When Terence Davies speaks on the extras on these DVDs, he’s so softly spoken it takes a while to notice when he’s discussing something traumatic or life-changing – and in that respect, his cinematic voice is the same. Memories play a big part of Davies’ work too – he doesn’t just try to recreate scenes from his childhood but feelings and moods, which means his films aren’t a succession of sequences, rather a flood of images and moments, some important, some of little consequence. As a result, they can seem unstructured and insubstantial, but the opposite is true. His famous Trilogy arrives on DVD, at long last, remastered as far as technology will allow, but the graininess is very much part of the aesthetic. The three shorts herein, representing almost two decades of work, examine three different ages of a man, from cold, impersonal schooldays, through muddled adulthood to lonely death. The Long Day Closes (pictured), also debuting on DVD, is Davies’ long-form poem dedicated to his troubled childhood. The main character, 11-year-old Bud (Leigh McCormack), finds respite from his life, which seems to alternate between boredom and victimisation, in music and film. In the hands of another director, such a premise would be a cue for mawkish sentimentality and triumphs against the odds. But with Davies, it just provides the baggage for Bud to carry into his adult life, weighing him down and messing him up. You can see why such realism isn’t popular in cinema, but it’s his honesty that makes Davies so essential.
Under The Bombs Drama about a mother looking for her son, shot guerrilla-style during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.
£18.99, Artificial Eye
27 Dresses Syrupy romcom starring Knocked Up’s Katherine Heigl as a fed-up perma-bridesmaid.
£19.99, Fox
Cannibal Holocaust Gory, faux-doc horror that influenced The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield.
£12.99, Vipco
Heroes: The Complete Series 2 Second series of the TV superhero series.
£34.50, Universal
Funny Games Michael Haneke tailors his home-invasion chiller for the US in this self-directed, shot-for-shot remake.
£17.99, Tartan
