Pain relief
Kristin Scott Thomas warms to her role as former French jailbird
Kristin Scott Thomas has done very well in her career playing the respectable, upper-class British woman. You know the type: very proper, yet a bit standoffish. In “I’ve Loved You So Long” ($28.96 DVD, $39.95 Blu-Ray, Sony, available now), she loses the icy demeanor and turns inward and away from the world as Juliette, a woman who moves in with her younger sister after being in prison for 15 years.
This quiet French film features beautiful performances by Thomas, a haunted and frail former doctor living with a terrible secret, and Elsa Zylberstein as the estranged but loving sister who tries to help Juliette through her pain.
Thomas, who has spent much of her adult life living in France, fluently speaks French throughout the movie, which has English subtitles. If you don’t like to watch movies with subtitles, the DVD has a version of the movie with the voices dubbed in English, including Thomas dubbing her own voice. (But be warned: It still looks dubbed.)
TV on DVD
• Johnny Depp returns to the open seas with that funny little yellow guy, SpongeBob SquarePants. In “Sponge- Bob vs. The Big One” ($19.99, Paramount Home Video, available now), the multitalented actor lends his voice to Jack Kahuna Laguna, a surf guru who helps SpongeBob, Patrick and the gang return to Bikini Bottom after they’re swept away by a giant wave. The DVD has seven episodes in all, plus Plankton’s Special Sinister commentary and a music video.
• Here’s a chance to catch up with the AMC series “Breaking Bad” before the second season starts on Sunday. “Breaking Bad: The Complete First Season” ($29.95, Sony, available now) stars Emmy winner Bryan Cranston as a terminally ill chemistry teacher who becomes a crystal meth dealer to secure family’s finances.
The three-disc set has all seven episodes, plus featurettes, deleted scenes, commentaries and screen tests.
• If you’re upset by the news that the upcoming Season Five of “The Hills” will be its last, comfort yourself with “The Hills: The Complete Fourth Season” ($39.99, MTV/Paramount, available now). Along with 20 episodes starring Lauren Conrad and the gang, you’ll get deleted scenes, interviews, photo shoots and remixed versions of the “After Show.”
• “Wildfire: Season Three” ($29.98, Lionsgate, available now) is a four-disc set with 13 episodes of the popular ABC Family Channel series set on a horse ranch. Episode commentaries with cast and crew are included.
• Fans of volatile chef Gordon Ramsay and his “Hell’s Kitchen” show on Fox will want to check out the U. K. series that started it all. “Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” ($24.99, Acorn Media Group, available now) is a two-disc set with four episodes of the original Brit series and another four from “Kitchen Nightmares Revisited.” Production notes and a biography of Ramsay are included.
• Before Anthony Hopkins played a killer named Lecter and was knighted as a sir, he played the most famous hunchback of all. “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” ($14.94, Sony, available now) was a 1982 made-for- TV movie that starred Hopkins as Quasimodo, the hunchback who fell in love with the gypsy Esmeralda (Lesley-Anne Downe). Two other “sirs” — actors John Gielgud and Derek Jacobi — co-star in this adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel.
• Another classic novel adapted as a TV movie in the 1980s is also released on DVD. “John Steinbeck’s East of Eden” ($59.99, Acorn Media, available now) stars Jane Seymour, Timothy Bottoms and Karen Allen in this six-hour adaptation. The DVD has an interview with Seymour, along with cast filmographies and a Steinbeck biography.
Coming Tuesday
“Cadillac Records” (Sony), “Cracker: The Complete Collection” (Acorn Media), “Let the Right One In” (Magnolia), “Milk” (Focus), “Rachel Getting Married” (Sony), “Role Models” (Universal), “Synecdoche, New York” (Sony) and “Transporter 3” (Lionsgate).•
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