The White Countess - BLU-RAY

Merchant Ivory's swan song is a romance built like a memory, lit with the soft glare of Shanghai nights. Ralph Fiennes's blind entrepreneur and Natasha Richardson's world-wise countess create a sanctuary that the outside world steadily erodes, and James Ivory directs with the unhurried confidence of a master. With Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave, it's old-fashioned in the best sense-elegant, adult, and bittersweet.

Beautiful if naive young Claire (Lou de Laage) caught the eye of all at her late father's Alpine hotel, a situation that her wicked and threatened stepmother Maud (Isabelle Huppert) sought to lethally rectify. As Claire took shelter in a small village, the determined pursuit of seven suitors opened her up to sensual experience-until Maud showed up to finish the job. Anne Fontaine's frisky fairy tale pastiche co-stars Charles Berling, Damine Bonnard. 112 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack French; Subtitles English; theatrical trailers. In French with English subtitles.

Spying on his neighbors is Norm's (Maurice Godin) preferred method of coping with his persistent writer's block. That is, until he just happens to see rock singer Madelaine X (Margot Kidder) savagely murdered. Norm strikes up an unexpected relationship with a woman (Kate Nelligan) he meets at the memorial... but what goes on inside that hidden room in her rundown home? Offbeat Canadian drama from Patricia Rozema co-stars Sheila McCarthy, Barbara Gordon. 92 min. Widescreen; Soundtracks English, French; Subtitles English, French; audio commentary by Rozema; image gallery; interview; bonus short InchThis Might Be GoodInch (2000); theatrical trailers.