acu's - Rented List
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Unlike most "message" films which date themselves almost immediately, Lewis Milestone's low-key unpolished and deeply-felt screen adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque anti-war novel has lost little of its original impact. Years after its release it was still being banned in countries mobilizing for war.
The plot follows a group of young German recruits in World War I through their passage from idealism to disillusionment. As the central character Paul Baumer declares, "We live in the trenches and we fight. We try not to be killed - that's all". All Quiet is an anthology of now famous scenes: Ayres trapped in a shell crater with a man he has killed; the first meeting of the recruits and the veterans; infantrymen being mowed down to machine-gun visual rhythms; a moonlight swim with French farm girls; Ayres' pacifist speech to his astonished schoolmates; and the final shot of the soldier's hand reaching for a fatal butterfly.- Director:
- Lewis Milestone
- Cast:
- Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray
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"The Closer We Get" is a multi-award winning autobiographical portrait of broken dreams, loyalty and redemption that follows its director Karen Guthrie from Scotland to Ethiopia and back again. Karen's mother Ann suffers a devastating stroke that draws her daughter back to her Scottish hometown when she least expects it. But Karen isn't the only one who returns in the crisis. Her prodigal father Ian - endearing but unfathomable - also reappears after years of separation from Ann. Reunited so unexpectedly, Karen seizes her camera to go under the skin of the family story before it's too late, to come to terms with the aftermath of the secret her father had tried - and failed - to keep from them all, and to find that Ann's stroke has in fact thrown them a lifeline. With candour, warmth and humour, Karen's role as confidante, busybody, therapist and spy illuminates this extraordinary and uplifting story of family survival. - Director:
- Karen Guthrie
- Cast:
- Karen Guthrie, Ian Guthrie, Ann Guthrie
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La Grande Illusion (1937)The Grand Illusion
Set in the German prison camps of WW1, the film stars Jean Gabin as Marechal, and Marcel Dalio as Rosenthal. Like the charming aristocrat Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), these two French aviators were shot down and now spend most of their time escaping from German prison camps before inevitably being recaptured. Between escapes, they do what they can to amuse themselves, but after a tunnel they've dug is discovered, the three are sent to Wintersborn, a forbidding fortress of a prison commanded by former ace pilot Von Rauffenstein (Erich Von Stroheim). Von Rauffenstein cannot help but strike up a friendship with Captain de Boeldieu, a kindred spirit from the doomed nobility. - Director:
- Jean Renoir
- Cast:
- Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay
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Based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway about his own real life experience, this beautifully acted movie is a story of romance borne out of a backdrop of horror and death. Gary Cooper is American ambulance driver Lt. Frederick Henry who is stationed on the Italian front where he meets British nurse Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes) with whom he falls hopelessly in love. They meet at every opportunity but danger is never far away! Tragedy strikes one day as Henry is brought back on a stretcher...the kiss with which Catherine greets the injured Henry is a truly magical moment. - Director:
- Frank Borzage
- Cast:
- Gary Cooper, Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou
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The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice (1952)Ochazuke no aji / Tea Over Rice
Made the year before his career defining masterpiece, 'Tokyo Story', 'The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice' is one of Yasujiro Ozu's most beautiful domestic sagas, a subtly piercing portrait of a marriage coming quietly undone. Secrets and deceptions strain the already tenuous relationship of a childless, middle aged couple, as the wife's city bred sophistication clashes with the husband's small town simplicity, and a generational sea change in the form of their headstrong, modern niece sweeps over their household. Ozu's expert grasp of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humour and an expansiveness that moves the action from the home, to the baseball stadiums and the shops of post-war Tokyo. - Director:
- Yasujirô Ozu
- Cast:
- Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure, Kôji Tsuruta
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Parasite (2019)Gisaengchung
Kim Ki Taek's (Song Kang Ho) family are all unemployed and living in a squalid basement. When his son, Ki Woo, gets a tutoring job at the lavish home of the Park family, the Kim family's luck changes. One by one they gradually infiltrate the wealthy Park's home, attempting to take over their affluent lifestyle, but as their deception unravels events begin to get increasingly out of hand in ways you simply cannot imagine. - Director:
- Joon-Ho Bong
- Cast:
- Kang-ho Song, Sun-kyun Lee, Yeo-jeong Jo
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In this funny, uplifting tale based on an actual lie. Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai. has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there's a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother's wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken. With 'The Farewell', writer/director Lulu Wang has created a heartfelt celebration of both the way we perform family and the way we live it, masterfully interweaving a gently humorous depiction of the good lie in action with a richly moving story of how family can unite and strengthen us. often in spite of ourselves. - Director:
- Lulu Wang
- Cast:
- Shuzhen Zhao, Awkwafina, X Mayo
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Theodore Decker is 13 years old when his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The tragedy changes the course of his life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love. Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day... a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch. - Director:
- John Crowley
- Cast:
- Oakes Fegley, Ansel Elgort, Nicole Kidman
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It All Starts Today (1999)Ça commence aujourd'hui
Idealistic teacher Daniel Lefebvre (Philippe Torreton) fights personal and professional battles in this uncompromising drama from acclaimed French Director Bertrand Tavernier. Teaching at a school in an impoverished former mining community, Daniel is constantly faced with complex and emotional decisions as he seeks to inspire and educate the children in his power, against the odds. Despite the endless frustrations of bureaucratic social services, and dealing with abusive parents and troubled children, Daniel holds onto his integrity, in this hard hitting but essentially life affirming drama. - Director:
- Bertrand Tavernier
- Cast:
- Philippe Torreton, Maria Pitarresi, Nadia Kaci
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Laissez-Passer (2002)Safe Conduct
Based on true events, Bertrand Tavernier's epic new film enthrallingly depicts one of France's most controversial periods in history - the early 1940's during the Nazi occupation - against the background of the French film industry. Set in Paris, the story follows two men who struggle to maintain their integrity while working for the German controlled Continental Film Studios. Aurenche (Denis Podalydes) is a writer with a complicated love life who injects his scripts with subversive messages, while assistant director Devaivre (Jacques Gamblin) uses his position as a cover for his increasingly hazardous activities with the resistance. Vividly recreating the day-to-day danger, fear and uncertainty of wartime France, 'Laissez-Passer' is a fascinating and engrossing film from the filmmaker Martin Scorsese described as one of France's leading directors. - Director:
- Bertrand Tavernier
- Cast:
- Jacques Gamblin, Denis Podalydès, Charlotte Kady
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By the Grace of God (2018)Grâce à Dieu
Francois Ozon's gripping true-life drama tells the story of three men who come together to dismantle the code of silence around historic abuse cases within the Catholic Church. Alexandre (Melville Poupaud) lives in Lyon with his wife and children. One day he learns by chance that the priest who abused him when he was in scouts is still working with children. He decides to take action and is soon joined by two other victims of the priest. Francois (Denis Menochet) and Emmanuel (Swann Arlaud). They band together to "lift the burden of silence" surrounding their ordeal. But the repercussions and consequences will leave no one unscathed. Based on events from the 2019 conviction of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon for concealing the conduct of Father Bernard Preynat, 'By the Grace of God ' is an urgent portrait of resistance. - Director:
- François Ozon
- Cast:
- Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet, Swann Arlaud
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Mrs. Lowry and Son (2019)Mrs Lowry & Son
The film paints the relationship between L.S. Lowry (Timothy Spall), one of Britain's most iconic artists, and his mother Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave), with whom he lived until her death. We see Lowry in the beginnings of his career, as he yearns for his work to be appreciated in London. However, his disdainful mother actively tries to dissuade her bachelor son from pursuing his artistic ambitions. At the same time, the film explores how Elizabeth is the very reason Lowry paints anything at all, as he desperately seeks to create something, anything, which will make her happy. This powerful yet humorous story imagines the impact this obsessive mother and son relationship had on the great artist. - Director:
- Adrian Noble
- Cast:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Spall, Stephen Lord
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Two strangers...and the one photograph that will change their lives forever. 'Photograph' is a charming tale of unlikely romance set against the vibrant backdrop of contemporary Mumbai. Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a struggling street photographer who takes tourist portraits at the Gateway of India. When he meets Miloni (Sanya Malhotra), a shy stranger from an affluent family, he convinces her to pose as his fiancee after his overbearing grandmother decides to pay him a visit. From different worlds, the pair make a surprising connection that will transform them both in unexpected ways. Discover this warm, well-observed story from modern India. - Director:
- Ritesh Batra
- Cast:
- Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Sachin Khedekar
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Writer-director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) has crafted a 'Little Women' that draws on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott, and unfolds as the author's alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life. In Gerwig's take, the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women each determined to live life on their own terms - is both timeless and timely. Portraying Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth March, the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, with Timothee Chalamet as their neighbour Laurie, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March. - Director:
- Greta Gerwig
- Cast:
- Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh
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Angel is a sensational romantic period drama brought to you by highly acclaimed director, Francois Ozon. In this previously unseen extended edition Romola Garai gives a 'superb performance' as Angel Deverell, a youthful, imaginative writer whose only flaw is her fascination with fantasy and romance. After she meets her publisher she has a stratospheric rise to fame. But with celebrity comes heartache and it's not long before cracks begin to appear in Angel's fantasy world... Angel learns you can fill your world with romance, but you can't buy true love... - Director:
- François Ozon
- Cast:
- Romola Garai, Sam Neill, Lucy Russell
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