acu's - Rented List

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'Chungking Express', cult filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai's hugely influential international breakthrough, is a supremely stylish combination of love story and thriller, set in and around Hong Kong's infamous Chungking Mansions, a vast complex of shabby hostels, bars and clubs.

The film tells the stories of two lovelorn cops and the women with whom they become involved: a mysterious drug dealer dressed in a blonde wig and sunglasses, and an impulsive young dreamer.

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The stunning debut from Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells, 'Aftersun' juxtaposes a hopeful coming-of-age story with a poignant, intimate family portrait that leaves an indelible impression.

At a fading vacation resort in the late 1990's, 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum (Paul Mescal). As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie's tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father, she knew with the man she didn't, in Charlotte Wells' superb and searingly emotional debut film.

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In 2012, having been lost for over 500 years, the remains of King Richard III (Harry Lloyd) were discovered beneatn a carpark in Leicester.

The search had been orchestrated by an amateur historian, Philippa Langley (Sally Hawkins), whose unrelenting research had been met with incomprehension by her friends and family and with scepticism by experts and academics. 'The Lost King' is the life-affirming true story of a woman who refused to be ignored and who took on the country's most eminent historians, forcing them to think again about one of the most controversial kings in England's history.

In South Carolina's Sea Islands at the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family of the Gullah community - former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors' Yoruba traditions - struggle to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland and even further from their roots.

Antoine Doinel, the star of The 400 Blows, is back in civilian life after being discharged from the army. He needs a job and tries his hand at numerous things including private investigation. While on a case he meets Fabienne, an older, married woman, who he becomes infatuated with. But has he found a definitive love?

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Based on the true story of Resistance fighter Andre Devigny, who was imprisoned and sentenced to death by the Nazis during the Second World War, the film reconstructs his actual cell at the Lyons fortress of Montluc, and follows his meticulous plans for escape.

This totally involving and thrilling tale of courage and faith is all the more authentic for its use of non-professional actors and Bresson's spare style.

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"The Deceived" follows English student, Ophelia (Emily Reid), who falls in love with her charismatic lecturer, Michael (Emmett J Scanlan). Following the accidental death of Michael's wife, Ophelia moves to Ireland to be with him, just when suspicions around his wife's death begin to grow.

As Ophelia finds herself taking the place of a dead woman, she must discover whether it is the ghost of Michael's wife haunting her, or her own guilt.

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One of the most famous blunders in military history, which sent the Light Brigade to its doom at the Crimea, provides the climax to a passionately felt and provocative British film.

Tony Richardson creates a sweeping panorama of mid-Victorian England in all its complacency and callousness, and a biting screenplay by Charles Wood brings wit as well as anger to dramatising the gulf between the leaders and the led. The film affords memorable roles for Trevor Howard and John Gielgud as the incompetent Lords Cardigan and Raglan who drive the men to their death, and stars David Hemmings at the height of his career.

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"Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris" tells a humorously heartwarming tale about a London housecleaner Ada Harris (Lesley Manville), who thinks her lonely life might turn around if she can become the owner of a Christian Dior gown.

Saying goodbye to friends like Archie (Jason Isaacs) won't be easy, and neither will be winning over elite people in Paris from Madame Colbert (Isabelle Huppert) to idealistic accountant André (Lucas Bravo). But Ada's irrepressible charm just might end up saving the whole House of Dior in this uplifting story of how an ordinary woman becomes an extraordinary inspiration by daring to follow her dreams.

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Jack Stanton (John Travolta) is a virtually unknown Southern governor on a quest for the White House with his strong, savvy and equally ambitious wife, Susan (Emma Thompson). Running against all odds, the Stantons need all the help they can get from their extremely colourful political team.

Together, they take off on a hilarious, heart-wrenching and ultimately history-making roller coaster ride to the top.

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While millions of birds migrate freely in the skies, Fadia, a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, yearns for the ancestral homeland she is denied.

After a chance meeting with film director Sarah Beddington, Fadia challenges her new friend to find an ancient mulberry tree that stands witness to her family's existence - with only inherited memories, a blind man and a two-headed dragon as her guides. Along the way, Sarah crosses paths with ornithologists, whose observations on the homing instincts of the birds shine a light on the unresolved problems in the region. Filmed over fifteen years, artist Sarah Beddington's debut film adopts a birds' eye view to tell the story of a friendship that stays connected across a divided land, reflecting on freedom of movement, exile, identity and the hope of returning home.

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Sandrine Bonnaire won a Best Actress Cesar for her portrayal as Mona - a young and defiant drifter in this tragic story. Using a largely non-professional cast Varda recollects Mona's story through flashbacks of those who encountered her, producing a splintered portrait of an enigmatic woman.

She's not a kind girl but courageous while wandering in the winter. She announces in 1984 the collective conciousness of homeless people dying from the cold.

Agnes Varda's classic 'Cleo from 5 to 7' from 1962 manages to successfully capture Paris at the height of the sixties in this intriguing tale expertly presented in real time about a singer (Corinne Marchand) whose life is in turmoil as she awaits a biopsy test result.

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'Hilma af Klint' was an abstract artist before the term existed - a visionary, trailblazing figure who, inspired by spiritualism, modern science, and the riches of the natural world around her, began in 1906 to reel out a series of huge, colourful, sensual, strange works without precedent in

painting. The subject of a recent smash retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, af Klint was for years an all-but-forgotten figure in art historical discourse. Her work inspired some of the most celebrated contemporary artists including Josef Albers, Paul Klee, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Mondrian, and Kandinsky...

Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) and his young nephew (Woody Norman) forge a tenuous but transformational relationship when they are unexpectedly thrown together in this delicate and deeply moving story about the connections between adults and children, the past and the future, from writer-director Mike Mills.