Thriller

Please note that we stock both DVDs imported from France (region 2), and local Australian releases (region 4). Region 2 DVDs require a multiregion DVD player to be viewed.

Region 4 DVDs are suitable for Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South America, Central America, Pacific Islands and Caribbean.

!

TOUCHEZ PAS AU GRISBI

!
Rated : M
Actors : Jean Gabin
Director : Jacques Becker
Distributor : Madman
Running time : 94 min
Region 4 DVD - in French with English subtitles
Release Year: 13/01/2010
Jacques Becker's tough-guy flick Touchez Pas au Grisbi or Hands Off the Loot is a thrilling, hard-boiled adventure starring some of France's biggest stars.

The great Jean Gabin resurrected his career with the role of Max, an ageing, world-weary gangster who, together with his best friend Riton, has just pulled off the heist of his life. Stealing 50 milllion francs worth of gold ingots, the pair are now set to retire with their sweethearts, Lola and Josy (a 25-year-old Jeanne Moreau, Jules et Jim), two much younger showgirls. But Max discovers that Josy has been cuckolding Riton with Angelo, the leader of a rival gang, and spilling all of their secrets to the competition. Soon, Max and Riton's plans are thrown into disarray, with Angelo and his cronies using all manner of dirty tricks to get their hands on the "loot".

With precise attention to detail, Becker creates a world of fast cars, hot dames and fat cats: a world in which you must hold your friends close and your enemies closer... Less «

READ MY LIPS

!
read_me
Rated : MA15+
Actors : Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos
Director : Jacques Audiard
Distributor : Madman
Running time : 115 min
Region 4 DVD - in English with English subtitles
Release Year: 2008
Carla Bhem has worked as a secretary for a property development company for a long time. Her job, basically, is everything: from handling files and answering the phone to drafting estimates and dealing with suppliers. First to arrive in the morning, last out at night...And her reward? Be paid like a serf, treated like mud and ordered around like a dog.Carla has had enough. She thinks she deserves better. Only trouble is, in a male-dominated society, what hope is there for a 35-year-old woman with a so-so physique and a hearing aid in both ears? The solution's name is Paul Angeli, the new trainee she manages to have hired.Paul is 25 years old and completely unskilled in property development - in fact, he's clueless. But he makes up for it in other ways: he's a thief, fresh out of jail, and good-looking. As the saying goes, 'It takes two to tango.'She teaches him good manners and he teaches her bad ones.The first results are instantly encouraging......

DEMONLOVER

!
Rated: R18+
Director: Olivier Assayas
Actors: Connie Nielsen, Charles Berling, Chloe Sevigny
Distributor: Madman
Genre: Drama / Sci-fi / Fantasy
Release Year: 2006
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
A breathtaking vision of our spectacle-driven global society

DEMONLOVER is Olivier Assayas' breathtaking vision of our spectacle-driven modern global society. On the surface, the film follows Diane (Connie Nielsen) who works for VolfGroup, a hugely powerful conglomerate that is negotiating the acquisition of TokyoAnime, whose revolutionary pornographic 3-D manga is set to annihilate the competition in an extraordinarily lucrative market.

Two companies are battling for exclusive rights to Volf's new images on the Web: Magnatronics and Demonlover. Magnatronics has recruited Diane to torpedo Demonlover from within and she finds a connection with the latter company and an interactive torture Web site known as "The Hellfire Club." However, Diane is soon challenged every step of the way by her amoral colleague (Charles Berling), an antagonistic and mysterious assistant (Chloë Sevigny) and an outspoken, pot-smoking American executive (Gina Gershon).

Brilliantly shot by Denis Lenoir (who previously collaborated with Assayas on films such as "Late August, Early September" and" Cold Water"), the film captures a culture spiraling out of control in which reality is posited as a video game and where every twist escalates the film to a new level.

TELL NO ONE

!
Rated: MA15+
Directors: Guillaume Canet
Actors: Francois Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze, André Dussollier, Kristin Scott Thomas, François Berléand, Nathalie Baye, Jean Rochefort, Guillaume Canet
Distributor: Madman
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Release Year: 2006
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles

Pediatric Alex Beck (Francois Cluzet), still devastated by the savage murder of his wife Margot (Marie-Josee Croze) in the early days of their marriage eight years ago, receives an anonymous email.

When he clicks on the link he sees a woman's face standing in a crowd and being filmed in real time - Margot's face. Is she still alive? And why does she instruct him to 'tell no one'?

Click More Details to see what special features are available on this DVD.

THEM

!
them
Rated: MA15+
Directors: David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Actors: Olivia Bonamy, Micheal Cohen
Distributor: Madman
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Release Year: 2006
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Based on real events
Clémentine teaches at the French Lycée in Bucharest. Lucas is a novelist. The young couple lives happily in a large house tucked away in the middle of a forest. But tonight, their lives will be turned upside down. They don’t know it yet but they’re being spied upon, they’re being surrounded. When night falls, Clémentine and Lucas will come up against THEM. They are there, they are everywhere, they are even in their home…Who are they? What do they want? The answers will take them to the very limits of fear itself.

FEAR(S) OF THE DARK

!
Rated: MA15+
Directors: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzon Mattoti, Richard McGuire
Distributor: Madman
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Release Year: 2007
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
FEAR(S) OF THE DARK is a unique collection of fearful tales by the world's most cutting-edge, acclaimed graphic artists. Their intertwined stories make up an unprecedented epic where phobias, disgust and nightmares come to life and reveal fear at its most naked and intense.
The concept is simple:six of the world's best graphic artists (Blutch, Charles Burns, Peirre di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire and Marie Caillou) were asked to create a black and white short film based on their own personal nightmares.
The resulting monochromatic quilt shows a vast range of styles and tones. From the comedic, the bloody, the experimental and the downright creepy, all of the films are incredibly imaginative and effective in their own way.
More on the individual films when you click More Details !

ISTAND ALONE

!
istand_alone
Rated : R18+
Actors : Philippe Nahon, Frankye Pain
Director : Gaspar Noe's
Distributeur : Accent Film Entertainment
Realese year : 2004
Region4 DVD - in French with English subtitles

My life today is very simple, it's a losers life. The story of an ordinary man. Only today I am starting my life over. Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Today I reset the meter at zero.”

France 1980. Returning to Paris with his life in tatters, a horse meat butcher wanders the unforgiving streets in a hopeless search for work. Consumed by anger, he rages bitterly against himself, his family and the bleak world around him. Only his gun and three bullets offer him a chance at revenge.

Winner of the critic's prize at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, SEUL CONTRE TOUS is the powerful and stylish debut feature from the most commanding new voice in French cinema

MR73

!
Rated: MA15+
Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Olivia Bonamy
Director: Olivier Marchal
Distributor: Madman
Genre: Mystery, Crime / Thriller
Release Year: 2010
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Inspired by the real-life experiences of writer/director—and former police officer—Olivier Marchal, MR 73 stars Daniel Auteuil as Louis Schneider, a renegade cop teetering on the edge.

Jaded, alcoholic, aggrieved and discredited, Detective Schneider is all but dumped from the police force after drunkenly hijacking a bus. Removed from his investigation and assigned to bureaucratic work, Schneider is left with ample time to reflect upon the accident that killed his daughter.

Schneider's lonely, troubled life is given new meaning when he meets Justine, the sole survivor of a massacre in which her entire family was killed. With the killer, Charles Subra, now up for parole, the authorities are convinced that Subra has mended the errors of his ways, but Justine knows that he is after her next. With no-one left to turn to, Justine looks to Schneider for protection—and Schneider sees an opportunity for redemption.

36 QUAI DES ORFEVRES

!
Rated: MA15+
Actors: Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, André Dussollier, Valeria Golino
Director: Olivier Marchal
Distributor: Madman
Genre: Mystery, Crime / Thriller
Release Year: 2004
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
A series of armed robberies—seven armoured cars in 18 months—has left nine guards dead and €2million stolen. There are only two men who can stop this violent gang: head of the Search and Action Squad, Leo Vrinks (Daniel Auteuil) and the head of the Anti-Crime Unit, Denis Klein (Gérard Depardieu). Their chief, Robert Mancini (André Dussollier), lays down a challenge to the two men: whichever man captures the gang will replace him as the head of the Criminal Investigations Department.
The race begins for the two men—once friends, now bitter rivals. They have different methods and different teams—but both share a love for the same woman, Vrinks' wife, Camille Vrinks (Valeria Golino).

SAINT ANGE

!
saint_ange
Acteurs : Virginie Ledoyen, Lou Doillon
Réalisateur : Pascal Laugier
Studio : TF1 Video
in French with no subtitles
Interdit aux moins de 12 ans
Anna est chargée de nettoyer Saint Ange, un orphelinat désaffecté. Petit à petit, elle entend des pas, des rires, des voix. Elle en est convaincue : quelque part dans la maison, il y a des enfants...

ANGEL-A

!
angel-a
Rated: M15+
Actors: Jamel Debbouze, Rie Rasmussen
Director: Luc Besson
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Release Year: 2006
Running Time: 90 minutes
Region 4 DVD - In French with English subtitles

Down on his luck, and up to his neck in debt, André (Amélie's Jamel Debbouze) decides it's easier to end it all than repay his loan-sharks. As he is about to launch himself from the Pont Neuf, he notices a fellow suicide-a gorgeous, statuesque blonde. Leaping into the Seine, André inadvertently gets himself a champion intent on cleaning up his life, in return for saving hers. With only 24 hours to spare, the mysterious Angela leads André on a mission to pay back his debtors, a mission that will change his life forever.

A luscious black-and-white postcard of Paris, ANGEL-A is both a supernatural love story and a delightful fairytale of redemption.

A PROPHET

!
a_prophet
Rated: MA15+
Actors:Tahar Rahim,Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Hichem Yacoubi, Reda Kateb, Jean-Philippe Ricci, Gilles Cohen, Antoine Basler, Leila Bekhti, Pierre Leccia, Foued Nassah, Jean-Emmanuel Pagni
Director: Jacques Audiard
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Release Year: 2010
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Academy Award Nominated, A PROPHET (2009, Best Foreign Language Film) details the gritty prison career of a nineteen-year-old Malik (Tahar Rahim, 2009 European Film Award Winner for Best Actor). Arriving at the jail, he is cornered by the leader of the ruling Corsican gang (Niels Arestrup, 2010 Cesar Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor) and forced to carry out a number of dangerous missions including drug trafficking and brutal hits. Over time Malik is able to earn the gang leader's confidence and rise up the prison ranks, all while secretly devising his own plans.

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF MICHAEL HANNEKE

!
hanneke
ON SPECIAL ORDER ONLY!
Rated: R18+
Director: Michael Hanneke
Distributor: Madman
Release Year: 2007
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles

8 films by acclaimed director Michael Hanneke: THE SEVENTH CONTINENT, BENNY'S VIDEO, 71 FRAGMENTS OF A CHRONOLOGY OF CHANCE, FUNNY GAMES, CODE UNKNOWN, THE PIANO TEACHER, TIME OF THE WOLF and HIDDEN.

Click on More Details to view special features.

BEST FRENCH CRIME FLICKS

!
Rated: R18+
Director: Jose Giovanni, Georges Lautner, Alain Corneau
Distributor: Madman
Release Year: 2009
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Alain Delon is THE GYPSY, Jean-Paul Belmondo is THE PROFESSIONAL, and Yves Montand, Catherine Deneuve & Gérard Depardieu in CHOICE OF ARMS.
Before Tarantino and Richie started making their mark on the genre, crime films were ruled by the French. Uniting several of France's most powerful acting talents - Delon, Belmondo, Depardieu and Deneuve - this collection of three rough and tough crime dramas is a sure-shooting thrill-ride through the dark underbelly of Gallic society...

THE PROFESSIONAL
French secret agent Joss Baumont (Belmondo) is sent to Africa to assassinate president Njala. However, at the last moment the political situation changes and the French secret service turns Baumont in to the African authorities. After a long imprisonment, Baumont stages a daring escape and returns to France, deliberately informing his former office of his presence, while swearing to carry out the assassination for which he was imprisoned for so long...

THE GYPSY
Hugo Sémart (Delon), infamously nicknamed "the Gypsy", escapes from prison to bring justice to his wife's murderer, Yan Kug. But to avoid capture, Hugo and Yan?both outlaws and sworn enemies?are forced to cooperate. The two must set aside their differences in order to survive.

CHOICE OF ARMS
Noël (the legendary Yves Montand) is a crook who has lived a lifetime on the edges of society. Now feeling his age, Noël has gone straight and wants only a peaceful life with his wife Nicole (Deneuve), but in a moment of compassion he agrees to take in Mickey (Depardieu), a criminal on the run. But when the skittish Mickey's trust in Noël is put to the test, a dangerous game begins...

SUBWAY

!
subway
Rated: M
Actors: Isabelle Adjani, Christophe Lambert, Richard Bohringer
Director: Luc Besson
Distributor: Madman
Release Year: 2010
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Forging ahead with his unique and visually creative style, director Luc Besson ( La Femme Nikita , Leon: The Professional ) breaks new ground in the stylish urban odyssey, Subway .

Fred (Christopher Lambert, Highlander ) is a cavalier safe-blower whose plan goes pear-shaped after he steals some incriminating documents from the house of a wealthy businessman. On the run from the businessman's henchmen, Fred seeks refuge in the Paris Métro, where he meets the rag-tag bunch of renegades and musicians who inhabit this underworld of metal and steam. But when Héléna ( Queen Margot 's Isabelle Adjani)—the businessman's wife whom Fred had been blackmailing—follows him down into the subway, the two find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other. As Fred begins to adjust to his subterranean life on the run, he becomes determined to win the beautiful Héléna for good.

LA FEMME NIKITA

!
la_femme_nikita
Special Price !

Rated: M15+
Actors: Jeanne Moreau, Jean Reno, Jean Hughes Anglade, Tcheky Karyo
Director: Luc Besson
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Release Year: 1990
Running Time: 117 minutes
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles

After shooting a cop in a robbery gone wrong, sociopathic waif Nikita is sentenced to death. But her grim fate is reversed when her execution is staged and she is taken in by the French government. Given martial arts, weapon and etiquette training, Nikita is soon transformed into a sexy but deadly assassin, forced to repay the government for her wrongdoings. After completing three years of training, Nikita must return to her ordinary life until the government requires her assistance. It is then that she meets the kind-hearted Marco and, after falling in love, she finds it impossible to reconcile her new-found feelings with her deadly profession. Representing a new age for the French cinema, Besson's classic action-drama blended a stylish aesthetic with thoughtful meditations on the nature of governmental corruption.

Special features: Making Of and production footage, Tcheky Karyo on Luc Besson, The sound of Nikita, Theatrical trailers.

LEON - THE PROFESSIONAL

!
leon
Rated: M15+
Actors: Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, Gary Oldman
Director: Luc Besson
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Release Year: 1994
Running Time: 133 minutes
Region 4 DVD - In English, with English subtitles
Jean Reno (Da Vinci Code, Ronin) is Leon, a deadly and elusive killer. He lives a routine life, alone in New York with just his pot-plant for company?until the day his twelve year-old neighbour Mathilde (Star Wars? Nathalie Portman in her screen debut) rings his doorbell in desperation. Mathilde has just narrowly escaped being murdered along with her parents and baby brother by a ruthless and corrupt cop Stansfield (Gary Oldman, The Fifth Element, The Dark Night) and his colleagues. Leon reluctantly takes Mathilde under his wing, and the two go on the run. But Mathilde wants revenge, and as she soon discovers, Leon can teach her how to exact it?Leon: The Professional is a thrilling, bullet-riddled masterpiece from the director of The Big Blue, La Femme Nikita, and The Fifth Element, Luc Besson.

Special features: Extended director's cut, LEON: 10 Year retrospective, Jean Reno: the road to Leon, Natalie Portman: Starting Young, Theatrical trailer.

PUBLIC ENNEMY #1

!
publicennemy
Rated: M15+
Actors: Mathieu Amalric, Cecile de France, Gerard Depardieu, Olivier Gourmet, Ludivine Sagnierm Vincent Cassell
Director: Jean-François Richet
Distributor: Madman Entertainment
Release Year: 2008
Running Time: 246 minutes
Discs: 2
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles

A gripping thrill-ride of a film, Public Enemy # 1 tells the incredible and brutal true story of France?s most wanted man, Jacques Mesrine. Arch-fiend to some and folk hero to others, his criminal career spanned nearly two decades of brazen bank robberies, breathtaking prison breaks, and ingenious identity changes across Europe and North America. Mesrine?s life has been meticulously recreated on an epic scale, from his early days as a petty criminal to his daring kidnapping of French millionaire and his violent assassination by French special forces on a Parisian Street in 1979.

Vincent Cassel (Eastern Promises, Ocean's 12), one of France's most magnetic leading men, leads an all-star cast including Cécile de France, Gérard Depardieu, Olivier Gourmet, Ludivine Sagnier and Mathieu Amalric in a two-part gangster classic to rival the epics of Scorsese and Coppola.

Find out just why Jacques Mesrine was France's Public Enemy # 1. 

ROMAN DE GARE

!
roman_de_gare3
Rated: M15+
Actors: Fanny Ardant, Audrey Dana, Dominique Pinon
Director: Claude Lelouch
Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment
Release Year: 2007
Running Time: 103 minutes
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles
Director Claude Lelouch (A Man And A Woman) premièred Roman De Gare under a pseudonym, a fitting debut for a gripping psychological thriller rife with deception. Fanny Ardant (The Women Next Door) plays an author of glossy thrillers who has just released her first literary novel. Meanwhile, a distraught woman (Audrey Dana) has been dumped by her fiancé on the roadside, only to be picked up by a strange middle-aged man (Dominique Pinon), who also claims to be Ardant's long-term ghostwriter. No one, it seems, is who they say they are. Pinon might also be an escaped serial killer known as the Magician, or a Parisian schoolteacher who has abruptly deserted his family. While the audience is hunting for clues to Pinon's identity, Dana enlists him to pose as her estranged husband-to-be, adding yet another layer of deceit.

NEW FRENCH CINEMA - THRILLERS

!
LIMITED TIME ONLY SPECIAL OFFER
Rated: MA15+
Format: Triple DVD Video (PAL)
Genre: Movie-Thriller
Label: MADMAN
Release Date: 12/11/2008
Region 4 DVD - In French, with English subtitles

Three of France's most celebrated thrillers of recent years together in a single release! Contains the following films: 36 Quai Des Orfevres, The Page Turner and Tell No One.

36 QUAI DES ORFERVRES
Starring the inspired pairing of Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depedieu, 36 QUAI DES ORFERVRES is a tense thriller set in France's shady underworld, in which the police are just as morally dubious as the criminals they are trying to catch. Auteuil and Depardieu play rival cops - once friends, they are now bitter enemies who possess entirely opposing moral philosophies. When Commissioner Robert Manciniand (André Dussollier) retires, his job becomes available for whomsoever catches the criminals behind a series of violent armoured car robberies.

TELL NO ONE
Adapted from the best-selling novel by Harlan Coben, TELL NO ONE stars Francois Cluzet as Dr. Alexandre Beck, a celebrated pedeatrician who is still recovering from the brutal murder of his wife, Margot, eight years earlier - a crime for which he was the prime suspect. When two new bodies are discovered near where Margot's was found, her case is reopened, an occurrence which coincides with Alex receiving mysterious email videos which show that Margot is still alive...

THE PAGE TURNER