Product Details

• Actors: Pauline Collins, Tom Conti, Julia McKenzie, Alison Steadman, Joanna Lumley
• Directors: Lewis Gilbert
• Writers: Willy Russell
• Producers: Lewis Gilbert, John Dark
• Format: PAL
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Paramount
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (212 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002XP0FK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,968 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Shirley Valentine [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Surround ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Since its London and Broadway stage debut, playwright Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine has proven an excellent showcase for any number of talented actresses (Loretta Swit won the 1989 Sarah Siddons Award for her work in the Chicago production). In the film version of Shirley Valentine, Pauline Collins re-creates the role that had previously brought her theatrical fame and a Tony Award. Spending the bulk of the film speaking directly to the audience, the titular Shirley (Collins), a middle-aged Liverpool housewife, reveals her innermost thoughts and fears in a manner that is both insouciant and poignant. Once an incorrigible anti-establishment rebel, Shirley now chafes under the plodding insensitivity of her husband Joe (Bernard Hill). Her life enters a new and exciting phase when, after her best friend Jane (Alison Steadman) wins an all-expenses-paid vacation to Greece, Shirley is given the opportunity to travel to faraway places without her husband. Shirley Valentine represents the second felicitous collaboration between playwright Willy Russell and director Lewis Gilbert; the first was the equally marvelous Educating Rita (1983). SCREENED/AWARDED AT: BAFTA Awards, Golden Globes, Oscar Academy Awards, ...Shirley Valentine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST for any video/dvd library!, December 19, 2001

By 

jadedromantic "jadedromantic" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shirley Valentine [VHS] (VHS Tape)

One of the best films ever made that explores the human heart, "Shirley Valentine" begins with a bored British housewife who aches for "the girl who used to be me." Shirley Valentine was the rebel, the smart-mouth, the girl who would dare to do what other girls only dreamed of having the nerve to try. Now she's Shirley Bradshaw, a 42-year-old housewife with 2 grown kids and a husband she feels doesn't love her anymore. This movie is about how a fortnight's holiday alone (more or less - she arrives with a friend who promptly ditches her) in Greece enables her to find Shirley Valentine again. Funny, witty, heartwarming, inspiring, sentimental without being syrupy, "Shirley Valentine" is for all of us who've ever wondered if we made the right choices in life -- and if it's too late to take some of them back. Pauline Collins deserved the Oscar she was nominated for (too bad she didn't get it), with one of the best performances by an actor ever put onto film. The perfect movie to watch WHENEVER you are "down in the dumps," this film will cheer you up and give you hope, each and every time.

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shirley Valentine is lovely!, December 7, 1999

By 

R. Nathan White "rnathanwhite" (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shirley Valentine [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I saw this movie many years ago, when it first hit the art house theatres. I bought it on video as soon as it was available!

This movie touched me in a way that no other movie has before. Shirley's desire to rediscover life during a marriage that's lifeless, along with two grown kids that don't seem to care much for her anymore, really was poignant. Her desire to find that young, rebellious girl that she once was, willing to take chances and enjoy life, see the world -- it's an amazing film.

You'll enjoy her little sidebars to the cameras and her conversations with inanimate objects. Pauline Collins is adorable and a delight in this film. It's a great film for women and men alike, for those who have forgotten who they are but want to get back in touch with their inner child, realize that just because your 40 doesn't mean you're dead; you've got a lot more living to do, as Shirley states in the movie.

Buy it for yourself and for others. It's funny and touching at the same time. You'll cheer for Shirley as she breaks out of the bored housewife mode and into the sexy go-getter who's ready to conquer the world.

The only complaint I have (and it'small) is that the first time you watch it, you may have a hard time understanding Shirley. Her British accent is rather hard, but once you've watched it a number of times (and I'm sure you will want to) you get used to the accent.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is a little of this lady in all women., April 25, 2002

By 

Betti Trapp - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shirley Valentine [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Shirley Valentine is a housewife. That's it. Just a housewife. She cooks, she cleans, she shops, mostly she talks to herself, and in this poignant film, she talks to us as well, the viewer. It's hard to get used to at first. A film with a woman all alone in a dreary apartment talking to herself, but you soon get past that one little oddity, and Shirley Valentine becomes real. Her life is so similar to millions of other 'just housewives' that if she didn't finally decide to go on a trip to Greece with a friend, there would have been no movie. Shirley loses her housewife persona in Greece, and after much inner turmoil and emotional self-battering, comes of age again within herself. It's a very beautiful and moving story, one most middle aged women can relate to quite well. I rooted Shirley on through out the movie. More than anything I wanted her to find herself, because the film is so good you believe, if only for a short time, that it is you going through this with Shirley. Shirley is no hero, she is no female icon and does not become anyone's object of worship, she just becomes herself, which turns out to be the best thing that could have happened to this movie.