differently. But generally that didn't take away from the appreciation originally instilled in me for a movie. I still find many scenes in this movie heartbreaking, particularly the sequence in which intelligent Charlie can't escape the vision of what inevitably awaits him once the experiment wears off. Just how that was accomplished by the film is irrelevant. Some movies demand remakes. Others are remade merely to add contemporary flavor in some shape or form and should never have been remade. In between those two there is a wide gap of grey, which is where I feel this movie falls. There are numerous films that don't find a contemporary audience due to the time it was released. I still know many who either haven't seen "Rosemary's Baby" or couldn't make it through it because they could taste the 60s while watching it. But that doesn't mean it wasn't a great film. Not to compare the two films directly, but it can be argued that "Charlie" suffers in the same manner. Though great movies withstand the test of time, to me, how much you enjoy "Charly" is purely subjective. How will good films from today look 20-30 years from now?

Average customer rating:

The Rainmaker
Late 50s, yes. A bit hokey, yes. Enjoyable? YES!
"Water! I recommend it"
Introducing Elvis Presley as Jim Currie
Classic Romance

The Rainmaker
Starring: Burt Lancaster , Katharine Hepburn , Wendell Corey , Lloyd Bridges , and Earl Holliman
Director: Joseph Anthony (II)
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B0009CTVGI
Release Date: 2005-07-12

Amazon.com

This 1950s classic is based on the N. Richard Nash play of the same name (and not to be confused with the John Grisham novel and subsequent film). It's drought time in the Southwest; things are so bad that when a con man (Burt Lancaster) comes to town promising he can make rain, a rancher takes him up on it. But the rancher's spinster daughter (Katharine Hepburn) is skeptical--until Lancaster makes lightning strike her heart, with the unexpected consequence of the rainmaker falling in love with her. Lancaster is charismatic and funny and finds his match in Hepburn (with Earl Holliman providing comic relief as her impulsive younger brother). Think Harold Hill and Marian the Librarian on a farm, minus the music (though Rainmaker later was made into the Broadway musical 110 in the Shade). --Marshall Fine

Description

In THE RAINMAKER, a lonely ranch girl blossoms into full womanhood under the spell of a wandering charlatan named Starbuck. Katharine Hepburn garnered an Oscar nomination as the "believably plain yet magnetically beautiful" tomboy rancher, with Burt Lancaster brilliantly cast in the role of the smooth-talking con man.

Customer Reviews:

The Rainmaker.......2007-07-27

I have always loved this movie and finally I can own it and watch it whenever I want. The CD I received is great.

Late 50s, yes. A bit hokey, yes. Enjoyable? YES!.......2007-07-01

The story is now a bit stale, but this film is more than the sum of its parts.
The exterior sets are transparently artificial, and Ms Hepburn played another variation on her patented spinster role (see also The African Queen, The Corn is Green, Rooster Cogburn, Summertime, etc). Her acting range is better exhibited in "The Lion in Winter" or "Bringing Up Baby." Burt Lancaster also played his charlatan/con man role on other occasions (see Elmer Gantry.)

The writing (adapted by the author from his play) was excellent; contrived in plot yes (and remarkably similar to "The Music Man" in story), but surprisingly moving, intelligent and even free-thinking for its time--here's a father who encourages his daughter to become a "fallen woman". The original play "The Rainmaker" was adapted into the lovely musical "110 in the Shade" which is currently (June 2007) being revived on Broadway with the fabulous Audra McDonald. The film has comedy of a sort, personal drama, and a scene with Ms Hepburn's Lizzie in which she predicts her old-maid future that brought tears to my eyes. THAT's where her acting shines through. The ending has an unconventional twist.

Unfortunately there are no special features on this DVD; I would love to know what the actors thought of this film.

"Water! I recommend it".......2007-02-03

Bill Starbuck (Burt Lancaster) is a charlatan selling multi-flavored hopes of fulfilled dreams. Take your pick: early-warning tornado devices or cumulous nimbus over drought stricken cattle. It requires more than animated gestures and wild stories to satisfy the matrimonial desires of aging Lizzie Curry (Katherine Hepburn). Their paths cross in the Southwest as THE RAINMAKER promises thunder to the Curry family of hopefuls and hopeless.

At 49 - just six years older than Lancaster, Hepburn appears old enough to be mother to her theatrical siblings - a mistaken assumption expressed by daffy brother Jim (Earl Holliman) when he remarks how wonderful it would be for her to conceive a child so he could have a little brother. Nevertheless, the vigorous passion of this Old Maid desiring change without changing well compliments the undesputed Star - buck. From the moment he enters a scene, Lancaster steals the show with prolific lines of what Hepburn shamelessly labels "bunk."

The smile that overcomes me when the film begins is frequently interrupted by tears of joy and thunderous outbursts of laughter. I love it when a DVD investment pays off this well. Put your faith in THE RAINMAKER.

Movie quote: "Rain is rain, brother. It comes from the sky. It's a wetness known as water - 'aqua pura.' Mammals drink it. Fish swim in it. Little boys wade in it. And the birds flap their wings and sing like sunrise. Water! I recommend it."

Introducing Elvis Presley as Jim Currie.......2007-01-31

This movie would have been a better start for Elvis than Love Me Tender. Elvis did a screen test playing a couple of scenes from The Rainmaker and even said in an interview that The Rainmaker would be his movie debut. A journalist who attended the screen test was very impressed with Elvis' acting, but alas... As for the actors who did play in the movie, they are all great. Lancaster's and Hepburne's acting is at times more suitable for a theatrical stage, but then the setting of the movie, especially the interior of the house does have that atmosphere. An unforgettable movie!

Classic Romance.......2006-12-02

I first saw this film when I was 10, and fell instantly in love with Burt Lancaster. His enthusiasm, amazing smile and sheer energy make this story a joy to watch. Katherine Hepburn always struck me as a little too old for the part, but she is so good that you can't imagine anyone else playing Lizzie. When I saw Burt Lancaster later in Elmer Gantry, I was stuck by the likeness to his character Starbuck in The Rainmaker; Starbuck is a sweeter, less manipulative charater than Gantry. The Rainmaker is set in a western town suffering from a drought; into the town comes Starbuck, a seller of hope in the form of a promise to make it rain. He meets Lizzie, an "old maid" who longs for a man to love her, and the promise of children and security this brings. This is a very sweet story; while I could not understand Lizzie's final choice when I was younger, now I can see what she wanted and why she made the decision she did. This is a charming film, and it is lovely to see it looking to clear and bright on DVD.

Average customer rating:

briefenc review
Brief (but excellent) Encounter
The Sigh of Midnight Trains in Empty Stations
Wonderful
An obscure treasure

Brief Encounter - Criterion Collection
Starring: Celia Johnson , Trevor Howard , Stanley Holloway , Joyce Carey , and Cyril Raymond
Director: David Lean
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

World War II | Military & War | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

Classics | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

International | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

All | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0780023420
Release Date: 2000-06-27

Amazon.com essential video

To many, Brief Encounter may seem like a relic of more proper times--or, specifically, more properly British times--when the pressures of marital decorum and fidelity were perhaps more keenly felt. In truth, David Lean's fourth film remains a timeless study of true love (or, rather, the promise of it), and the aching desire for intimate connection that is often subdued by the obligations of marriage. And so it is that ordinary Londoners Alec (Trevor Howard), a married doctor, and contented housewife Laura (Celia Johnson) meet by chance one day in a train station, when he volunteers to remove a fleck of ash from her eye (a romantic gesture that, perhaps, inspired Robert Towne's "flaw in the iris" scene in Chinatown).

It so happens that their schedules coincide at the train station every Thursday, and their casual attraction grows, through quiet conversation and longing expressions, into the desperate recognition of mutual love. From this point forward, Lean turns this utterly precise, 85-minute film into a bracing study of romantic suspense, leading inevitably, and with the paranoid, furtive glances of a spy thriller, to the moment when this brief encounter must be consummated or abandoned altogether. Decades later, the outcome of this affair--both agonizing and rapturous--is subtle and yet powerful enough to draw tears from the numbest of souls, and spark debate regarding the tragedy or virtue of the choices made. A truly universal film, with meticulously controlled emotions revealed through the flawless performances of Howard and Johnson, and an enduring masterpiece that continued Lean on his course to cinematic greatness. --Jeff Shannon

Description

From Noël Coward's play Still Life, legendary filmmaker David Lean deftly explores the thrill, pain, and tenderness of an illicit romance in the dour, gray Britain of 1945. From a chance meeting on a train platform, a middle-aged married doctor (Trevor Howard) and a suburban housewife (Celia Johnson) enter into a quietly passionate, ultimately doomed love affair, set to a swirling Rachmaninoff score. Criterion is proud to present Lean's award-winning masterpiece a beautifully restored digital transfer.

Customer Reviews:

briefenc review.......2007-07-14

After I got this DVD to play without stuttering it was amazingly bright and clear, especially for a 60 year old movie.

Brief (but excellent) Encounter.......2007-07-07

Entranced by this movie & its soundtrack when I first viewed it 15 years ago, it is a classic of superb acting - an excellent presentation of passion and love without the gratuitous sex of modern film. It will turn the viewer into a romantic, and most please the already-romantic. And, the DVD offers good insight to the wonderful Rachmaninoff score.

The Sigh of Midnight Trains in Empty Stations.......2007-05-06

This is my favorite British film of all time. Brilliant writing, fine acting, ecconomicaly concise production and inspired direction all combine to make a landmark movie and a defining moment in social history.

Celia Johnson is terrific! She is talented and beautiful. More than girlishly pretty, she has the deep resonant beauty of a full grown woman. Her eyes are huge and so expressive, as she copes with the guilt and sordidness of an extra-marital love. She narrates to move the story along in places. Her performance draws you in and holds you. A lesser actress could not have pulled it off so well.

Trevor Howard plays her illicit love. Their screen chemistry is subtly electric. Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey provide a light sub-plot, which compliments the main story.

The film was released in the Spring of 1945, just as World War 2 was ending in Europe. Whether on purpose or not, the film announced a return to peacetime morality. The characters fall in love, but their love remains unrequited. Love is allowed, but the heart is not allowed to rule the head. The film is set in an unspecified time of peace with no blackout, no bombsites, and with cakes and chocolate freely available. There is a 'forward to the past' kind of message.

Speak to an old Brit who was there, and you will find out that all sorts went on during the war when couples were separated, and there was horrific stress. A lot more than dancing went on up on Plymouth Hoe, when people did not know if their homes would be standing from one day to the next, and they barely had enough food to keep a cat alive.

In truth, food was rationed into the '50s in Britain, and I wonder if we have ever got over the effects of that war. The film portrays a British middle-class idyl that would never return. Even the British laugh at those accents now. Nobody talks like that anymore.

If you've never seen it, you are in for a rare treat. If you haven't seen it for a while, then it is well worth revisiting. My review title is a line from a Noel Coward song. I thought it fitted since he wrote the screenplay, and the main setting is a railway station.

Wonderful.......2007-04-27

What can you say about this movie? The story is an endless tail of love found and love lost. The movie is wonderful acting from the leads to all the secondary actors. No matter how many times I've seen this movie the kicker is ALWAYS the final sceen when you find the dolt of a husband is no dolt after all and the kleenex comes out every time. You just can't lose with this movie. It's the best.

An obscure treasure.......2007-04-19

A beautiful movie in all respects. Filmed in Great Britain in the 1940s, and therefore black and white. A thoughtful, reflective presentation, from the woman's perspective, of a relationship that developed over a period of a few weeks. Deeply tender.

Average customer rating:

sweet
Awkward, but sweet.
A realistic, fun film
wow....this is the way it happens!
late bloomers

Late Bloomers
Starring: Connie Nelson , Dee Hennigan , Gary Carter , Jonah Marsh , and Esteban Powell
Director: Julia Dyer
Manufacturer: Strand Releasing
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Gay & Lesbian | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( L ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B0000AZT3J
Release Date: 2003-10-01

Customer Reviews:

sweet.......2007-07-13

If you love romance then buy this film. It has great acting, the dialoge is funny and engaging. There's a certain geekyness about the story, but it holds it's own up against the ignorence of the towns folk. It has some really original scenes, great music, and the actors really work well with eachother. It is totally believeable and certainly brings the sunshine into your home.

Awkward, but sweet........2007-06-17

Not terrible, just too many problems for me to really fully enjoy. The basketball coach is a complete dork, and the housewife is overweight and frumpish, so no way can you ever feel like there is anything hot going on. The love scenes were awkward, un-sexy. And the naked basketball playing? Uhhh, no. What worked was the reality that this kind of thing happens (the falling in love between women thing), the feelings between the women, and their developing love is sweet. The ending was very unrealistic though. If you absolutely have nothing else to do one day, it's not an entire waste of time.

A realistic, fun film.......2007-05-07

I liked this film a lot and found myself smiling through most of it. The lead characters look like school teachers, not actors, the script handles their emerging attraction in a fresh way, warts and all, and the situations they find themselves in feel real. There is a scene where they face their colleagues which seems a bit contrived, but maybe that's how they do it in Canada! In any event, the scene brings out the issues attaching to gay teachers quite well. All in all, a really entertaining film, especially for gay women past the baby dyke stage.

wow....this is the way it happens!.......2004-09-28

Falling in love with a woman, for the first time in mid-life, as many of us have experienced, is an astonishing occurrence. LATE BLOOMERS shows this to be true by including large doses of engaging tenderness and realistic scenes of stark honesty. In this film there are no women wearing slinky dresses, seducing one another in a pseudo-romantic Hollywood setting. Instead, Late Bloomers portrays finding love, and finding it just around the corner, all as it often happens. Quite unexpectedly, the lovers discover one another, and find the closeness and romance previously missing from their past involvements. One of the women is married, so if you first fell in love with a woman when married with children; you will appreciate the character's struggles and those of her family. However, alls well that ends well and this is without a doubt what this film portrays. LATE BLOOMERS is believable, with fine acting and a great story line. The women who play the roles of the two lovers are perfect, uninhibited in their lovemaking; funny, tender, and even sometimes fearful; yet always finding a way to stay the course together. LATE BLOOMERS creates an entirely possible story and presents it by using, not only some drama, but also a great deal of humor. Buy this film. You will absolutely adore it.

late bloomers.......2003-09-25

Two high school employees end up with an unexpected romance with each other, after one of them suspects the other of having an affair with her husband. When there love affair is outed, their suburban lives are in turmoil. Another reminder of being different in a "staight" community.

Average customer rating:

"Media" and Antigone
One of the worst films ever!!
depends on what you want
a controversial release
O.K... Am I the only one who got it?

Devil in the Flesh
Starring: Maruschka Detmers , Federico Pitzalis , Anita Laurenzi , Alberto Di Stasio , and Riccardo De Torrebruna
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Manufacturer: NoShame Films
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

General | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000AA4F74
Release Date: 2005-08-30

Description

One of the most controversial Italians films of the 80s, DEVIL IN THE FLESH takes Raymond Radiguet's classic novel and updates it to modern times. Dealing with the legacy of Italy's "leaden years" and the aftermath of the social struggles headed by the extreme left wing revolutionary groups, DEVIL IN THE FLESH caused a critical uproar upon it's release due to its highly-charged political and sexually frank subject matter. Marushka Detmers (THE MAMBO KINGS) stars as Giulia, a young woman engaged to marry Giacomo, her fiancée who's sitting behind bars because of his political activity. Restless in her appetites and inner turmoil, she meets a young student named Andrea and a passionate affair quickly ensues. But when the day arrives in which she has to face whether she wants to share her life with Giacomo or not, Giulia takes a surprising decision…

Boldly directed by Marco Bellocchio (GOOD MORNING, NIGHT) and featuring superb cinematography by Giuseppe Lanci, DEVIL IN THE FLESH is a powerfully erotic film that deserves to be discovered and appreciated without preconceptions. With it's mixing of political and sexual issues, Bellocchio retains the strength and relevancy of the classic text and makes a strong contemporary statement in favour of absolute artistic and political freedom. As controversial as films get, DEVIL IN THE FLESH remains one of the most important Italian films of our time.

NoShame Films is proud to present DEVIL IN THE FLESH for the first time on DVD in its original widescreen aspect ratio, digitally re-mastered from the original negative, uncut and uncensored.

Customer Reviews:

"Media" and Antigone.......2007-03-10

Bellocchio refers to this as a mainly political movie, a description of the revolutionary movement in Italy, but that seems more metaphor than reality. Well, almost everything in the movie seems like metaphor. The revolutionaries, of whom we see and about whom we learn very little, might as well be mafiosi. Out with the old and in with the new.

Andrea's Papa, a psychoanalyst, seems to stand for the usual traditional bourgeois values -- morally upright, unperturbed, clean and tidy, thoroughly ritualized.

Giullia, the girlfriend of a revolutionary, seems to represent what can happen to someone who needs very badly a cause to support but is unable to muster up the kind of devotion such a commitment demands. (I'm guessing here.) Andrea, the adolescent boy, seems to be the only guy in the movie who is not in some unquiet way "upatz." He's respectful of his father but disobedient too. He loves Giullia, or so we assume, although he's not really old enough to have learned how to manage his reflexes optimally, but he leaves her in order to show up at school and complete his final exams. His course between these contradictory lifestyles could be described as "media." He's the man in between, who knows the meaning of gradualism, who can keep his cool while those about him are screaming.

Most of this is summed up during the oral part of his finals when he is asked to translate and comment on an excerpt from "Antigone," which contrasts the traditional authority of the gods with the notion of secularity and free will.

That brings us -- by no particular course that I'm aware of -- to Marushka Detmars. She brings to mind a New Yorker cartoon of a few years ago. Two hippos are neck-deep in the river, staring at a gazelle drinking from the bank, and one hippo says to the other, "I hate her." She's a good actress. (Let me get that out of the way.) But so is everyone else in the film. She carries with her, in her speech and manner, the rich glitter of outright lunacy. And it all comes from the actress too, not from directorial aid. Detmars isn't nuts the way Catherine DeNeuve was nuts in "Repulsion." The walls don't turn to rubber and grow hands. Instead, we see her animated -- sometimes TOO animated. And she gives us shocking jolts when her mood abruptly changes and becomes threatening the way a looming thunderstorm crackles with lightning.

A critic described her as sultry, but that's probably not the word he was searching for. She's compellingly beautiful with her fluffy brown hair, her wide white ready grin, her impulsive giggles. And her eyes are like the eyes in the paintings on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs. The sexy parts are pretty erotic, not so much because one of them is explicit, but because we've gotten to know the characters involved. (It's more interesting to spy on the honeymoon couple next door than go to a skin flick.) Actually there isn't THAT much sex. There is only one scene of simulated intercourse but the director lets it play out in what seems to be real time. At least real time for an eighteen-year-old boy.

The young man who plays Andrea is fine too, which is a necessary thing, because the film depends almost entirely on him and Giullia. They have to carry it and they do. If it were not for their performances, I'm not sure this would be as interesting or as admirable flick as it is. It could easily have been turned into a rather slow, boring romance.

Worth having.

One of the worst films ever!!.......2006-07-10

I bought this DVD hoping that it will be a good one but it turned out to be awful and trashy. There is no story or plot to it, so I ended up throwing it away. I really regret buying it.
If you're into sex, then this film is for you but let me tell you this, it is boring like hell.

depends on what you want.......2006-07-06

Each scene is one shot, and that shot goes on and on and on, sometimes staying with the same act or lack of action. This film is pretension personified, but that's okay. Many people can't tell the difference between pretension and art. The music too is full of squeaks and squawks. In case you didn't know, that means that the music too is high art.

There is no story. Boy and girl see each other, and without preliminaries hit the sack. We see boy & girl here, there, in the sack, here, there, in the sack, etc. Occasionally we get a shot of some of the other characters.

Because of the lack of dynamics, the film is not effective, either as drama or as eroticism. Ironically, "The Summer of '42" was much more erotic even without any nudity (which would have helped).

The vaulted sex scenes are three in number, chest and shoulders, and they last about three minutes each. The much-touted fellatio scene is actually surprisingly good, more convincing than the "love" scenes.

There are also a few brief full-frontal scenes of the star, who has a gorgeous body (hence, the two star rating).

Bottom line: the only reason to see this movie is the nudity and the sex. But there are many better movies for that. So, only if you need the pretentiousness in order to permit yourself to see a sex movie should you see this.

a controversial release.......2006-07-06

i liked this movie. it is a story of a girl who is very mischievious and full of fun. she is bored and gets into trouble. it has a scene of explicit sex and is not for children. i would reccomend it.

O.K... Am I the only one who got it?.......2006-06-16

This is a film about the power of erotic love. He's young and naive and doesn't care how hopeless and destructive his affair with this older woman might be. She's older and fully aware of the danger, but not totally at the helm of her own ship; given to bouts of melancholy and psychosis.

Check out the film's last scene: He's there being examined by his professors, and she's there watching him in a growing state of emotion. Watch the expressions on her face (God, what a performance!) and you'll see that she realizes just how much she'll lose by falling in love with this young man but, simulataneously, just how powerless she is to resist the passion, love, lust, self-destruction. I love this film.

Ali - Fear Eats the Soul - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
"The story of impossible love"
Two generations from Hitler
Touching Tale
Deeply moving and touching.

Ali - Fear Eats the Soul - Criterion Collection
Starring: Hark Bohm , Marquard Bohm , Rudolf Waldemar Brem , Anita Bucher , and Peter Gauhe
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

Drama | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

International | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

All | Criterion Collection | Stores | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000093NQY
Release Date: 2003-06-24

Amazon.com

Rainer Werner Fassbinder paid tribute to his mentor, Douglas Sirk, with this loose adaptation of All That Heaven Allows, the classic American soaper of a widow falling for younger man to the disapproval of family and friends. Fassbinder combines the Sirk melodrama with the story told in his own The American Soldier. An aging, lonely charwoman (sweet old Brigitte Mira) befriends a Moroccan guest worker (El Hedi ben Salem) at least 20 years her junior. Finding comfort and happiness in one another's company, they suddenly marry. Her kids are aghast, his friends appalled, and the neighborhood turns its back, so the two pull together for support. Their relationship ironically begins to unravel when the pressure of community prejudice eases and they must confront the gulf between them. Combining melodrama with social commentary, Fassbinder offers a sharp, incisive portrait of prejudice in modern Germany grounded in contemporary social conditions. Mira delivers a tender, vulnerable performance and Fassbinder molds Salem's stiffness into a distinctive character trait of a man ill at ease in German society. It's an assured and beautiful film, full of gliding camerawork and evocative images, and invested with intimacy and gentleness. Even Fassbinder's characteristically grim conclusion defies tragedy for a glimmer of hope, a welcome and affecting rarity in his career. --Sean Axmaker

Description

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, already the director of almost twenty films by the age of 29, paid homage to his cinematic hero, Douglas Sirk, with this updated version of Sirk's All That Heaven Allows. Lonely widow Emmi Kurowsky (Brigitte Mira) meets Arab worker Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) in a bar during a rainstorm. To their own surprise (and to the shock of family, colleagues, and drinking buddies) they fall in love. In Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Angst essen seele auf), Fassbinder expertly uses the emotional power of the melodrama to underscore the racial tensions threatening German culture.

Customer Reviews:

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.......2007-07-03

A scathing satire on romance, racism, and German-Arab relations, Fassbinder's "Ali" is a brilliant reminder that love can soothe only when it is sanctioned by a social community. Inspired by Douglas Sirk's 1955 "All That Heaven Allows," the film deals with human vulnerability and the alienating effects of isolation due to age, class, and one's skin color, glimpsing a tender but troubled relationship between two outcasts. Mira, one of Fassbinder's favorite actresses, is simply heartbreaking as Emmi, a 60-ish woman with a realistic outlook on sex and love. Achingly intimate and peppered with poignant humor, "Ali" is one of the writer-director's most soulful works.

"The story of impossible love".......2007-01-12

This powerful and gentle film tells the story of love and marriage of Emmi, a 60+ widowed German cleaning lady and Ali, a Moroccan immigrant mechanic who is more than 20 (I think close to 30) years her younger. Their affair and the decision to marry shocked everyone who knew Emmi: her grown children, her neighbors, coworkers (mostly, middle-aged widows as herself) and even the owner of a neighborhood grocery shop where she has been a loyal customer for years. The way clever and observant Fassbinder looks at their struggle to keep the relationship is deeply pessimistic - the couple could survive the