Holiday gifts on DVD and Blu-ray

Finding gifts for your favorite cinephile can be a headache given the wealth of films available on DVD and Blu-ray. Below is a list of some recommended titles.

Heimat / Heimat 2 / Heimat 3: Collected Set. We begin with one of the most fascinating, challenging and enjoyable releases in recent DVD history.

In 1984, German New Wave director Edgar Reitz stunned audiences with his 16-hour feature film, Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany, which aired in 11 parts on West German TV.

Epic in scope, this brilliant film - Reitz insists it's a feature film and not a TV show - covers 63 years of German history beginning in 1919.

The story is set in a a rural village named Schabbach, in the northwestern corner of Germany, not unlike Reitz' home town. (Heimat roughly means homeland in German.) A sweeping historical tale, Heimat also manages to be deeply intimate by focusing on the fortunes of one extended family, the Simons.

The massive undertaking featured 32 leading actors, 159 speaking parts and 3,683 extras.

In 1992 Reitz followed with the 13-episode, 25-hour sequel, Heimat II: A Chronicle of a Generation. This time, the filmmaker focuses on one member of the Simon family, Hermann Simon, as he leaves his hometown in 1960 to seek his fortune as an artist and musician in Munich. Longer in length, the film is even more detailed than its predecessor, covering only 10 years.

Reitz' massive undertaking comes to a close with the 11-hour Heimat, Vol. 3: A Chronicle of Endings and Beginnings, which picks up Hermann Simon's story with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and follows his life to the end of the Millennium.

The full, 53-hour film trilogy is available in the 17-disc, three-box set, Heimat / Heimat 2 / Heimat 3: Collected Set from Facets Multimedia. Each box contains a booklet with episode guides and critical essays. (www.facets.org/; $249.95; each volume also sold separately)

Avatar (Three-disc Extended Collector's Edition). Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang frolic in a new compendium of James Cameron's high-concept hit in a three-disc set from 20th Century Fox.

The beautifully-packaged box includes the film in three formats: the original theatrical release, the special edition re-release which hit theaters months later, and an extended cut with 16 additional minutes. Extras include a making-of documentary and 45 minutes of deleted scenes. (www.foxconnect.com; $34.98 DVD; Blu-ray $54.99)

The Elia Kazan Collection. Greek-American director Elia Kazan, who died in 2003 at the age of 94, was one of those rare filmmakers who seemed incapable of making a mediocre picture.

Martin Scorsese honors this master filmmaker with this 18-disc box set from 20th Century Fox which features 15 of Kazan's greatest films, including his 1945 feature debut, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; his 1947 film noir, Boomerang!; his now-classic collaborations with Marlon Brando, 1951's Tennessee Williams adaptation, A Streetcar Named Desire and 1954's On The Waterfront; not to mention Kazan's brilliant direction of James Dean in the 1955 melodrama, East of Eden.

The box set also includes A Letter to Elia, a feature-length documentary directed and narrated by Scorsese, and an illustrated hardback film guide. (www.foxconnect.com; $199.98)

Humphrey Bogart: The Essential Collection. With his rugged, if not ragged, looks and receding hairline, Humphrey Bogart was anything but a pretty boy. But Bogart has come to represent the ultimate on-screen American hero. This 13-disc set from Warner Home Video features 24 of Bogie's greatest movies, from his 1936 breakout film, Petrified Forest, to his signature work in the 1940s including Casablanca and The Big Sleep. Extras include commentaries on 14 films, a documentary, and a 48-page booklet. (www.warnerbros.com/ or www.wbshop.com/; $99.98)

The African Queen: Commemorative Box Set Humphrey Bogart's 1952 classic, not included in the Fox set, is available in a newly-restored edition from Paramount Home Entertainment.

John Huston's adaptation of the C.S. Forester WWI novel pits Bogie and Katharine Hepburn against the wilds of East Africa. The box set includes set of eight production photos and a copy of Hepburn's droll 1987 memoir, The Making of the African Queen: Or, How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind. (www.paramount.com/dvd; $25.99)

Bogart on Blu-ray Warner Home Video also has released Blu-ray versions of two Bogie classics, The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre from 1948. (www.warnerbros.com/ or www.wbshop.com/; $24.98 each)

America Lost and Found: The BBS Story Sure, they were responsible for creating the prefab TV band the Monkees, but film pioneers Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider, and Steve Blauner used their earnings to produce a series of phenomenal films between 1968 and 1972 directed by such visionaries as Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, Jack Nicholson, Peter Bogdanovich and Rafelson. The Criterion Collection's beautiful box set features seven BBS flicks - Head; Easy Rider; Five Easy Pieces; Drive, He Said; The Last Picture Show; The King of Marvin Gardens; and A Safe Place. (www.criterion.com/; $99.95 DVD, $124.95 Blu-ray)

Twentieth Century Fox 75th Anniversary Gift Set. Not sure what film your loved ones? Give them every film ever made.

Well, almost. This mega-set from Fox Home Entertainment features 75 of its films, from the 1940s classics The Grapes of Wrath and Laura to Vietnam-era antiwar masterpieces M*A*S*H and Patton through to1988's Working Girl and James Cameron's Avatar. (www.foxconnect.com/ or www.foxmovies.com/; $499.98)

Hitchcock on Blu-ray The master of suspense keeps getting better with these two new Blu-ray editions. Psycho (50th Anniversary Edition) from Universal features a wealth of extras including excerpts from Francois Truffaut's interviews with Hitchock, newsreel footage, storyboards and production photos. (www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/; $26.98)

North by Northwest (50th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Book) from Warner Home Video features the new documentary, The Master's Touch: Hitchcock's Signature Style and a feature-length career profile of star Cary Grant. (www.warnerbros.com/ or www.wbshop.com/; $34.99)

Two by Powell & Pressburger. Technicolor may be a Hollywood invention, but the process was never used to greater effect than by the Archers, as Britain's brilliant filmmaking duo of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger called themselves.

The Criterion Collection has released newly-restored editions of two of the team's greatest post-war pictures, 1947's moving, almost savage look at the struggle between culture and nature, Black Narcissus and the 1948 ballet fantasy, The Red Shoes. (www.criterion.com; $39.95 each on DVD or Blu-ray)

The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy New Line's nine-disc box set includes all three Lord of the Rings films on Blu-ray and in digital copy format. (www.newline.com/ or www.newline.com/newdvd.html; $99.98)

The Bridge on the River Kwai (Blu-ray). Sony Pictures has released a gift-box Blu-ray edition of David Lean's classic WWII actioner starring William Holden and Alec Guinness. The two-disc set includes a 35-page book with stories from the production and replicas of the original lobby cards. (www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/; $34.95)

Three Silent Classics By Josef Von Sternberg (Underworld / Last Command / Docks of New York). Best known for his later collaborations with Marlene Dietrich, the Viennese-born director explores the dark side of modern life in these films, taking on organized crime, the Russian Revolution and New York's working poor. This box set from the Criterion Collection includes two video essays, a 1968 Swedish television interview with von Sternberg and a 96-page booklet of essays. (www.criterion.com; $79.95)

The Complete Metropolis. Fritz Lang's 1927 expressionist masterpiece set the standard for all sci-fi films to follow. Kino International's edition incorporates newly-discovered footage, making this 148-minute release the most complete version of the film available. (www.kino.com/video/; $29.95 DVD; $39.95 Blu-ray)

Battleship Potemkin (Blu-ray). Sergei M. Eisenstein's much studied 1925 silent epic was made during the height of a creative revolution in the Soviet Union's film industry and is finally available in high-definition from Kino International. (www.kino.com/video/; $34.95)

Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times. The inimitable British-born film genius returns to his silent roots in this production from 1936. An indictment of the soul-crushing effect of industrialization, the film does contain sound elements, even a song. Criterion Collection's newly-restored edition features a new audio commentary by Chaplin biographer David Robinson, two visual essays, and three shorts by and about Chaplin. (www.criterion.com/; $29.95 DVD, $39.95 Blu-ray)

King Kong (Blu-ray Book). This classic beauty and the beast story from 1933 already has been remade twice. But nothing quite measures up to the original. Fay Wray never looked so radiant as in this restored Blu-ray edition from Warner Home Video which includes a feature commentary, two documentaries and a scrapbook of photos and production notes. (www.warnerbros.com/ or www.wbshop.com/; $34.99)

Apocalypse Now (Three-Disc Full Disclosure Edition) (Apocalypse Now / Apocalypse Now Redux / Hearts of Darkness) Francis Ford Coppola's epochal war saga, which sets Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness in the Vietnam War has been digitally remastered with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound in Lionsgate's three-disc Blu-ray box set. It includes the 1979 theatrical edition of the film, the extended Apocalypse Now Redux which was released in 2001 and the now-classic making-of documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse which was co-directed by Coppola's wife, Eleanor Coppola.

Extras include a 52-page excerpt of John Milius' screenplay, an illustrated 48-page memento booklet and two new video interviews with star Martin Sheen and screenwriter Milius. (www.lionsgateshop.com/; $59.99)

The Exorcist (Extended Director's Cut & Original Theatrical Edition). Warner Home Video's two-disc Blu-ray edition of William Friedkin's modern horror classic includes both the theatrical and extended versions of the film, a commentary track by Friedkin and a new, three-part making-of documentary. (www.warnerbros.com/ or www.wbshop.com/; $34.99)

Grindhouse (Two-Disc Collector's Edition Blu-ray). Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez' outrageous 2007 experiment in outrageous filmmaking is available in a nicely-packaged two-disc Blu-ray set from Vivendi Entertainment. The double bill of Planet Terror and Death Proof is complemented by a wealth of new extras, including feature commentaries and the droll mini-film, Robert Rodriguez' 10 Min Cooking School. (www.vivendient.com/; $39.95)

Two by Oshima. Japanese maverick Nagisa Oshima shocked audiences in 1976 with his cult masterpiece, In the Realm of the Senses, a subversive attack on the status quo which mixed politics and sexuality in a startling way. Criterion Collection has released a newly-restored high-defition edition of the film which features a new commentary track, deleted scenes and a booklet of critical essays. (www.criterion.com/; $39.95 DVD or Blu-ray)

Also from Criterion comes Oshima's even more outrageous 1978 ghost-story, Empire of Passion. (www.criterion.com/; $29.95 DVD format only)

House. The Criterion Collection also has released one of the most bizarre films ever to emerge from Japan, House.

The 1977 movie was planned as Japan's own version of the horror blockbuster, Jaws. But it bewildered critics who were hostile to its experimental, over-the-top approach. Yet, it went on to become a big hit.

Director Nobuhiko Obayashi mixes animation, dance and song, comedy and plenty of gore to tell the outrageous story of a teenage girl who takes a handfull of her friends to visit her aunt in the countryside. Trouble is, the aunt is dead, if very animated. Her house, on the other hand, is very much alive - and very hungry. (www.criterion.com/; $29.95 DVD; $39.95 Blu-ray)

The Larry Sanders Show: The Complete Series. It doesn't get funnier than stand-up comic Garry Shandling's postmodern, show-within-a-show sitcom, The Larry Sanders Show, which appeared from 1992 to 1998 on HBO. The show-business satire featured Shandling as a hyper-neurotic, vain, but endearing late-night talk show host. Rip Torn is brilliant as the show's sarcastic producer. Shout! Factory's box set includes all 89 episodes and a 60-page booklet. (www.shoutfactory.com/; $149.99)

Lost: The Complete Collection Ensnare your loved one with this mind-blowing, six-season-long TV puzzle starring Matthew Fox, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O'Quinn, Josh Holloway and Dominic Monaghan. This 38-disc box set comes complete with a Lost island replica, the Lost Senet game and a wealth of making-of documentaries and interviews. (abc.go.com/ or http://abctvstore.cafepress.com/; $229.99 DVD; $279.99 Blu-ray)

South Park: A Little Box of Butters Celebrate the holidays with the pint-sized subversive rascals who hail from America's weirdest little town. Comedy Central's two-disc character compilation box set features 13 fan favorite episodes featuring Leopold "Butters" Stotch. (http://shop.comedycentral.com/; $29.99)

Sex & the City: Complete Collection (Deluxe Edition). Watch all six seasons of Candace Bushnell's story about four fashion-obsessed single women who help each other cop in modern Manhattan played by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon. HBO Home Video's 20-disc box set features all 96 episodes of the cable show, both feature film adaptations, audio commentaries, deleted scenes and interviews. (http://store.hbo.com/; $249.98)

The Tudors: The Complete Series. Avarice, lust, gluttony, anger, envy and all the rest of the carnal sins are faithfully brought to life by a brilliant cast, which includes Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry Cavill, Anthony Brophy, James Frain and Sarah Bolger in Showtime's brilliant historical drama about the life, loves - and murders - of King Henry VIII. This 15-disc box set features all 38 episodes of the show plus a featurettes about the history, custumes, weapons and food featured in the series' four seasons. (http://store.sho.com/; $129.98.)

Space: 1999: The Complete Season One (Blu-ray). Martin Landau and Barbara Bain star in this ground-breaking sci-fi show from the mid-1970s from Thunderbirds creators Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. A&E Home Video's six-disc Blu-ray edition features 5.1 surround sound, audio commentaries and behind-the-scenes featurettes. (www.aetv.com/ or http://shop.AETV.com; $99.95)

The Twilight Zone: Season 2 (Blu-ray). Image Entertainment's impressive restored Blu-ray edition of the original sci-fi classic includes all 29 episodes of the second season plus 25 new audio commentaries. It also includes 15 radio dramas based on specific episodes featuring contemporary actors Daniel J. Travanti, Jim Caviezel, Jason Alexander, Ed Begley Jr. and others. Watch out for the third season which is due Feb. 15. (www.image-entertainment.com/; $99.98)

The Pacific. This six-disc box set from HBO Home Video features all 10 episodes of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' follow-up to their brilliant WWII mini-series, Band of Brothers. (http://store.hbo.com/ $79.98 DVD; $99.98 Blu-ray)

Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection. British actress Helen Mirren changed the rules of the TV detective genre with her indelible performance as Detective Jane Tennison in writer-producer Lynda La Plante's Prime Suspect, which premiered in 1991 and ran for seven seasons on Britain's ITV. Noted for its complex plotting, high production values, and incredible insight into human psychology, the series is collected in full in a nine-disc box set from Acorn Media. (www.acornmedia.com/; $124.99)

Foyle's War: Series 1-5 - From Dunkirk to VE-Day. Also from Acorn comes this 19-disc box set featuring 19 feature-length episodes of the remarkable WWII mystery which debuted in 2003. It features Michael Kitchen as a senior detective who polices England's southern coast during the war. But, Foyle's intelligence, persistence and integrity often get him into trouble with his superiors. (www.acornmedia.com/; $124.99)

Robin Hood: The Complete Series. Jonas Armstrong stars as a dashing Robin Hood whose rapier wit is as sharp as his sword in BBC TV's modern adaptation of the great fable which co-stars Richard Armitage, Lucy Griffiths, Keith Allen and Sam Troughton. BBC Warner's 15-disc box set includes all 39 episodes. (www.bbcamericashop.com/dvd/; $99.98)

Inspector Lewis: Series 3. He may be no match for his predecessor, Inspector Morse, when it comes to his knowledge of classical music, literature or art, but Inspector Robert Lewis (Kevin Whately) is equally-brilliant at fighting crime. The third season of the Masterpiece Mystery! series features five feature-length episodes. (www.shoppbs.org/cq; $39.99)

Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Movie Collection, Set 5. David Suchet reprises his role as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in three new feature-length mysteries, including a new production of Murder on the Orient Express. (www.acornmedia.com/;    $49.99)

Cadfael: Complete Collection. The great British actor Derek Jacobi excells as a 12th Century British soldier-turned-monk in this lush, beautifully-shot mystery series which aired on PBS's Mystery! in the late 1990s. Cadfael's knowledge of the world outside the monastery walls alarms his fellow contemplatives, but it gives him an edge when it comes to solving murder. Acorn Media's 13-disc set features 13 feature-length mysteries plus select audio commentary by Jacobi. (www.acornmedia.com/; $99.99)

Rumpole of Bailey: Complete Series Megaset. Leo McKern stars as the perennially-dishevelled English barrister in this beloved British dramedy which aired on PBS from 1978 to 1992. A&E's 14-disc box set features all 42 episodes from the show's seven seasons. (www.aetv.com/ or http://shop.AETV.com; $99.95)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's great detective is amply represented this year.

Sherlock: Season One. BBC TV's 2009 series is arguably one of the best adaptations of Holmes on the screen since Jeremy Brett took up the pipe 20 years ago.

It features brilliant turns by Benedict Cumberbatch as Holmes and Martin Freeman and the inimitable Dr. John Watson. This two-disc set from BBC Warner includes three feature-length mysteries. (www.bbcamericashop.com/dvd/; $34.98 DVD; $39.98 Blu-ray)

Sherlock Holmes: 1964-1965. BBC Warner has restored this short-lived Holmes series with Douglas Wilmer in the title role. Nigel Stock co-stars as Watson.

This two-disc set includes 13 one-hour episodes, including a very funny adaptation of "The Red-Headed League." (www.bbcamericashop.com/dvd/; $19.98)

The Sherlock Holmes Collection Hammer Studio star Peter Cushing takes up the role in this British TV adaptation from the late 1960s. Nigel Stock reprises his role as Watson from the earlier, Wilmer series. A&E's three-disc collection includes the second adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles to star Cushing. (He made the first at Hammer.) It also featrures hour-long versions of "A Study in Scarlet," The Sign of Four, "The Blue Carbuncle," and "The Boscombe Valley Mystery." (www.aetv.com/ or http://shop.AETV.com; $29.95)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983) British star Ian Richardson, who was featured in Johnny Depp's homage to Holmes, From Hell, makes a lively Holmes in this adaptation of Doyle's oft-filmed classic from BFS Entertainment. The TV movie co-stars Donald Churchill as Watson and the great Martin Shaw as the young Sir Henry Baskerville. (www.bfsent.com/cq; $22.98)

The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection. No other actor is more associated with Holmes than Basil Rathbone, who made a series of 14 Holmes films in the 1940. Set in WWII-era Europe Rathbone's films featured Nigel Bruce as a particularly dunderheaded Watson. MPI Home Video's five-disc set features all 14 films. (www.mpihomevideo.com/; $129.98)

The Search for Sherlock Holmes. British actor and director David Hayman (Trial & Retribution, Hope and Glory) follows the footsteps of Doyle's famous character in this terrific documentary from BFS Entertainment which features interviews with actor Stephen Fry (Kingdom) and Prime Suspect creator Lynda La Plante. (www.bfsent.com/; $22.98)

Beauty and the Beast (Three-Disc Diamond Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo). Disney's 1991 classic which featured the voices of Paige O'Hara, Richard White, Jerry Orbach and Angela Lansbury, is the only animated feature to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination. This set includes the theatrical release and an extended version. (http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/; $39.99)

The Sound of Music (Limited Edition Collector's Set Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Julie Andrews sings "The hills are alive with the sound of music" on an Austrian mountaintop in 20th Century Fox' 1965 musical. The world has never been the same since. Packaged in a handsome gift box, this edition features a nice range of extras including a sing-along feature and an illustrated 100-page scrapbook. (www.foxconnect.com; $89.99)

Disney's A Christmas Carol (Four-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy). Jim Carrey - and his co-stars Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Steve Valentine and Daryl Sabara - bring a touch of contemporary mischief to director Robert Zemeckis' 2009 update of the Dickens tale. This complete set includes a 3D featurette, Mr. Scrooge's Wild Ride and behind the scenes documentaries. (http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/; $49.99)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) Dick Van Dyke and Sally Ann Howes lead a cast of eccentrics in 20th Century Fox's slightly psychedelic family adventure from 1968. (www.foxconnect.com; $34.99)

White Christmas (Anniversary Edition). Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney navigate gracefully through Irving Berlin's songs in Paramount's classic 1954 classic holiday musical. (www.paramount.com/dvd; $24.99 DVD; $29.99 Blu-ray)

Elf (Ultimate Collector's Edition). The delightfully wacky Will Ferrell goes in search of his biological father (James Caan) in this two-disc edition of the side-splitting comedy from New Line Home Video. (www.newline.com/; $39.98 DVD; $49.99 Blu-ray)

Shrek: The Whole Story Boxed Set (Shrek / Shrek 2 / Shrek the Third / Shrek Forever After) Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz show you why it's not easy being green - especially if you're a cartoon. This five-disc box set from DreamWorks includes all four Shrek films - so far in existence. Don't miss Antonio Banderas' off-the-wall performance as Puss in Boots. (www.dreamworksanimation.com/ or www.dreamworksstudios.com/; $53.99 DVD; $76.99 Blu-ray)